Death Burger aka The double coronary

Liz and I recently took a trip to Atlanta for some sightseeing and to get away from DC for a weekend. We chose the wrong weekend to go, it rained everyday nonstop, that didn't deter us however, we still managed to see most of the major sites and hang outs. I know my blog is supposed to be about local DC eateries, but this deserves a spot here. While in Atlanta, I made it a point to go to The Varsity, that was weak, it was more of a tourist trap then a good place to get food, Liz was disappointed, and I left thinking I missed something about it. After the varsity we ran off to the world of coke, I tried all the flavors, or at least the ones I could because it seemed like everyone and their mother also had the same idea we did because the place was packed! I was a tad disappointed that I could not get my Fanta Melon soda there, Coke needs to produce this in America or at least I need to find a Japanese importer willing to hook me up.

Getting to the real post, The Vortex Bar and Grill as seen on Man Vs. Food - Atlanta episode. After seeing the episode I wanted to attempt to make the burgers I saw on that show, but I never got around to it. When Liz suggested we go to Atlanta, I of course agreed because I knew I would end up eating there. It was the right decision in mind, maybe not in body however. So, the burger, it is unlike anything I have eaten before, to start it was a bacon cheeseburger, simple enough, but there was 5 slices of bacon, 4 slices of American cheese, now that is just the burger. To further my last post about the fried eggs, the Vortex burger was accompanied by 2 fried eggs, and yes fried eggs make a burger taste better (Ray's Hell Burger - Listen Up). Oh no this hasn't stopped there, the buns? Two grilled cheese sandwiches! Simply put, best cheeseburger I have had at a non-fast food establishment, kudos Vortex. Now, how does one feel after eating this? If you have seen the episode of the boondocks - Itis, then you know, if you are unfamiliar with that cartoon, then I was a little laggy for a bit, but nothing to bad, no stomach problems, long term effects, I will probably need the burgers name sooner rather than later, but it was worth it. However, after the glares I got from Liz, I don't think I will be doing it again anytime soon. Flickr set: Vortex Bar and Grill

Vortex Bar and Grill

878 Peachtree Street

Atlanta, GA 30309 - Midtown location

Take Orange line to Midtown and it is a short walk

Insider tip: 18 and over ONLY - yes no children allowed, I enjoyed the fact that I got to sit underneath a black velvet picture of a naked woman whilst eating my burger - fun times

Ray's Hell Burger

It was a snowy Sunday in D.C., I didn't feel like cooking, and I didn't feel like going anywhere, the urge to drive somewhere and take shots with my new lens gave me the required energy to eat a burger. Ray's Hell Burger, or heck burger, or whatever it's called opened up in the Summer of 2008 right next to Ray's The Steaks, these are more of your local, not going to find this in a frommers, or on a travel show kind of places. Ray's Classic in Maryland, however you may see and have heard about.

Ray's Hell Burger is a special kind of burger, the butcher shop is on site, and is shared by the steak restaurant that shares the name. I can't tell you the exact meat that goes in or the ratio of meat and fat, although I am sure it's something like 85/15 or 80/20, whatever it is, it works. Burgers are ordered A La Carte, you start with simple burger and bun for 6.95, want cheese, ok, they range from your normal American and White Cheddar for 1.00, and go up to Epoisse (eh-pau) for $5.00. Now with the cheeses covered you can move onto other burger toppings, Foie Gras? Truffle Oil? Sure! Bacon and Ham? you can see from above Absolutely! Would you like your burger grilled Cajun style? Why yes, they do that do, want it cooked in cracked black pepper, of course. You can pretty much get whatever you want on the burger, however, and this is a big however, NO FRENCH FRIES!!!! Hold your overwhelming shock and comments for later. Ray's does offer sides, mac and cheese, and what they call cheesy tots, I had both, both were excellent in their own right. The mac and cheese was particularly good due to the fact copious amounts of cheese and white pepper was involved in the cooking, and then the tots were worth the $2.00 we spent on them, anything fried is good. Now back to this no french fry thing, how in the Hell (ha get how I worked that in there?) can you have a burger without fries? I know I can't, however once I saw the burger, and tasted the mac and cheese, the need for something else fried quickly went out the window.

