theparkerfamily.org

Tag: Eats

  • ice cream

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  • anniversary dinner @ the blue point

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  • out: thomas sweets

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  • found: whole foods market window

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  • found: family

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  • mussels

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    Sparklet liked Mussels, for the duration of exactly one meal.  Now won’t touch them when we order.  Classic.

  • found: decisions

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  • found: texans

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  • found: irish breakfast

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  • found: footie match

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  • out: cactus cantina

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  • out: cactus cantina

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  • found: ice cream

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  • out: mussels

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    st. arnold’s mussel bar, cleveland park, washington, dc.

  • anniversary

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    we’re actually in new york city to celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary, which we should have done last year, but we sort of forgot.

    for those of us who know us best, forgetting our anniversary is something we do very very well — and has resulted in us celebrating our October wedding each year in December.

    this year we celebrated at Les Halles (for the second time in three years) and Bemelmans Bar, which was named in honor of Ludwig Bemelmans the creator of the classic Madeline children’s books who hand painted the scenes that cover the whole interior.

    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    anniversary

  • out: radius

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    out: radius

  • ice cream

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    ice cream

  • found: mussels … and beer

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  • found: irish breakfast

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  • out: crumbs

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    out: crumbs

  • found: beans

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  • out: city diner

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  • out: don juan’s

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  • out: baja restaurant

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    out: baja restaurant

  • ice cream truck

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    ice cream truck

  • out: maggie and ray’s

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    out: maggie and ray’s

  • out: don juan’s

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  • out: radius

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    out: radius

  • out: diner 29

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    diner 29

  • found: sculpture

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  • out: don juan’s

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    out: don juan’s

  • found: fingers

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  • out: pollo sabroso

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    out: pollo sabroso

  • found: birthday dinner

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    found: birthday dinner

  • out: plato’s diner

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    out: plato’s diner

  • found: froyo

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  • out: amphora’s diner deluxe, herndon

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    out: amphora’s diner deluxe, herndon

  • out: ben’s chili bowl

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    a valentine’s day tradition…
    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    out: ben’s chili bowl

  • found: bourbon

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    date night. bourbon. bottle service. turns out there *are* some perks of getting older.

  • found: sibling rivalry

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  • eats: hill country bbq

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    out: hill country bbq

  • out: lost dog cafe

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    out in the burbs to buy curtains (more later) and we stopped by lost dog cafe for lunch.

    the mighty quinn loved his beer, fwiw.

    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    out: lost dog cafe

  • “ohmygod, it’s a spoon!”

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  • found: diner portrait

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  • out: brunch w/ tami and coleen

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    out: brunch w/ tami and coleen

  • out: ice cream

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    out: ice cream

  • out: froyo

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    out: froyo

  • out: don juan’s

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    out: don juan’s

  • out: breakfast

    [talimo]
    [emmapete]
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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    out: breakfast

  • food truck thursday

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    food truck thursday, mount pleasant, dc

  • found: diner

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  • eats: murray hill diner

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    breakfast at murray hill diner, lexington avenue and 33rd street, new york, new york.

  • found: angry sock puppet

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    lunch at Blockheads, 34th and 3rd ave, new york, new york.

  • eats: vic’s bagel bar

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    breakfast at vic’s bagel bar, 37th and 3rd, new york, new york.

  • eats: brasserie les halles

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    i’m slightly embarrassed to say that i’m becoming a bit of an Anthony Bourdain fan-boy.

    i’ve read several of his books (including his best known, Kitchen Confidential), his travel channel show “no reservations” is the only food show that i watch with any regularity, and we’ve just gotten hooked on his new show, “the layover”.

    not sure exactly where the allure has come from, but he’s my kind of chef — his food is relatively simple fare, and he is a chef from a time before Martha Stewart and Williams Sonoma conspired to ruin the public’s notion of the equipment required to cook and consume food “properly.”

    and he doesn’t say the word “bam!” after adding each ingredient.

    so, it was with GREAT trepidation that i booked a table for two at his Park Avenue eatery, Brasserie Les Halles. i was scared to death that it would suck, that it would be as charming as a Las Vegas themed mega-restaurant, and that i would be outed as a fan-boy to boot.

    i had no reason for the fear or the loathing — the food was outstanding, down to the smallest touches.

