Sometimes I let my optimism get the best of me. This past weekend was one of those occasions, when Amanda and I – having seen signs for some time touting all fresh and local ingredients and basically a whole re-vamp of the restaurant – decided to go to lunch at the Silver Diner to see what it was all about.

The Silver Diner is a small chain diner with about three or four different locations in the DC area. It’s really not much to speak of, the sort of place that you might go because it’s still open at 2am, but there are likely few other reasons you’d find yourself there.

So it was with a certain degree of skepticism that we started noticing signs going up around all their restaurants advertising fresh and local ingredients and a new menu – “The Next Generation Diner” was their new tagline. Eventually we had to go and see what it was all about.

Admittedly, the menu got me a little excited. At first, anyway. There was a brief explanation of their new philosophy emphasizing sustainable agriculture, and a list of the specific local farms they are purchasing their produce and dairy from.

There was a blackboard by the hostess station listing out particular ingredients that were available now and where they came from. Marketing materials and flyers abounded, they were really pushing this thing.

So I asked our waiter about the Chesapeake crab and corn chowder on the menu, wondering if the corn from the chowder was indeed local and came from somewhere on the eastern shore. He had no idea what I was talking about. Eventually, he responded, “local, yes, local, all local, everything local.” I wasn’t buying it, but I ordered the chowder anyway.

After further inspection of the menu, without assistance from any of the not-so-helpful employees, I ascertained that the local thing really only seems to apply to a very limited section of the menu – the seasonal chef’s selections (well, that, and wherever else it easily fits in – eggs, milk, local beer and wine).

So there were basically three choices of seasonal entrees. A soft-shell crab entree or sandwich, and a mahi-mahi entree or sandwich. And a Greek salad. I went with the mahi-mahi sandwich, but they were out of mahi-mahi. So it was the crab for me.

By this point, starting to get a little frustrated.

And then the food started arriving, and I remembered I was still just at the Silver Diner. I had to send back a milkshake that had a huge gag-worthy hair garnishing the cherry on top, and my “local, seasonal chef’s choice entree” (the soft-shell Chesapeake Bay crab sandwich with local tomato and lettuce) was inedible. Perhaps it’s true that the produce comes from a local farm, perhaps it’s even true that farm practices sustainable agriculture, but when you wait a week or more to serve that produce you’re just completely missing the point.

Local? Maybe. Fresh? Absolutely not.

And of course the elephant in the room, as usual, is the meat products. Silver Diner advertises “all-natural” (which means nothing) and “hormone-free” meats, but they say nothing of the source or the methods used in raising those animals. This seems to be typical of a lot of places that are adopting the “farm-to-table” badge, they start buying a handful of products from a local purveyor – sustainable or not, cause most people won’t bother to ask – and act as if they are now the new revolutionary choice in dining. But they don’t commit to the most important choices, the ones that might actually take some thought and effort – buying local and sustainably raised meats, paying your chefs enough to care, and paying your waitstaff enough to understand the product they are hawking. Silver Diner is a relatively cheap place, to be sure, but it’s not so cheap that this should be impossible. We paid similar prices at the Woodberry Kitchen, and there was a world of difference between the two experiences.

So unfortunately this all brings me to a most foul conclusion, but what I suspect was always an inevitable one. The “movement” towards a better food system – which I readily admit is a pretty vague and nebulous thing, likely defined differently by anyone who is a part of it – has for some time now reached the point where it is popular enough that restaurants are taking advantage of the trend in order to bring in new customers. Surely, Whole Foods can be accused of having practiced similar duplicity for quite awhile, but at least with Whole Foods there’s still a tangible quality there that’s arguably worth the price. But I can’t help but think sad trombone every time something like this happens. Silver Diner is certainly not the only offending restaurant, either.

The trouble with this kind of marketing, really, is the fact that it probably works pretty well. There’s a pervasive attitude in our culture which is constantly looking for a quick fix, an easy way to do right and feel better about myself without *really* putting any significant time, effort, or money into it. It’s the same attitude, I believe, which has driven us so deep into the hands of the fast food industry – lots of food, real cheap, zero effort. But the whole impetus behind the food movement is the complete and polar opposite of exactly that attitude. To use “local” as a label and have it simply mean “better” to you is a mistake. You have to dig deeper, you have to ask questions, and you have to actually spend some time learning about your food and selectively choosing who deserves your hard earned money. Do you want to pay money simply to see that word before your food, as in the instance of the Silver Diner? Or do you want to spend your money somewhere that may not be hyping their food up through a slick marketing campaign but who you know is practicing sustainable agriculture and who you can rely on to provide consistently good product for you and your loved ones?

