TableXChange

As some of you may know my good friend Jared's brother Gabe started a website with two friends called TableXChange (www.tablexchange.com). The site is an online forum in which you can buy and sell hard to get restaurant reservations. While there is a cost outlay (if you're buying), it is sooo worth it, if only to save yourself the hassle of having to deal with a reservation hot line at 8am four weeks prior to the date you want to go out to dinner! Also, if you're selling, it can be some nice pocket change towards your next meal out.

Currently the site is available in New York City and the Hamptons, but hopefully soon they will be expanding to other food-centric cities.

Recently I used the service to secure the mother of all hard to get reservations in this town, a Friday night (8PM) table for four at Babbo just a couple of days in advance. I highly recommend this website!

The link for the site is above, but the boys are mentioned in Yahoo in an article about the Top 25 Under 25 Entrepreneurs and you if you're a Facebook user, you can also find them there (http://apps.facebook.com/whereieat/).

B

Lennox Room - Substitute Blog by PS

I have never let a substitute blog in my place, but PS had such rave reviews about her Resturant Week experience that I'm letting her "post" today.

I'm certainly no concierge, or even blogger, for that matter, but it is my responsibility to impart my experience at Lenox Room to Becky's loyal fans because it is truly one worth reporting. Lenox Room, located within one block from my apartment building, is a great place for an after work drink, and an even better place for dinner.

My husband and I decided to take advantage of Restaurant Week and were pleasantly surprised at what Lenox Room had to offer. After we were seated, we dove into the breadbasket, which was well worth it because it contained three types of bread, all fresh and all tasty.

We ordered a 2005 Pinot Noir from Oregon, which complemented the following three courses: a crunchy shrimp dumpling appetizer, which was served with duck sauce and made my stomach smile, lobster and shrimp risotto, which contained real, large chunks of lobster and shrimp (not the kind that'd make you worry if you were eating at a lower class joint), and a sizable classic crème brulee, served with almond biscotti. The dumplings earned themselves an A+, the risotto and crème brulee an A.

My husband ate a crab cake for the appetizer, which was moist and juicy and accompanied by guacamole and seasoned cucumbers. I'm not sure which tasted better, the main attraction or the garnish because both were so flavorful. He ate a roasted chicken for the main course, which came with delicious crispy skin, served atop of mashed potatoes. The portion size was so generous, he was able to take some home in a doggie bag to bring for lunch the following day. For dessert, my husband had the lemon cheesecake. The cheesecake was round, two inch in diameter. It was cream cheese based and had enough lemon flavor to make it interesting, but not too much to overpower it. My husband rated the crab cake an A+, the chicken dish and cheesecake an A.

For a restaurant to earn an overall A from a tough critic like myself speaks volumes. Give it a try.

Lenox Room is located on 3rd Avenue between 73rd and 74th St.

Bubbles on the Potomac III: Vintage, Baby! Vintage! Charity Gala

Hey Everyone,

If you're in the DC area on Sunday, August 5, 2007, please try to make your way to my friend Andrew Stover's Charity Event, Bubbles on the Potomac.

Who: Bubbles on the Potomac III - Vintage, Baby, Vintage!
What: This gala event, chaired by Andrew and hosted by the Washington Area Concierge Association (WACA), benefits charities in the DC area, including The John B. Campbell Hospitality Scholarship, Les Clefs d'Or Foundation and Foods & Friends (more details on each of these below).
When: Sunday Aug 5th - boarding begins at 5:30 and the dinner cruise is between 6:00 and 9:00
Where: the Odyssey III - leaves from Gangplank Marina (Southwest Waterfront - 600 Water St, SW)
Price: $75/person - Tickets can be picked up at the Odyssey Box Office on the evening of the event. Please use this link to purhcase: http://bubblesonthepotomac.eventbrite.com; you can also pay via check by visiting: www.wacaonline.com.

Info on the Charities
· The John B. Campbell Hospitality Scholarship - assists DC, Maryland and Virginia students studying for careers in the hospitality industry.

· Les Clefs d’Or Foundation - distributes funds to benefit concierges, their families and partners who are unable to work due to life threatening illnesses, such as AIDS, cancer and heart disease.

· Food & Friends - prepares, packages and delivers meals and groceries to more than 1,000 people living with HIV/AIDS, cancer and other life-challenging illnesses throughout DC, Maryland and Virginia. Since 1988, Food & Friends has provided food and companionship to clients, their loved ones and caregivers.

Hope you can make it!

For any questions, plase contact Andrew Stover at 202-463-4550

Flig Parties

Now that all the parities I've been planning are winding down, I'm taking my show on the road. That's right folks, I'm going to start a small party planning business. When I say small, think shower, luncheons, dinner parties, bachelorette (or bachelor) parties, birthday parties, etc. Most of you have used my skills for something or another, so spread the word! I'm working on pricing...for the time being this is going to be a pretty modest business, as I have a day job, so please also pass that thought around as well. If anyone has any questions, shoot me an email at rdflig@gmail.com.

xoxoxo

B

PS - the first party I am planning is a surprise 30th this August. If anyone would like to contact the person who hired me (for reference purposes), please let me know and I'll put you in touch.

Moving Day

As some of you may know I recently (last week) moved into a studio in NYC. This is the first time in about eight and a half years that I'm living alone. While I 100% miss my roomies (and the help I get while getting ready on a Sat night), its nice to have some quiet Flig time.

