Brad Pitt Has Your Secret Shit: Rolling DC

gimme dat wiiine

Silby, he's talking about "ethnic" restaurants vs. American ones; not about reducing one's total bill

Kliman theory in response to an online chatter:

One thing to consider is that so-called ethnic restaurants are often family restaurants, and can get away with paying less to employees as a result. Hey, that’s what family’s for!

As for paying less for raw ingredients … maybe. But I hope you’re not reflexively equating paying less with inferiority. If you’ve ever eaten at a Vietnamese restaurant in the Eden Center, you will be struck by the quality and freshness of the produce. Lettuces, herbs — all so green and so fragrant. And of course no one comes around to brag about where they were sourced.

I doubt that that is the case where meats and fishes are concerned, but you never know. And if you’re turning those meats and fishes into pastes and sausages, or treating them to long marinades and then grilling them and giving them that char and smoke, it often does not matter that much.

1st world problems

yeah it's just weird that he disqualifies burgers/pizza/barbecue from being food that can be served at american restaurants. I bet if you take out three of the most popular and low cost kinds of food from most other cuisines you're not left with a lot of options either!

I love the new Cheap Eats issue (it's always one of the most exciting days of the year when it comes out), with the tremendous detail on the different cuisines. I especially like that the "guide" doesn't limit itself to the Cheap Eats dollar ranges, but also includes expensive places like Izakaya Seki.

Kliman confuse me here (maybe because I haven't seen the hard copy "Cheap Eats" issue. Only the table of contents is online. So the "CHEAP Eats" contains a guide with "expensive" restaurants?

i'm looking at the hard copy right now & there's a section of two pages for each cuisine and restaurants they recommend, followed by a list that adds some more restaurants that don't fit in the previous groups. i don't see how 'cheap eats' has much to do with it other than it's the magazine's branding thing, some of these places are cheap and some could quickly get rather expensive ime

reminded me that i have to go to georgia ave for some mafé at that senegalese place, i didn't know it was still there

dad post

if anybody wants to accidentally run into a tombot and tombot mini we're thinking about making a regular thing of the "brunch" at the boardroom on sunday mornings. there's like tickets and drink tokens and shit but it's pretty clear you don't have to bring a toddler. That and eatonville are what we get up to these days. looking forward to Ted's Bulletin though

aww

yeah

x-post

reminded me that i have to go to georgia ave for some mafé at that senegalese place, i didn't know it was still there

― seriously, THIS GUY (daria-g),

Went back there around 6 months ago and the restaurant was mostly empty except for me & gf. Food was mostly good, but I think she doesn't have much ready for each night in the kitchen-- meaning, yes those were canned veggies--peas and such--thrown on top of the rice.

Reminds me that longtime ethnic restaurants, wel any restaurants, need to find a way to keep folks coming out. Taste of Morocco in Arlington was pretty empty when we went there the other night. Maybe cuz it was Sunday and its Ramadan.

Hi Tombot, long time no see! I would love to see you and R and the mini, but I am in Mexico for a while longer. Will try to catch up with all dcilxors when I do a quicky trip up sometime in November or December. I miss Ethiopian food soooooooo much it hurts.

THE UNTITLED (SMITHSONIAN HIRSHHORN MUSEUM) PIECE IN THE PETER COFFIN EXHIBITION AT THE HIRSHHORN

IS SO

FUCKING

CRUCIAL

like guys seriously there are no words

well okay there are lots and lots and lots of words that I could say about it but instead why don't you just go experience it for yourself

Will check it out. Have seen the war photos exhibit at the Corcoran but nothing else lately.

Oh I did finally play mini-golf at the Building Museum. I kinda liked it even if many holes were annoying-- no proper place to put golf ball at beginning; topographical map that made golf balls roll right off it; cylinder with impossible angle.

