Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Cusbah Starts Construction on New Covered Patio

Patio at Cusbah

It's still only in the early stages, but here's a picture I snapped on my way to catch the X2 this morning. This should be great for Cusbah (1128 H Street), and ready well before the warm weather arrives. This looks like the sort of set-up where one could easily enclose the patio during the cooler months.

51 comments:

Not_very_good said...

I really wanted to like Cusbah but, I have eaten there twice and both time I have gotten *sick* the next day. I confirmed that another member of my dining party met with the same fate. Not sure what did it because everything tasted fine at dinner...

Todd Packer III said...

I cannot wait to sit here with my bros, sipping high quality micro brews.

Anonymous said...

Absolutely love Cushbah! Great to hear about the addition of the covered patio.

For Shame said...

I left a truthful criticism of my 2 dining experiences at Cusbah on this blog last night and I see they have been deleted. I can only assume Inked has some sort of deal with the owners of this place. I am certainly not a troll and lived in Trindad for 2 years prior buying a place down Benning road in 2010. If this is the sort on censorship you practice on Frozen Tropics, I have little faith that this blog presents a fair picture of the H street area. I have submitted tips and pictures that have been posted on this blog in the past, but I’ll be sure to keep them to myself going forward. Thanks!

-Ed

Anonymous said...

This type of behavior from the blog author. It really is a shame that the valuable comments are often deleted. And it really is true that the best information from this blog resides in the comments.

Anonymous said...

I wrote a couple of comments about how the food quality at Granville Moores has degraded in recent years, and those were removed as well. She must have some kind of deal going on there too.

Anonymous said...

This wasn't taken this morning. There was snow on the ground this morning.

andrew said...

Ed --

I saw your comment. It is par for the course that it has been deleted. While the blog's authors do provide a valuable service, the labeling of even remotely negative comments as "trolling" has gotten ridiculous.

Anonymous said...

She had some kind of deal like that going on with the owner if the old Toyland. Well, the rumor around the neighborhood was that they were having an affair (he's married). I'm not sure it's true, but it's what people were saying at the time.

andrew said...

@ 0933.

gross

Anonymous said...

@ anon 9:33-- what on earth are you thinking, spreading a rumor like that in a public forum? By your own admission that's nothing but a neighborhood rumor. It's extremely bad form to spread this sort of sickening sewing-circle baloney.

Anonymous said...

I don't know about he the good at Casbah is, but the gossip here is delish!

Anonymous said...

People, it's simple... this is her blog, she can post what she likes and delete whatever she wants. If you don't like it, you don't have to login. Seriously, quit your bitchin'.

Anonymous said...

Also, I don't think it's spreading a rumor, it's reporting an accurate representation of the neighborhoods beliefs at the time.

inked said...

Ed,
I pulled the comment because it appeared within a minute of a comment from a regular troll, and I thought it was from him.

Obviously I don't have a any arrangement with the ownership of Cusbah. That's a pretty absurd allegation. I put your comment back up, but frankly, I think it's more than a little inappropriate to leave anonymous comments on blogs accusing restaurants of giving you food poisoning. That's better left for the Department of Health, or maybe even Yelp!

Anon 9:33,
I'm not aware of that rumor. Did you just make it up? Which owner is it you allege I was having an affair with (there were three owners)?

Anonymous said...

Such degrading comments... I

Ed said...

Inked-

That’s fine that you think I made an absurd allegation about you having some sort of ‘good press deal’ with the owners of Cusbah. I think you can see from the other commenters that my allegation was not that absurd as a few of them have wondered the same thing about you and other places. Maybe you don’t have a deal, but the comment deletion was enough to give me pause.
Also, you think it was “more than a little inappropriate” to suggest that eating at a certain restaurant made me sick on more than one occasion? Inappropriate…. Really? What is a neighborhood blog for if not to share thoughts and experiences from around the neighborhood? I had two similar experiences at one restaurant and I shared it. I’m also not hiding behind anonymous comments, if the restaurant wants to contact me; I can certainly provide my e-mail or phone number in some sort of private message way.

