The Washington Post - 13.03.2020

13

eZ

the washington post

.

friday, march 13, 2020

we can talk comfortably) and not
terribly crowded.
a: I haven’t returned to
succotash since my last review,
and america Eats tavern
doesn’t serve lunch on
Wednesday. I can’t predict how
busy (read: loud) a dining room
might be, but I think you’ll enjoy
the cooking and other comforts
of modena downtown for
Italian, Chez Billy sud in
Georgetown for french or
Convivial in Shaw for french
American.

Q: I’m turning 38 this weekend
and my dad and his girlfriend
will be in town. I would like to go
out to dinner with them and my
husband and son (age 5). I’d love
a recommendation for seafood/
lobster in Northern Virginia.
Doesn’t matter what kind —
lobster ravioli, baked lobster.
a: The $38 maine lobster at the
new annabelle in Dupont Circle
has your name on it. The entree
swims to the table with Duchess
potatoes and a swipe of bisque.

Q: my husband has been on the
hunt for fried clam bellies lately,
with no luck at his usual sources.
Any place in D.C. or close-in
maryland or NoVa that currently
has them on the menu?
a: Near Nationals Park, salt
Line offers Ipswich fried clam
bellies for $16, and Hank’s
oyster Bar (multiple branches)
sells a plate for $25. I couldn’t
track down a market price there,
but Legal sea Foods on Seventh
Street NW also serves what your
husband craves.

Q: my husband turns 50 next
month and I’m facing the
canceling of travel plans. So now
I am looking at this as an
opportunity to take him out for a
truly memorable (and splurgy)
dinner. Where would you go?
maybe a chef’s table? Just the
two of us, happy to spend big
(since we are saving on travel
now), prefer within driving
distance of D.C. and not
requiring an overnight, and we
eat everything!
a: Le Comptoir du Vin in
Baltimore is pretty wonderful,
but a tough ticket. Tr y instead
the civilized métier near the
convention center or the blissful
Pineapple and Pearls on the
Hill.

Q: What are your favorite middle
Eastern (or Turkish) restaurants
in D.C.? I’m most interested in a
restaurant where I can try dishes
that are not typically found in
middle Eastern/Turkish
restaurants in the United States
and have plenty of vegetarian
options for my vegetarian
partner.
a: Surely you know about

ask tom from 12

Zaytinya in Penn Quarter, which

was featured in a recent roundup

of my favorite places to eat and

showcases everything from

Persian yogurt soup to Turkish

chicken salad with walnut sauce

and includes 20 or more

vegetable dishes. I could graze

there for weeks and not repeat a

dish.

of the newer sources, there’s

the freshly minted albi from

chef michael rafidi. The chef’s

selections include mushroom

grape leaf dolmades, excellent

spreads with even better pita and

lamb sweetened with dates. The

hot spot has been packed every

time I’ve dropped in.

Q: In your chats, restaurants

often invite diners back for a

meal on them to make up for a

service mistake. Logistically, how

does someone actually use that

offer? Do the restaurant

managers expect they’ll be taken

up on their offer within a month?

Three months? A year? And how

would a diner inform the

restaurant that they’ll be

returning? It seems rude (to me)

to call/email a place, and say,

“Hey, you promised me a free

meal, and now I’m coming to

collect.”

a: In the cases I’ve been involved

in, a representative from the

restaurant (owner, chef,

manager, etc.) shares the best

way to contact them and the

customer follows up on their

own, presumably shortly after

the incident that prompted the

complaint in this forum.

If anyone out there has been

involved in an attempt to turn a

dining wrong into a right, I’d

welcome hearing from them to

see how the follow-up played out.

Q: In my experiences, the person

extending the offer of a

complimentary meal gives the

diner a gift certificate.

a: I like that: a set amount and

(typically) a time period in which

it can be used.

Q: Here is how to do a

complimentary right (from the

restaurant side). Back in the ’90s,

my now-wife and I were

planning a dinner for our small

wedding and settled on the now-

departed Kinkead’s. I exchanged

various communications with

the restaurant, but it was

handled poorly and gave up. (We

ended up at Two Quail, to give

you an idea of how long ago this

was). I then sent a long detailed

note (might have been email or

maybe a fax) to the restaurant

laying out in detail what went

wrong on their end. I got an

almost immediate response

containing a full apology and

offer of a dinner for four on them

(up to $250, I think). We took

them up on it within a month or

two and the dinner was handled

superbly and was excellent, of

course. We tipped on what the

bill would have been even

though they told us it was not

necessary. Just a great

experience.

a: That sounds like a Kinkead’s

response (may the chef-owner

rIP).

Q: I was invited to an apology

meal after a seriously painful

billing debacle. We went in

planning on ordering

conservatively (while the billing

error was substantial, in the end

everything worked out well), but

the chef/owner came out,

apologized again, and talked us

into a tasting menu with wine

pairings. Because this happened

during a business trip, and I

wasn’t traveling there for some

time, the apology meal was a

good six months after the

original meal. And wow, it was

good. I didn’t expect anything

except an apology. This went so

far above and beyond. Yes, we’ve

been back.

a: Which is the whole point of

an “apology” meal: getting

diners back on the restaurant’s

side, seeing customers returning

on their own — and singing the

establishment’s praises on social

media and elsewhere.

Everyone makes mistakes. It’s

how they’re handled that can

make things better or worse.

 tom sietsema hosts a weekly

Q&a on Wednesdays at 11 a.m. at

live.washingtonpost.com.

Ask Tom

deb Lindsey For the Washington Post

You could graze for days at Zaytinya and probably still not eat

everything, tom sietsema says. Plus, there are lots of veggie dishes.

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