When Liz and I went on Sunday, the weather was horrible and the line was pretty much to the door, seating is very limited, and during the busy times, next to impossible to get, you also are warned about sitting down before you order, also there is no website, the menu I found was from Flickr, it isn't mine so I am not posting it. My burger was cooked to perfection, although they missed the Cajun seasoning, they made up for in the Ray's Heck Sauce, don't know what it was, but enjoyed it, I don't ask questions when the line is backed up. I don't fault the staff for forgetting to dip my burger in spice, I know I will be back to enjoy it again.

A few concerns, parking is horrendous, even at 6 on a Sunday night in the middle of a snow storm (yes, it's that good) and I would have enjoyed a fried egg on my burger, and if someone from Ray's is reading this, which is a long shot, consider it, I'd pay another $1.50 for a fried egg.

On my scale of burger's where does this rank? Tough, the style is more of a burger joint, if that is the case, In-N-Out, White Manna, Ray's Hell Burger. Best burger I have had in D.C. at a Burger Joint? Yes, best burger I have had in the world? sadly no, however when I need a good burger fix, and since I do not have a grill, Ray's will get the call. Flickr set here


Location-

Ray's Hell Burger

1713 Wilson Blvd.

Arlington, VA 22209

703-841-0001



Metro - Blue Line - Rosslyn and walk down Wilson Blvd.

Orange Line - Courthouse, and walk down Wilson Blvd.



Tip - Try taking the metro if all possible, parking is a nightmare, also expect a wait, doesn't matter when you go. Don't bother looking for a website, it doesn't exist, and they serve BURGERS!!!

Chima - Yes Please

Chima isn't a new experience for me, I have been there four times now, if you are familiar with Fogo De Chao, then you understand the concept here. However, if you are not familiar with Fogo let me break it down for you. You get a little button like you see in the picture above, there are two sides, Yes please, or No (I don't like No). If your card happens to fall on Yes, then you are thrown down a "Meat Gauntlet" as I call it. Men trained in Brazil for at least two years wield knives and meat in a symphony of everything good. These god like meat creatures offer you everything from Pork crusted in Parmesan cheese, to swordfish and basically everything in between. There is a salad bar, although why bother in a place like this, however the beef carpiacchio is clutch.

Chima is more of an experience than a place to eat, for what it's worth, I can't think of a better way to spend $47.50 or whatever they charge now for dinner. The meat is delivered to you on a spike, cut in front of you table side, and you can order it how you like it, rare-well done, I could care less, they know how to cook meat. The servers like I mentioned above, also tend to your meat products, each one specializes in one type or cut of meat. One person handles the sausage and chicken, one for pork and so on, so they know what they are doing when it comes to cooking. My favorite of the night was the new filet wrapped in bacon, truthfully, anything wrapped in bacon is good, the pork Parmesan also on this evening kept getting better as the night went on, usually it is dry as pork tends to get dry when cooking it, also tops was the chicken wrapped in bacon of course, and then I guess the ribeye. The fish can be hit or miss, and the salad bar is nice to look at, but I am a man, and when I go here, I eat meat. Chances are you don't have a Chima where you are, but you may have a Fogo, if so, they are pretty much the same and have the same menus, if you are anything like me, you'll enjoy it, I know I did, and I will continue to give Chima my hard earned money. Flickr set here

Location:

Chima Brazilian Steakhouse

8010 Towers Crescent Dr.

Tyson's Corner-Vienna, Virginia 22182

202-595-7755

http://www.chima.cc/index.cfm

Metro - West falls church to Mall, and then walk

Tip - Make reservations ahead of time, and sign up for mailing list, sometimes they have buy one get one free coupons.

Corn Smut, Grasshoppers and Tongue...all at Oyamel!

