Restaurant Review: Central Michel Richard

This is a guest post from the GFF–  we recently went to dinner at Central Michel Richard after a long day at work.  She shares her thoughts in the post below. She has also written  other  restaurant reviews on this blog.

After having tried many restaurants in our neighborhood, we wanted to branch out and try something just a little bit nicer. I had been wanting to try Central Michel Richard for quite some time, so recently we decided to give it a try. We called about a half hour ahead of time to make a reservation and had no problem getting a table on a Wednesday evening. The atmosphere at Central is very nice, although the dining room was a bit loud when we were eating. One of the most interesting parts of the restaurant is that the kitchen is open, so you could watch the plates be prepared. Although I was not sitting facing the kitchen, my dining companion said it was an interesting thing to watch.
The menu at Central is very interesting. I would say the best way to describe it is a bistro menu. It has everything from charcuterie to lobster burgers to steaks. It was difficult to choose with so many options. Finally, we agreed to have cheese puffs (gougeres) as an appetizer. They were great, flaky light popover-like rolls with a lovely cheesy middle. It was a really good start to the meal. I would also like to mention the bread. Too often, the bread at restaurants is very unappealing. Not so at Central. The bread was warm and had a nice crackly crust with a very soft interior. Between that and the gougeres, we had plenty of carbs for the night.
For our entrees, I chose the lamb shank. The lamb was insanely tender, literally falling off the bone. The sauce that it was served in was also very flavorful. My least favorite part of the dish was the polenta that accompanied the lamb. It was not as thick as I typically like polenta to be, and was not as flavorful as the rest of the dish. The fried onions topping the polenta were quite tasty, however. My dining companion chose the beef short ribs. While listed on the menu as beef cheeks, our waitress informed us that tonight they were serving beef short ribs instead. The short ribs came with a homemade tagliatelle noodle. The dish was also listed as coming with a sweet potato puree, but not being a fan of purees, my friend asked for it to be left off, and the waitress was happy to pass that message along. According to my friend, his dish was also excellent. The meat was very tender and flavorful, and the tagliatelle was also well cooked and tasty.
To accompany our meals, I had a lovely glass of red wine, and my companion had a pilsner. Despite the non manliness of he size of his beer, we both found our drinks complemented our diner. Sadly, we were too full to try dessert, but those at the table next to us who were eating dessert seemed to be enjoying it. Overall, Central was a great choice for a restaurant. While certainly a bit too pricey for an everyday dining experience, it is a great place for a special dinner, or just when you want to try something a bit nicer than average. I'd highly recommend trying it at some point soon.

Review from Washington Post.

Reviews on Yelp

~ The GFF

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Looking back at 2008 & How I faired on my resolutions

Looking back 2008 was a very challenging year both professionally and personally.  I stepped out of my comfort zone and went after what I wanted. I’d be lying if I said I did this voluntarily every time.  Sometimes, the situations left me no other but to venture out.  With some planning and some luck I end up where I had hope to be by the end of the year.  Along the way, I met some great folks, made some new friends, became more idealistic, lost faith in the baby boomers,  and gain faith the millennials.  Most of you probably watched this chapter of my live chapter unfold live via Twitter, Facebook, Frienfeed, Tumblr and this blog….whenever I updated it.  The highlights of 2008 include South Carolina primary, 1631 S Streeet NW, ServiceNation Summit, DC Primary,  November 4th, Frat house 2.0, Boston/NH, my investiture, and becoming an American.  I will remember 2008 as the year I decided to get involved.

As for my resolutions,  here is how faired:

1.  Maintain a GPA above a 3.5 -  DONE. I was able to keep a 4.0 GPA.

2.  Read 6 books (outside the classroom) and write about them on here  - FAIL. I did not read six books I think I read 3... Sad I know. This is commitment that I make every year and continuously fail at it.  I'm not really sure why.  I'm an information junkie and I do read a lot but I haven't managed to read books.  I blame it on the amount of reading and writing I have to go school.

3.  Reconnect with 5 or more family members back home - DONE.  I think I reconnected with more than 5 family members.  But I still don't talk to them on the regular basis.  It gets quite expansive to call home regularly.  And Skype does not have exactly have stellar services.  If you're using a software to call Africa or other third world countries, I'd love to hear about it.

4.  Record all financial data for the entire year - FAIL.  I'm going to try again this year. I will be switching to Mint something this month. 

5.  Bring in 10K to 15K through freelancing - DONE and most of the money went to paying for school.

6.  Open an IRA or Home buying fund - FAIL.  Instead, I focused more on the opening and beefing up an emergency saving account.  It came in handy when I was let go earlier this year.  So I'm glad I went that route instead.

7.  Go to 12 museums - FAIL.  I think I went to 2 museums,  I did do more cultural stuff around the city including BSO, Kennedy Center, Book signings and lectures.

8.  Learn Ruby on Rails - FAIL. I don't even have it installed on any of my computer.  I instead focused on learning how to customize WordPress and give it a professional touch.

9.  Be a better boyfriend/Better Work life balance - FAIL.  At some point during the summer, I was working, going school, working on a the Silverman Campaign and doing freelancing.  That's not balance at all.  However, I have become much more organize and learned how to schedule leisure time as well.

10. Get Management Position in IT or Public Policy - I did get a management position at Be The Change, Inc from which I was let go earlier late in the Year  and I’m now at a Public Affairs firm.  I'd say I'm moving towards the right the direction professionally. I've moved a way from a purely technical background which was the real goal here.

I could have done better with my resolutions, but I’m satisfied with my performance.  I’m will my 2009 resolutions up shortly