The Wine Harvest

Posted on December 29, 2016 by melsmosaic

There is a fun local restaurant in Park Potomac, MD (just outside of DC) called The Wine Harvest. If you know the area, it’s off of Exit 4/Montrose Rd from 270, or if you’re ever just going up 270, it’s where that Harris Teeter, Founding Farmers and the ever-growing townhouses/developments are (though that last part doesn’t totally narrow it down). They also have a location in The Kentlands.

It’s a small, family-owned place that offers a casual, tasty menu and also sells wine by the bottle/is a wine shop. Oh, beer, too. They have a bar where you grab or drink and tables to sit back and relax.

Last time I was there I just went for some sort of finger food and opted for the Smoked Salmon Plate — smoked salmon served with chopped red onions, capers, sour cream and baguette slices. Instead of sour cream they were great and put manchego on there for me!

My friend went for the Greek Salad — romaine lettuce, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, Greek olives, pepperoncini, feta cheese, served with Greek dressing and pita and added a bowl of the Soup of the Day, which was a Cream of Broccoli.

We enjoyed a bottled of Italian wine with dinner. You can order wine by the glass from the menu or buy a bottle from their nice selection, but are then charged a corkage fee. But, you can take it home if not finished.

Everything, from food to service was very good. The prices are also excellent. Not your typical DC prices, which is great!

Pacci’s Trattoria

Posted on November 14, 2016 by melsmosaic

Awhile back checked out an Italian restaurant I had heard about in the Silver Spring/Forest Glen area of DC — Pacci’s Trattoria.

They have a pretty traditional Italian menu, nothing overly fancy. After we had plenty of time to look over the menu, we finally got a waiter. Not overly eager, rattled off the specials, not very understandable (extremely heavy Italian accent). After that, stuck to the menu. I decided to go with Piattone di Pacci’s, signature sample platter features Bruschetta al Pomodoro, buffalo mozzarella (skipped that), smoked salmon rolls, artichokes, olives, and prosciutto wrapped cantaloupe.

My friend opted for a Pacci’s salad, baby spinach, arugula, cucumbers, fresh mozzarella, onions, nuts, cranberries, pears and our homemade honey balsamic vinaigrette and Ravioli alla Florentine cheese ravioli with spinach, artichoke and garlic cream sauce; topped with shaved parmesan.

The food was all pretty good, but nothing spectacular/out of the ordinary. The service was just terrible though. Even though I told the waiter that I was ordering a (large) appetizer as my entree, he brought it out first. Then the pasta dish took maybe half an hour+. And the restaurant was not at all busy. You always have to try a place…

Le Chat Noir

Posted on October 28, 2016 by melsmosaic

Have been in DC for many years and finally made it to Le Chat Noir. I used to even live only about mile from it. It’s a French restaurant located between Friendship Heights and Tenleytown in NW.

Went on a Saturday night. Had reservations but it wasn’t too busy, the service was pretty slow, though. The menu has a good amount of selection, but of course I had to do some good picking because of being lactose intolerant.

Opted for a bottle of rose, for kicks, Le P’tit Rose. It was good, a bit sweet, a fun wine to try.

While deciding on dinner, with the wine we enjoyed addictive bread.

Then, for the first course of dinner, I opted for a salad and my friend went for the Crèpe fourrée. Crèpe stuffed with crabmeat, bay scallops, mushrooms, Chablis cream sauce. Apparently that was pretty darn good.

Main course was a Bijoux de boeuf au poivre. Grilled beef tenderloin, grilled asparagus, gratin dauphinois, green peppercorn sauce (the asparagus is on the side). It was perfectly cooked and melted in the mouth.

I opted for the Saint Jacques à la Bretonne. Sea scallops, truffle risotto, cremini mushrooms, white wine béchamel & gruyere cheese gratin. They made some nice substitutions on the dairy and grilled the scallops, put it on a bed of lentil ‘crust’ with a side of pickled veggies. All very nice.

Very happy I finally checked this place out!

Los Tios Grill, Del Ray

Posted on August 19, 2016 by melsmosaic

Hot weather equals cool food. Checked out Los Tios Grill in Del Ray/Alexandria, VA (just outside of DC) recently.