Anonymous said...

if you've had a bad experience with a restaurant, go on Yelp

Anonymous said...

A few people here might benefit from a plugin like this one: http://xkcd.com/481/

...then again, maybe not.

PS: I love Cusbah, their naan is delicious. Never gotten sick there. And the idea that any H Street eatery has the marketing budget to pay off a small local blog to protect their online image is just... I mean, have you ever internetted before?

Anonymous said...

I find the contrast between the author's efforts to paint rose-colored pictures of some H Street establishments and her weird, ongoing vendetta (no pun intended) against Cap Hill Oasis / Kendall Row funny and also strange.

As a side note, I've never been to Cusbah, but plan on going tonite. hahaahaaha

Anonymous said...

@ anon 10:11- wrong. you should be ashamed of yourself.

Anonymous said...

I have a deep, abiding vendetta against Capital Hill Oasis, and get cathartic satisfaction every day from seeing they can't sell even one unit. I just don't blog about it. Is that better, or worse?

Anonymous said...

Hey Ed-- did you contact Cusbah's management before you came posting to FT? It really is incredibly damaging to a business to have this sort of thing written about them. I checked Yelp and nobody else seems to have had problems.

KendallRowResident said...

I had Cusbah's Lamb Vindaloo once and then I had severe explosive gastrointestinal issues. However, I think this was because of the Vindaloo part, not quality of the food. Also my inability to handle Vindaloo. I'd go back. Just my 2c.

Anonymous said...

The comment section has gone to shit over the years (reader and neighbor of 5 years). There used to be such a positive attitude. What happened?

Anonymous said...

@ 1156 --

I randomly clicked into a section of the archives from 2009 (5 years ago), and the first post (and subsequent venom-spewing discussion) is linked below. perhaps you suffer from old salt's disease.

http://frozentropics.blogspot.com/2009/09/kojo-nnamdi-h-street.html#comments

Anonymous said...

What the fuck is old salt disease?

Anonymous said...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_salt

Anonymous said...

Very excited for the covered patio! I don't go that frequently but always have a good time when I do.

@ the 1st comment: Why not elaborate on what "sick" means? You may be intolerant of spicy foods or the sauces were too rich for you. Neither of which has anything to do with bacteria or norovirus. If you had such a serious foodborne illness prior to that, why did you go back? Unless a doctor determined you had a foodborne illness, you have no idea what the cause was. Incubation periods vary. If you think the food is not very good, which your name suggests, just say you think the food is not very good.

@9:30 the picture was not from the 26th!

@10:46 Oasis/Kendall Row is a dump and looks awful inside and out! Everyone knows that. Offering the story behind the development is not a vendetta.

@9:33 - there are a lot of annoying comments on here, but this one reaches a new low. You're a class act! Speaking of vendettas...(I dont mean the restaurant)

Annoyingmous said...

Ed -- why the hell do you think this is a "neighborhood blog"? It's someone's *personal blog*. Yes, that person has chosen to write about neighborhood topics, because that's what interests her; but that doesn't give you, or any of the rest of us, any claim whatsoever to anything at all about the blog or its contents.

Jesus Christ, the sense of entitlement around here is just stunning.

Tim said...

Got Cusbah for my birthday on Tuesday. So much good food that we had enough left over for dinner tonight. No illness, just happiness. I love that we have good Indian food on H. St (Chicken & Rice isn't bad, but Cusbah is really good). And, if you like spicy, try the Vindaloo authentic-style. I thought I liked spicy food, but that dish showed me I was a wimp. Yay, Cusbah

inked said...

I haven't tried the lamb vindaloo at Cusbah, but I've read/heard fantastic things about it. I really do need to stop in soon and give that dish a shot (I LOVE spicy food).

inked said...

