Month: March 2021

Better Selection

/ ronnyjames / Leave a comment

Loudoun County has grown, A LOT, over the past twenty-five years. That is hardly a surprise to anyone who has lived in the area for any length of time. But for me, coming back to the area after we sold our home in Fairfax County, it has been a bit of a shock.

In 1995, the population was 116,140; in 2021 the estimated population is 429,570. The 2020 census data won’t be released for sometime but I’m sure it won’t shock county residents that we continue to grow. While Loudoun County is neither the fastest growing county in the US, it is the fastest in Virginia. According to Loudoun County Business Development, “Nationally, over that span (since 2010) Loudoun ranks 20th in growth of 3,142 counties and seventh among counties with a population of 100,000 or more. With Washington-Dulles International Airport providing access to more than 50 world capitals, nearly one in four Loudouners were born outside the U.S.” See their article for more here.

What I find interesting in all of this talk about growth is the growth in our culinary selections. Restaurant reviews and magazine or newspaper “best of” and “top ten” lists are published periodically. I have found many to be helpful guides in my ongoing search of culinary adventure. Over on The Burn website for instance, they have written over 35 stories on restaurants which have either opened since January of this year, or have plans to open soon.

Many of the new selections fall into recognizable categories: eight new restaurants featuring chicken, for instance. Five new Asian restaurants (Korean BBQ, Chinese-style hot pot, Vietnamese and Thai restaurants; four coffee shops and a couple of cookie or milk shake dessert places; even a new winery which looks like it will be fun (Old Farm Winery at Hartland).

Saigon Outcast is a recently-opened fast casual style restaurant that we tried Saturday night with friends. A band was playing indoors to an enthusiastic crowd; we sat outdoors on the patio. Gas heaters provided plenty of warmth during the cool spring evening and allowed us to enjoy the conversation without needing to wear a mask. Saigon Outcast is an Vietnamese twist on the popular “world of beers” eatery. Rather than traditional pub food (pretzels, hamburgers, smothered tater tots), their menu has features such as lemongrass beef, green papaya salad with shrimp, and wok-charred shishito peppers. Indoors, the wall of customer-poured beers was an experience I look forward to trying again. I needed a little help with the whole process (chilled glasses on the left side of the cooler, tip your glass a little more to get under the spigot) but what an adventure! With over 30 beers, wines and ciders to choose from, fun decor and the Vietnamese inspired menu, this is a place I hope to return to soon.

*UPDATE The Burn reported that unfortunately, Saigon Outcast closed permanently in October 2022, apparently another casualty of the pandemic’s effect on small businesses.

A few selections from the menu at Saigon Outcast

La Prensa Tacos and Tapas opened last December in Sterling and has been growing in popularity since. Deb and I stopped in after church one Sunday hoping to avoid the afternoon and evening crowd I had seen on a recent drive by pick up at Nothing Bundt Cakes next door. What a treat! We tried several of the tapas and a birria quesadilla, all delicious. They offer two types of sangria so we ordered a glass of each to go with our tasting meal. The grilled octopus with Salsa Basquaise was amazing and had me thinking about our visit to Barcelona. The menu is Mexican influenced according to chef Santosh Tiptur, owner of The Conche in Leesburg, with half of the menu featuring tacos, enchiladas and quesadillas, the other half featuring small-plated tapas. There are three items on the dessert menu (save room!) and the churros drizzled in chocolate served with ice cream was my favorite. The flan was nice, but really no competition with the churros. I’m giving them two thumbs up. Try them soon for an upbeat modern version of a Spanish tapas bar.

Pulpo con Salsa Basquaise

La Prensa

21305 Windmill Parc Drive, Suite 140
Sterling VA 20166
703-462-3325

Saigon Outcast (closed permanently Oct 2022)

44921 George Washington Blvd, Suite 155
Ashburn, VA 20147
703-258-6562

The Qui

/ ronnyjames / 2 Comments

This weekend we tried the Qui Korean Grille, a new Korean Barbeque restaurant in the NOVA area. Located in Chantilly, Virginia, it is off the Annandale—Centreville axis of Korean restaurants we usually visit and closer to our new home in Eastern Loudoun County. Korean KBBQ is often served “all you can eat” style with a seemingly endless supply of new sliced meats to grill at your table. The Qui has been open for just three months so I was excited to try them out.

