Posts Tagged ‘dining’
Summer Restaurant Week Roll Call
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
After a brief hiccup (I thought it was a little weird that the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington was trumpeting the winter 2010 dining calendar, but was too busy to think straight), the latest summer Restaurant Week (August 24 – 30) participants have been properly identified.
Around three dozen Virginia properties have signed on for the bi-annual discount dining crush–three-course meals can be had for $20.09 at lunch or $35.09 for dinner (tax, tip and drinks not included)–including:
* 2941 (offering both lunch and dinner; the restaurant has also extended the $20.09 lunch deal throughout the month of August)
*Argia’s (lunch and dinner)
* Bastille (dinner)
*Chef Geoff’s – Tysons (lunch and dinner)
* Chima (dinner)
* Columbia Firehouse (lunch and dinner)
* Del Merei Grille (dinner)
* El Manantial (lunch and dinner)
* Fleming’s (dinner)
* fyve (lunch and dinner)
* The Grille at Morrison House (dinner)
* Harry’s Tap Room – Clarendon, Pentagon City (lunch and dinner)
* Indigo Landing (lunch and dinner)
* JR’s Stockyards Inn (lunch and dinner)
* Jackson 20 (lunch and dinner)
* Jaleo (lunch and dinner)
* La Bergerie (lunch and dinner)
* La Sandia (lunch and dinner)
* La Tasca -Alexandria, Arlington (lunch and dinner)
* Laporta’s (lunch and dinner)
* McCormick & Schmick’s – Crystal City (lunch and dinner)
* Me Jana (lunch and dinner)
* The Melting Pot – Arlington, Reston (dinner)
* The Palm (lunch and dinner)
* PassionFish (lunch and dinner)
* 3 Bar & Grill (lunch and dinner)
* Tallula (dinner)
* Vermilion (lunch and dinner)
* Vinifera (lunch and dinner)
* Willow (lunch and dinner)
* Yaku (dinner; the restaurant is also offering a $35, 4-course meal and glass of wine deal from August 3-29)
I tend to lie low during these promotional blitzes, for obvious reasons (it’s more for tourists and first-timers), but would love to hear about some of the places you all are excited to try/return to.
-Warren
NoVA Restaurant Scene Explodes this July
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Monday, July 6th, 2009
Really wishing I’d gone the restful route this past weekend. Because it looks like the hospitality industry is gearing up for a big July.
Trummer’s on Main
Victoria and Stefan Trummer have devoted the last year of their lives to transforming the former Hermitage Inn into their new restaurant, Trummer’s on Main. And we’ll finally get a peek at the fruits of their labor when they formally open their doors on Monday, July 13.
The Trummers have entrusted chef Clayton Miller with helping to realize their epicurean dreams, a responsibility he takes quite seriously. Miller describes views his cooking style as modern American, which means he’s only too happy to draw inspiration from all over the globe in order to weave exotic flavors into local ingredients.
He’s also a fan of carving out separate dining experiences within a single venue, which is why Trummer’s will feature gourmet snacks at the bar (available by request in the main dining room), seasonal a la carte offerings as well as a fluid multicourse tasting menu (3-5 courses or chef’s choice) in the main dining room and a 3-course brunch (coming soon) predicated on fresh pastries, homestyle favorites and snappy petit fours.
“I want the guests to have flexibility,” Miller suggests.
Kora
Though he just shuttered Farrah Olivia a few weeks back, telegenic toque Morou Ouattara is ready to jump right back into action with Kora–a family-friendly Italian project taking over the old Bebo spot. Morou and older brother Amadou (last seen behind the burner’s at Middleburg’s Salvia restaurant) will lead a kitchen dedicated to quick, comfortable eats.
“It’s not going to be too far away from casual Italian,” Morou said, listing homemade pizzas and gourmet paninis as Kora cornerstones.
Morou remains committed to resurrecting Farrah Olivia in the near future (within the next year and a half, anyway), but has not yet fixed on a new location. “Whatever comes at the right time, we’ll take it,” he said of his open-ended real estate shopping philosophy.
Columbia Firehouse
The Neighborhood Restaurant Group is hoping to rekindle interest in the old Bookbinders space by launching their own dual-natured venue, Columbia Firehouse, in the next few weeks. Orlando Hitzig (most recently attached to the now-defunct Mark & Orlando’s near Dupont Circle) is still fine tuning the Columbia Firehouse menu, but estimates it will revolve around “comfort food that you can do at home, but don’t want to.”
The first floor will feature said staples, including: smoked chicken wings with buttermilk-blue cheese dressing, Maryland crab cakes and gourmet burgers. The upstairs–tentatively set to open this August–will follow more of an upscale chophouse format.
“That’s where we will be trying to draw in folks from across the river,” Hitzig estimates.
Maestro 2.0 (?)
I’ve just about given up on this industry parlor game. But if you are still interested in what will become of the once fabled Tysons’ dining palace, the cut-off for all placeholder functions is July 31.
–Warren
Fearless Critic Champions D.C. Dining Underdogs
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Wednesday, June 10th, 2009
(Image: Workman)
Fearless Critic founder Robin Goldstein–he who exposed Wine Spectator’s annual awards as basically a pay-to-play farce–has turned his investigative eye on the D.C. dining scene, a year+ project that’s resulted in a new restaurant guide that eschews reputation in favor of cultural identity and flawless execution.