Ed, & basically everyone else too,
I stand by what I wrote before about how I think that the Health Department, and maybe even Yelp! are more appropriate places to post concerns about food poisoning. This is because the Dept of Health should be notified if you believe you got food poisoning from a business (it's a public health concern). It's also because someone from the restaurant almost certainly reads Yelp! & can at least have a chance to respond, and even (I think) contact you directly. I have no idea if anyone from Cusbah reads my blog.

Second, I can see IP addresses, and the comments agreeing with you were actually all from the same person. This same person has claimed that they have gotten food poisoning from at least half the places on H Street. That same person has also claimed to have had sex on the bar of an equal number of places on H Street, to have been raped on the bar at some of those places, to have been raped on a crowded X2 bus, and likes to accuse employees (seriously not jokingly) of drug use on the job, including crack smoking during business hours. So that person's credibility is severely suspect. He also likes to make rape jokes/threats, and make sexualized jokes about children. Other times he makes dick jokes, or tries to stir up racial tensions (a favorite of his). He uses the N word (and I don't mean nigga), and writes abhorrent things about African Americans. In the next breath he accuses people of racism when it was clearly not intended. He probably fancies himself a clever provocateur.

inked said...

In reality, he's probably just a dude who needs some serious help. I haven't deleted his comment (yet) alleging an affair between me and a married man for a few reasons. The main one is that it's a hilarious novelty for me to be accused of committing adultery with a married man. I guess he doesn't read the blog posts/comments carefully, or follow me on Twitter. I'm a lesbian. I don't talk about that much on the blog because, while it is certainly relevant in my personal life, I don't really think it is relevant for the stuff I post on the blog. Also, though the guy I think the troll was trying to suggest I was having an affair with, is an old friend. So is his wife. I know their kids too. He doesn't really read the internet, but his wife does. After countless hours of listening to me talk about my girl issues/successes, I bet she'd get a pretty hearty laugh out of that allegation. A part of me also wanted to leave it up because I want people to see the desperation of this individual. This person is willing to make up a crazy allegation about me that is laughable to anyone who knows me even a little bit. I’ve certainly never slept with/conducted an affair with anyone who was married, but the fact that it was about a guy just really takes it into the realm of absurdity. For the record, there was a drunken allegation from a former Toyland bartender (NOT an owner) that I was engaged in an affair with a bartender (a single female) at Toyland (V2). That same bartender was later hired by another H Street bar. After she was fired from that bar, her then boyfriend left a Yelp! comment suggesting that there was some sort of Neo-Nazi meet-up at an H Street bar. She & her then boyfriend had a legal dispute with a landlord who was friends with (& lived across the street from a Toyland owner). Is that the sort of person you trust to provide you with information?

inked said...

As someone who has read every single comment that has ever appeared on this blog over the past almost ten years (after they post), I have learned a lot about this neighborhood & the people who live/work in it. That has been truly awesome. I have also learned quite a bit about (I’ve read a bunch about it) internet trolls. The truth is that I have one persistent troll. He’s been active on this blog since maybe 2010.

It’s an old trope that on the internet, no one knows you are a dog. It’s also true that no one knows that you are a troll who (based on IP addresses] left up to 40 comments on three different posts pretending to be different people. Before you suggest that I just block that person, or switch to a registered user format, understand that this person is dedicated that he has multiple registered Google accounts. Among these are David B. (a Toyland reference), Amanda who loves to talk about rape (another Toyland reference). What drives a person to go to those lengths? I don’t know. I don’t generally spend more time thinking about him than the five seconds it takes to delete a bunch of his comments.

Basically, don’t indulge this guy. He’s the dude who posts “Surprise” after every violent attack in the neighborhood. He’s the guy who posts “looks delicious” on every lost pet. He’s the guy who makes a sex joke on posts about kids/schools. Is a neighborhood “*scary*”? that’s him too. Is someone making an absurd racial argument? Likely him too. Bottom line, if the poster sounds crazy, there is a decent chance it is him. He’s a loser. If you want to chime in and say that, go ahead. That said, it is totally legit for people to give negative feedback on local businesses/events. These people are not trolls. This one dude is a troll, and he apparently has a ton of time on his hands. If you sometimes see me pull a seemingly innocuous comment, it’s because I have decided to pull all of his comments that day. I understand that this upsets some people, but stand in my shoes for a sec. I’ve been doing this for almost ten years. That said, I sometimes make a mistake. Google also sometimes pulls comments because it thinks they are spam. I try to repost non-spam stuff, but there is a delay.

pat said...