    we had to push the bread to the opposite side of the table, so we wouldn’t ruin dinner. the mussels had a sauce (Portuguese) that quickly caused us to break out the bread again in reckless disregard for the swelling of our stomachs. we had so many “okay, this is the last frite and i mean it” that we lost count.

    and all that was before dinner arrived.

    i had a plate of pork big enough to make a man weep — smoked pork loin, veal sausage, frankfurter, smoked bacon, boiled potatoes and sauerkraut. i don’t even like pork loin, and it was easily the best thing i’ve eaten in 10 years.

    it was legitimately outstanding, regardless of the reality television flashbacks.

    don’t get me wrong, we had our bits of celebrity worship — we were waited on by veteran waiter tim, we saw the back of long-time owner Philippe Lajaunie’s head, and executive chef Carlos Llaguno was behind the glass when we peaked through the kitchen window.

    the best bit was the restaurant itself was as unassuming as any you’ll find. if it seats 120 people, it’s not by much. decor doesn’t look like its been updated in 50 years. the floor was stuffed mostly by locals, or at least tourists who knew how to blend in. when we asked for a quiet table to celebrate our anniversary, we got (easily) the best table in the restaurant.

    and, the whole thing — two glasses of wine, one double sized appetizer, two entrees, two deserts, two coffees — was $120. i’ve paid twice as much in D.C., for half the meal.

    my existence as an anthony bourdain fan-boy continues on, unabated. a simple, dirty pleasure in a complex world of food and reality television.

    and i feel great.

  • eats: almond bar

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    brunch at almond bar, 22nd and broadway, new york, new york.

  • found: ornament

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    pret a manger, 49th and 6th avenue, new york, new york.

  • eats: the barking dog

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    Dinner at The Barking Dog, 34th and Lexington Ave, New York, New York.

  • eats: patsy’s pizzaria

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    lunch at patsy’s pizzaria, 34th and 3rd ave, new york, new york

  • anniversary, part one

    [Mandarin Oriental Washington Hotel © 2011 Eric Spiegel]

    PHOTO: Mandarin Oriental Washington Hotel, © 2011 Eric Spiegel.

  • found: sonic

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  • firsts: dairy queen

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    firsts: dairy queen

  • mint chutney

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    sparklet’s developed a penchant for both “spicy” and “dipping” — and is never happier than when she can do both. tonight she was eating mint chutney at an Indian restaurant. a couple weeks back, she was trying to eat salsa and black bean dip by the spoonful.

    you can take the girl out of texas, but …

  • out: brunch with babs

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  • table service

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    The hospitality in Costa Rica has been incredible.

    We’ve eaten dinner out every night, and each time the Ticos have gone out of their way for sparklet — from meals off the menu, to special accommodations, to near constant attention.

    In fact, we’re pretty sure that sparklet’s going to want to bring at least one of the waiters home. Oh, and one of the hostesses too if there’s room (the one named Katherine, appropriately enough).

    While she’s been down here, Sparklet’s developed a couple of quirks at the dinner table.

    She’ll pass objects around the table, in a very prescribed order and will forcibly intervene if (a) we mess it up, or (b) if she’s ready for the object to move in a different direction.

    During dinner, if mommy and I hold hands, she’ll pull them apart and insert her own. Then she spend a few minutes rearranging all six hands — including her own — in different orders and positions.

    And, when she’s done eating, she insists on feeding us whatever is left — even if it has already been chewed.

    It’s been a good vacation.

  • found: double down

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    i walked into Front Royal’s KFC today, expecting their new double down to be something so disgusting that it would put even paula deen’s wretched monstrosities to shame.instead, i got awesomeness. pure. unadulterated. awesomeness.

    don’t get me wrong — one was enough, quite possibly enough for the rest of my existence.

    but, wow.

