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Russell Warnick

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Russell Warnick

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Dining: Green Pig Bistro

July 9, 2015 Russell W. Warnick
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I wasn't looking for a place to have dinner, just a spot I could park my butt for an hour to have a drink and maybe a quick bite while waiting on the boyfriend to join me before heading off to a friends place in the depths of Arlington (read: Clarendon.) Green Pig Bistro was in my general direction and after a quick look at the drinks menu I was sold, right at the top was a listing for a sparkling pineapple wine from Hawaii, Hula O'Maui. I had no idea that Hawaii produced wine, but I was eager to give it a try. You'd imagine the pineapple would provide a sweet dessert like taste, but far from it - it was crisp and bubbly with a hint of pineapple primarily from its aroma, closer to a Prosecco on the spectrum of sparkling wines. I should have ordered the bottle. 

Green Pig offers a weekday happy hour menu, with $5 snack plates and discounted drinks at the bar. I ordered a plate of the Snail and Mushroom Toast which was less of a snack and more of a meal, a creamy plate of sauteed mushrooms with a few snails nestled in between. If you're adverse or new to snails this dish would be a good introduction, few of them to pick around and not too overwhelming in flavor, the creamy mushrooms are the players here. And easily enough to fill up on. 

The boyfriend arrived, we stayed for dinner.

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In Happy Hour, Restaurants Tags Dining, Arlington, Green Pig Bistro, Happy Hour, Restaurants
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Dining: Doi Moi

June 17, 2015 Russell W. Warnick
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As far as restaurants go on 14th Street Doi Moi is a veteran, it's been with us for nearly two years now, opening in the late summer of 2013. Yet it took the restaurant quite some time to enter the bustling brunch scene that so many of us crave, debuting the late-morning weekend soiree this past April. It's a more relaxed affair than its neighbors, no bottomless or unlimited plates anything, but an adapted dinner menu featuring more eggs and the usual pricey cocktails. If you've visited the restaurant for dinner you'll find the menu familiar and comfortable, many of the favorites such as Goi Cuon (garden roll), Goi Chai (steamed garlic chive & mushroom dumplings) and Bun Bo Xao (stir fried lemongrass beef with vermicelli noodles) are all available, but it's breakfast you came for so that means eggs and pork. 

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In Brunch, Restaurants Tags Dining, Brunch, Vietnamese, 14th Street, Washington DC
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Dining: Pizza Studio

April 30, 2015 Russell W. Warnick
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"Scalability, simplicity, consistency and quality" is not the only 4-step program that the latest restaurant chain to enter the DC pizza revolution has to offer. It's the pick of one of its 7 crusts, 5 sauces, 3 cheeses and over 35 unlimited toppings at a warp-speed efficiency that Pizza Studio hopes to draw the crowds in with.

I was invited to an early peek of the first Washington, DC outpost of Pizza Studio, a fast-casual restaurant a la Chipotle - allowing customers to build their meal from the bottom up, choosing from an array of ingredients that are enough to overwhelm the senses, but with the help of "pizza artists" to guide you along the way so not to make any culinary missteps. Pizza Studio, located just south of Dupont Circle on 19th Street hopes to stand out by offering up unlimited toppings at one price at a very quick speed. $7.99 will get you an 11" pizza in 2 minutes, or at least that's the time it takes for each pizza to cook in the 600 degree oven. For a company that's only been around for a little over two years it's a pretty impressive feat, these pizzas taste and look as if they belong on a more established menu.

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In Restaurants Tags Pizza, Restaurants, Dupont Circle, Fast-Casual, Washington DC
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Dining: S.E.R.

April 6, 2015 Russell W. Warnick
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Don't let a simple and easy crossing of a river detract you, as it will set the tone when eating at S.E.R., for the Spanish restaurant in Ballston has made a real mark as a seafood destination for the DC area. From culinary duoChef Josu Zubikarai and Javier Candon, with Christiana Campos-Candon, they will not just introduce you to new flavors from the ocean but its whimsical decor will have you forgetting your closest body of water is the Potomac. 

I grew up not far from the sea and on breezy days you could smell the salty air throughout the town, but as a youngster I was never a fan of seafood - perhaps it was because our towns finest harvest were cockles, too salty and slimy for my liking. I've come along way since then, apparently now I can happily clean a plate of gooseneck barnacles (or percebes), a prehistoric looking crustacean that offers up a briny salt-like meat from it's black and incredibly ugly looking shell. I can picture myself on the beach sipping on a sangria with a plate of these without a care in the world. Or in Arlington. When in Basque, right? 

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In Restaurants Tags Restaurants, Seafood, Ballston, Spanish
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