DC 2010 new summer restaurants: pizza from Mendelsohn, mussels from Wiedmaier and much more.
We’ve been looking forward to Robert Wiedmaier’s latest effort – Mussel Bar By RW – but there’s much more, including Spike Mendelsohn’s pizza joint. Zagat covers the high points here.
Restaurant critics speak out, express their opinions on citizen criticism, or “Cit-Crit”.
Bon Appetit posted a pretty good article about citizen criticism which focuses solely on what the paid critics think about the medium. Overall, I’d say more critics are displeased or off-putting than embracing, and many fail to cite any solid reasons for their distaste.
Our opinion (since we heard you ask): it’s just one more avenue from which to make dining decisions. We’re guessing if 20 out of 21 solid reviews all have nothing positive to say about a restaurant’s food it might be worth listening. On the other hand, if the citizen critic seems to be preoccupied with the beautiful crowd or the time waiting to use the WC we’re not so sure this someone we’d listen to.
Heck, half the battle is making sure you’re getting food that didn’t fall of a SysCo truck the previous week.
How we’ll remember Albert Haynesworth
Well, this and that $100 million contract to watch “this”, whatever the hell this is.
More from WaPo’s DC Sports Bog.
Wanna get away? Kayak Explore makes your options easy to see.
Have you ever sat around and wondered where you could fly on the money you have? Better yet, do you want to narrow down the time but perhaps not down to the week, because you’re willing to be flexible in the interest of keeping your options open.
Enter Kayak Explore. Just pop in your starting point, select the period of time you want to travel (you can even select “any time”) and there’s the entire world on a Google Map with nice little price tags on each location.
The best part for us is seeing just how expensive (or cheap) in relative terms we can fly all kinds of places, since we’re up for just about anything.
Ashburn Wine Shop
Our online friend and TV news pro Brian Bolter pointed us here for a recent wine request: Ashburn Wine Shop. Not an endorsement on his part, just a solid place for Loudouners to get great wine.
BLT Restaurants chooses the name GO Burger for new restaurants to open in DC, NY, LA.
BLT has announced their naming contest winners and their new burger joint’s name. Not surprisingly, the winning name (GO Burger) was sumbitted by a number of people, so I guess they all get 50 cents apiece for their efforts.
More importantly we get another burger joint, opening soon in Georgetown.
Mrs. Obama’s Washington.
Regardless the politics, it’s great to have a first lady in the White House who seems to understand, utilize, and appreciate the Washington community and its beauty.
Crêpe Amour opens in Georgetown.
Crêpes seem to be the latest big thing to join cupcakes and burgers. Crêpe Amour, an early entrant to the incoming tsunami, opened last week.
Let us know your take.
Queen Vic gastropub to open in the Atlas District (H Street) with eel pies.
Atlas District (credit: Flickr/cynroux)
You’ll have to wait until June to enjoy a tasty eel pie at The Queen Vic. Yum.
Great to see yet another add to the seriously up and coming Atlas District.
News: Robert Wiedmaier readies ‘The Mussel Bar by RW’ in Bethesda as Beck and Marcel’s continue to delight.
Robert Wiedmaier
Robert Wiedmaier has announced he’ll open what we think will be a surefire bet: a new mussel bar in Bethesda.
The Kitchen Troll still contends Wiedmaier’s Brasserie Beck sells the best mussels available.
The Mussel Bar by RW opens early June.
French Prez Nicolas Sarkozy hits Ben’s Chili Bowl for lunch.
Sarkozy at Ben's Chili Bowl (credit: TMZ.com)
Is there any doubt French President Nicky Sarkozy loves America and everything it symbolizes? TMZ reports the French prez took it one giant leap further today by testing his refined guts with a lunch at Ben’s Chili Bowl.
Not for the uninitiated if you ask us. I wonder if his earlier rants about the American health care system have anything to do with the cost of antacids at that Rite Aid he probably visited right after landing in the Land of the Free?
