The Best Dinner of My Life

I love Restaurant Week for obvious reasons.  It gives everyone an opportunity to eat at some of the best restaurants in DC for a set price of $35.  Expensive?  I guess, but absolutely 100% well worth it no matter where you go.  The restaurants don’t serve the cheapest and worst things on the menu.  Most if not all roll out the red carpet because they want to be the place you call on those occasions where a nice dinner is in order.

Last night I went to Art and Soul with my friends Amanda, Jason, and Jackie.  Art and Soul was opened by Chef Art Smith, who recently appeared on Top Chef Masters and was Oprah’s personal chef.  According to the website;

The menu is a blend of Chef Art’s cooking heritage – Southern roots and decades of southern cooking

The meal was absolutely amazing. To begin the meal, the waiter brings out “skillet bread” which is exactly what it sounds like, bread cooked in a skillet. It was some of the best bread I have ever had. It tasted like a biscuit but had the texture and feel of a croissant.

In between bread and our “beginners” we all decided to try some of the restaurant’s cocktails. They are radically different than what you would find at a normal restaurant; with many inspired by the southern roots of the restaurant. I went with the Blackberry Mojito, which was incredible. My friend Jason got the Country Kool-Aid, which is pretty much what it sounds like (except no actual Kool-Aid makes its way into the drink). Jackie and Amanda got something called the “Pinky Swear.” I would never order that drink because I don’t think I could live with myself, but if you like cocktails with a wine base then you would like this. The coolest part about the cocktails is the copious amount of fruit that they include in the glasses, which also happen to be jars with handles (happy Jackie?).

As a “beginner” I opted for the Country Caesar Salad (grilled romaine hearts, shaved parmesan, croutons), minus the anchovies on the side. I’m not usually one to finish off a salad when I go out to eat, but I devoured this one. The dressing was perfect, and they give you half a heart of lettuce that you chop up yourself before beginning to eat. The salad also includes a deviled egg on the side that was exceptionally good.

The “middle” (read: entree) might have been the best part of the meal. I had the Chicken, which included a goat cheese dropped biscuit, roasted vegetables, and chicken gravy. I am not lying when I say this was the best entree I have ever had (excluding steak from a steak house, which I put in its own category). The chicken was cooked perfectly (on the bone, even better) and the gravy was the best I have ever tasted. I think I might kidnap Art and force him to make goat cheese dropped biscuits for me every day from now to eternity. Jackie got the Ravioloi with seasonal vegetables, fresh herbs, and a butter sauce of some sort. Without a doubt the best ravioli I have ever had (are you noticing a trend here?). Jason rounded off the entrees with the Country Pork Chop with charred stone fruit relish, and a sweet onion broth. Pork Chop isn’t my favorite but I would have finished his if I had ordered it. We also shared a side of buttermilk mashed potatoes, which blended perfectly with the chicken and the gravy.

The meal ended with dessert, and all four of us got the chocolate cheese cake with chocolate sauce. Not a whole lot of explanation of the dessert is required, and it was also very good.

I laid in bed last night in a food coma daze until I went to sleep. I loved this meal. As I mentioned earlier, I put dinner at steak houses in a different category by themselves, and because of that last night’s dinner at Art and Soul was the best I have ever had. I’m searching my calendar for upcoming events that may allow me to revisit the restaurant with family and friends (Labor Day? Arbor Day? Yom Kippur celebration at Art and Soul? That one might be tough). If you happen to be going to the restaurant, I will pay you for an invite. I can’t wait to go back.

I’m Surprised It Took So Long…

I’m about an hour and 45 minutes away from a dentist telling me I need to have a root canal to fix a hole in one of my molars, but before that happens I wanted to comment on a story that hit late last week that is shocking but not altogether that surprising.

If you’re an aficionado of all things VH1 reality tv shows like I am, then you reluctantly got drawn into the network’s most recent attempt to capitalize on the success of reality dating shows; Megan Wants a Millionaire.  The star of this debacle is Megan (I don’t know her last name and don’t care), who was one of the biddies from season 2 (I think) of Rock of Love.  She is your atypical VH1 reality show girl; gorgeous, obnoxious, conceded, completely self-absorbed, and a  glutton for controversy. 

In the show, VH1 sends a bunch of millionaires to the standard VH1 mansion where they try to woo Megan by showering her with expensive gifts.  I am sure Vh1 would tell you the show is much deeper than that, but I assure you this is an accurate synopsis of the show. 