The first thought of cool when walking into a Mexican restaurant is a margarita. There were a few of us at dinner so we figured why not get a pitcher. This is probably the first place I’ve been to that doesn’t have pitchers of margaritas. Ok. Decided to get the large one, and large it was. The picture doesn’t quite do the size justice.

Of course had to order some guac. It was very nicely presented as it is served in the avocado. Good taste, too.

Now, when looking over the menu I was pretty disappointed. It was hot out, so I wanted something cool. And a staple of mine at Mexican restaurants is ceviche. It’s not on their menu. I was trying to figure out what else to get. Very fortunately the waiter came over and told us the specials. One of them was ceviche. The night was saved! It was a combo of shrimp and whitefish. It tasted a bit like the shrimp had been cooked a bit, which some restaurants tend to do for safety reasons. Still nice to get the ceviche.

All the others at the table ordered Tacos los Tios, which are beef or chicken tacos, served with rice, beans, lettuce, pico de gallo, guac and sour cream.

Overall, good meal. The restaurant is pretty big, so easy enough to get a table. Will check it out again, too, when it’s less sweltering hot and can sit outside.

DC Brau

Posted on August 16, 2016 by melsmosaic

Finally made it to a pretty well known local DC brewery, DC Brau.

I knew it was somewhere in NE DC, but wasn’t sure where. Finally as I was getting there I figured out it’s in one of the developing areas, right off 50, near the relatively new Costco.

Went on a Sunday, a bit after they opened so it was pretty quite. Opted for a sampler so that I could try several of their brews. Ended up with the first six on the list. Of course there is a quite a bit of power to most of them.

Info on the beer, straight from the DC Brau’s site:

Brau Pils was our newest summer seasonal alongside El Hefe Speaks, NOW YEAR-ROUND.

EL HEFE SPEAKS! is a traditionally brewed German-style Hefe. It is fermented around 65°F and hopped with German Tettnang hops. 11 IBUs and 5.3% ABV make this one extremely drinkable.

The Citizen is one of the original flagships brewed here at DC Brau and draws inspiration from the stronger ales made famous over the centuries by the Trappist and Abbey brewers of Belgium. Although the label denotes “Pale ale” this is mainly a reference to the color of the beer and not the bitterness of the beer as is commonly associated with American Pale Ales.

The Public™ Pale Ale is brewed in the classic American Pale Ale style. Assertive bitterness backed by C-60 and Vienna malts which lend notes of rich, yet semi-dry caramel. Then followed up with a nice white grapefruit and citrus aroma that begs for a follow up sip.

The Corruption™ IPA is DC Brau’s take on a Pacific Northwest IPA. Brewed with Pale 2 row, C-10, Honey and Victory malts. Exclusively hopped with 40 lbs of Columbus hops per brew to ring in at 80 IBU. “The Corruption” comes in at 6.5% ABV. This beer straddle’s the line between IPA and Imperial IPA and has a supportive malty backbone with an assertive hop presence that smacks your mouth with a dank, resinous bitterness followed by pleasant aroma’s of pine sap and burnt spruce.

The Hefe was great with the Citizen being another great one. The Imperial IPA was a bit strong. Overall, a great time and the staff was awesome to talk to.

The final one is a cask beer that changes all the time. Very strong…

The Hefe and Citizen were probably my favorite. Overall great time at the brewery, chatting with the staff and enjoying some local, cold beer.

Denizens Brewing Co

Posted on August 8, 2016 by melsmosaic

Finally got around to checking out Denizen’s Brewing Co. in Silver Spring, MD recently. They are just outside of Washington, DC and have been around for a couple years as the craft brewing industry continues to grow.

They have both the indoor portion of the brewery/restaurant and a huge outdoor area, which is great on gorgeous night.

My friend and I each ordered different beer flights, but got a bit confused because they might have gotten turned around when handed to us, and given us a wrong tasting card, so not quite sure what I ended up enjoying. But, they were all pretty good; lots of variety, from IPA, pils, ales and more.

Enjoyed some good food, too. Outside they have a smaller menu. I ended getting the grain burger; a grain blend, root veggies, aoili, kale slaw with some manchego. It came highly recommended and dang, that was good!