Though this recent op-ed piece in the NY Times largely misses the point of eating local, it does a good job of illustrating why it’s important to do more than just look for labels to wear as a badge like a name-tag at a cocktail party. Just because your food is local, doesn’t mean it was sustainably raised, it doesn’t mean it may not have a significantly larger output on the environment than something that may have been shipped in from an entirely different continent. It’s just not that clear-cut of an issue. Dig deeper.

I shared an article on my Facebook page last week that I want to post here, as well. It’s from Grist and called Do You Really Have the Balls to Change the Food System? While I’m not entirely on board with the attitude the author of the article has taken, there are a lot of really great suggestions made which I think would never occur to a lot of people. I know there are at least a couple of restaurant chefs and executives who could benefit from reading such a piece – I think there’s a great analogy between the weekend foodie as described in the Grist article and a restaurant like the Silver Diner. If I were to give them the benefit of the doubt, then maybe – MAYBE – their heart is in the right place. But they are doing it all wrong.

There are only a handful of places in the greater DC area that you can go to to get great craft beers on tap. And there are fewer places you can get both great beer and great food. Make it easily accessible to my every day life and the number of places gets drastically low. And there’s only one place around that I will pass every day (whether I’m going there or not), I can get great beer and food, and one of my closest friends is now the bar manager.

FireWorks, an upscale pizza and beer joint, is opening in Arlington. Today, I think, being their first official open-to-the-public day. My wife and I were fortunate enough to be invited to their soft opening event on Friday, and were really impressed with the place.

So look, this place is literally right next door to Amanda’s office. It’s a block away from mine. Mike, Ali’s husband, now works there. Many more of our friends live or work within 15 minutes of the spot. In all honesty we’d probably start going there somewhat regularly just from those details alone. But there is so much more icing on this cake, I just had to share some words about it.

Let’s start with the beer. The moment you walk in the door you know these people know and love their beer. There is a large open windowed room to your immediate left where you can see all the kegs that are currently tapped. The keg lines run up, out of the room, over your head, and back down over to the bar through heavy industrial metal pipes into two rows of beautiful draughts. On draught, you will find offerings from Allagash, Bell’s, Duck Rabbit, Founder’s, Lagunitas, New Holland, Stone, Victory, and the likes. On top of that, they have over 100 bottled beers to choose from, and beer to go – they even sell and fill growlers there. If you’re a craft beer drinker of any sort, these words alone should get you in the door – and if you’re not, then this is the kind of place you need to go to if you’d like to become one.

But as I mentioned, it doesn’t end with the beer. The food was fantastic. The menu is primarily specialty pizzas, but they don’t neglect their appetizers and also had a pretty decent sandwich list. I started my meal with a wonderful spinach, duck, and spiced pecan salad with orange vinaigrette. They’re not taking short-cuts with their ingredients either, sourcing much of the produce, cheese, and meats from local and sustainable purveyors – I recognized many names off the menu including Cherry Glen Farms (cheeses), Baker Farms (hams and meats), Fields of Athenry (produce), and more.

Long story short, this place is doing it all right. And dessert? Three words.

Chocolate stout cheesecake.

Having this kind of spot move right into your life like this is certainly a gift. But truth be told, on behalf of my wallet and my waistline, I can’t help but be just a bit scared as well.

This past weekend the wife and I went to the 8th annual Slow Food Farm Dinner at Clyde’s Willow Creek Farm, in Ashburn, VA.

Willow Creek Farms is a property owned by the Clyde’s restaurant group, and it is an absolutely beautiful venue. The main building is a large restaurant with many different rooms, all very beautifully decorated with an antique style. The structures themselves are not historic, however, they were built using antique timber and historic pieces that Clyde’s had purchased from various sources in the area back in the 1980’s.

Tickets for this event went on sale way back in April, and apparently sold out within 72 hours. Naturally, we had been looking forward to the dinner for some time at this point. I have to say a word of thanks and congratulations to Slow Food DC for making this both such a wonderful and affordable event.

There was a beautiful outdoor patio which had been reserved for the Slow Food event, and with the fantastic weather that we had last Saturday walking out onto the area made a great impression on us. I had Amanda pose for a quick shot.