The “all you can eat” menu features either a pork or a beef selection. For $24 a person, that sounded fine but I thought it would really be too much to eat for the two of us (ten meat selections!) So, for a few dollars more, we selected the Beef Combination set, better quality meat and only five selections. Beginning with thinly-sliced brisket, we tried their bulgogi and three other meats. It still ended up being far more meat than we usually have for a meal. But after I saw it on the menu, our server was kind and brought us a sample of the orange bulgogi to try. Winner!


Our meal came with rice and a small assortment of banchan, side dishes such as kimchi, broccoli, and pickled daikon radish meant to be shared. Curiously missing was the plate of large-leaved lettuce used to wrap the bite sized portions of meat. It really was a meat lovers experience. My favorite turned out to be the orange bulgogi. I’ve often brought home marinated beef and pork bulgogi from our local HMart grocery store and grilled my own meats; I’m definitely trying it with the orange flavor soon.

The Qui appears to fit more closely with the look and feel of Iron Age Korean Steak Restaurant in Centreville. Both share the same dark painted walls and low-lit aesthetic. With its slab concrete tables and black pendant lighting, the Qui doesn’t have the warm and bright environment that I’m used to seeing at most of our restaurants. Not sure how I feel about that yet. With restaurant indoor capacity still at 50 percent, the tables are separated with plexiglass dividers. There are hand sanitizer stations at the door and a contactless temperature check in the waiting area before entering the main dining room.


The Qui is located next door to Chateau de Chantilly Cafe, a large cafe and bakery with plenty of seating indoors as well as an outdoor patio area in the front. A great place to stop and get a coffee and pastry after your meal at the Qui. Give them both a try and let me know what you think.

THE QUI Korean Grill
website
13972 Metrotech Dr, Chantilly, VA 20151 | 703.817.2505

Plenty of parking at the side and back of the building.

Big Real Big

/ ronnyjames / 1 Comment

I first learned silkscreen printing when I went to work for a sign company printing billboards back in the 1970s. It was a part time job while I attended the University of Nevada. Today billboards come in a lot of varying sizes and the technology has changed dramatically over the past 40 plus years. Many billboards are now printed digitally (think of a gigantic HP plotter), or even comprised of small LED units to create vivid moving graphic displays. But back in the day, we printed on sheets of paper, 42” x 60”, 12 sheets to a sign. The screens were huge compared to the little screens we had used in art class. The squeegees were big. We mixed up the ink up in 5 gallon buckets. Everything was big.

Checking the registration between the screen and the printing substrate.

When I moved to San Diego after college, I found a job in another screen printing company doing the same thing as before. We still used hand cut paper stencils, adhered to the bottom of the screen, to make our impressions. But this company had an industrial-sized copy camera and a dark room, so we produced a lot of signs using film and photosensitive emulsion coated onto the screens for the stencil. 

I left them and helped to start another printing company (a competitor with several former employees from our previous company—not sure how I feel about that now). 

But those positions and experiences all prepared me for the move to the Really Big  Show. Robert Keith and Company, San Diego was a design and fabrication company specializing in custom made Giant Inflatable Product Replicas, along with inflatable college mascots, logos, scenic props, and advertising. Everything we made was BIG.

When they received an order for multiple copies of twenty foot tall Budweiser cans, the decision was made to create an in-house screen printing department which would augment their hand-painted graphic capabilities.

We created twelve foot long screens to print labels directly on the fabric pieces which would then be sewn together to create the product replicas. We printed for Budweiser, Miller Beer, Corona and Dos Equis, San Miguel and Tecate,  Strohs and Pabst beers, and Pepsi. Bottles and cans, even a giant six-pack created as an inflatable building, were some of the many oversized projects I helped to create.

The company changed hands and names a couple of times thru the years. I got back in touch with them several years ago. I was surprised and more than a little impressed to see they are still in business, making things BIG as http://www.biggerthanlife.com

Oh! Side note here. For years one of my unofficial nicknames has been Hon Real Big. I like it! I think I might have preferred “Slim” or “Speedy,” but none of those quite seem to fit now.