Granville Moore's

Any time we tell people how much we like the mussels and fries at Brasserie Beck, we're asked if we've been to Granville Moore's on H Street NE. Until recently, we had to admit that we had never had sampled the Belgian-inspired fare that many claim to be the best in town. A Deals for Deeds discount was the motivation we needed to get our butts in gear.

Granville Moore's beats the pants off of Beck in the atmosphere department. If you're curious about the name, Dr. Granville Moore was a neighborhood doctor who provided pro bono medical services to neighbors out of this building. A sign advertising his business is still located in the upper left window of the building.

Inside, the space has been stripped down to the brick and rafters and you feel as if you've been let into a secret basement party. The two levels each feature large bars and booths. They don't take reservations so you might be in for a wait on weekends. Don't fret, just pull up a stool at one of the bars and ponder their impressive selection of Belgian beer.

Granville Moore's calls itself "a Gastropub with a Healthy Belgian Fetish." In addition to the Belgian beer and pub offerings, you can sample their famous mussels and frites. The mussel preparations run the gamut from the punchy blue cheese, pork belly, shallot, white wine, and lemon (B's choice) to the classic white wine, garlic, herb, and butter (my choice).

The frites are priced separately. A large, with a choice of two dipping sauces, was plenty for us to share. We had a hard time narrowing down the dipping sauce choices, so our amazing waitress brought us another one to try. While the bacon chive and chipotle mayos were good, I couldn't keep my frites out of the garlic ranch.

In a head to head mussel/frite comparison, Beck might win by a nose (mostly because we like their thin fries better than Granville's thicker cut), but in an overall experience comparison, Granville Moore's takes it by a landslide.

Our waitress was engaging, helpful, and shared my love of all things peanut butter and chocolate. The peanut butter chocolate cheesecake was a sweet (but not too sweet) way to cap off a great evening.


Second Thoughts from B

It is hard not to compare and contrast the two mussel, frites, and beer heavyweights in the town, so I won't fight it. But the bottom line is that you can't go wrong with either.

Place I'd go more often (if they were located next to each other): Granville Moore's - love the combination of great food with a casual and fun atmosphere. The price difference is negligible. It should be noted that Belga Cafe has a great atmosphere and good mussels. Notice I said good, not great, mussels.

Place I do go more often: Brasserie Beck - always better to walk a block than have to drive and park.

Place I'd go with my dad: Brasserie Beck - more sophisticated and refined.

Place I'd go with my buddies: Granville Moore's - more fun and friendly.

Mussel taste test winner: Brasserie Beck, though I think Mussel Bar in Bethesda is the best. The skillet at Beck/Mussel Bar is a cool way to present the mussels and the flat bottom keeps the mussels in the sauce longer. I thought Granville Moore's sauce was great for bread dipping but it didn't get into the mussels like Brasserie Beck's version.

Fries taste test winner: Brasserie Beck - love them both and appreciate Granville Moore's selection of mayos but you can't beat the skinny cut fries cooked in duck fat.

Bread winner: Brasserie Beck - I like a harder crust in general but it comes in especially handy for dipping.

Non-mussel options: Granville Moore's - the only non-mussel item I've tried is the dessert so this is more because I've never been blown away by Beck's non-mussel offerings.

Beer winner: Tie - both places have extensive lists and expertise.

Overall winner: You! Having multiple fantastic mussel restaurants in one city is an embarrassment of riches.

Mandu

When we were looking at condos in Downtown in 2007, the area surrounding the new City Vista complex was a bit of a no man's land. Real estate agents shied away from recommending the area and encouraged us to put down roots a bit further west. However, fast forward 4 years and City Vista is booming. Busboys and Poets, Taylor Gourmet, and Kushi helped make this block a happening place to eat.

Mandu, a Korean restaurant, is a newcomer to City Vista but not to DC. Since 2006, Chef Yesoon Lee and her kids Jean and Danny, have been serving their brand of traditional Korean dishes to 18th street crowds near Dupont. They expanded the family business to City Vista earlier this year.

The atmosphere is clean, bright, and a bit quirky with lots of green flying ducks on the wall. A wall of Korean memory boxes separates the bar and dining room areas.

We stopped in to try Mandu out for lunch, and started the same way I've started any Korean meal I've ever had: with dumplings. Mandu serves them up in sets of 6 and lets you mix and match shrimp, pork, beef, or veggie. We liked the shrimp best, but all were packed with flavor and not with grease.

One of my favorite parts of Korean dining is the banchan, or small plates of yumminess that are served complimentary with each meal. Sometimes I don't know exactly what I'm eating, but I like it!