All well and good right?  Yea, unless of of the contestants on the show is later charged with murdering his ex-wife, which happens to be what happened this season.  Ryan Alexander Jenkins was charged last week with murdering his ex-wife and fleeing the country. Over the weekend, Ryan Alexander Jenkins was found dead in a Canadian hotel room, apparently having committed suicide.

As I mentioned before, this entire ordeal is sad and shocking and gruesome, but the last thing I would call it is surprising.

People love watching these reality tv shows because of the contestants who find themselves on it. They are literally characters, brought in to play the roles that the producers find essential to ridiculous reality television. The VAST majority of the contestants (and the featured “stars” of the reality shows themselves) are completely unstable. Given the things that these people do while they are on TV, it is not a stretch to imagine that one of them would be arrested for trafficking drugs, fraud, or tragically, for murdering someone.

But I don’t blame VH1 or any other network for that matter when these things happen. I don’t think you can tie the actions of contestants past or present to their publicity from being on the show. Unstable is unstable is unstable, no matter how famous you are.

I’m just wondering if it would be completely impossible to find guys and girls who are not completely insane to populate these shows. Are you trying to tell me there are not somewhat sane strippers and former dancers to populate the male-dating reality shows? Or that it is impossible to find millionaires who are not busy thinking about murdering their ex-wives to do stupid things to impress a dumb blond reality show star? It would be nice to start watching the next season of I Love New York (or whatever), and not have an open bet on which of the contestants will be the first to commit a violent crime upon the show’s completion.

Not that anything is going to change. Sure, VH1 had to cancel Megan Wants a Millionaire and I Love Money 3, which Jenkins was a contestant on and supposedly the ultimate winner of, but in the grand scheme of things people are going to keep watching the shows. As sad as it is, the publicity of the fall of Ryan Alexander Jenkins may actually draw more people to the shows. Because people love watching to see what is going to happen next.

Shocking, sad, but hardly surprising.

Top Chef is Back and Requires a Post

This blog is kind of like the Scrubs or Family Guy of the blogosphere; you’re never quite sure if new episodes are being made, and just when you think its gone for good, another network picks it up and orders another season.

Anyway, I had to write because a couple of days ago the new season of Top Chef debuted, and it was pretty freaking fantastic.

The cast seems to have rebounded from last season’s mind-numbingly terrible group of chefs. I was actually quite surprised with the caliber of the chefs, with multiple James Beard award nominees and multiple “top rising chef” nominees. I don’t know if this has always been the case and this is just the first season that they actually publicized it or if this is a new trend, but I like it. I tend to think this has not always been the case because the quality of the food in the first challenge seemed to be a step above the last few seasons too. Nonetheless it’s nice to know that the chefs in the running are actually good at what they do.

On a person to person basis, I like the cast a lot too. I legitimately love Ron (I’m pretty sure he doesn’t know what “vice” means, but he is fantastic), Kevin (who won the first challenge), and the two brothers. I’ll probably be rooting for them the whole season. Mattin seems to be playing the role of “foreign born chef who no one can understand to the degree that subtitles are required whenever he speaks” that Fabio played perfectly last year. The only chef I really dislike is Eve (this season’s Jill from Season 5).

Perhaps one of the highlights of the first episode though was Jennifer, who pretty much destroyed the entire cast at everything she did. I thought Wolfgang Puck was going to hire her on the spot to work at one of his restaurants. I can really appreciate what she does because it is so clear that she has the cooking chops to back up the attitude that Bravo is almost certainly going to play up through editing this year. I know there is the whole “3 of the last 5 Top Chefs won the first challenge” thing, but I am picking Jennifer now and riding her to the end (that sounded inappropriate).

I’m a little worried that the whole “we’re in Las Vegas, SO MANY SURPRISES AND TWISTS” theme is going to make some of the challenges absolutely ridiculous. The fact that Robin probably could have gone home and chilled until the second set of challenges because she pulled a chip out of a hat was kind of absurd. Did anyone else realize she had to do nothing of substance in the entire first episode? Please, producers, don’t vomit all over yourselves just because you can. The quality of the challenges after one episode is hard to gauge. I wasn’t a fan of 3/4s of the cast not having to cook in the Quick Fire, but the elimination challenge was very entertaining.

