just Stuff...

Two days ago was “leap day”, the 29^th of February.  This phenomenon won’t occur again until…..4 years from now.  Oh, well.

Within the past week, the Feeder has visited three restaurants in the area.   SweetBay in Leonardtown, Elements in Lexington Park, and Cow and Fish in Hollywood. 

Readers might well expect the Feeder to stack them up, one to three.  Well, the Feeder is not going to do that.  They are kind of in different cycles of their life, from learning to walk, to hitting their stride, to their twilight years.  Each has strengths, and some areas for improvement, but you really can’t go wrong with any of them as long as you know what you can expect. 

The important thing in considering a restaurant is “what is the final thought you had when leaving”. Such as: “great food, but……”;  “wish the server would have…”; “why did it take so long for…” type of thing.   It’s the overall “experience” that counts, not just what’s on your plate.

So we’ve got a few good places, that are worth your $ and time.

Ahead of things as usual

Alert readers may remember that I complained about how food items now have to have a “style” attached?  (St. Louis Style ribs; North Carolina style BBQ)…  And pizza has always been prone to geographical location of the pies.  Well, one of my “trade” rags, Restaurant and Hospitality

Must have read my post, as they came out with this article

They covered (only) five cities:/regions: Brooklyn; New York; American Neapolitan; California: and Detroit.   Chicago didn’t make the cut oddly enough.

Here’s a snippet from the Detroit entry

In a future post, I might go into more depth on the characteristics of their "regions"

OBTW the cover story about “pricing” is very interesting.  The problem arises out of the “minimum wage” situation which requires a restaurant to wrestle with how to meet those regulations without raising prices.  Various schemes are developed to meet these challenges, Subscription Dining; too involved to summarize here. 

Good stuff in there: 5 ingredients to watch in 2020:  Grains of Paradise (west African); Ajvar (Balkan peppers); Unripe Produce (Chefs are playing with the unique textures of unripe fruits and vegetables); Ash (the “new smoke”, look for Ash baked” ingredients to hit the menus this year; Vermouth (This classic will take center stage on drink menus).

This’s and That’s

SweetBay: now has (new menu) a $42 bone-in tenderloin on the menu;  now offers wine by the bottle on extensive list (which currently does not show vintages).

 Quality Street: rumor has it that they may be moving into the “new hotel” in Leonardtown to serve breakfast and lunch.  Big step!

Cow and Fish: not exactly germane, but FOJTE found this “blast from the past”:

Painted plates

Elements: Suiters in work for post-closing (in May)

Bottom of the Hill (Leonardtown) some believe it may be going dark (not confirmed on social media)

Phrases and things that drive the Feeder nuts (short journey)

Arrogance of Subaru.  Picture of man looking at a mangled wreck in driveway.  “My daughter would be dead if it wasn’t for my Forester”.   Gimme a break.  All other autos should be BANNED from the highways!!!!

Sport Shorts:

Speaking of Shorts, are you/people so desperate for the holy NFL that you actually watched the circus of the “Combines”?  “MY GOD! His thumb is a quarter of an inch shorter than (so and so’s)!!”  Drop him 4 places in the “potential” draft.

Gag me: “He runs downhill” (I thought football fields were flat, silly me);  “He just gets stronger as the game goes on”  Huh?;  “he is taking it to the next level!”  we’re moving to the mezzanine?   “that’s a game changer!” oh, I guess we’re switching to Rugby or Badminton.

Okay, that’s the gamut for today

When considering a restaurant visit, consider how you should be

DFD