Since this isn't a personal blog, I'm not going to go much more into the apartment. Rather, I wanted to give a big shout out to Bob Falley, or Big Bob as some call him. He's moved me into every apartment I've moved to in NY (this is #4). He's so easy to deal with; all you have to do is call him (funny outgoing message on the vm too!), make an appointment and send an email with the amount of things that need to be moved. Among the services he's provided, I know he has helped people from my town move their things to college and he's gone down to AC to pick up a couch for GL.

Bob's contact info is below:
Bob Falley
917-701-5359
bobfalley@aol.com

OYA

While visiting DC this past weekend, CZ, MW and I went (back) to Oya. However, this time it was under very different circumstances than any of the other times I've been. CZ has recently become friends with several members of the team over there and I would like to give them a shout out!! I just could not resist writing about them! Aaron (GM), Andrew (Sommelier) and Javier (BEST waiter) all made the experience so wonderful, we went back two nights in a row (not unusual for CZ). Anyway,while the food is excellent (especially the crispy tuna roll, the yellow tomato soup with hamachi and really whatever Javier thought we would enjoy based on the tastes we told him we had), its not so much the food I wanted to discuss, but the wine. The wine list had a great combination of lesser known varieties that made for an interesting wine tasting experience. If you're ever in DC, you should know Oya does have a "30 Bottles for $30" Special (Sundays and Mondays only) that I think cannot be beat. If you can't get there on a Sunday or Monday, the list did have reasonable wines anwyay.


Below is a list of wines that Andrew "prepared" for us to taste over the course of both nights.

Anima Negra 'AN/2' Red - Spain (http://www.winebow.com/)

Pirineos Masache Blanco - Spain (http://www.winebow.com/)

St Joseph Vineyard Cabernet Franc Ice Wine - Ohio (http://www.saintjosephvineyard.com/)

Camaraderie Cellars Malbec - Washington State (http://www.camaraderiecellars.com/)


Oya is now, by far, my favorite restaurant in DC!

Check out the resturant's site - http://www.oyadc.com/. Also, Andrew has a wine blog - the link can be found on the upper right hand of my page.

B

Two More Great Meals!

As some of you know, my mom's birthday is/was March 17th (St Paddy's day). This year we had two fabulous meals together: the first was our traditional mother/daughter lunch and the second was on the night of St Paddy's day with my dad (yes, after partying all day, I rallied for a five course meal!) The two restaurants we hit were Jean Georges ("JG"), who my mom loves and we always end up at one of his places for her birthday lunch (JoJo, Perry St, etc) and Danube, where we were expecting a phenomenal meal due to its being a Bouley restaurant, but were apprehensive about the service, due to its also being a Bouley restaurant (the original Bouley has very very snotty waiters). Fortunately, we were pleasantly surprised at Danube and my dad, pickiest of the picky, is counting down the days until the next time we go for dinner there. Long story short, I'd recommend both in a heart beat!

Some tidbits from both meals:

Jean Georges
JG has two dining rooms: the bar room and the formal dining room. During the week, the dining room has a $23 three course lunch (limited menu) and the formal dining room has a $28 lunch for two dishes ($12 for each additional dish). We opted for the formal dining room and shared 5 plates between the two of us. Regardless of menus though I would recommend the formal dining room, as the bar room seemed noisier, more casual and the picturesque views were not plenty. The meal started with an amuse bouche of some sort of soup (maybe parsnip?), a piece of smoked salmon and a piece of dried pineapple with chile foam (I opted out of the foam). Our first round of plates were tuna for me and butternut squash soup for my mom. The tuna was in a really yummy soy kind of sauce with spicy radishes and the soup had shitake mushrooms in it. During this course we also shared fluffy goat cheese with beets and pistachios. For our 'mains my mom had scallops with burnt cauliflower (which I LOVE, but you can usually only find at Italian restaurants) and I had lobster with herb raviolis in a Gruyere sauce. We didn't get desert, but they gave each table macaroons (raspberry, pistachio and vanilla), marshmallows (vanilla, coffee and grapefruit) and chocolates.

Danube
Like I said above my night started with a day of drinking...so, what better thing to do while waiting for my parents stuck in traffic, but have a glass of Tattinger at the bar and talk to the bartender. The bar, I must mention, was very dramatic in red velvet and very low lighting. I learned while sitting there, that there is a slightly smaller/differnt menu for the bar if you just want to come in to have some appetizers and drinks. When my parents finally got there, they didn't like the table we were originally given (smack in the middle of the room, who could blame them?), so we stayed at the bar for a while. This was fine, because by then the bartender knew it was her birthday so she gave us a round of the house drink (elderberry and champagne) and a plate of "tastes" on the house. The plate included tuna tartare in philo, viener schnitzel (one of their specialties) bites and oxtail dumplings. Dinner was awesome, the bread was even great (I had a pretzel)! The amuse bouche was butternut squash soup (must be in season, because I feel like EVERY restaurant I've been to lately has this). For starters I had a tuna and hamachi dish, my mom had the cheese raviolis (another specialty) and my dad just had salad. In between the appetizer and the main we were brought a small portion of what I guess was a sort of Austrian "surf and turf" (or just lobster and short ribs). For mains I had a rack of veal with red wine risotto and various types of mushrooms, my mom had goulash and my dad had steak. After dinner we were brought elderberry sorbet as an intermezzo and then for desert, because it was her birthday, we were brought three to share and desert wine. As we were leaving, my mom and I were each given a "goody bag" of lemon loaf from Bouley Bakery (they do this at Bouley as well).

All in all a great eating weekend - my only comment about each of the above is to request a table on the side of the room (then again, you know me, I always like to look out ;))

B