I didn’t watch the “this season on the top chef” preview after the episode ended, but I’m pretty psyched to see what’s in store. Hopefully all the Top Chefs coming back for the finale of Top Chef Masters means I won’t have to see Hosea at all this season, which would be a plus. If the rest of the episodes play as well as Wednesday’s, it is going to be a great season.

Random Thoughts: Because…Well You Know

Tuesday morning seems like a perfect time to delve into some random thoughts.

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Now that I’ve seen The Hangover, the next movie that I am required by law to see has to be Up. I’ve heard it’s pretty much the best thing in the history of mankind. Reviews (from friends, not actual movie reviewers) range from “bad ass” to “the cutest movie I have ever seen.” I think some people say that they cried during the movie. People who don’t normally cry during movies are telling me this. I find that to be awkward. I need to see this movie.

——

Speaking of The Hangover. I realized after I posted that I left one of the best aspects of the movie out of my little review.

Unlike the majority of other Las Vegas movies that deal exclusively with the allure of gambling, The Hangover focuses on the universal experience that nearly everyone who travels to Sin city has. Ridiculous experiences that you could have in no other city, long and crazy nights followed by hazy mornings spent trying to remember what occurred and how it happened, incredible gambling runs (that you sometimes can’t remember), and the ultimate decision to never, ever, ever reveal the true goings on to anyone who wasn’t in attendance in the first place. That is the Las Vegas experience. The Hangover embellishes all of the stories of those who have been to Las Vegas, and then pumps it full of HGH and Red Bull. It’s fun to watch because you are secretly reliving your own stories as you watch the antics of the characters.

Maybe this is why I loved the movie but felt slightly unsettled after watching it.

——

In the Stanley Cup finals, I found myself cheering for Sid the Kid. Now don’t get me wrong, I absolutely hate the Pittsburgh Penguins. I’m a Rangers fan, so I’m mandated to hate any and all teams who are capable of putting things together at the end of the year better than my obviously flawed Rangers teams. That being said, I gravitate towards wanting the gigantic young stars of the day to succeed. I think it has something to do with wanting to be able to tell my kids, “yea, I saw (insert player name) play when he was in his prime.” When young players like Crosby win championships it just adds to their legacies.

It was the same deal with the NBA playoffs. I’m a Knicks fan, but the Knicks are still a couple of seasons away from being able to contend, so I found myself jumping on the Cavs bandwagon because I wanted soon to be New York Knick captain Lebron James to succeed.

This could also have to do with my hatred for the Magic and Lakers in the NBA, and the Red Wings in the NHL.

——

My name is Marc, and I use Axe bodywash. And I’m not even ashamed to admit it anymore. That stuff smells FANTASTIC. I’m not committed to any specific body wash, or deodorant, or toothpaste. I guess you could say I am a bit of a sloot when it comes to toiletries. I don’t stick with one mate. I’m a toiletry polygamist. So when I go to CVS, I let the toiletries dance up on me and just sort of grab whatever catches my eye. Axe bodywash caught my eye. Then I went home and used it, and oh man, that stuff is good. I think I’m ready to turn over a new leaf and just go with Axe bodywash from now on. The only problem; I feel like a teenager when I use it. So much so that I bought a bottle of Old Spice body wash as an insurance policy in case the knowledge that I was using a product that by all accounts I am too old to use starts to overwhelm me.

——

If Brett Favre becomes a Minnesota Viking he deserves to be punched in the mouth by each and every Green Bay Packer fan in the United States and beyond.

——

I’m pretty sure the order of “TV shows that I lost track of that I will watch back to back to back to etc. until i’ve caught up” goes as follows:

1) Most recent season of Heroes
2) Most recent season of The Office
3) Most recent season of 30 Rock
4) The last 4 seasons of Lost

Discuss

——

That’s all for now. Heading to Barns and Noble to look for a good book or two. Fielding suggestions.

Tigers Love Pepper…They Hate Cinnamon

Go see The Hangover. No really, stop whatever you are doing and go see the movie.

I viewed the trailer for The Hangover with cautious optimism a few months ago. My first thought was “wow, what an incredible concept.” My second thought was “man, I really hope they don’t mess this up.” In the realm of comedy it is very easy to come up with a fantastic idea for a movie, it is much more difficult for that idea to translate into a film that is actually funny. The Hangover delivers. Hard. Over and over again. All of the central characters to the movie are hysterical. My jaw hurts from laughing so hard.