  • hank’s oyster bar

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    photo of the week // week fifty-one
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    it wasn’t ten minutes into our dinner tonight at hank’s oyster bar that i noticed — sparklet was tonight’s reminder to all the couples in the room to use birth control.

    we’re pretty sure she’s getting sick (head cold), she’s teething out of her skull (we’re up to 8 teeth now, at least that we can see), she’s not sleeping (see first two) and now that she’s walking regularly, she’s just not finding the sweet confines of a high chair quite as alluring.

    i did the first (of what i’m sure will be many) evacuation of a restaurant so others could eat in peace — which is more than fine, as i’m always the first one done eating.

    we decided to play in traffic (and with strange dogs) instead.

    see slideshow of photos on flickr:
    hank’s oyster bar, washington, dc

  • discriminating palate

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    i’ve got no clue what the heck is going on, but all of a sudden sparklet has developed a discriminating palate. and by “discriminating” i mean she will only eat black beans.

    the lady sparkler has been slowly working more and more real food into her diet, and it must have dawned on her that we’ve been holding out — suddenly, that crappy-old pureed vegetables and fruits wasn’t going to cut it anymore.

    not that there was every a doubt, but it looks like we’ve created a diva.

  • firsts: order from a restaurant

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    we’ve been giving sparklet whole bananas and cubed avacados fairly regularly of late, but this morning (at The Heights) the lady sparkler decided to throw the baby girl into big people food with both feet.

    at brunch, sparklet was introduced to both raisins (from the raisin bread) and a plate of scrambled eggs (her very first order ever from a professional kitchen), all while polishing off a jar of baby food pears.

    needless to say, daddy has announced that he won’t be available to help change sparklet’s diaper for the next 48 hours or so.

  • rye beach, n.h.

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    there are just about 1,000 things that the lady sparkler and i love about new england — family, seafood, what passes up there for a “hot” day — but near the top is the coast.

    we spent many most of our trips up her out on a boat of some kind or other, and even when we were landlocked there was always a trip to petey’s (on the water) for seafood.

    and so, on the way out of town, we stop at petey’s for a little take out seafood … and ate it on the hood of our rental car while baby sparklet slept in the back seat.

    if it gets much better than this, i’m a little nervous to see what that looks like.

  • out: takeout picnic in dupont

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    baby momma got stuck late at work again, so sparklet and i wandered down to give her that last little bit of incentive to get out the door. we grabbed dinner from bgr, and then ate it on the benches that surround dupont’s fountain. i think we’ve found a new model for eating out, that doesn’t rely on cramming a stroller inside a tiny, 25-top restaurant.
    See All the Photos on Flickr:
    out: takeout picnic in dupont circle, washington, dc

  • belated valentine’s, pt 2

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    we made it to ben’s for lunch, so we are up to five out of the last seven valentine’s days … though this is (obviously) the first for sparklet.

    we actually tried to go yesterday — a saturday at ~5:00pm — but the place was packed out the door. turns out the trick is to go on sunday morning at 11am. apparently, ben’s is pre-hangover food, not post-hangover food … i guess it makes sense when you think it through.

    See All the Photos on Flickr:
    valentine’s at ben’s chili bowl, washington, dc

  • first bar in adams morgan

    Sparklet’s First Bar in Adams Morgan: Melissa, Nadine and Joanna @ Bourbon, Adams Morgan, Washington, DC.

  • how i met your mother: date shirt (special 2nd anniversary edition)

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    dear sparklet,

    this is the sixth in a series of letters to baby sparklet about how mommy and daddy met and woo-ed each other.

    today is mommy and daddy’s second wedding anniversary, but (as you you’ve probably noticed by the time you are old enough to read) we’re not very good at celebrating these things.

    on our very first anniversary, we were supposed to go camping in Delaware, but bailed at the last minute and instead had dinner at a roadside mexican restaurant somewhere out route 50.

    this year, we were going to go to our favorite restaurant (Acadiana) but it turns out the whole place was rented out for some kind of event. so instead, tonight i put on my “date shirt,” took mommy out for BBQ at the site of one of our earliest dates, and we’ll save Acadiana for next week.

    (which is kinda funny, because that’s exactly what happened to mommy and daddy last year, too.)

    which reminds me …

    a long, long time ago, your mommy and daddy were just two nervous people who were trying to figure out how to talk to each other. which, i’m sure, must seem *really* strange to you by now.

    before we were dating, your mommy asked me to come over to a dinner party she was having at the house she shared with Auntie Melissa.

    it turns out that one of her previously invited friends couldn’t make it (thank you, Gannon!) and since mommy was looking for an excuse to ask daddy out, it seemed like a good idea at the time to invite me in his place.

    unfortunately, i looked like a mess. i hadn’t cut my hair in about two years (so i guess i didn’t look all that different then i do now) and hadn’t bought any “impress a girl” clothes in in that time either.

    naturally, i did what any boy in my situation would do — i turned to a female friend to bail me out.