First order of business: locate the bar and secure some seats. They were pouring a pinot grigio and a sauvignon blanc, both from Barboursville Vineyards in Charlottesville, VA. We had a glass of the sauvignon blanc and ambled about a bit.

One of the cool things about this spot is that a lot of the food that is served here is actually grown right on the premises, so you’re getting produce from mere yards away. Doesn’t get much more local than that. The farm was open for tour during our event, so with glasses in hand we took a short stroll down the path and through the woods.

There was a beekeeper set up with a beekeeping station explaining his process for producing honey, and the head gardener was there to show people around his vegetable garden and explain what he had going on.

It was actually still kind of hot and sunny at this point (we had arrived to the event at 5pm), so we walked around the garden a bit but quickly moved back to our table on the main patio. When we got there, a few others had joined our table and it had been set with a very cute centerpiece. And a tasty and refreshing peach sangria was being poured. Perfect.

It’s amazing how a mason jar can make just about anything adorable.

We shared our table with four others and really enjoyed their company. As it turned out, the beekeeper was amongst them, so that made for some interesting conversation.

In addition, there was a mic and PA set up and as each course was served the purveyor/farmer/grower/provider who was responsible for it stood up and spoke to the group about their product and what they had done to bring it to our plates. It was, in a word, pretty fascinating.

Really, it was just all about the food. So let’s get into it.

When we returned from the garden, a buffet table had been set up with some classic garde manger options: rabbit terrine from Tower Oaks Lodge, pork terrine with pistachio from Willow Creek Farm, and pickled vegetables (chard, tomatoes, beets, cucumbers) – also from Willow Creek.

Shortly thereafter, the first course was served. Now, I’m not really big on taking pictures at a meal – particularly at a table with other people – BUT, in this case, the topic had already come up in conversation and been joked about thoroughly, and other people at the table had cameras too, so we all decided as a group that none of us would consider it rude and gave ourselves carte blanche with the photos for the evening. Regardless, lighting conditions in such a situation are never ideal, and wine pairings were served with every course, so of course these are not the best pictures I’ve ever taken. I’m sure you understand.

First course was chilled corn soup with Chesapeake Bay blue crab and mini herb salad from Arnold Farms (Chestertown, MD) and Willow Creek. I have to say, this first course was very possibly the best thing served the whole night. The soup had a deliciously silky texture, the crab nearly melted in your mouth, and the flavors all performed in total perfect unison. This one was really amazing.

This course was paired with a vintage rosé from Barboursville Vineyards, 2009.

Next course was cherry wood smoked Pennsylvania duck breast with cherries and escarole. The cherries made this dish for me – they were delicious and a flavor I’d never experienced paired with a savory duck breast. The cherries were from Toigo Orchards, Shippensburg, PA, and the escarole grown at Willow Creek.

The duck was paired with a Barbera Reserve from Barboursville, 2007. I love a good barbera.

Following up after that was an amazing dish of local Chesapeake Rockfish. The rockfish was whole roasted on giant bbq slabs that they paraded around the tables (sadly I couldn’t snap a good pic), and was wonderfully tender. The fish was served with garden herbs, cherry tomatoes, olive oil, and new rose-gold potatoes. This dish was provided by Lois’s Produce (Leedstown, VA), Potomac Vegetable Farms, VA, Tuscarora Organic Growers (South Central, PA) and Willow Creek Farm.

The rockfish was paired with a wonderful Viognier Reserve, again from Barboursville (2008). Seeing a pattern yet?

After the rockfish we had a cheese course provided by Cowgirl Creamery. Cowgirl Creamery is actually located in California, but they have recently opened an outpost in DC. They don’t yet actually produce any of their cheeses here on the east coast, but are planning to soon in the future. The cheeses offered were Mt. Tam, a firm buttery cheese with a mellow mushroom flavor, St. Pat, a mellow soft cheese wrapped in nettle leaves to impart a smoky flavor (the nettle has been frozen to remove any sting), Old Kentucky Tomme, a deliciously tangy goat cheese from Capriole Dairy, Sally Jackson Sheep, a smooth and silky sheep’s cheese, and Bohemian Blue from Hidden Springs Dairy. It was all quite tasty, though try as I might, I can never really go for the taste of blue cheese.

The cheese course was served with a Cabernet Franc Reserve, from Barboursville, 2007.

