Ed "I don't have a nickname" H.'s Profile

The inside of Granville Moore's looks like something out of World War I France, like that abandoned farmhouse Snoopy hides in while he's doing his fighter-pilot impersonation in that trippy, drug-induced diversion from the Peanuts Halloween special. Minus the flute music and Charlie Brown narration.

Yeah, it's that cool inside. The walls look like they've been eaten away by enemy bullets; paint peels and stone cracks, and the wooden ceiling looks questionable and precarious. Normally, that would be a bad thing. Old-looking wooden tables look as if some sort of underground movement was plotted and launched from them -- Vive la résistance!

But in this dark eatery you get ambiance in spades. There is a jukebox, but unfortunately it's an Internet jukebox. No one should be allowed to play Styx or "Eye of the Tiger," as I heard the other night; rather, one should only have the option of playing classics by Edith Piaf, Serge Gainsbourg or any other French chanteuses of yore. (I will allow for some April March, neither French nor of yore.)

My mussel-obsessed friends will say that the mussels are better at Brasserie Beck. I'm sure they are, but I don't mind. Last time I went, I had steak frites, but with a buffalo steak rather than beef. Wow, it was incredible. Perfectly seasoned (a lovely saltiness, but not too much salt) and perfectly cooked at medium-rare. The frites are especially good, particularly when dipped in the truffle-oil aioli.

Beers are quality and Belgian, predominately. There are about four on tap, which rotate. There is a full bar -- actually, there are two. I just learned about the upstairs this past weekend. For some reason we couldn't quite put our fingers on, we thought the upstairs seemed cooler than downstairs, although we sat downstairs and both levels looked pretty much the same.

Expect long wait times, particularly on the weekends. One of its annoyances is that they don't take reservations, but they don't have to. It's always packed. We got there at about 6 p.m. on a Saturday and waited 45 minutes for a table -- that's lightning quick for Granville Moore standards.

Here's the deal: I love Brickskeller. Or, I want to love it. Really, I do. In fact, when I first went, back in 2000 or so, I thought it was one of the coolest places I'd ever been. And, in theory, it is: dark, funky design, looks like it's been there since the Dark Ages, a cellar-like feel and loads upon loads of beer available.

It's well known that you will hear, "I'm sorry, we're out of the ..." at least twice in your visit. But it's gotten to be ridiculous. For a bar that boasts a Guinness Book level of beers, they sure don't actually serve that many. I'd wager that only 30% of the beers you see are in stock at any given time.

Someone told me the other day that they tend to buy their beer in bulk at the beginning of the year, and so when they are out, they're out. I don't know how much credence to put in that statement, but from my experience, I'd believe it.

Anyway, I now tend to give my waiter options: Here's my first choice; if you're out of that I'll also take X or Y. But service, while friendly and helpful (and knowledgeable), tends to be quite slow.

The food's not that great -- sure, it's crappy bar food, but it's not even good crappy. Burgers are OK, probably your best bet. Pizza -- don't go there.

I'll never give up on Brickskeller -- I just want them to do a bit better.

OK, I'll admit it. I went to Meskerem last Friday night after spending about three hours at Toledo Lounge across the street. So I might not be the best judge of the place.

What I can tell you is that we were seated immediately (three people), we had friendly and attentive service, and our group split a sizable platter and a bottle of wine and I got out of there for 26 bucks.

So yeah, it's fine by me. To be honest, I haven't been to many other Ethiopian places (which is weird, given that they about here in Washington), but I'm keen to try others and to try this one again.

Best coffee in the Farragut Square area. Very friendly staff who remember the regulars and make new customers feel welcome. Loads of baked goods if you're into the whole carbohydrate thing.

I wish they had a more extensive fruit collection, because I'm not so much into the carb-load thing, but alas.

Love it. Went there last night for some Hot Oktoberfest Action (tm). It's just what you'd want a place like that to be: the blue-and-white checkered things like they have at Hofbrau, old ship models dangling from the ceiling, cute waitresses in those traditional German dresses (and they speak German, too), beer in proper glasses and available by the litre.

I had the sausage combo, which was three different kinds of German sausage, sauerkraut, potato dumplings. Yum. And a litre of Spaten Oktoberfest.

Now THAT is what I'm talking about!

My only complaint is that we didn't hear any oom-pah music. However, the stereo did play "Moscow" by Chingis Kahn, probably the greatest song ever produced. I laughed for a solid three minutes. Oh, and there was an old woman playing the piano upstairs, which was nice.

Washington needs more places like this -- pubs, not expense-account bars and douchebag clubs. Even if it is a pub-chain, a Disneyfied, North American simulacrum of the real thing. So, E&C is what it is, a decent place that's predictable and dependable. Patio is a bonus.

My biggest problem with it? It's freaking loud inside. Have been a couple of times for happy hour and you can barely hear your companions. Sounds just echoes in the cavernous space. Acoustical tile would be a bonus, or some other sound-dampening system. It's really unbearable, and I don't see myself going back except to sit outside, perhaps.

Another place I had never heard of but that apparently has been around for centuries. We wanted to go to Kaz Sushi Bistro across the street, but it was Friday night after happy hour and we didn't have a booking. We thought we'd try anyway, but no luck. So we wandered a bit and found this place.

Downstairs restaurant with a decidedly simple feel. Interesting art on the walls. We found a huge group of friends who were celebrating something -- possibly a birthday. A happy bunch, and probably the most multicultural group of 20 I've seen in this town.

