Well, you’ve been so patient. Most of you guessed it and some of you experienced it - Table 21 has indeed expanded. Due to high demand and your overwhelming love and support of Chef’s incredible 21 morsels of delight, we have added 4 more seats to Table 21. We have also revised the reservation time to include 5:30 and 8:30 seating times for every night of the week. I’ll post some pictures of the new table soon. It’s gorgeous.

A big thanks to our architect extraordinaire Charlie Perla for coming up with the design and Brian Flegel from Clark Construction for making it happen.

As for our old Table 21? Well, little know fact, our Chef extraordinaire himself came up with that table design and we served a whole year of happy 21’s on it. Don’t worry, we’ll give another life to old table 21 somewhere, somehow.

If you haven’t heard by now Chef Voltaggio has been nominated by the Restaurant Association of Maryland for Chef of the Year. Come on VOLT fans, show him some love - click here to vote.

H.

I find it so great that so many of our guests take the time to write, take pictures or videotape their experience at volt. It’s usually all great with occasional critiques which are great to hear about as well. I’ve come across some incredible pictures that guests have taken, detailed and amusing blogs that I find right on and some video. This one I came across by accident a while back and I thought it was beautifully done. Nobody at VOLT had anything to do with it and I find it so incredible that this level of professional filming was done just during the course of this couple’s dinner.

This next one is from two journalists from Conde Naste Traveler who embarked on a two-week biking and eating tour of Virginia with a pit stop at VOLT. And in bikes I’m talking bicycles not Harleys. As in they were peddling to every destination. Wow, that’s a lot of work to get to dinner. And I have all sorts of questions regarding this journey and the mechanics of it but it sure sounds so cool and what a great experience. I do remember we had torrential downpours that same week that they biked to us. I’m not sure how they fared on the rest of their journey, but here is their video.

Click this for their full article Bikes and Eating Virginia

And blog fans, I so totally love you. I received the funniest list of answers to the secret mystery - my favorite being that I’m a closet Pink Floyd fan being that they have an album named “Iron Pigs on Fire” with an eight minute guitar solo intro to accompany the title. Great! And no, I’m not a Pink Floyd fan. Went to the concert once and well, lets just say I was so totally not part of the scene.

And yes, most of you got it right and I’m waiting for an ok from the boss man for the official reveal.

H.

A note from a guest I thought to share with you:

Dear Hilda
…. My taste buds have been on strike since dining at Table 21 at the end of October. They purport that ordinary food is no longer the same after delighting in the creations of Chef Voltaggio and demand that I return soon. Apparently, taste buds do not understand what “booked solid” means.
Melissa K.

So anyone figure out the secret yet? I’ve given so many tips. Come on. You have got to know by now. Any guesses?

H.

Just uploaded the latest and the greatest and it really is the greatest (or at least that’s what Neil tells me). Care to prove him wrong? Tell us what you’d like to see. If it works for us, we’ll get it - Just. For. You. Here you go, click here and then click on wines.

If you want to take something home, don’t forget you can purchase anything in our stock to take with you and we can also recork your bottle if you don’t finish the whole bottle in one sitting (or just send a few glasses back to the kitchen or to me if you see me floating around. We’re always thirsty)!

I was looking for something else in my files and I came across these old pictures. These are great. They made me laugh so I thought you might get a kick out of them too. The guys put together the entire wine closet. Next time your at the closet take a look at those tinny, tiny screws. Yes, the guys actually screwed in every single screw. It all looks nice and shiny and glamorous now but this ain’t no big wallet corporation my lovelies - we rubbed and scrubbed and tightened every screw ourselves.

That’s Bryan on the phone with the one guy in California who knew how to put together the shelving system. Try taking directions from a guy on some serious weed, oops I meant “prescription medication.” Not a task for someone with a short fuse, which pretty much takes me out of the running. Well, it actually takes everyone in this picture out of the running but that’s a whole other story.

A proud moment indeed. Take a look at our one bottle of wine on the shelf. hahaha. It took a while but we finally have every shelf filled and storage in the cellar to boot. Wanna see the cellar? Well, you have to know someone who knows someone for entry.

H.

If anyone responsible is reading this post, there is a fire extinguisher on the right of this picture not shown.

February 1st Saturday, Fire in Ice Rescheduled one more time to Feb 20th. I’m hoping some of that fire in the ice will melt the ice everywhere. Come out and enjoy ice sculptures, a LIVE ice carving demonstration, interactive ice playground, FREE hot coca and many other activities throughout downtown. And volt will have the fish and the sailboat and AOPA’s airplane to take us all away to somewhere warm. No seriously, AOPA’s airplane will be there sculpted in ice.

Oh and to the person who posted if we keep a sterno in the pig, the answer is no. My pig really is on fire. Boys like fire.

Our food delivery trucks canceled deliveries this week due to the snow. Its pretty much impossible to drive those downtown roads. And we don’t freeze anything, so it’s been interesting. I walked in to all the guys butchering this afternoon so Bryan must have been out hunting this morning. I kid i kid. But if you see venison, or wild boar on the menu, I’m just sayin (is there even wild boar out where we live?). So the guys are cooking until we run out of everything! VOLT running a “Snow Fixe” menu- $35.00 for 3 course dinner menu Wed 2/10. Come on out and get cheap volt food when you can!

I tried to post this on the VOLT facebook page and my post went into the “Fan Filter” page. Hummm what up with that? I’m a fan and all but really, how rude!

and Cory for trekking it out to Frederick from McLean, about a 50 minute ride in good weather, for Table 21 on Friday night. Peter must have felt my pain as all of the cancellations started rolling in.

And check out Cory’s blog. It’s the cutest blog I’ve seen in a while. It’s a blog dedicated to fashion and food - because its not just about what you eat, but how good you look while eating. Hahahaha. Love it.

Oh and yes, my pig is on fire, and are you still waiting for the secret? Your getting warmer.