Remember my post about NYE at Wildfire? if not, read below and come back. Throw those rules out the window. Andrew came down for the long weekend from NYC and with another friend in town, we all decided to get together Saturday (Valentines Day) and eat. On Friday we got together at Matchbox in DC, and after waiting for about 3 hours for a table, and service that was let's say "less than stellar" we hoped dinner and lunch Saturday would have no trouble at all topping that.
On Saturday we met up earlier at had lunch at the epic Vienna Inn, and yes, it's that good. After ingesting enough chili to make our eyes bleed the stuff, we went to the local mall to walk it off. We split up and then later that night managed to find each other again at Oyamel in Penn Quarter. This restaurant, like many others in DC is run by Jose Andres, I believe most if not all of his establishments are in the top 100 DC places to eat according to the Washingtonian magazine. In that area of Penn Quarter, he has at least 4 dining spots, Jaleo, Oyamel, Cafe Atlantico and Minibar.
I've been trying hard to get into any of the above mentioned places, but never had the time, but after seeing the episode of "No Reservations" Food Porn, I knew I had to go. The plan was set earlier in the week, and I had my dinner selection picked out way ahead of time. Oyamel is like Jaleo in the fact that it is a Tapas restaurant, if you are unfamiliar with the term, it is a bunch of small dishes that everyone shares. Prices range from 2.50-15.00 depending on the items that your order. At Oyamel, most of the dishes were in the 5.00-10.00 range with some stuff falling either under or over the range.
Now I would assume most if not everyone reading this blog knows me, and has been out to eat with me once in the past, if you don't know me, identify yourself! Anyway, I was a picky eater, when I was a kid I would only eat un-burnt french fries, and cheeseburgers, only ketchup, no other stuff. However I've had an epiphany in the last couple of months while watching Bizarre Foods and No Reservations, I am missing out on vast worlds of foods that I wouldn't have eaten in the past. This is also one of the reasons why I chose Oyamel, you probably gained from the title on the type of food offered, but it's not all "eww" food, they have braised beef tacos, meatballs, table made guacamole, and the typical authentic Mexican fair. But we came for the odd food, or at least I did. I have to commend everyone in trying everything even if they didn't like it.
We started our dinner off with Oyamel's take on sangria, then moved onto margaritas, we had our waiter prepare table-side guacamole, that pretty much demolished all other types of guacamole I personally have ever had, if you think you've had it, you haven't. Then the fun began, we ordered meatballs in a spicy chiptole sauce, Mexican cheese and chorizo fondue, and tacos. But tacos you say, I can make those at home, no, no you can't. The shells taste as if they were hand made, they were soft, and filled with goodness. The breakdown consisted of, 3 tacos filled with salty grasshoppers, 2 filled with tongue and onions, 2 with suckling fried pig confit, and other bits of pig, and liz ordered the braised beef with potatoes. I have never eaten anything listed above, and I was suprised on how good everything came out. People are probably thinking, ewwwww right now, however if you like pot roast, you will like tongue, if has the same texture, and pretty much the same taste, grasshoppers, those were crunchy and tasted like beer nuts, and the fried pig parts, there isn't anything that is bad deep fried. The true winner of this meal was the corn smut (look it up on wikipedia), we put that on the chips, with some guacamole, and it was inhaled.
Our service was fantastic for a holiday, there was never a down turn, our food was excellent and I commend Oyamel and it's staff for providing me the second best meal I've had in DC to date. I look forward to trying Minibar when/if I can afford it and get a reservation. If this was a prelude to that, my expectations are out of this world. So if anyone can get me into Minibar, please help me!! Flickr set can be found here as usual