After the cheese course, we were served a Pennsylvania Peach Foster with brown butter pound cake, homemade vanilla ice cream and a small glass of philéo (a dessert wine). By this point it was really too dark to get any good photographs, so I leave this one up to the imagination. Whatever you’re imagining – yes, it was that good.

We finished the night off with a final glass of the Barboursville Cab Franc, and a stroll around the grounds under the moonlight. It was one of those magical nights.

The Slow Food Annual Farm Dinner was amazing. This is absolutely something I see ourselves coming back to year after year. Clyde’s Willow Creek Farm restaurant is such a beautiful setting, and I’m sure it’s quite wonderful on any given summer night – not just for a Slow Food event.

Curious about getting tickets for the 9th annual dinner? Well, the best way to be sure you’ll hear about it would be to join Slow Food DC. But, I’ll make a promise here that I will be sure to relay the information through my facebook page and through twitter when the tickets are going on sale (sometime around next April or so).

After I’ve bought mine, of course.

The contest is still open! Don’t forget to check it out here and enter to win. Contest closes at 6pm EST on Thursday, July 1st.

It being somewhat of an occasion for us this past weekend, Amanda and I decided to have a little getaway up in Baltimore.

We got a room up near where our wedding took place last year, and spent the weekend puttering about the neighborhood and just taking it easy. Saturday night we went out to a pretty nice Italian place, but the highlight of the whole weekend was our brunch on Sunday morning at Woodberry Kitchen.

It was one of the sort of places you can just tell is going to be awesome heading into it. It’s located near Hampden, nestled back in the old Clipper Mill flour mills and warehouses, and the atmosphere is just really cool. There’s a nice outdoor area, with a giant firepit for outdoor dining, but it was far too hot to even consider eating outside on this particular day.

The inside is very farmhouse but at the same time very modern and chic. Lots of exposed girders, old wood, and brick everywhere. The staff was really friendly – despite us being 30 minutes late for our reservation – and seated us moments after arriving even though the place was quite full.

To add to the already great atmosphere, they even had some live music in the corner. An unobtrusive Jazz duo on guitar and stand-up bass provided the backdrop for the brunch crowd.

I had chosen Woodberry Kitchen because they make a point of stressing the value they place on local and sustainable meats and produce. Though their website is a little odd to navigate, it’s all there. So I knew at least the ingredients would be good.

One of the first things that struck me was that they actually print the farms they source their products from right there on the menu. This is great, because I am always curious to know where the food is coming from but I’m not always entirely comfortable asking about it specifically. Especially since most of the times I have in the past, the server staff doesn’t know and needs to bring a chef or management. We did have a great server too though, who was very knowledgeable about both the menu and the ingredients.

We both started off with the “Full Monty” Bloody Mary – easily one of the best I’ve ever had. Amanda insisted it was *the* best. Yes, that is a piece of bacon in it. Candied bacon. A great touch that I never would have thought of. The drink itself was perfectly spiced as well, strong enough to have a serious kick but not so overwhelming with just one spice that you can’t taste anything else.

As an entree, I went with the Hangar Fry – fresh local oysters with eggs and bacon, skillet potatoes, and served with a side of sprouts and blueberries. It was delicious but not very photogenic, unfortunately.

Amanda got the better dish though. She ordered the crab benedict. Two crab cakes on English muffins with a poached egg and Hollandaise sauce. This one was really phenomenal. And of course the crab came straight from the Chesapeake.

This actually was the best Hollandaise I’ve ever had. SO good. Perfect consistency. I need to learn how to make Hollandaise like that.

By the time we had made it through these two dishes we were completely satiated and *very* happy. And then, this happened.

The server came out with a dish of strawberry and basil sorbet, and vanilla ice cream. I had mentioned in the comments section when booking the table on OpenTable that it was our anniversary, but then thought nothing of it. It’s always nice to see a place take advantage of opportunities like that to go that extra step. We made as much room as we could for the dessert (admittedly not much), and grudgingly made our way out to the car.

Really though – neither of us even wanted to leave. We wished for a place just like the Woodberry Kitchen in our own neighborhood, and we vowed to return again sometime for dinner before too long. It’s certainly nowhere near where we live – being all the way up in Baltimore – but I’m sure we’ll manage to find another occasion to get there soon. At least, I certainly hope we do.

What’s your favorite place for brunch in your neighborhood?

First and foremost, today is Amanda’s birthday. Happy birthday to the one I love. You are awesome, every day I get to spend with you is awesome, and you make me want to be a more awesomer person. A life with you is the best life I could have hoped for. Thank you for bringing so much awesome into my life.

