Fanfare Eatery - A new concept by Glory Days Grill

Fanfare is a new concept by the folks who bring you some of the best sports-bar food and entertainment.  Their IT director is a pretty forward thinking guy.

This is a view you see as you walk in the front door and look left.

This is looking towards the kitchen.

If you turn around when you enter the front door, you'll notice this on the wall.

It's a self-service terminal on the wall.  If there is a line to get in you can just order your own stuff!  Pretty cool.  They will also be using online ordering shortly, so you can use your smartphone to order a couple dozen wings and a shake to go!

Lots of screens in this place.  This looks like a standard menu board, but it's actually large flat-panel displays that show a rotation of different pictures and specials.  Easy to keep up to date and you don't have to get it re-printed every time you change a price or add an item.

More screens in the kitchen.  These tell the cooks what to make, how many, and how fast to do it.  It also ties into reporting so that the managers can tell which cooks are getting it done quickly, and which are not.  It can also alert the mangers to things like particular menu items taking too long, which can prompt them to re-configure how they prepare particular items.

Another shot of the digital menu boards.

The terminals on the counter have a big touch screen in the back so you can confirm your order and they can tell you about specials or promote specific items.

 

I like the look on the bathroom doors.  They were pretty clearly labeled, though it's apparent the fun-police came and made them use the universal symbols for men and women over their much more creative, though completely legible signage.

Another view of the dining room.

Lots of tasty sauces available, including a few of their own.

You can see my order on the screen!  This screen tells the cooks exactly how long my ticket has been in the kitchen.  After a preset number of minutes the ticket will turn yellow, and then after several more, red, which alerts the kitchen to the fact that they better light a fire under that puppy and get my food out!

You'll notice the production items (items that are ordered frequently) on the top row reflect my order.  There may be so many tickets that the cooks can't see them all at once without scrolling, but they can always see how many of their most popular items they need to have working at any given moment.  Notice the burger spot has a 2 in it, and there are 2 on my order.  Same with the wings.  The fry-guy knows exactly how many wings he has to have either in the fryer or in the drawer at any time.

Here's one!

Can't leave Fanfare without some wings in ya.

And there's the other.

If you have any questions or comments about the technology, writing, pictures, or restaurant please get in touch.  I'd love to hear from you.

The Hamilton - Revisited

The Hamilton

600 14th St. N.W.

Washington, DC 20005

202-787-1000

12/18 and 12/20/2011

You've seen my posts about this place before.  It is a monster. Lots of seats and a music venue.  Open 24X7.  Serving breakfast, lunch, dinner, and sushi!  The picture above is of their stairs leading down to the music venue.  I hadn't seen these lit up before.  Very cool.  Strangely enough, it doesn't have a cavernous vibe as you might expect in something this big.  They broke this restaurant into many small sections and bars in order to keep it feeling intimate.

The sign isn't lit, but you really can't miss it.  It covers half the block and is where the old Border's was.

So, to move onto my favorite part:  the food.  These are some cheesy potatoes that one of my fellow diners had.  I didn't dig into her dish, but it looked good.

I went with the Sushi/Sashimi combo.  All of the fish was prepared nicely and was extremely fresh.  They offer fresh-grated horse radish, but you have to ask for it.  It's worth the upcharge.  I love that stuff. 

Artful and tasty.

This was a nice touch...fresh jumbo-lump crab in the California Rolls.

Everyone likes happy chefs!  David Moran and his crew found a very talented sushi crew.  Looking around, it seemed like every table in the restaurant had sushi of some sort on it, but they have a full menu of  regional items as well.  The sushi is going to be popular as there isn't a good sushi place within several blocks.

Nice variety of fish at the sushi bar.

Huge, glossy scallops.

This is the crudo.

I just happened to be snapping pix when this came out.  Not my food, but it looked good.

I'm pretty sure this was a firecracker roll in front and something spicy behind it...

On the 20th I went back with my wife and son so I could try some of the turf, as opposed to just the surf. 

The Hamilton is following a local trend here that I love:  house still and sparkling water at no extra charge.  I love sparkling water with dinner, but hate being charged $10.00 per bottle as I've seen in some restaurants.  This is also much more environmentally friendly as the bottles are washable and reusable.  No wasting plastic and space in a landfill. 

I got the Dancing Manhattan.  Balanced and well made.  Here is a link to the Drink Menu.

The bread is served with a cube of butter topped with what appears to by Maldon Sea Salt, which as you may or may not know is what I smoke a lot of for gifts this time of year.  Tender and crisp.  Interested in a bottle of hand-crafted, Smoked Maldon Sea Salt from Pleasures of the Table?  Let me know.

Let me show you how deftly I handle my chop stix!  Alex is a sushi fiend and has been since he was about three. 

This plate was actually enough to keep him from asking for dessert.  Amazing.

As before, the fish was tremendous.  I'm sure they are burning through their inventory on a daily basis here, so no worries about freshness.  Here is a link to the Sushi Menu.

Cheryl got the crab cakes.  I had her get the double because I knew I'd want one.  Jumbo lump, just enough filler to hold it together, and that's it.  This was sweet and well prepared. 

This was the Pork Chop.  One of the better ones I've had in a restaurant.  It was big.  Nicely crisped on the outside/tender and juicy on the inside.  Just hot enough to get past pink.  Speaking of hot, my wife and I both noticed that the food came out together, and everything was hot.  That may not seem like a huge feat in a diner, but in a restaurant of this size pulling food from different stations with different cooking times, it can be a challenge to get everything out at the right temp and cooked properly.  If you'd like a glimpse of the magic behind that, look at this link.

I'll post again when I've had a chance to try the music venue, the late night menu, and the breakfast menu.

Keep in mind when you're viewing the menus that this is a new restaurant, so they may change.

In summary, I feel that this place is going to rock.  They have the formula down from many years of experience, and they have a very well-seasoned management staff to keep things rolling.

I will be back to cycle the everything they have to offer over the next few months, so stay tuned.

Thanks for reading.  Questions or comments?  Let me know!  Thanks.