Folks

If you don't like how Elise, runs this blog, start your own. Call it Molten Tropics and blog the local stuff.

Elise tends to be sensitive to libel claims and takes those down right away

Overall, i think the discussion here is fairly reasonable.

Pat

PS fwiw, i think i've published a few blog articles here and published "Story ideas" here.

PPS if you want great stories, talk about the X2

poo poo said...

damn! i guess that means that my dream of having sex on the bar with elise is never going to happen.

bummer.

the poo will mourn, but shall persevere! tomorrow always brings a new day!

in other news, i dig this blog. even if the readers/posters get out of hand sometimes. when that happens, i find it interesting as a window into the variety of personality disorders present in folks that may live in the neighborhood. someone should do a study on this blog and its relationship with the readers/neighborhood/etc.

despite the folks that clearly need psychological help, i think the positive spilloff of this blog far outweighs the noise that these people make. rock on, elise.



Anonymous said...

Inked -- they were not all from the same person. I agreed with Ed, yet I am most certainly not a "troll" who uses racial slurs, rape stories, or anything of the like. Believe it or not, there is likely more than one person who disagrees with some of the things you write/remove/etc.

Having said all that, personal attacks and rumors are obviously poor form.

inked said...

9:04,
It depends on what the definition of "agree" is. Kidding. I meant the comments about Granville's & Toyland. You are free to disagree with my comment deleting. But I hope that you trust me to at least try to do the right thing.

MJ said...

Second, I can see IP addresses, and the comments agreeing with you were actually all from the same person.
Awesome, I assumed this was the case but good to see verification. I'd suggest changing their username(s) to their IP address so that everyone knows who they're dealing with, but they'd probably just go through a proxy at that point.

Anonymous said...

I think many mobile devices share a single generic IP ADDRESS, retard.

Anonymous said...

Also, way to go spreading all that dirty laundry about Amanda from Toyland and queen Vic on your internet blog. Bet she's laughing at you from Hawaii.

Lil Bow Wow said...

Came here for drama and gossip, did not leave disappointed. Would click again!

Anonymous said...

Did you know that IP addresses of mobile devices are dynamically assigned by mobile service provider gateways, and change over time based on location and gateway being used? I didn't. I learned something today.

Anonymous said...

I find the troll's creation of multiple personas hilarious.

I did not know that about the mobile IP addresses...learned something new as well!

Anonymous said...

Inked have you ever considered doing a frozen tropics happy hour?

Anonymous said...

Look at you girl! Havin' your little out and proud moment...

MJ said...

I did not know that about the mobile IP addresses.
Guess I'm a "retard", could've sworn that US telecoms used IP Mobility which designates a static IP for each mobile device on a carrier.

Also, Inked and the bar owner were in the closet making babies and I saw one of the babies and the baby looked at me.

Poo Poo said...

Who owns that black bench in the picture? Is it cusbah or does the city own it? It's super we'll maintained!

Derek said...

The city owns the bench. It is on city (DDOT) property. The bench is designed to prevent someone from laying down and sleeping on it. They were installed as part of the Great Streets and the H street development.

Anonymous said...

This place is pretty good and looking forward to the patio. No food issues here. Cusbah is trying to get it right just like any new place that opens and deals with a bunch of hipsters and rich folk moving into the hood that have super high expectations. People need to take it down a notch. Go to GT if you want high society dining. I like the fact that I can go in and eat really good indian food and listen to great music in a non-pretentious place. People need to be a bit more reasonable and realistic.