Last weekend, we went out to celebrate with her family at a new restaurant in downtown DC, on the Georgetown Waterfront, at a place called Farmers & Fishers.

Farmers & Fishers is the sister restaurant to Founding Farmers, also located downtown. Executive Chef Stephen Bieker makes it clear what’s important to him with the posted mission statement on their website:

We strive to source from sustainable agriculture from family farmers and the farmers of the sea as often as possible. Our chefs continuously seek out local and regional partnerships with family producers and artisan purveyors to ensure fresh, unprocessed foods and high quality ingredients in respect of the environment and the earth.

Everything on the menu made from scratch in house, everything regionally sourced from sustainable farms and supporting our own community food shed. This is the kind of place that I am always on the look out for.

One of the cool/interesting things they do at this place, which they also do at Founding Farmers, is that they offer farm table seating. You can make a reservation to sit at a farm table, and they give you this big long table that seats probably 12-14 people or so, and you share the table with whomever else happens to have chosen the same option. We didn’t do this, since there were already quite a number of us alone, but this strikes me as a really cool opportunity and I like the emphasis on community that is stressed there.

So the first thing that struck me entering the restaurant was the decor. They’re going for a kind of farm house style, but to me it didn’t quite seem to work. I think a lot of the furniture/bars/chairs/etc had a pretty modern feel to it and so it seemed to clash a bit with the floral wallpapers and white/green plaid tablecloths. I liked the idea, just not really the execution. No biggie, let’s have a seat.

The place was pretty full for a Sunday evening, which is a great sign. I really hope to see places like this flourish. The menu was really expansive, and – being an avid Kitchen Nightmares watcher – this did worry me a bit. The concern is that if your kitchen does everything, then it likely doesn’t do anything well, as it will just be stretched too thin. Their menu encompassed everything from chocolate covered bacon lollipops, to pizza, burgers, pasta, steaks, poultry, sandwiches, and seafood of all kinds.

My fears were totally unfounded – everybody’s dish came out wonderful and delicious. Well, okay… perhaps the jury is still out on the bacon lollipops. I had the Hawai’ian marinated ribeye steak which was incredible and cooked to perfection. One of those melt in your mouth pieces of steak where the marbled fat has broken down perfectly to give it an unbeatable flavor. The place was too dark to take any decent pictures, but it looked a hell of a lot like the best ribeye steak you’ve ever had.

As a new restaurant, they’re still working out some kinks. We had a few minor service issues, not even worth explaining, but everything else was fabulous. I do highly recommend the place, and I hope to get an opportunity to go to Founding Farmers sometime in the near future. If you get the chance, take it!

Since April is birthday month, and I’m in a giving mood, I thought I’d give something back to my readers who have brought us so much discussion here on this site and have been making this whole endeavor exceedingly enjoyable.

Another book giveaway!

Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal by Joel Salatin catalogs the trials and tribulations of a small time local farmer as it applies to everything food production from dairy, to meats and poultry, to food safety, to organic certification, government grants and policy, the relationship between restaurants and farms, the future of farming in the USA including bioterrorism, the proposed National Animal Identification System, general animal welfare… honestly the book has it all when it comes to farms and food. Joel Salatin illustrates his opinions on all these topics and more through stories from his own life and farm, Polyface Farm, told with a great sense of humor and a wonderful attitude towards even some of the most oppressive and challenging aspects of his life. I can’t agree with Joel about everything – we definitely don’t align on his opinions about religion and abortion, as examples – but he’s clearly a very thoughtful person and you can tell that he hasn’t arrived at his conclusions short of any due diligence on the subjects at hand. As technical as this book can get at times, Joel still manages to make the whole thing a joy to read.

Polyface is located right here in our backyard, out in the Shenandoah mountains of Virginia. Salatin himself is one of the most highly-visible figures in the alternative food movement. He was discussed at length in The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and got a pretty significant amount of screen time in Food, Inc.

There’s a great interview he did back in January with the Guardian, have a look.

To enter to win a copy of Salatin’s book, leave a comment on this post and tell me about a ridiculous law you’ve heard about. Anything from outdated laws that have never been re-written, to obscure laws in far away places, to authoritarian nonsense written into law for blatantly malevolent reasons. Or tell me about well-meaning laws taken to extremes or used for personal gains. Or, of course, just tell me you want the book. The winner will be chosen at random.