Ben's Chili Bowl

Yes I know it's been almost a month since my last post, and yes I've been to M and S Grill in Reston, review should come later on for that. This past weekend Liz and I attended her holiday party in D.C. Don't ask what holiday, I am not sure, it doesn't matter, free food, free booze, and a hotel room in D.C.
Moving on though, Ben's, yes I am sure there are tons of posts and reviews online, the place has been around for 50 years (2008 was the anniversary). Anthony Bourdain went on his latest show of No Reservations, and loved it. I was going to go a few weeks back when then President-elect, now President Obama was there, I am somewhat miffed about that. However, this place is a landmark, it survived race riots, the civil rights movement, and the downturn and now resurgence of the U-street area.
Getting there was relatively easy for my first time, U-street Cardoza stop on the yellow/green Metro, and walk across the street. Now when I got there, I had a bit of an issue, no cash, I tried to find a Bank of America, that didn't happen, I ended up walking about 4 blocks down and just stopped at the first ATM I saw. I was on a bit on a time schedule now. I got back to Ben's and just as I was warned, the line was out the door, and around the corner into the alley way or Ben's Ali. I was running out of time, and I was cold. The line moved smoothly, and before I knew it I was inside, however there was another line 2 people deep at the limited counter space they had, and I knew if I waited I wouldn't be out in time to go to my next stop. There was this nice older lady in front of me Ida, and her grandson, at least I think it was, and her daughter maybe, I never got the relation. They needed 6 people to go sit in the back for table service, thinking quick on my feet and not knowing what would happen, I said "excuse me if you need an extra person, I can make 5, and we could try to go back" Ida agreed and off we went. I knew what I was going to order, I really didn't look that hard at the menu, I got a Half Smoke, which is not a hot dog, its a sausage, with chili, and mustard, I also ended up with their famous french fries, but I went the chili and cheese route on those as well.
The sausage was snappy and full of flavor, like a good sausage should be, the chili, the place is named after it for a reason, it is the type of chili that works well as a flavor enhancer, think of it as salt, you can put this stuff on anything, like Dennis Quaid said in National Lampoons Vegas Vacation, Yuban coffee, I used to put it on my mashed potatoes. That pretty much sums up the chili, it has good spice, good flavor and texture, best chili I have ever had, no, but good. Onto the fries, which I couldn't finish, I am just as amazed as you, they were good, the #10 can cheese mixed with the chili well, not so much the gin later on that night though. Next time I go I'll skip the chili and cheese and order them plain. I met nice people, and enjoyed myself. I would go back, however I am going to wait until the tourists are long gone. Flickr set can be found here as usual, yes only 3 pictures, I was playing around while waiting for trains, which is why you see some long exposure shots in there. Enjoy

New Years Eve at Wildfire

Let me indulge the 4 people that read my blog (you know who you are).
Rules of Dining:
1. Pick a restaurant for the type of cuisine you like
2. Do not believe reviews of restaurants - except mine
3. Never go on a weekend expecting to be amazed
4. Never go to a restaurant that makes you pick a pre-selected menu - most items are cooked a week in advance and are sitting in warmer trays waiting to be schlepped upon you
There are more rules, but those are the important ones, keeping those in mind lets continue on.

When you pick a time to go out and enjoy a nice night out, most people choose Friday or Saturday night to hit the restaurants. Most people end up not fully experiencing what that restaurant is capable of, and 80% of the time walk away unsatisfied. The same can be said for a holiday. Now that really isn't the restaurant's fault, they are trying to have a fast turnover, and don't want to keep their customers waiting, so mistakes tend to happen when people are rushed, which is why go on a Tuesday/Wednesday. I was at Wildfire when it first opened over the summer, and I enjoyed it then, however being a holiday, things can change.

Liz and I were trying to figure out for a couple of weeks where we wanted to go for our New Year's Eve. I am not the typical party type as I used to be, so I like to keep things low-key. I am a whore for a good steak and a good steak restaurant, and living in D.C. there are many places to go for a fine example of a steak. We narrowed down our choices: Ruth's Chris, Morton's, Shula's, Charlie Palmer's, The Capitol Grille and Wildfire. The best meal I have eaten in my life so far has come from Charlie Palmer's, however strapped for cash, due to "reasons" we decided to keep things close and stick with Wildfire.