While dumplings and banchan are fun, the real party is in the hot stone bowl of bibim bap. For the uninitiated (or those who missed our posts on the Bulgogi Cart or Yechon), bibim bap is a mix of rice, veggies, an egg, and some sort of meat or tofu often served in a hot stone bowl. The stone bowl cooks the egg and if you're lucky, gives the rice a fun crispy texture. Mandu's version was packed with fresh veggies and top notch ingredients, but the rice never got crispy. It was very good, just not the crispity crunchity ricey fun I love so much.

B said he'd be happy ordering any of the items on the menu so I ordered him the chap chae: stir fried clear potato noodles with vegetables and beef. I don't know how you make a potato noodle but I do know that this large portion vanished quickly. Chap chae, we will be back.

If you've got a thing for duck decor or you want to try authentic and fresh Korean food, get thee to Mandu.

Second Thoughts from B

I think my wife's exuberance for quality Korean food has turned her into Fezzik from the Princess Bride (to be very clear, I'm talking about the rhyming part and not the Andre the Giant part of the character). After all, she has a great gift for rhyme (yes, yes, some of the time). Let me join the fun:

If you crave sweet and savory Korean beef... Mandu can provide culinary relief.

If you like noodles clear and fat... Mandu will provide plenty of that.

Those dumplings were haute and hot... But from Appalachian St. they were not. (this will only make sense after viewing this hilariously bad and dangerously catchy promo for the school)

J craves bowls of crispy rice... followers of this blog will have heard it now thrice.

Mandu spices made our mouths burn... for these flavors we'll definitely return.

(No more rhymes now, I mean it! Anybody want a peanut?)

Rocklands Barbeque and Grilling Company

We were in need of dinner on our way to watch an Ultimate Frisbee exhibition game in Arlington. (Wow, that is possibly one of the dorkiest things I've ever typed). Instead of planning out where to eat, I just asked B to point the car toward the Arlington area and we'd stumble across something. Just as I began to worry that we wouldn't find anything that sounded appealing, we saw Rocklands Barbeque and Grilling Company. Rocklands has 4 locations and a big catering operation, so I figured the 'cue had to be pretty good.

Rocklands is a cute, olde-timey-looking order-at-the-counter operation. After perusing the chalkboard menu, we ordered, took our number and waited just a couple of minutes for a kindly gentleman to deliver our order to our perch near the window.

If you like quirky hot sauces, Rocklands is your type of place. In addition to selling probably a hundred kinds of hot sauce, they have scattered various bottles around the restaurant for you to try. You know the kind with names such as Uncle Busta's Slap Ya Sista and Her Friend Sauce? (Note: we don't condone sister slapping or friend slapping here at TwoDC). You name it, they've got it.

B's eyes locked on the appetizer section of the menu. We sampled the cheesy jalapeno poppers (good, but not fantastic) and the BBQ pork stuffed egg rolls. I don't know who thought of taking a crispy egg roll wrapper and stuffing it with barbequed meat and pairing it with an Asian sweet chili sauce, but I want to hug them. What a genius, totally unhealthy, yet completely amazing idea.

To complement the appetizer fiesta, B ordered a single beef rib. I thought he might be hungry with only one rib and encouraged him to order two. That was before I saw this:

Good thing B didn't listen to me! Rocklands doesn't skimp on beef ribs. It's not one of those giant bones with no meat. There was practically an entire steak on that baby.

When it comes to BBQ, you can bet I'm going to order some sort of sandwich. I like the convenience of eating BBQ in a somewhat neat package-o-bread, and I like dousing the bun in sauce and using it to sop up the side dishes. Unfortunately the bun was really average so I ditched it. However, Rockland's pulled chicken sandwich featured some of the best, most tender BBQ chicken I've had. The sauce is a little thinner than I usually like but it had a great smoky kick. The Texas corn pudding lacked flavor and I lost interest after a couple bites, but the shell noodle mac n' cheese was a fun twist on the traditional macaroni dish.

I'm no BBQ expert so can't tell you if this is the "real deal" and to be frank, most of the BBQ places we've tried run together in my head. With Rocklands, I have a feeling that the egg roll will be popping up in my dreams, begging me to return. When it does, I have no choice but to listen.

Second Thoughts from B

Call me a dork but high level ultimate frisbee is a ridiculously entertaining display of athleticism and skill. It is also becoming more and more mainstream. After first learning the game almost 20 years ago and introducing it to many friends along the way, it warmed my heart to see bleachers packed with fans willing to sweat out a Friday night to watch a game.

