Thanks to a recommendation from Andrew – I’ve just ordered these Audio-Technica active noise-canceling headphones for all my upcoming trips this year.  I’ve never had good headphones before, so I’m pretty excited.  They received a good review on iLounge also – so we’ll see how they are once I get them.

Welcome Ella!

Ella Violet

The Washington Post - 2.8.10

Via Frontpages

When we moved into our new place last October, one of my favorite things was the view in the morning.  One year ago today, I started taking a picture every morning.  Sometimes I caught the sun at the right time, and sometimes I woke up a bit late.  I managed to catch 281 out of 365 mornings – missing whenever I was on vacation or got lazy and forgot to take a picture.  It was a bit of a chore towards the middle of the year, but started to pay off whenever the seasons changed and leaves and flowers would come and go.

Music is by the Foo Fighters – Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners.

Amanda and I just put up our 2nd Christmas tree.  (not much different than our first tree!)

Hope everyone has a great slap-free Thanksgiving…

Notable or New:

Blue Duck Tavern: This year, this has almost been our go-to restaurant.  We have celebrated everything here from a graduation to our engagement.  That speaks to the trust we have in Chef Brian McBride. Every time we’ve been there the food has been consistently excellent.  I highly recommend the roast chicken, duck fat fries or the braised beef rib.

American Flatbread: This one actually falls  into the ‘new’ category.  American Flatbread is a small chain, but just opened up a hearth in Clarendon in our building.  So far the pizza has been good, though a bit on the pricey side.  The good news is the managers are very nice, and it’s close.  My suggestion, have a “$5 off pizza night” to lighten the sting of a $20-$22 pizza.

Cork: Easily my favorite winebar out of the bunch that I’ve been to.  Reasonable prices, good wine, and great food combine for a fun night out.  I highly recommend getting a cheese plate, the olives, pork loin and mushrooms.  If you’re okay waiting a bit and dining in a more noisy than usual dining room, then you won’t be disappointed.

Others: I haven’t tried these places out yet but here’s more that I’m looking forward to:

• Founding Farmers – I’m trying it out this Saturday.  I’m not too excited by Tom Sietsema comparing it to the Cheesecake Factory, but everyone else I know thought it was a good restaurant.
• Screwtop Winebar – The winebar that’s going into my building.  Should be opening up this December.

That’s it!  Thanks for reading and hopefully sharing what restaurants you’ve found to be getting better, getting worse, or always stayed awesome.

We now have come to the most disappointing part of this series…restaurants that I once enjoyed, but in the past year – seemed to have lost their magic.  All of these restaurants I have eaten at more than 8-10 times each, so I feel as if I know if something has changed for the worse.

On the way down:

Tallula/Eat Bar: This used to be one of my favorite places to eat in years past.  Every time I’ve been there this year, Tallula has been empty, and EatBar was thriving.  Before last week, the last time I went to EatBar about 6-8 months ago.  It may have been an outlier experience, but this time the food wasn’t that good.  The mini-burgers tasted more like dried sausage and the steak tartare lacked character.  It was decent, but if I want to eat a good mini-burger, I’ll just go to Matchbox.

11th Street: Another watering hole that I used to frequent.  Sometime last year they changed the menu and removed almost everything that we went there for, and haven’t recovered since.  After talking to the manager, a few items have made a return, but somehow they’re not as good as they used to be.  For example, you can’t get just sweet potato fries anymore – they come with regular fries interspersed now.  Other items missing from the menu – mini steak frites.  Please, bring them back!

Liberty Tavern – I don’t know what’s going on with this place, but the last two times I have gone there have been some…umm….interesting odors.  The first time was a distinct vomit smell, and the second time (over a week later) was the overwhelming smell of bleach.  I actually do like the food.  Their Vermont Pizza is one of my favorites, but it’s hard for me to imagine eating it with so much going on in the air.

Any restaurants that have taken a turn for the worse?

Next up is the last of three posts about the new restaurants that I’m excited for as well as some restaurants that I’ve come to love over the past year…

On the way up:

Restaurant 3: I admit I had written off this place earlier this year.  The first time, all the food was smokey tasting, the second time, the food was just not good.  What has changed?  Since January, they have changed and expanded their menu to include a lot less expensive items on the menu.  The fried green tomatoes, scallops and grits, and burger were all hits with me.  I’m glad that they seemed to address the issues with the menu.  Combine that with a decent happy hour (goes til 8pm!) I’ll be going more often.

