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Chinatown DC -- Cool / inexpensive Restruants?

Lolz. I would never eat at Redline. It's not their fault (the blame goes to the restaurant before them that closed), but they've got a serious cockroach problem. My office is located above them, those motherf*ckers make it up here all the time.

I believe it is the same owners as before, they just changed the format.

A friend of mine worked for their restaurant group. I could tell you some HORROR stories.
 
I believe it is the same owners as before, they just changed the format.

A friend of mine worked for their restaurant group. I could tell you some HORROR stories.

Oh really? The story, as I know it, was that the restaurant in the space before closed down but didn't bother to throw out any of the food etc. So when the power inevitably got cut off in the 1-3 months it sat absent, the food rotted, and the place got infested with all manner of cockroaches/bugs.

If it's the same owners/restaurant group, I guess I feel less bad for Redline.

I do know that they get a lot of beer delivered, and we share elevators with them. I've wasted so many opportunities to nab cases/kegs when the delivery people just leave the things on the elevator assuming that no one else is using it. Effing morals.
 
In addition to the cockroach problem, they also took out 2-3 supporting walls when they were remodeling. Those caused half of our office to get a nice tilt. The cracks in the walls weren't that big until the earthquake, though.

They also had a gas-leak that they didn't know about for upwards of 24 hours that put everyone in the building in danger.

Basically, they are the sole reason we are getting to break our office lease 12 months early without any repercussions.
 
In addition to the cockroach problem, they also took out 2-3 supporting walls when they were remodeling. Those caused half of our office to get a nice tilt. The cracks in the walls weren't that big until the earthquake, though.

They also had a gas-leak that they didn't know about for upwards of 24 hours that put everyone in the building in danger.

Basically, they are the sole reason we are getting to break our office lease 12 months early without any repercussions.

Just texted my buddy. I was mistaken. Redline is new ownership. He says the new guys are good people and they did it right by making it a sports bar right next to the VC.

Yeah, I had similar stories as yours. The previous owners ran the place in to the ground. They were negligent in every possibly way and constantly wanted to change things and spend money on stupid ideas. My friend walked just before they went bankrupt. They were paying people under the table, paying them with drugs, not paying them at all, etc., etc. The place was littered with coke and the owners were usually shit canned drunk and starting fights. You could probably guess that they were linked to a certain local organization with ties to "Persia."
 
The Bayou room? Weird shit goes on down there...

I love the 219 lounge or whatever it is about the Bayou room though. Usually awesome blues music, cigar bar. One of the best spots in old town that nobody goes to I guess because the average age is up there.
 
Oh really? The story, as I know it, was that the restaurant in the space before closed down but didn't bother to throw out any of the food etc. So when the power inevitably got cut off in the 1-3 months it sat absent, the food rotted, and the place got infested with all manner of cockroaches/bugs.

If it's the same owners/restaurant group, I guess I feel less bad for Redline.

I do know that they get a lot of beer delivered, and we share elevators with them. I've wasted so many opportunities to nab cases/kegs when the delivery people just leave the things on the elevator assuming that no one else is using it. Effing morals.

Indebleu (the prior restaurant) fucking sucked. I wouldn't doubt if that story was true. Just terrible people.
 
for those interested in the 7x7, I asked them to send me a couple of their recent menus:

Bitter bi-valve
endive, pear, chorizo
Champagne

Shelled, fried,& eggs
parsnip, vanilla, essence
Gin

Truffle Ka-boom!

The Whole Branzino
olives, cuban hats, rosemary
Rye

Under Cover Ravioli
chestnuts, cippolini, marrow
Bourbon

Caramel Apple
Rum

one more bite

(night night)

Head to the sea
Scallop, apple, butternut, farmers cross
Crushed

“Fish sticks?”
Halibut, baby beet, ravigote
B + B

E-X-P-L-O-S-I-V-E

Souixe City Sasparilla
Pomme roblochon, chanterelle, sassafras
Roots

Figgy Duck
Spinach, confit, gastrique
“Thirty”

Proper
Topper

Cuptail

(night night)
 
for those interested in the 7x7, I asked them to send me a couple of their recent menus:

Funny, that 2nd one was mine...

photo.jpg
 
what was EXPLOSIVE and Proper Topper? I'm assuming cuptail is some blend of cupcake and cocktail? and was night night a night cap?
 
what was EXPLOSIVE and Proper Topper? I'm assuming cuptail is some blend of cupcake and cocktail? and was night night a night cap?