I refuse to discuss anything about the actual movie (with the exception of the title of this post) for at least another couple of weeks. Everyone should have a chance to see it before we start giving everything away. Anyone who gives away relevant plot points or funny scenes should be smacked right in the mouth.

The best thing about The Hangover is that it didn’t try to be something that it wasn’t. It didn’t break any new ground in the way it presented itself. It didn’t dramatically change directions at any point (like Wedding Crashers, which suddenly turned into a romantic comedy for the final 20 minutes of the film). It was just a raunchy comedy, and a fantastic one at that.

I’m not sure where The Hangover will ultimately rank in the pantheon of great recent comedies. It is as quotable as any movie that has come out in the last ten years. In fact, when all is said and done I think it will rank right behind Anchorman as the most quoted movie in social situations over the past ten years. There are some very memorable moments that will inevitably get discussed and rehashed over drinks at bars for years to come. I definitely will need to see the movie once or twice more before I know for sure.

But if you’re looking for something to do on a free afternoon, go see this movie. You won’t be disappointed.

Disturbing DC Summer Trends

Summer in Washington DC. There is nothing like it. Unlike other urban areas or beach areas or pretty much any other “area” where summer exists (which means the whole world save maybe Alaska) Washington DC really does offer experiences that make spending a summer in the city unique.

Unfortunately, I came back to blogging a little too late in the summer to write a post about the three things that make it unique; the interns, the unbelievable number of tourists, and the soul crushing humidity. For good write ups on the three topics in and of themselves, visit any DC blog in existence.

However, I am noticing a disturbing trend among residents of the DC metro area. Since my reintroduction into normal life, there are a startling number of non interns and tourists who are exhibiting some of the worst attributes that those two groups have to offer.

I’ll demonstrate by telling two stories from this weekend.

I was at Porters (19th and M Street NW, fantastic bar, as long as you can get past the fact that it’s a Phillies bar) on Saturday night. Right around midnight, when all bars are at their busiest, I was walking from the bar to the outdoor patio when the girl in front of me recognized a few of her friends stupidly sitting on the steps and messing up the flow of traffic, and subsequently decided it would be equally appropriate if she sat on the steps to do the same. This forced me to turn SIDEWAYS on the steps to get past the gathering of 5 or so people.

Really? You idiot.

And for the rest of the night, these 5 asses congregated right in front of the steps up into the bar. The two girls sat two wide the entire time. It was like a four lane highway being forced down to one lane; tons of congestion, tons of irritation, and a disruption of the general flow of things. Naturally they sat there as if nothing was wrong. The worst part about this little devolution into stupidity is that this group was clearly not of the intern variety.

On Sunday, I was walking around the Washington Monument to go to my kickball game. While I was walking over there, I noticed a mass of orange coming in my direction. Turns out it was a team of WAKA Kickballers (thankfully not from my league). The orange clad gang of 15-20 people had spread themselves across the 8-10 person wide walkway and were flanked by 3-4 guys on bikes weaving back and forth like they were NASCAR drivers warming up their tires. I assumed since they were WAKA and thus DC residents that they would break off and allow me to pass. They didn’t, and I had to pull off the walkway and take evasive maneuvers to avoid being hit by a bike.

Two examples of obvious DC residents acting like oblivious interns and tourists. Residents of Washington DC and its surrounding metro area, it is time to lock it the hell up. We all have to deal with the annoyances of those who invade our fine city every summer, but that does not give us an excuse to take on their traits. Just because everyone else is parking themselves on the left side of the metro escalator and trying to use their Hill badges as identification doesn’t suddenly make it acceptable for you to do the same. We need to be setting the example in the hopes that one, maybe two of our summer visitors will suddenly key into the idea that they are acting terrible. So please, please residents of DC, don’t get lazy just because its 70 degrees, 102 with humidity. Stay resilient and be proactive, not a part of the problem.

Besides, you can’t make fun of the interns and tourists if you are acting like one as well.

And We’re Back

For a limited engagement. I’ll start posting on Monday.

If you happen to have the misfortune of working this weekend, I will try to post a few entertaining links and the like to tide you over.

Mic check…check 1…2….

Is this thing on?

Big Marc’s GChat Announcement

Hi everyone,

Most of you have probably noticed a pretty dramatic down turn in the amount of posting this week.