There was a guy playing guitar, sometimes accompanied by a CD he had with him. For my money, he was a hero because he played "Girl From Ipanema," quite possibly the greatest song of all time (only when played in decidedly ironic fashion). I had to laugh.

Three of us shared our dishes. Chicken that was succulent; steak strips and paella. All very good, with a nice Argentinian Malbec to go with. Attentive service, not too intrusive.

Sorry, I'm not sure I get the hype.

Tom Seitsema likes it. Everyone likes it. Look around here on Teh Yelps and everyone likes it. I just got back from there, and I wasn't impressed.

We went for Restaurant Week this August. Granted, the entire R.W. list sucked this go round, so a lot of places I'd like to have visited weren't included. But I'd never been to Johnny's, and I'd always heard good things, even from back when they were in Dupont Circle.

First, decor. Front room looked cool, as does the side room that is adjacent to the patio. Nice, dark wood. We were in the back room, which was ... plain. Milquetoast? Can I use that word to describe decor?

Service was slow. Very slow. Yes, it's Restaurant Week, but hardly anyone was there tonight. It was nearing 10 minutes before our waitress came to the table, and even longer after that before we could order wine. Trust me, she wasn't slammed.

Points off for JHS not offering the full menu for Rest. Wk. Restaurants that do that immediately get docked, IMO.

But the food was just OK. I'd say a step above McCormick & Schmick, which, as discerning Yelpers will know, is the TGI Friday's of "upscale" seafood. I had the Manhattan clam chowder, which was tasty, but heavy on the potatoes and bland on the clam. The tomato taste was good, though, and peppery. My main was the catfish with andouille sausage and shrimp risotto. Not bad. Not great. The little prawns in the risotto were the best.

A friend had the crab cakes, which the Washington Post recently rated as among the city's best. They seemed legit, although I only had the smallest of bites because for Restaurant Week you only get one, not two. So she needed to conserve. However, the presentation was shit: soggy-looking fries and some cole slaw. No matter how good cole slaw is (and my friend said it was good), it does not present well. The whole plate looked like something that would be served at Red Lobster. In fact, I went in there thinking I'd get the crab cakes, but after seeing a neighbouring table with them, and seeing that presentation, I changed my mind.

Another friend got the salmon with squash and some sort of mustard sauce, which I wish I had ordered. I've had much better salmon (frankly, the cedar plank salmon at the Royal Mile Pub in Wheaton beats the shit out of this one), but it was the best of our three dishes.

Desserts were uninspired, at least the three they had on offer for R.W. The chocolate sundae was a dry cake-like substance. The spice cake was good, nice and light. The peach -- not sure if it was a cobbler, don't remember -- was pretty good, mostly due to the presence of a nice biscuit, like one you'd get at a Sunday picnic at a Baptist church in the South.

Props do go to the manager, whom the waitress summoned after she served us wine she had described as dry, but which turned out to be quite sweet and syrupy. He recommended a better one, which suited.

After all, I would like to give this one another shot. I don't feel I got the full effect, particularly because the R.W. menu was so limited and clearly not what they'd serve normally.

But if this is what I got for $35 (plus wine) during Restaurant Week, I shudder to think of what it'd cost me for a merely adequate meal at regular prices.

I'd seen this place for a while, but had never visited until this past weekend. I suppose because it's in that nether-region between two Metro stops I rarely visit (Tenleytown and Friendship Heights). I love French bistros -- in fact, I could eat at one every meal for the rest of my life and be fine with it.

And I've been to the "real" Le Chat Noir, on Boulevard de Clichy in the Pigalle (check out a photo, here: http://www.flickr.com/...), so the eyes perk up when there's something similar. This one even has the same Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen-designed black cat logo.

All around a great meal. This restaurant doesn't come up much in the DC foodiesphere, so I think it's rather a hidden gem. My meal was soupe l'oignon to start (brilliant) and I had lamb medallions for a main. That lamb, which was Australian, actually, was perfectly cooked (medium-rare) and as tasty as any lamb I got when I lived in Australia. Perfect amount of rosemary on there, and very tender meat.

Normally, I'd get a creme brulee for dessert, but I decided to go a bit lighter and get a chocolate crepe. That was fantastic. My friends' food (the steak and frites; the scallops; the bouillabaisse) all looked delicious and got good reviews all round.

Service was excellent from our helpful (and very French) waiter.

I wish I lived in the neighbourhood -- or maybe my wallet is glad I don't.

This is apparently one of the oldest continually operating pubs in the country; George Washington and Thomas Jefferson have been customers. And me, too, so that's some pretty distinguished company you keep if you go there.

A great place that offers a good beer selection, a pretty extensive brunch menu (including crab eggs benedict) and the requisite pub food. I had an excellent crab soup and the "crab balls," which are miniature crab cakes. (The crab cake platter is market-priced, and was $32 that day. My crab balls (heh heh) were $14 and just as delicious.)

We ate at the bar rather than wait 30 minutes for a table. Bar service was friendly and good, although a bit slow -- but they were busy.

I like the place, although I wondered how many times in its storied history it has been gutted and renovated. From the inside, it doesn't quite look like it's as old as it is. I don't know, I think I'd rather it look as much like it did in the 18th century. Take out the electric lighting or something -- let's go seriously old school. (Like Lafitte's in New Orleans.)

Prices range. You can get out of there for cheap, or you can get the full-on dinner menu, which can run in the $30s for a main.