Contest will end in one week, closing at 9pm next Thursday, May 6th. Good luck!

You can count on seeing me repeat the words “Slow Food” with an almost religious frequency if you follow my blog for any length of time. It’s because Slow Food is just really awesome.

The long and short of it is that the organization, Slow Food, was started in Italy during a public protest of the first McDonald’s to move into Rome. Carlo Petrini was the man behind the plan, and the plan was and is good food, clean food, and fair food for everyone. Slow Food was founded on the basis that we need to preserve world food cultures before they are lost. It emphasizes the value of spending time with your ingredients, with your meals, and with the people you share them with. I’m just going to leave it at that for now, but that description really is only the tip of the iceberg. More info is here – Slow Food International, Slow Food USA.

The local Slow Food DC chapter hosts events in this area. This was the first event I’d ever attended, and, truth be told, my wife and I were a bit nervous. You know that feeling you get when you’re going to a party and you know you won’t know anyone there, but you still really want to impress the host? Yeah it was something like that.

Anyway, the executive chef, Daniel Giusti, at Georgetown’s 1789 restaurant was offering a prix fixe menu (at a very generous prix) featuring ingredients from the Slow Food Presidia. The Presidia is established to assist groups of artisan producers creating unique, traditional, and endangered food products. Slow Food highlights these products by collecting them into the Presidia, and creating a buzz around them. In most cases, these are foods only produced in one place in the world by one particular people in one particular way, and the current state of the industrial-based global food market threatens them into extinction.

Okay, so this place – 1789 – is pretty stuffy. Jacket required, and I think we may have been the only patrons there under the age of 45. I was definitely the only one wearing jeans. Now I can get into the fancy shmancy, trust me, but this was just uncomfortably….. nynyaahhh. I can’t complain about the free valet on a Friday night in Georgetown, though.

The meal totally made up for the atmosphere. And, amazingly, the stuffiness seemed to evaporate into thin air as the wine flowed and the acapella singers arrived in their track suits. No, I’m serious. More on this later. First – the food!

First course was a potato gnocchi, with Surryana ham, chard, and artisanal sheep’s milk cheese.

The sheep’s milk cheese was the Presidia ingredient in this appetizer. While the sheep’s milk cheese was really good, the star of this dish was the Surryana ham. Surryana ham is locally produced, from a farm in Surry, VA. It’s the American counterpart of European Serrano hams. Surryano is dry cured by hand, smoked for 7 days, and aged for 400 more. It was some of the best ham I’ve had in my life.

Second course was roasted duck, more chard, and Anishinaabeg Manoomin wild rice. As the second course was served, a chef came out to speak with us about Slow Food and about the different courses we were eating. I was too excited about the food to remember to take a picture before I had already eaten half the plate.

Everything on the plate here was amazing. The wild rice was the Presidia ingredient, and it was really impressive. This is not actually a rice but a tall aquatic grass that is grown entirely wild and harvested in canoes by the Anishinaabeg tribe in Michigan. This grain, the only native grain to North America, comes in dark colors and has a subtle smokey and mushroom-like earthy flavor. You can read more about it here, and you can order it online here.

Amanda is still struggling with the concept of Slow Food.

Demolished.

Our dessert was pistachio di Bronte cannoli with figs.

The pistachio was the Presidia ingredient here. This pistachio is harvested in Sicily – more info about it is here. The cannoli was awesome, but I don’t particularly like figs. I want to like figs, I’m just not there yet.

So, around the time we were finishing off our desserts (and our bottle of Cabernet), an older guy comes in to sit at the bar in a black and yellow track suit. I’m not one to judge, but walking into a stuffy restaurant with a dress code in a track suit is a good way to get noticed. The bartender clearly knows him. Slowly, a couple younger guys arrive and join him at the bar (everyone else was appropriately dressed). They then start harmonizing, or trying to anyway. At this point there’s only one other couple at the table next to us in the whole of the dining area, so we’re now outnumbered by the would-be singers. It doesn’t take long before 5 of them have broken out into full song, with multiple harmonies. It actually would have been pretty impressive if any of them had been able to hold a note. Our best guess is that they were Georgetown University students and had run into a professor. It felt like being in a feel good Ivy league movie like Good Will Hunting or something out of St. Elmo’s Fire. As the evening wound to a close, Amanda and our dining neighbors (who we now felt much closer to, going through this experience together) gave their best American Idol judge impressions. I marinated with my Macallan, thoroughly amused.