Vendor vacuum

Washington -- as the new pathetically lame Wagshal's at Sutton Place demonstrates yet again -- will never sustain first-rate food vendors on any scale, so it's little surprise that a short outing to specialty stores in Bethesda was not particularly uplifting.

First stop, the Women's Cooperative Farm Market, where a chocolate croissant at the French bakery tasted at least a day old and most of the food stalls were closed (great place for the flowers, though).

Then on to Vace, a tried-and-true old-fashioned Italian deli where I could get thinly sliced and delicious prosciutto di Parma, soppressata, and coppa. Vace, I think, has a lesson for would-be specialty vendors. Grow organically, keep a narrow focus, find a cash cow to draw people in (for Vace it's pizza by the slice and partially cooked pizzas).

Next I went to Quartermaine to avoid Starbucks. The cappuccino there can't compare to those in Italy, but has more flavor than Starbucks'. I generally don't like Quartermaine's dark roasts, though I let the salesperson tell me the Guatemala beans were medium roast, though they looked awfully dark to me when I got home.

Over to Capital Tea, a chain that has a lot of fru-fru tea -- flowery, fruity, herbal blends. The breakfast blend black tea I tasted was bland and weak, but I bought 2 ounces of Assam anyway. When I drank it at home, it tasted, well, bland and weak. Unfortunately, Zara Tea, which was much more serious about tea, fell victim to the work being done further up Bethesda and is no more.

I wanted to try Max Brenner's Chocolate House, so I went in there and bought the little sampler of four bon-bons. The problems started when I had trouble finding four different ones that were dark chocolate without fruit or nuts or pralines. The chocolates themselves were undistinguished and definitely tasted machine-made rather than hand-made, a no-no when you're charging $5+ for four. They will no doubt thrive with the hot chocolate menu and we will go back for that when it's cold.

Finally, I caved and bought a bottle of the bulk California olive oil at Secolari. Of the limited bulk choice they had, the Arbequina seemed to me to have the most personality. It's a nice idea, but I don't see how they will survive the high rents in this part of Bethesda. For myself, I totally buy Olio2Go's argument that an oil bottled and sealed in Italy is more reliable than any bulk oil, which has been who knows where and had who knows what added to it. Still, I'm glad they're growing olives and making olive oil in California.