The 500 restaurants evaluated for this latest hospitality atlas were judged on:
1) food (“focuses purely on what’s on the plate,” Goldstein explained), and,
2) feel (“a frazzled bartender who knows a lot about wine might well help a restaurant’s feel rating more than a well-dressed sommelier who doesn’t,” he added).
The fluid FC criteria, coupled with the subjective views of the revewing corps and contributing editors (a team of about 20 strong–including Goldstein, who spent nine months here doing research), has led to a drastic rearrangement of the area’s culinary denizens.
Vermilion is the only Virginia property to crack the top 10 for “food” (Komi leads the pack).
The Commonwealth does a bit better in the “feel” department, with the Inn at Little Washington reigning supreme while Busboys & Poets, the tasting room at Restaurant Eve and L’ Auberge Chez Francois help round out the 10 best.
Meanwhile, Goldstein insisted the guide doesn’t overtly prize ethnic dining or divey-ness above traditional dining so much as reward diversity.
“We’re not trying to be Lonely Planet … or make a statement against fine-dining,” he said. “[But] there does seem to be a cognitive bias that something is good just because it’s expensive. We’re just trying to balance it out.”
While we’re all for toppling overhyped vanity projects as much as the next impartial, round-bellied food scout, it’s tough to reconcile some of their rankings, including:
* Gordon Biersch edges out Mie n Yu for food;
* The next time someone offers to buy you dinner at Charlie Palmer Steak , tell’em the Big Hunt suits you just fine;
* Stoney’s out charms Teatro Goldoni.
Then again, they appear to nail some things dead on (Lauriol Plaza falls second to last in terms of food).
Whether you agree with the rankings or not, Goldstein hopes to at least shake up people’s notions that a hole-in-wall INSERT ETHNIC CUISINE OF YOUR CHOOSING HERE joint is any less deserving of your time/money/patronage then a cheflebrity-driven tourist trap.
“We really hope to expand people’s horizons,” he stated.
–Warren
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Wednesday, May 6th, 2009
Those who didn’t make the trek up to NYC this past weekend for the annual James Beard gala, didn’t miss much in terms of hometown love: all our local culinary champions were shut out come awards time.
But that doesn’t mean we weren’t well represented on the cooking front.
Plenty of folks greedily supped chef Ris Lacoste’s crunchy-rich oyster champagne stew (a heartwarming helping of fried oysters, diced ham, crushed walnuts and zesty chives):
And chefs Jamie Leeds and Antonio Burrell most certainly stunned a few palates with their daring swiss chard-stuffed trout rolls (the pickled fish made for fierce eating).
Meanwhile, we enjoyed watching chef Debbie Gold tend to her marrow and mustard crouton creation (the extravagant offal was coaxed from some 200+ pounds of bones):
But one cannot live on delicacies alone.
Tom Colicchio, for example, made sure to stay cool with a minty fresh Grey Goose cocktail that had plenty of fellow party goers in high spirits:
And protocol queen Martha Stewart let her hair down just a bit as she washed down a D’Artagnan duck dog (slightly gamey, but mostly satisfying) with a frosty Hoegaarden (cheers, Martha!):
Restaurant folks sure know how to party…
–Warren
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Monday, March 9th, 2009
Food scholar Michael Pollan has been thinking a lot about the way we eat lately—and not on the molecular/socio-economic levels he tends to inexhaustibly document in his best selling books.
This time around, Pollan is turning his focus to chronicling the cultural tenets and family pearls many of us continue to use as our day-to-day dining touchstones. The idea being that these alimentary backstops help define our eating habits—particularly those subconscious clues drilled into us from childhood—and inform our current cooking traditions.
“My premise is that culture has a lot to teach us about how to choose, prepare and eat food, and that this wisdom is worth collecting and preserving before it disappears,” Pollan writes in his latest New York Times blog post.
But rather than slap on his researcher’s hat and retire to the musty depths of some antiquated library’s nutrition stacks, Pollan wants you to share any and all the food sayings you’ve fed upon for years.
I’ve been racking my brain to try and come up with the Rojii food rules of my youth, but so far all I’ve got is: “Barriga llena, corazon contento” (full belly, happy heart – a Peruvian mantra my mother repeats to this day) and my father’s unwavering counsel to avoid consuming meat, bread and potatoes at the same sitting (his none-too-subtle jab at the evils of fast food).
Others, however, have shared some truly enlightened observations (350+ comments and counting):
Aversion therapy gone awry
Think of junk food as poison. When I see a vending machine, I visualize it as full of household chemicals – like looking underneath the kitchen sink. Picture Twinkies as actual sponges, and potato chips as copper cleaner or lye. After a while, you can’t bring yourself to consume it anymore.
— Nancy
Locavore 4 Life
live by the farm share, die by the farm share
— Me
Glib
Life’s too short for grocery store cheese.
— Emma Legge
Puritanical
if it tastes good spit it out.
— johann
Common-sense
Never eat sushi from a convenience store.
— David Hollis
Spiritual
Prepare yourself to receive the food, as the food is prepared to be received by the body. Short version: Be mindful. Be thankful. Also, never criticize what someone else is eating. It is their choice.
— RMarcum
K.I.S.S.
My main food rule is “cook your own food from scratch.” This was as much a food rule growing up in my family as it was a budget rule. Same for “eat your vegetables.” I threw out “clean your plate,” though.
— Heather
Small plates, lots of color, as local as I can get it. If not local, nothing I can’t pronounce.
— kay stoltz
And, finally:
The anti-Pollan school of thought:
I follow Matt Stone’s FUMP diet
— Tom
What food advice, if any, would you share with Pollan?