At the beginning of the week it was mostly due to my having the black plague. I’m happy to report that the plague has transformed into a full fledged head cold. Good times for all.

In the last few days however, the reason for not posting has been a bit different.

On Tuesday I accepted a position as Campaign Manager for a House of Delegates campaign here in Virginia. I’m incredibly excited to be jumping back into the craziness that is the campaign world, and this should be a great opportunity to get a lot of good experience.

Unfortunately, as you have seen from the last few days, this also means I have a lot less time to maintain Marc’s GChat Status Expanded. Granted I have been juggling both my current job (which I will leave next Wednesday) and the campaign, but I don’t see the amount of down time at work or free time after work decreasing anytime soon. In fact, I will most likely have much less of both when I transition to full time on the campaign.

Therefore, I have decided to temporarily stop writing Marc’s GChat Status Expanded.

I have about 3000 things to do in the next couple of weeks, and I don’t want to half ass the blog. Until I get a better idea of whether or not I’m going to have time to dedicate to writing, I am going to focus my full attention on the campaign.

If it turns out that I have time to write a couple of blog posts a day, or a week, then I will definitely do so. If nothing else I may pop on from time to time to discuss all the nonsense that the world has to offer.

For the time being though, I won’t be updating Marc’s GChat. The site isn’t going anywhere though. Both versions of the blog will stay online. And hopefully in a few weeks I’ll be able to reassess and figure out the long term plan for MGSE.

Your Moron of the Week: Northern Trust Bank

As I sit here listening to LMFAO’s “I’m in Miami, Bitch!” (exclamation point being part of the song title, not added by me for extra enthusiasm), wishing for the song title to also be my Facebook status and Twitter feed, I can think of only one thing….

A bunch of morons are running Northern Trust Bank.

I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment of the readers who selected Northern Trust Bank as last week’s Moron of the Week. The audacity required to spend millions on lavish parties after receiving $1.6 billion in federal bailout money (regardless of whether or not you asked for the money) is beyond comprehension.

So, congratulations Northern Trust Bank!!

Rather than just sitting there, accepting your money, and not doing anything completely stupid, you decided to sponsor a PGA Golf tournament and rent out exclusive clubs and bars for parties featuring 5 star celebrity music artists.

Two thumbs up!

In the worst economic climate seen in decades, it is so nice to have these all to common reminders that some of us are doing just fine, thanks! I am also happy to know that whatever money was spent on said lavish parties represents only a small portion of the money that me and my fellow tax payers are sending your way.

I’m assuming my invite to the Sheryl Crow concert got lost in the mail.

I’m having trouble deciding if this display of wealth is more or less moronic than the automaker CEOs traveling to their Congressional hearings in private jets. Right now I’m putting it just ahead of it, and here is the reason why:

You know that episode of South Park where the kids buy ninja weapons at the fair and stage battles against each other, except Kenny accidentally throws his ninja star for real, right into Butters’ eye? And then they dress up Butters like a dog to take him to the vet because they don’t want the hospital asking questions about what happened because they’ll get grounded? But then Butters wanders off, ends up at a hospital, is mistaken for a dog by the doctors, and is taken to a dog pound?

And remember how they throw him in one of the cages with the other dogs?

The American tax payer is Butters with a ninja star in his eye withering in pain on the floor of the cage. The automaker CEOs are the dog that pees on Butters in the cage. And you, Northern Trust Bank, you are the dog that poops on Butters right afterwards?

Why, because you just saw the Dog pee on Butters, and you should have freaking known better!

So heres to you, Northern Trust Bank, for thinking that any bank at all worldwide should be able to do the sort of things you decided to do while running up an 8 figure bill. Nicely done. And no, it doesn’t matter that you’re going to return the bail out money. You’re like a kid that got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Sure you’re returning the cookie, but you would have eaten that shit in 5 seconds if no one caught you. And no, it doesn’t matter that you used none of the bail out money to fund the parties and such. The general frame of mind when experts say “the banks need help” is that the banks don’t have money to spend on the House of Blues, or Earth, Wind, and Fire.

Hopefully you lock things up and realize what is and isn’t appropriate in these economic times. In the mean time, show your employees the Moron of the Week certificate. They may like that even better than the fancy cars you drove them from party to party in.

Stay tuned for this week’s nominations.