    Emmy and i setup a time to get my hair cut (by about 9 inches) and she even tagged along for moral support. in fact, your mommy ended up coming, too … i think mainly because mommy wanted to make sure that daddy and Emmy didn’t develop a “thing” before she could have her dinner party.

    the following weekend, right before the party, Emmy and I took an emergency trip to Friendship Heights (the Gap) and she helped me find something that looked nice, but not *too* nice.

    the shirt we bought? it’s daddy’s “date shirt” (which you can see in the photo above).

    dinner was great. Uncle Cole and Aunt Skye were there, and the four of us talked for hours, and then I stayed behind to help mommy with the dishes.

    By the time we were done eating, talking, cleaning and talking, it was 6 am the next morning. Not wanting to end the the “evening” quite yet, we walked down to the Alexandria waterfront, and then had breakfast at Table Talk (which is still one of our favorite’s).

    At that point, I knew your mommy was something special … and had a feeling that your mommy and i had a nice future ahead of us. i didn’t know quite how long it would take, but I knew she would be worth the wait.

    love,
    daddy (& mommy)

    UPDATE: no Acadiana for us quite yet…! the restaurant called to confirm our reservation as we were sitting in the labor and delivery room, waiting for you to be born.

    so, instead, we “formally” celebrated our anniversary with you in our laps, eating mommy’s favorite pizza (goat cheese and bacon) from our long-time favorite pizza place (Listrani’s).

    and while it certainly wasn’t what we were expecting, it was a perfect way to celebrate none-the-less.

  • karma: chinese zodiac

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    the lady sparkler and i did our second consecutive date-night tonight … a movie (“up”), then dinner in Chinatown at one of the few real Chinese restaurants left in the city (“full kee”).

    the food was great, but the best part was the chinese zodiac place mats, which gives little personality sketches based on the year of birth. obviously, this got us thinking about Baby Sparklet’s personality, which
    (apparently) will be guided by the chinese sign of the Ox.

    Bright, patient and inspiring to others. You can be happily by yourself, yet make an outstanding parent.

    feeling like we were on a roll, when i got home i found a couple of sites that walk through the signs a little more. that’s when things got interesting:

    Ox people are hard-working and persistent, they can stick at a task longer and go at it harder than anybody. They believe in themselves and tend to classify almost everything into two basic categories, bad and good. They hold up their high standards as a model and severely judge those who don’t aspire to maintain these same ideals.

    Although appears to be tranquil, in fact, Oxens are ponderous but impulsive when angry. They are capable of fearsome rages, therefore, it is better not to cross an Oxen. Ox people are observant, they have remarkable memories and are good at reporting on absolutely everything they observe.

    that’s one heck of a way to start the description, but the rest gets a little better (“kind, caring souls, logical, positive, filled with common sense”) … right up until the end where it says that the Ox’s “childhood and youth will generally be without incident.”

    note the use of the word “generally.”

    for the record, it turns out that I am a Rabbit (“quick, clever and ambitious”) and, while my money was on the lady sparkler being an Ox — just like our baby girl! — she ends up being a Snake (“not to be ignored”).

    and while their “compatibility” estimates are really designed for life partners, it turns out that an Ox, a Rabbit, and a Snake can live pretty happily under one roof … so long as the Rabbit (me) and Snake (the lady sparkler) aren’t romantically involved.

    can’t wait to see how that all pans out.

  • date night / mini golf

    [Mini-Golf, Jefferson Park, Falls Church, Virginia]
    we constantly complain about the lack of mini-golf courses in DC, but it turns out that we’ve just been looking in the wrong place. around here, they seem to be in municipal parks for some reason, not in tourist traps surrounded by chain restaurants.

    for the record, the lady sparkler was able to swing the club around her growing belly … well enough that she shot her best round ever. she said something about pregnancy limiting her option for freaking out and doing crazy things with the putter.