Explosive was two small raviolis filled with this hot brown butter sauce with either some pancetta or veal or something like that. It was the only course not served with a cocktail.

Proper was the dessert, meaning proper peach over some chocolate with something crispy I think. I didn't really catch the story behind that one, I think there's a hat store called propper topper and the drink called topper was like a take on an alcoholic orange julius.

And yeah, they've been doing weekly cuptails at PS7 for a while now. They are always awesome.

Night night wasn't anything, at least, it wasn't supposed to be, but it ended up being a shit ton of shots.

The first three things are appetizers, then there are 2 entrees, then a dessert and then the cuptail. Sasparilla was the smoked veal tenderloin, potatoes robuchon is 2:1 ratio potato to butter that's whipped until extremely light. Ridiculous.
 
God damn, that sounds awesome. Going to book today for sometime in Feb. I've always heard amazing things about Robuchon's potatoes. Stayed at the MGM Grand in Vegas over New Year's and kept walking past his places, but I don't have the coin to drop on either of those places. Read an article recently that his flagship restaurant there is now the most expensive restaurant in the country after a recent price increase. in typical Vegas fashion, it's not far from the McD's in the MGM.

I'm headed to Sushi Taro for RW lunch today, but I was digging through a drawer last night and I found an old gift card to there. Made me consider doing the omakase there. Since none of my friends are really as adventurous as me when it comes to sushi (nor would want to spend that on sushi), it would likely be a solo jaunt. anyone done it? reviews sound amazing.
 
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I'm headed to Sushi Taro for RW lunch today, but I was digging through a drawer last night and I found an old gift card to there. Made me consider doing the omakase there. Since none of my friends are really as adventurous as me when it comes to sushi (nor would want to spend that on sushi), it would likely be a solo jaunt. anyone done it? reviews sound amazing.

We did the omakase last year. As far as quality of ingredients - it was really good. And you get some choices so you can pick a couple favorites which is nice. The day we went they had two main themes - snapper and sardines. The multiple kinds of snapper were awesome. The sardines.... not my thing. Oily and too fishy for me. They also start you off with a "seasonal" plate. Ours had a jello cube thing which was fine, then it had a conch which apparently they keep alive, coach the guy out and stab him with a toothpick and serve, and the 3rd thing was a tiny pink squid.

I'm pretty adventurous, but those last two were a bit much for me. You bite down on the squid and it basically pops and you're like, hmmm, I'm eating raw squid guts. The conch wasn't quite as disturbing but also wasn't my thing.

They do give you paint brushes to apply soy sauce instead of dipping however, which is genius.
 
i really, really, really wanna do it, but my GF isn't as adventurous about sushi either. i remember doing something similar when i went to japan as a youngin where my uncle's clients there just kept ordering the weirdest shit to come to the table as kind of a dare. it culminated with him throwing down a live fish bigger than your thumb. it was pretty sweet, but i was a puss and stopped at like the octopus that was butchered table-side.
 
There's an option that is less sushi and more cooked dishes as well.
 
For those wanting an omakase experience, go to Sushi Zen in Midtown NYC. Holy fucking shit is it amazing. It is very expensive (price not set, you can eat as much as you want) but worth the experience. It's as much art as it is food. The only think I had a problem with was the live shrimp dish they served me this one time. He pulled the tails off of the live shrimp and prepare them, and for presentation he put the heads on my plate as well... they were jumping around because they still had some life left in them. It was pretty crazy. Then they fried the heads for "[my] enjoyment". Wasn't a big fan of that.
 
For DCDeac or other DCers. Not exactly the right thread but I was hoping to try PX at some point. How critical is it to make a reservation?
 
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