John Talbott's Paris

Paris Pix: My market street invaded by revelers.

Paris Pix: Alleosse's affinage center

Paris Pix: Laduree

Paris Pix: A cantine through a glass darkly.

Paris Pix: L'Atelier Renault

Philadelphia Pause: Eating from the Buddakan to Harvard's $8 glass of crappy wine: Alpha-Omega.

Colette and I (and at the beginning, while they were preparing for and actually doing the Broad Street Run, kids and grandkids) had several days in Philadelphia.  I had, I thought, carefully triangulated meal/resto recs so we would really sample the best; but.....it was not to be.

The tops was assuredly Steven Starr's Buddakan, an incredibly noisy (for a Zen/Buddistically-themed place) hipster joint which has its moments of pretention (saki which is chilled [sic] to achieve its tasteful perfection) but utterly divine fusion food; with items such as delicate sashimi and a huge calamari salad, monkfish, black cod, duck breast and tuna presentations. It was also our priciest meal, coming in at $134.78 a couple with a bottle of wine and no coffees/etc.

The next and coolest place was clearly the GRG Group's Garces Trading Company which patterns itself on a French bistro/bar/hangout

with Parisien street signs, cheese and charcuterie plates and the like.  It has wines in a chilled walk-in wine bin from all-over except from the Americas (which my two European guests were frustrated by).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My two pals had respectively, a soup (bread, garlic and some carrottish-hued thing) and cheese plate of 3 domestic cheeses while I had the moules with frites on top (a new presentation for me) and some Cabot cheese - all superb and well worth going back for.  With two bottles of wine and two "Milanese" (huh?) sangrias, our bill for a couple was $113.64.

Discoveries at Dulles: Shuttle-flights and Wine-flights.

  

I had a couple'a hours to kill at Dulles and have been seeing signs for the Art & Space Museum for months/years and my ex-boss told me that his (grown) son said it was terrific so I went.  As I tried to park (entrance is free, parking is $15 until 4 PM) hundreds of folks bypassed the lines and I had a sinking feeling - I'll bet there's something for Discovery today.

So I entered the main hanger and was overwhelmed; everything from WWII Japanese planes shot from submarines to an Air France Concorde.  I'm a cynic about almost everything but this was astonishing; beautiful, colorful and exhausting.  As I was wandering bedazed about I saw a huge crowd facing another hanger and was told that they're hooking up Discovery "soon."  But another terrific guard said, if you really want to see it, go outside - there.

And indeed, "there" it was, all burned up and worn out, first stationary, then towed slowly by the Rover towards the hanger, past Endeavor, which now goes to New York.  It was incredible to see thousands of adults and kids awestruck by this event, essentially the end of the Space Era as we enter the Planetary one.  Like a funeral, it was sad, respectful but terribly moving.  The end of an era!  How often will we witness one of those?

Then off to Dulles and Vino Volo where I had their cheapo house wine ($15 but with a $12 corkage fee - whoa!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For fine dining with my wine I had a decent platter of artisinal charcuterie and an absolutely miserable soggy "taco" with an absolutely unspicy bunch of shredded pork and coleslaw and absolutely tasteless sauce.

My bill was $42 before tip.

Go again?  Un unh.  Next time it's fine dining in Tyson's Corner.

 

Paris Pix: Galeries Lafayette

Paris Pix: Chocolate heaven

Paris Pix: L'Atelier des Chefs