Sweet Vidalia!

We decided to have a double date night with the Grayson's at this place we stumbled upon about a week before called Vidalia.  Vidalia is a chill spot along M Street, NW near Connetticut Ave, on the basement level of an office building. 

Although one might consider Vidalia a place for fine dining, it's actually pretty affordable and a great place for a weekly date night with your honey as well as a special occasion with your family.  Vidalia has an extensive wine list and wonderful signature cocktails that run about $10 each.

The food at Vidalia is something very special.  Just about every dish on the menu has onions in it!  This might sound a tad overwhelming for the onion unfriendly but rest assured, the added sweetness of the vidalia onion used brings each dish closer to greatness.  My favorite food picks at Vidalia (all of which remind me of my grandma's southern cooking) are; the shrimp and grits, the macaroni and cheese, and the Georgia peach pie.

For the southern comfort and down right greatness of their food, I'd give Vidalia a 4 hip hop star rating.  The only thing that keeps them from a 5 is the price of the cocktails.  I wonder if they have happy hour??

The Ciroc's Meet.... SIROC!

In the Hopkins household Ciroc equals libation and a great time.  Siroc (sirocco), on the other hand, actually means really strong wind......  I'm not quite sure how this connects to the place we checked out, but in any case... Siroc is located on 15th St. NW across the street from the McPherson Square park.  It's a pretty small non-decrepit place, so be careful not to walk past it.

Inside, Siroc is a warm and cozy place, good atmosphere for a date.  The menu is pretty extensive with small plates, entrees, desserts, and an extensive wine list.  What really makes this place a gem is the pasta menu, which is all hand made.

Since it was restaurant week, we got to try a few courses at a nominal price.  We shared a small plate Pan Seared Scallop which rested on a bed of black roasted lentils and tomato sauce.  The scallop was nice and fresh, and didn't have that sea taste you get with scallops. 

After this experience we were prime ready for our restaurant week flare, but it was kind of flat.  We started with appetizers of a crab cake on a white corn, clam, and tomato mix.  The crab cake had good flavor but it had a little too much of the mayo stuff that holds the cake together.  We also had a few signature pasta dishes; the wheat pappardelle (wide pasta) with roasted duck breast and a shiitake mushroom creme sauce.  It was just OK.  The pasta was good but for it the duck to be the premier protein, I would have thought mushrooms were the key ingredient.  B had the fettuccine with a tomato garlic and oil oil dressing and what was supposed to be shrimp.  When the plate arrived, it had scallops.  No biggie, cause B loves scallops but then they tell us 10 minuets later he could have had shrimp..... SMH.  We finished off with the peach skillet cake, basically peach cobbler and a red wine and ginger drunken pear with mascarpone gelato!  The pear was off the chain and I'm actually going to attempt to make it myself but the peach cobbler stuff was a disappointment.  The dough was very thick and lacked flavor.

As unofficial spokesfolks for Ciroc, we were really excited about this place but it did disappoint.  Maybe they only serve the good stuff during non-restaurant week times, but we won't be going to find out.  For that, Siroc gets a 2.5 hip hop star rating.

THE BIRTH OF THE FOODIE BLOG (and BGR).

 Last night while checking out a new spot someone confirmed what I had already known for a long time, I'm a foodie.  I love finding good food and telling people about it.  This year I kicked my foodieness into high gear and I would say I checked about about 13 new restaurants/hang outs so far this year.  Some I checked out based on a recommendation, some from seeing the chef on TV, and some from just walking by.  For the most part, the experiences have been great so I figured why not pass on this info via a blog.

For my first foodie blog I'm going to tell you about BGR in Dupont Circle (DC).  BGR has gotten really popular this year and I think I've heard at least 4 people talk about this spot.  It's really a hole in the wall type of place.  Bonna said it looks like Chipotle, but I wouldn't even go that far.  The place has an 80's theme and they play classic VH1 on 2 flat screen TV's in the main dinning area.


The menu is very brief, just the beef!  They only make burgers and classic burger sides (fries and onion rings) so if you're looking for some pasta, you're in the wrong place.  All the burgers are cooked to order so it takes a little time but it's really worth it.  The prices are moderate at $8-10 per burger (w/o the fries) and they serve beer and soda.


I had the classic "The Burger" with bacon and cheese cooked medium-well and Bonna had "The Wellington" with grilled mushrooms cooked the same way.  Both The Burger and Wellington were very good.  The open grilled taste of the burger reminded me of an old school bbq.  I think the best thing of all was the bun.  It looks like it's a potato bread bun so it's kind of sweet and the bun is bushed with butter before it's toasted.  The folks there also put some stuff called "mojo sauce" on the burger.  I don't know that it added that much to the burger.


Overall, I'd recommend this place to a friend if you're in the area and really want a good burger.  I won't go there everyday or even drive out of my way to get one, but it was pretty good and above average nonetheless.  So for that I'll give BGR a 4 hip-hop star rating.