One of the nice things about travel is to get to places that feel “different” than our normal surroundings. Easton is such a place, it just has a nice ambiance…with some peaceful places, shops, gardens, and nice strolls
There’s some nice shopping opportunities, with a REAL men’s clothing store and some nice galleries and such. They’ve converted an old movie theater into a venue for concerts.
Some of the more, um, experienced readers might recognize some names on the marquee
Everywhere you look there’s some interesting things to see
So we bid a (hopefully) temporary adieu to Easton. It’s worth a weekend.
Bistro Find
People often ask me for interesting places to dine in Alexandria. I have a new very positive recommendation. We re-visited the “Written in Bone” exhibit Sunday at the Natural History Museum on the mall (lots of Historic St. Mary’s City ties) and then were taken to King Street in Alexandria to a little Bistro (The Tasting Room) called Brabo. It’s part of a little “complex” (a term probably not appropriate for Alexandria) that’s in a string of store fronts. There’s a (boutique) hotel, a restaurant, the Bistro, and a little store where you can buy some of the wines, meats, and condiments that are featured in the restaurants (including real baguettes). The “Tasting Room” is fairly small, with just walk in seating, plain table tops, white wall, and an open kitchen along the back wall. We were seated in a little alcove that was separated from the main dining room offering a little privacy and maybe less noise, although since it was Sunday, that wasn’t an issue (well, it was, read on).
We were greeted by an affable young man, I do believe he mentioned his name but not in the usual litany. There was a little blackboard with some wine specials, along with the 23 or so from the “by the glass” listing. Some interesting offerings, but fairly pricey with most in low double digits. That carries through to the regular wine list, featuring many half bottles and a stunning amount of full ones. Prices take some sleuthing to find many below 50 bucks, with a lot in three figures. You better do your vintage research if you plan to ply those waters…
Anyway, we didn’t have to worry about that, since it was only a latish lunch. I thought I saw a Sinsky Pinot on the blackboard but it turned out to be a rosé, a very nice fruity wine, but not what I had in mind. I settled for a bishop’s peak Pinot, MFO a Viognier, and our friend took the Sinsky Rosé. Turning to the menu, there were typical Bistro stuff, their “signature Mussels” – most mussels seem to be autographed these days, flatbreads, some soups and sandwiches. Fairly manageable. We had a couple of go arounds with the server over the bread which got to be a little humorous. Finally it arrived. We ordered the “Five Onion” soup (on recommendation from friend), and once again I got suckered by the Charcouterie Plate, MFO eschewed the soup for some veal meatballs, and our friend temporarily stuck to the soup. Eventually he took a flatbread mostly for leftover purposes, and we finally caved and had their bread pudding dessert.
Because I want to relate a little “situation”, I’ll abbreviate the description of the foods, but safe to say it was excellent. There were five different selections on the Charcouterie plate all shaved and just wonderful. Soup worth reordering.. a great place. Makes one want to try the formal restaurant. Isn’t cheap, but good food and friendly, if uneven service. Oh,and I was able to buy some Cornichons, a valuable addition to the fridge, not usually available around here....
Okay, about half way through the meal a party was seated next to us at the only other table in the alcove. It consisted of a properly DFB(runched) Grandpa, Grandma, Son, and…….grandson. I am a lousy estimator at kid’s ages, they all look alike to me, but he was in a stroller, and didn’t speak, at least with words. Now, I have to admit they took the table furthest from most diners (and next to us), and they had several books and stuff to keep the little one occupied, and probably did their utmost at amusing him. But alas, to no avail. The little guy was taken with very loud, unprovoked vocal eruptions. Kind of an “eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!” type of thing. After that, everybody shushed him and he was quiet until the next time. One of the servers came over and made a remark about how cute he was, and “kids will be kids”, and I think she was sincere. Of course she wasn't dining next to them.
Well, what do you do? Ask to be moved? We were almost done. It did detract from our experience, we were enjoying quiet wine and conversation. Did they have the right to be there? I suppose. Did they try to contain the little beast? Yes, they did. Was the kid doing anything wrong? Not that he knew of. When they left (we were lingering) they did thank us for “putting up with them”. I didn’t acknowledge the remark, as in “Oh, that’s okay”, because it wasn’t. I don’t know the solution.
Anyway, add Brabo to the list of pleasant little places in Alexandria on King Street. And good luck finding that parking place.
Don’t forget to DFD
The Front Porch
The Front Porch ( place to dine and unwind) Restaurant is supposed to open today in Leonardtown. It has replaced Corbel’s as a resident of the Sterling House. From what I have heard, it will be less formal, and will contain some interesting features such as conversion of the back dining room on the first level into a pleasant little lounge. You can browse the web site.. they will be an option for first Friday this week. I would expect big crowds…
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