Totally worth visiting, especially with great weather. And the outdoor patio is dog friendly if you have a 4-legged friend.

First taste of Ethiopian

Posted on July 22, 2016 by melsmosaic

My friend finally talked me into trying Ethiopian food recently. I was told I would not have to worry because there is no dairy in this stuff. So I checked it out. We went to Addis Adaba in Silver Spring, MD, just outside of Washington, DC (sorry they don’t have a website).

I had heard that with this cuisine you get to use the hands (only) so this was going to be pretty interesting. I let my friend order because he’d been many times. So the decision was Beyaynetu, a vegetarian platter combo of Meiser Wat, Yatekilt Wat, Kik Alicha, Tikil Gomen and Gomen.

The definition of these:

Meiser Wat: Spicy lentil stew with berbere and garlic
Yatekilt Wat: Green beans, carrots, potatoes, jalapenos with Ethiopian spices and herbs
Kik Alicha: Yellow split peas with garlic, peppers and onions
Tikil Gomen: Fresh cabbage with onions and carrots
Gomen: Collard greens cooked with onions and jalapenos

And this is all served with injera, the traditional Ethiopian bread, aka your fork. After a quick google search, I have found that this is:

Injera (Amharic: ənǧära እንጀራ [ɨndʒəra]; sometimes transliterated as enjera; or “taita” Tigrinya: ጣይታ) is an East African sourdough-risen flatbread with a unique, slightly spongy texture. Traditionally made out of teff flour, it is a national dish in Ethiopia and Eritrea.

It was a super cool sponge texture, indeed, as darn tasty.

So dinner came out and pretty interesting. Very colorful and quite good! I am very glad my friend got me to go. Will definitely have to enjoy this food again and explore other Ethiopian restaurants, as well.

7 Locks Brewing

Posted on July 12, 2016 by melsmosaic

Microbreweries are growing and growing. One of the latest is in Rockville, MD (just outside of DC), 7 Locks Brewing.

(logo source: 7locksbrewing.com)

They have a nice spread of beer on tap, which can of course always change.

When I checked it out, my friend and I split of flight of 6 (4 oz each), which is only $8. We also did this because they were sponsoring a 5K that we had to run not to long after we were going to enjoy the brew. All were nice to try, not all were my (personal) favorites.

The brewery is great because they have lots of events, from runs to concerts to yoga, and more, all including beer. Can’t go wrong with that.

The Birth of Saké

Posted on March 27, 2016 by melsmosaic

The Environmental Film Festival was in DC over the past week or so I read over the rundown of shows. There were some interesting movies running and one that really caught my eye was The Birth of Saké. Side note: how does that truly fit in with the environmental part?

Anyway, my friend and I decided to see the movie. It was a compelling documentary about the origin of this well-known Japanese drink, from its origin, processing, to current state. The movie follows the one brewery that continues to make sake by hand vs. going to machines/automation. Their process of making sake takes 6 months and those who work at the brewery are gone from their families for that entire time. Unique piece, and worth checking out. Definitely not something you hear or think about everyday.

8407 Kitchen Bar

Posted on March 27, 2016 by melsmosaic

Have heard of the restaurant 8407 Kitchen Bar in Silver Spring, MD for awhile and was finally able to check it out recently. It’s right next to the Silver Spring Metro and just outside of Washington, DC.

There is a bar area downstairs with TVs and then the restaurant upstairs. My friend and I were ‘normal’ and (actually) got a table upstairs.

After looking over the menu we decided to split a bunch of small plates versus going for entrees. The decisions the ended up on the table were:

-Farm Fresh Deviled Eggs

-Pickled Veggies

-Salmon Bites

-Gouda Ewephora Cheese

-Black Goat Truffle Cheese

-Prosciutto Americano

(so we devoured half the salmon before I took a picture)

Also ordered some Temptation Zin to pair with all this. Nice wine with berries and spice.

Was a very nice meal. Service was a bit slow but nothing to worry about. Prices are about the same as most restaurants (as in entrees were low upper teens to mid 20s) in the DC area. Would totally be game for checking this out again.