Wildfire is part of the Lettuce Entertain You group, most if not all of their restaurants are located in Chicago, they each have a different type of atmosphere, from quick restaurants like Wow Bao (which I'm dying to try) to more classy sit down restaurants like Wildfire. Wildfire has five outposts in Illinois, one in Minnesota, one in Georgia, and the newest one in Virgina.

The tag line from their website is "Steaks, chops and seafood." Like any steak place they have nicely aged cuts of steaks, in the typical steakhouse range. I, like most adults like to have a good filet if I go out, I like it medium - medium rare, I enjoy cutting it with a fork. I also do not prefer to have my steak seasoned with your local house bbq sauce or hit up with so many spices I can't tell what I am eating. Salt, Pepper, and some butter, put that one a plate with some of the steak juice and I am a happy man.

Liz and I had reservations for around 7:15, but we decided to change plans and arrived around 6:15, and it was quiet and slow, which meant good things. We were somewhat hungry, we started with their Spinach and Artichoke "Fondue" with garlic points, A wine flight: two white and two red (don't ask, I know one was a Cabernet). The fondue as they call it was decent enough, but at Trader Joe's they sell a much better version for a lot cheaper, we'll try something else next time for an appetizer. After we finished that, we got our meals, and this is where it goes off the rails. Liz orders a filet, and I ordered their "not so special" special (it's the special everytime I go), which is 3, 3 ounce filets with your choice of crusts. I went with the Parmesan, Bearnaise, and Loaded Baked Potato. For sides Liz chose the mashed potatoes, and I opted for the White Cheddar Potato Au' Gratin.

My meal is perfect for the type of night, nothing to over-stuffing, because it is NYE and I had plans after, however Liz had a bit of a problem. She had ordered her steak medium, however when it came out it was still rare, I wouldn't have minded, as I have eaten a raw chicken, and beef carpaccio, plus I am fat and I don't care all that much. But hey, we are paying a lot of money for a good meal, so why not have it cooked the way we want it. We asked our waiter to toss it back on the grill, after about 10 minutes and my meal getting cold, Liz's steak arrived, this time burnt and dead, she was very upset as was I, my steak had gotten cold, our sides were cold, and she was hungry. After another 5 minutes Liz spots a manager, and we explain to her the situation, which happens often on weekends and holidays people, take note. Liz asked the manager if she could just have a children's steak as she wasn't hungry anymore. She agreed and had the other steak comped. In the end Liz enjoyed her meal, but this is my blog and I talk about my food. My steaks were cooked perfectly, just how I like them, the crusts that were put on top were all amazing, my personal fave was the Parmesan, with the baked potato coming in second and the Bearnaise coming in a third. The Au' Gratin potatoes, were amazing, however a baked potato walked by me as I got them and had one of those feelings like "damn, should have ordered that."

Minus the screw-up in the kitchen, I'll give them a pass due to the holiday, it was an enjoyable experience had by all, I enjoyed the food, and of course the company. Wildfire is an all around good performer, not quite at the level of the bigger named steak houses, but one day it should make it there. Thanks for reading, leave comments, and let me know if there is anything different I can do or places I need to try. As always Flick Set is located here, not like you haven't seen most of them, forgive the bad lighting, I need better GLASS F2.8!!!!

Burger King - The Burger Shot

While I was home in Poughkeepsie I had a chance to swing by the BK lounge. I wanted to get something new and I have been hearing a lot of these burger shots. After waiting for seemed like hours I was finally able to place my order. I asked for a 2 pack of burger shots, they were 1.49, after my I asked for them, they lady taking my order had to make sure they still had them in stock. After the quick check, the order went through, and then after waiting again for what seemed like an hour I finally got my order. They are exactly like a BK burger, only smaller. They tasted a little saltier than other BK burgers, also for the price, not really worth it, when classics like the rodeo cheeseburger is less expensive and you can't pass up that one onion ring. Quick review, good, but not worth it, good to try, however better sliders can be had elsewhere. Also why pass up the classic cheeseburger? Why did sliders even come about?...something to ponder
Flickr set can be found here