Spider Kelly’s – I have only gotten drinks here previously, but tonight I tried their Spider Kelly’s burger (with pork fat!), black bean burger, wings and ‘cardiac’ macaroni and cheese.  Not bad!  I agree with Tom Seitsema about the Spider Kelly’s burger having a funny taste to it, but overall I’ve heard decent things about their food, and I’m happy to say that I think it makes it into my rotation.  With the decline of Liberty Tavern (more on that in a later post) – Spider Kelly’s sneaks back onto my radar.

What do you think?  Have you found a restaurant that has made a rebound this year?  Let me know in the comments.

Next up – restaurants that are on the decline…

elteneleven.com

Wow, this is a crazy job.

This version with Sara Bareilles is great too.

Berlin – Brandenburger Tor – February 1982, originally uploaded by LimitedExpress.

This photo above was on the Flickr Blog. It’s amazing to me how much can change in such a short amount of time. I took the picture below when I was in Berlin last year.

Brandenburg Gate - 2008

Brandenburg Gate at Night

Autumn Tree, originally uploaded by jchin1.

Amanda and I went apple picking last weekend. It was a great Autumn day, and the leaves on the trees were perfect. On the way out of Hartland Orchards in Markham, VA – I snapped a pictures of this perfectly orange tree at the top of the hill with a clear blue sky as the backdrop. Check out all the pictures in my Apple Picking set on Flickr.

Snuggies are awesome

So far, so good.  It performs as advertised, and I actually see us using this!

via The Cooley Zone

…Or by email: Subscribe by email now. (No more than 1 email per day)

So, if you haven’t been over to my Flickr photostream lately, here’s a dump of all the sets that I’ve made in the past few months…

Corolla OBX Trip - Andrew & Lindsay driving down

Corolla OBX – August 2009 – We rented a house down in Corolla, NC with a few friends to get away and relax.  We ate, drank, slept, and (I) got sunburned.  I satisfied my inner-child and bought a cheap stunt kite.  After a few tries, I was doing loop-de-loops and weaving back and forth.  The past few years, we have gone to Ocean City, MD – but I will safely say that taking a week in NC is much more relaxing than a week in Ocean city.  We’ll definitely be back.

I didn’t take many pictures apparently, because I was relaxing so much, I just left my camera in my suitcase for the majority of the trip.  I think that’s a sign of a good beach trip!

Arlington National Cemetary

Arlington National Cemetary – September 2009 – In mid-September, we had some friends stay with us for a night.  Rather than being lazy, we took them to check out Arlington National Cemetary.  It was the first time I’ve ever been there, and I thought it was amazing.  It was cool to see views of DC from what seems like the best vantage point in Arlington.

Dana & Keil's Wedding

Dana & Keil’s Wedding - October 3rd, 2009 – We traveled up to Lancaster PA for their wedding.  It was great seeing a lot of friends from JMU and I left with a sizeable hangover.  Thanks for the great party!

I’ll try to be better about sharing pictures, but you can always see the latest pictures that I’ve taken by going here, or by looking at the Flickr module in the sidebar.

2000 V. Sattui Zinfandel, originally uploaded by jchin1.

Ever since Amanda and I went to Sonoma for a short week, I have been a little obsessed with wine. We had planned on checking out both Sonoma and Napa, but we ended up staying in Sonoma and Russian River Valley exclusively.

One place that my parents had mentioned to visit was a winery called V. Sattui in Napa. Since we never made it there, I was a little disappointed, but it turns out my Dad still had a couple bottles in his basement. I kindly asked for one, and tried it out one night with Don. My palette isn’t the most receptive, but I could tell this was going to be an interesting bottle. It was a bit coppery, and frankly had a bit of a funky, hard to place taste. We drank it over about 45 minutes to an hour, and towards the end, I almost couldn’t drink it anymore. I thought it probably had gone a little bad. After looking up what the community at CellarTracker thought, we were right, the prime drinking time for this Zin ended around 2007.

Oh well. It was interesting to taste such an old bottle, even though it was a little bad. I can always pick up a few more bottles when I’m out there again next year for Dave’s wedding…

Over the years, the frequency of posts has declined, but I still enjoy the random comments I get on by far my most popular post to date.  I just renewed my domain name for another year (and don’t plan on letting it expire).  Thanks to the few who have stuck around through the years!