Don't pass on the Salt & Pepper

 The Palisades is a nice place to visit.  There are a couple of good restaurants to eat at, notably Salt & Pepper and Makoto.    This is a shot of Salt & Pepper's patio. 
 Chef Nate Auchter and his wife Lindsey own this restaurant.  I've known Nate for years and have seen him move up the chain.  When I first met him I think he was working for Todd Grey at Equinox.  He's got skills in the kitchen and is actually a nice guy.  That's rarer than you might imagine in the restaurant industry.

Cute stuff here and there around the restaurant.

Nice and comfy.  Understated.

Nice that we can go back to hanging stemware now that you can't smoke in restaurants.  What a pain it was to try to figure out where to put all that stuff! 

I asked Nate to cook what he'd be eating if he were having lunch, and this is what he delivered.  A Bacon Cheeseburger with a Fried Egg Topper.  Excellent!

The o-rings aren't done in the normal fashion in that they use pastry flour instead of all-purpose.  It makes them nice and crunchy without being greasy.  Cool idea.

If you're in The Palisades, make sure you stop by and say hello.  Be sure to tell Nate where you read about him!

Thanks for reading.

Merzi....Indian food fast, cheap and tasty.

Good afternoon Washington DC!  What a day Friday was!

 It started out raining cats and dogs, but then the sun came out and brought a little of the artist in me with it.

 I brought my appetite with me too!  I had heard of Merzi, but hadn't had an opportunity to stop in and check it out.  Note that the restaurant is right next to the Independent Order of the Odd Fellows Temple.  It's a fact.

 The idea behind Merzi is Chipotle meets traditional Indian.  Seems like a lot of folks are heading towards the Chipotle meets.....thing these days, and it's not a bad way to go.  Do it right and you can be successful.  Do it wrong, and you're a statistic.  These folks do it pretty well.  Choose your meat, your vehicle, i.e. rice bowl, naan, your toppings, your spices and your beverage, then pay.  Quick and fairly painless.  You can be out the door for less than $10.00 with a good lunch.

 One thing I noted in my visit was the branding and the build.  Interesting fonts, colors, and textures all put together very well.

 I shot some B&W to take the focus off the colors and let you see what I meant about textures.  Very pleasing to the eye.

 Back to the food..

 It's gotta be clean if you want to keep my business.  I showed up towards the end of lunch and the place was still fairly busy, but there wasn't any muck/grease/wasted food laying around.  Nice n' tidy, just the way I like it.

 I'm not sure what I had here, but it was lamb on naan with all of their spicy toppings.  I broke a sweat....  I also had a potato tikka.  Crisp and tasty.
The one issue I have is that the food doesn't come out piping hot.  As in my post about Shophouse, same issue.  The proteins need to be kept hotter. 

Neat place.  I definitely recommend stopping in for lunch.  Check it out.  The GM is named Colin.  Tell him where you heard about it!