Do you love Rock Creek Park? Help ‘We Love DC’ and the gang help clean it up this weekend!
Rock Creek Park (credit: Flicker/lehnermd)
Come on out and join We Love DC and some caring volunteers clean up Rock Creek Park this weekend. Full details can be found here.
More great news for H Street: big-time development ahead.
New H Street development
- Score yet another win for H Street. The dare-we-say trendy neighborhood that is sometimes maligned for its beleaguered street front, but just as often loved for its gritty resurgence, is closer to getting one of its biggest projects to date. The H Street Connection, a 433,000 s.f. residential and retail project that will fill two full blocks along H Street, cleared a major hurdle in its path toward District approval.
H Street neighborhood officially declared DCs “best up and coming neighborhood”.
H Street NE (credit: website)
H Street Great Street reports the many reader accolades the H Street corridor received in City Paper’s most recent poll, including Best Up and Coming Neighborhood, and award H Street received by edging out Petworth.
Meandering Ones was on the scene for a meetup one recent weekday and concur that H Street is really picking up a great vibe.
Get over there this weekend after a stop by the Tidal Basin.
Take Five! Jazz at the Smithsonian is back.
(credit: Flikr/)
Every third Thursday, enjoy live jazz and tour works in the museum’s collection.
More from GOG at washingtonpost.com.
Reel Journalism with Nick Clooney at the Newseum, Monday, March 22, 2010 at 7:30pm.
Reel Journalism on Monday, March 22, 2010 at 7:30 p.m.
The New York Times talks up Washington, DC… in 1891.
If you’ve ever wondered how the big city to the north reported on our new city on the swamp back in the late 1800s, wait no more – here’s the original article.
From our casual research we’re guessing this was the last positive thing NYT had to say about DC.
Can you blame them? I’d do the same thing if I felt continually threatened by the town where so many of my former residents have moved.
Hay-Adams Hotel may add floor and insert a restaurant with awesome, birdseye White House views.
Hay-Adams Hotel (credit: Flickr/NCinDC)
DCist reports the Hay-Adams Hotel is strongly considering adding a floor to the building and opening a restaurant in the space. If this comes to pass, average folks like us will for the first time have an opportunity to check out The White House with the same clear birdseye vantage point movie directors and the Department of Veterans Affairs Vermont Avenue bigwigs have had for decades.
Score one more for the people – er, at least one more for those willing to pay for food with a view.
Good wines for under $10 are not that hard to find. Under $20? Super easy.
photo credit: Flickr/Mr. T in DC
We’ve always said there are way too many great, cheap wines out there to simply overlook because your pretentious work colleague told you to go grab a list of $100 California reds he regularly purchases from his personal wine salesman. There’s a time and a place for wines of all price ranges, however, truly enjoying wine while renewing your palette and your understanding of what makes a great bottle in every class of grape or blend requires a dramatically different amount of money based on your path.
For example, Riesling, Malbec or Syrah are your favorites you should be able to walk away with several wonderful selections for less than that C note we were just discussing. And for everyday consumers and wine lovers like us there are way too many options just like these. Compound this great accessibility with the unique treatments grapes are given based on terroir, regional guidelines, or individual winemaker preferences and guidance and you wind up with way too much fun for just a little cash.
From time to time Slate does a good job of covering some highly accessible juice, and we think this article on good wines under $10 is just such an example.
Take a look, even head down this road for a few months if you haven’t already. We think you’ll be surprised with what you find if you’ve only kept to the pricier selections to this point.
Foursquare makes you the mayor of the places you go most. With Zagat integration, it could revolutionize restaurant reviews and awareness.
Foursquare just signed a deal with Zagat. If you find yourself running around with a smartphone in hand and don’t know what Foursquare is, you should take a look.
I think this could be the model that pushes participant-based reviews on the map, perhaps even adding elements of crowdsourcing that will revolutionize the way these places do business. I could easily see a tool like this combining with Opentable to deliver easy reservations and queuing.