    Explore the Photo Set:
    Mini-Golf, Jefferson Park, Falls Church, Virginia

  • how i met your mother: the first dates

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    dear sparklet,

    this is the third in a series of letters to baby sparklet about how mommy and daddy met and woo-ed each other.

    it’s pretty difficult to pick out one event that would qualify as a first date.

    the first thing we did together outside of work was go to Ben’s Chili Bowl. however, it was for lunch, and bridesmaid Mel was nice enough to chaperon that little event.  i am pretty sure those two things disqualify Ben’s from the “first date” competition.

    (that was also my first hot dog is several years, and i can still remember how my stomach ached after that was all over…)

    several weeks later, the lady sparkler and i went for a hike in Shenandoah national park … and barely survived. we made the mistake of hiking down (to some waterfalls on hazel mountain) instead of up.

    hiking downhill seemed like a good idea for the first six miles, and proved to be easy enough that we kept going farther than we had planned. we were having a great time talking, laughing, and poking t.l.s. with a stick (well, that last part was mostly me…)

    unfortunately, the six miles back uphill to the car sucked most of the will to live out of our poor, frail, out-of-shape, trying-to-impress-each-other-with-our-outdoorsyness bodies.

    we stayed on the trail two hours longer than we had planned, which meant what had been planned as a day event now required dinner, which was a first for us.

    and so, our first dinner date (however accidental) was at a ruby tuesday’s in warrenton on the way back to DC. to this very day, the sonora chicken pasta i had that night is just about my favorite comfort food on the planet.

    now, i was mostly a vegetarian when i met the lady sparkler … i did eat some meat (almost all of it was chicken), i never cooked any dead animals at home, and never ate meat more than once or twice a month (i guess you could say that i was a social carnivore.)

    so it was much to my surprise that after our hike, i found us talking about barbecue — which is not something I talk about much, so i’m guessing the lady sparkler must have brought up.

    to keep up with the conversation, i found myself telling her that she should come up to Glover Park to try the ribs at Rockland’s, regardless of the fact that i had no earthly idea what they tasted like and would probably faint watching someone eat them.

    she thought it sounded great.

    so, while i had successfully arranged our first “alone” date back in DC, i had also managed to create a rather awkward situation. whatever meat i was eating at the time, i can assure you that it wasn’t anything that looked like it was once alive, much less slaughtered, cooked over an open flame, and hacked into little strips.

    that next weekend, we met at Rocklands, and ordered at the counter.  me: a cute little array of sides (coleslaw, mac and cheese, potato salad).  my future wife: a huge slab of meat.

    and so, i watched my wife-to-be pack away half a rack of ribs.

    when finished, she proceeded to suck the marrow from the bones, and then lick her fingers clean. i kissed goodbye whatever vegetarian tendencies i had, right then and there.

    and the rest, as they say, is history.

  • Old Edinburgh

    [Sir Walter Scott Monument, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.]
    [Canongate Kirk, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.]
    [Views of Old Town, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.]
    [Old Town, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.]
    we’ve landed, taken the train up to Scotland, and have made a couple of forays into Edinburgh. my father has already struck up a rapport with the locals (well, the locals involved in the restaurant industry) and Scotland is just a beautiful as described. all is well with the world.
    See All the Photos on Flickr:
    Old Edinburgh, Scotland

  • first attempt at anniversary fails, couple reshedules for friday

    it’s our anniversary, and the lady sparkler and I packed up Saturday for some light camping along the Delaware shore (cape helopen, near rehobeth).

    the first problem is that she’s been fighting a cold, and it seemed to take up residence as the weekend went on. second problem was that the beach town was packed with old white people and their funny accents (the origin of which we never did figure out).

    but besides side-stepping octagenarians, we had a good lunch (authentic, takeout fish and chips) at the beach before heading bailing for the quiet serenity of the nearby state park.

    turns out that the economy really is in the toilet, because while every motel had bountiful vacancies, the campsite was quite literally packed with miserable looking middle-class white people. we checked in, and found our allotted 8 foot square patch of sand surrounded on all sides by kids, dogs and cars.

    our site seemed to have the special designation of being the dog run for the neighbooring sites, which would have been about 2 feet from our tent once pitched. i am pretty certain that I have never seen such a small “campsite” before, and (we decided) hope to never again.

    so, given the illness, the kids, the dogs, and the funny accents, we decided to take a long walk around the cape, eat some cheesy-so-bad-it’s-good Mexican food (Chevy’s) along the highway home and call it a day.

    in full disclosure, the day was by no means a wash … we had gorgeous weather, a beautiful hike, and a wonderful day trip. we’re going to celebrate our anniversary on Friday instead, with a meal at our favorite-est fancy restaurant in the world — Acadiana — like good affluent, married white-people should.

    hopefully we’ll have less sickness, and we’ll definitely have less funny accents.