But I digress... As I aimlessly navigated Arlington traffic on a Friday night hoping that J would finally just pick a place, I set my expectations pretty low. At that point, I was willing to settle for just about anything to get us fed and out of traffic. But patience and persistence paid off in the form of great BBQ. (Thanks to J for not letting me settle for Wendy's)

I love great BBQ. I even love less-than-great BBQ. My requirements are few. I want a good sauce that combines sweet and smoky favors with a tangy kick. I want a large amount of juicy meat, preferably attached to a bone that I can eat caveman style. I want some fresh lemonade to occasionally break up the meatfest and wash down the latest bite that I just tried to inhale. And I want some mac n cheese because I need a few more calories after eating an entire cow. In short, BBQ is a primal experience for me.

So when we got egg rolls filled with pulled pork and the Asian sweet chili sauce, it was a bit of a curveball for me. While not exactly light or dainty, it was a sophisticated twist that didn't immediately jive with my gluttonous meatapalooza idea of BBQ. But wow, did I like it.

When eating BBQ I usually make the "someone just dropped something heavy on my foot" face that the Food Network has made synonymous with culinary satisfaction. (Think about it, everyone eating something good looks like they are in pain) The egg rolls, however, gave me the much rarer "Santa Claus just emerged from the chimney with a new bicycle and my eyes are about to pop out of my head" face. Who knew such surprise and joy could come in a cute little egg roll at a BBQ place?

Teatro Goldoni

You know when it's so hot outside that you feel like your brain is melting? It's one of those days. The last thing we wanted to do was come up with something to cook for dinner or turn on the oven, so we engaged our trusty discount friend Village Vines (now known as Savored - explained here) and made a reservation at Teatro Goldoni for 30% percent off.



Though we probably would've made a reservation at any place with air conditioning, we chose this Italian stalwart on K Street. Almost every time we're in the car we're driving down K Street, so it's safe to say we've passed Teatro Goldoni hundreds of times. Though I'd heard pretty decent reviews of their newish chef and his menu, nothing had ever drawn us in. Leave it to a discount to get us in the door.


The atmosphere is swanky and visually interesting with a wall of Venetian masks and rich fabrics and paint colors. It reminded me of a classier version of the Venetian in Vegas. While I'd read Yelp horror stories of bad service, the staff was very attentive and their water refiller was spot on. Thank goodness for the water guy on such a miserably hot day.



Teatro Goldoni has standard appetizer and entree offerings, but you can also order small plates if that's your jam. I'm taking a small plates break, so suggested to B that we go the standard route. For his starter, B ordered the beet salad with gorgeous yellow and red beets, goat cheese, greens, artichoke chips, and a citrus dressing. The dish was a winning combination of bold flavors, colors, and textures. The citrus dressing kicked you in the face with its tartness, but the earthy beets swooped in to mellow it out. A nice surprise to start things off.


I tried the buffalo mozzarella with baby eggplant, candied cherry tomatoes, and balsamic gelatin. First, for those who complain that we don't post pictures of ourselves on the blog, here's my arm!

Second, the mozzarella dish was more beautiful than it was tasty. The individual components of the dish were fun, but there were too many things going on that didn't quite play nicely together.



B ordered the red snapper which featured another gorgeous presentation. B loved the flavor, but it came up a little short on a couple of elements that would have made it an excellent dish. The fish was a little on the over-cooked side and a little on the under-sized side.

If there was any doubt about what kind of risotto I ordered, check out Larry the Lobster!

Can't say I've ever had a lobster head in my risotto before. Luckily, the lobster head was not the only trace of lobster in the dish. It had nice, big chunks of lobster meat and a very good creamy sauce. Like B's dish, it had one thing keeping it from excellence: the risotto was undercooked. Close to a home run but we had to settle for a triple. The portion was generous enough for me to have leftovers for an awesome lobster lunch at work. Score!



Second Thoughts From B

Sticking with the theatrical theme, I felt that Teatro Goldoni is like a young actress: pretty, full of potential, but lacking polish.

I don't know that I can remember a restaurant that had such consistently beautiful plates of food. Each one could have been mistaken for modern art. And yes, I know that modern art isn't always aesthetically beautiful but we're talking lobster heads here.

The dishes were also well conceived, and even when they missed the mark a little, you could tell where the chef was going. There seemed to always be depth to the complementary flavors and textures despite the minor technical flaws.

The bottom line is that a minute or two on or off the heat could have made good dishes into outstanding ones and that earns Teatro Goldoni a spot on our watch list . . . our coupon watch list.