Aww man, I missed 3 exhibits I shoulda seen: BK ADAMS*I AM ART at Honfleur Gallery; Chocolate City Rest in Peace by Steven M. Cummings at The Gallery at Vivid Solutions; plus Permanent Summer with the work of veteran rock show poster printers David Sandlin, and artists such as Maya Hayak, Brian Chippendale, and Rob Corradetti

Will try to see that Peter Coffin exhibit at the Hirshhorn before its October 6th closing

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2013/09/08/left-with-nothing/

Sad and frustrating

x-post -- and that go-go exhibit in SE DC before it closes in mid-October, and that landscape photo one at a museum

plus this one of D.C. photos:

http://www.popville.com/2013/08/art-exhibit-coming-to-glen-echo-park-from-the-incredible-historical-photo-collection-by-michael-horsley/

Saw the Peter Coffin exhibit--took me some minutes to appreciate it but then I did--there's a dark room with paintings on the walls and then visual projections start randomly appearing from projectors on the ceiling onto the various paintings; accompanied by audio of music and animal sounds. Visuals of flowers bloomings, numbers, German text, all kinds of stuff,

There's also a big giant sitting dog sculpture in another room

and a non-imprssive sculpture outside and other stuff elsewhere in the museum

is everyone ok right now?

Sending u love, DC.

Couldn't get to work today but otherwise everyone I know is OK

Ok here. Up to 13 dead now. Terrible

Back to regular stuff (for most of us)

I wanna try this place to eat:

Sumah’s: 1727 7th St (Shaw)

Run by a Sierra Leonean

Just ate there a few days ago!

The good: The food is AMAZING. the owner asked us if it was our first time eating there, and then offered to bring out a free sampler dish that had 7-8 of the menu items on there. every single one was very good. even just plain old spinach was really good. you can't go wrong. the owner is ridiculously friendly. you get a ton of food. everything is $15-$17, but even just a medium order was enough for a full meals and a full meal for leftovers the next day (at least for me).

the eh: no big deal, but the vibe in the place was very much "these are all close friends of the owner". which is cool, but no one else was eating anything, just sitting around talking, and it felt kinda weird to be sitting there eating dinner. it's the kind of place where little kids are running around and stuff. doesn't really bother me, but it might bother other people.

the bad: good lord, the process of getting and paying for the check took like 45 minutes. not even a joke. the owner had disappeared somewhere in the back, and then two of the hangerouters were hangeroutering at the counter by the register the entire time, so it was kind of hard to just go up to the cash register and get some service. then when we finally flagged him down for the check, it took another 20 minutes or so for it to finally arrive, even though no one else was eating.

verdict: the place advertises itself as a takeout place, so that's what i'll be doing next time (i'll probably show up about 20-30 minutes after they say it'll be ready, based off of the first experience). but there will definitely be a next time. sooooo sooooooo good.

and with that, i have fulfilled my pledge to the owner. when we paid the bill, he leaned in really close to me with a crazy grin and whisper shouted "WRITE ABOUT US ON THE INTERNET!!"

lmao

lol

i got a jury duty summons the other day. i don't have it in front of me right now, but it appears that say that after submitting the questionnaire to the city, i am required to call into a hotline EVERY DAY from late november until December 28 to check to see if i have jury duty? wtf?! in maryland (the only other place i've been summoned), they just told you to show up in court on a certain day.

I have heard of the calling in thing. It saves you from going there every day. But yes doing it for a month is a pain.

In other news:
My fave local blogger (of course)

http://africaindc.wordpress.com/2013/09/28/where-to-get-6-packs-of-ethiopian-beer-friday-night-africa-in-dc/

Also, this is happening tonight Saturday the 28th

music, art, film, food
rsvp at eventbrite (which only allows rsvp for 1 person).

http://www.francedc.org/events/?id=210

Saturday, September 28, 2013 7:00 PM - Sunday, September 29, 2013 3:00 AM

Saturday, September 28
7PM-3AM
Wonderbread Factory // 620 S St, NW
No charge 21+ | RSVP

Re. the jury summons--have you been tapped for grand jury service? I was called for that a couple of years ago. I pleaded poverty (no employer to pay me while serving), whereupon they shifted me to the petty jury pool. I was then promptly selected for a jury, but it was a relatively straightforward hit-and-run case.