  • beware restaurant week

    d.c. restaurant week has jacked it’s 3-course price fix from $30.08 to $35.08, but all this means is that it’s cheaper to eat off the regular menu. at tabaq, the parts of the meal — kabob ($16), grape leaves ($6), dessert ($6.5) — cost $7 less than the $35.08 “deal” they used to lure you in.

    Photo: View from Tabaq’s Roof, Washington, DC.

  • Wedding: Beacon Jumps into the Lead

    So, my parents are up in town to take advantage of the birthday present I gave my mom last November for her birthday: tickets to the Kennedy Center’s production of Copeland’s Rodeo.

    With them in town, we decided to have dinner at Local 16 (a current contender for the rehearsal dinner) which was kind of my pick for the one they would like the best. It has a great atmosphere, is a little more old-world and traditional, and it’s been open in some form or the other for nigh on a decade.

    Boy, what do I know?

    We arrived a couple of minutes before our (early) reservation to find the front doors locked. Peaked inside and people are sitting at the bar drinking, but no one at the host stand and no one seemed to be interested at me peering through the window.

    After about 15 minutes of waiting in the Starbucks next door for the restaurant to unlock its doors, we sat down and ordered some drinks and an appetizer. The drinks (mercifully) were strong and helped everyone get through the rest of the meal.

    I don’t even remember what was ordered, but whatever my mom wanted was out of stock. The waiter came back, explained the problem, and she picked something he recommended. About five minutes later, the waiter popped back out to say THAT was out of stock too.

    When the food finally DID arrive, the fish was small and flat, and the pork looked like it had been pumped with something. To make matters worse, dessert didn’t come within 35 minutes of us placing the order, and we had to flag down the waiter to cancel it.

    Now, truth be told, I love Local 16 … love the service, love the food, love the locally-grown mission. And, truth be told, they comped the ENTIRE meal. That being said, if the experience had (pardon my french) sucked even a LITTLE less, it might still be in the running for the rehersal dinner.

    I will happily take my chances with the new kid on the block (Beacon Bar & Grill), because after three meals with three different groups of people, we have absolutely zero complaints. Amen.

  • Wedding: Dueling Dinners


    Beacon Bar and Grill

    Local 16

    We have been scoping D.C. restaurants for the last month or two, working with a very patient, and gracious pair of friends (Sue and Jeremy) to find a couple rehearsal dinner spots that here located close to the church, that served good food, and had space for a private party.

    We are under this strange delusion that we might actually be able to walk from the rehearsal dinner, to the church, to the reception site (which doubles as the hotel) and back. Not sure it will happen, but that’s the goal.

    To make matters more interesting, my family has a strong background in dining (my father was a Chef for a number of years) and so mediocre food does not pass by an Parker unnoticed.

    Finally, D.C. isn’t exactly known for large spaces with plenty of private rooms for parties and events. Especially large spaces with private rooms that don’t look like the basement of the Hinkley Hilton.

    Anyway, what would be the point of the story if there was no happy ending? Probably to make you suffer as we have suffered, but fortunately that isn’t the case… Sue, Jeremy, The Lady Sparkler and I have two possibilities for rehearsal dinner spots that are looking promising.

    The first is the Beacon Bar & Grill, which is located at 1615 Rhode Island (the hotel/reception is one block west). BBG serves what it calls “Fresh Contemporary American Cuisine,” and (in some sort of incestuous irony) plucked its current executive Chef from 15 RIA (our receptions site) about a year ago.

    We took my parents her for a test dinner just this week (my mom was in town for her birthday) and the quality of the food and the service was just great. I had the pasta, and The Lady Sparkler had the fish. The place was a little empty for a Saturday night, but how many restaurants shut down in their first year of business anyway?!? (For the record, 25% in the first year. 60% within three years.)

    The other restaurant in the running is Local 16, a local, slow food, organic restaurant which is about four blocks up 16th street. We will give that a try in January.