Yay, shutdown over!

Decided to eat Laotian food last night at Bangkok Golden in 7 Corners, to celebrate. Yummy

I had eaten there before, but was lured back by seeing the restaurant in Tom Sietsema's top 40 restaurants in the Post magazine last week. No, it did not get 4 stars.

Government shutdown messed up my plans to see certain exhibits at museums. I wish they could have extended the runs

Hey ZS, how did jury duty work out? If you're allowed to say?

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2013/10/17/georgetown-waiter-bought-fanciest-stuff-ever-with-stolen-credit-card-info/

Haven't heard back, but I can't make any travel plans for the holidays because I could have jury duty the day after thanksgiving or for Christmas Eve, and I won't know until the night before!

i suggest you make your plans!

one time in dc i got a summons but lost the notice so i called the hotline to find out when my day was -- the automated switchboard told me that the average hold time was 30 minutes. i hung up, ignored it, was not jailed. fuck that

I finally saw "Cool Disco Dan" movie this weekend. A bunch of it kinda bugged me, but I am still glad I saw it.

http://artforum.com/?pn=picks§ion=us#picks43498

ArtForum crits give love to a Transformer gallery exhibit that closes Saturday and to the Kerry James Marshall exhibit at the National Gallery of Art that is there through December I think

Transformer is such a consistently great gallery.

That article in the Washington Post Style section by the former dcist.com editor (now at Atlantic cities) on how D.C. is the cool city for her, was uncool.

that whole spread in the magazine this weekend about millennials remaking dc was obnoxious, though their descriptions of life at meridian buildings certainly jibed with every party i ever went to at one of those

Haven't read it yet, but thanks for the warning

Derek Rogers, a 23-year-old Meridian resident and an associate at a consulting firm, summed it up like so: “The pool is where you really see the colors of the building. It is a frat party. With less restrictions.”

Picture: the last Saturday in August. The midafternoon sun is pulling “now you see me, now you don’t” tricks, ducking in and out of clouds. Post-grad paraphernalia is scattered about: cardboard boxes of Bud Light and Corona Light, red Solo cups, brown paper bags from Trader Joe’s. Tattoos peek out from neon bikinis and bro tanks in all the predictable places – wrapped around upper arms, perched on shoulder blades, high on the hipbones and insides of ankles – and music is blasting. It’s Avicii’s “Levels,” sampling Etta James’s “Something’s Got a Hold on Me”: Ooooh, sometimes, I get a good feeling. I get a feeling that I never, never, never, never had before.

it gets worse from there

the Post sees it as an advertiser package but I see it as an exposé

From the Style section millenial piece this morning

But as we look at the increase in restaurants, bike lanes, night-life options and other hallmarks of modern urban cool, there is also that admittedly less important, more ethereal question: Is it possible, after all this time, that D.C. is getting — whisper it with me now — awfully hip?

How predictable

huh
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/style/2013/10/18/march-of-the-millennials/

Once-dead streets are bustling, even after dark. High-rises are replacing aged structures and overgrown lots. Restaurants pop up overnight, like dandelions.

i feel like i have read a lot of writing where all the work that goes into all this passive/magical replacement process of making new buildings and restaurants appear is glossed over. not interesting

also re: some people they saw on 14th street, isn't 'transvestite' a derogatory term? where are the editors??

thx for reminder about transformer. d'oh. i was just at 14th and p this evening and didn't realize it closed so soon, will have to see it tomorrow

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/homespun-dc-places-lost-to-condos-and-burger-chains/2013/10/17/f065ac16-1a42-11e3-82ef-a059e54c49d0_story.html

At least one piece touched on what used to be here.