Posts Tagged ‘Restaurant Eve’
James Beard Award Semifinalists Announced
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Thursday, February 18th, 2010
The James Beard Foundation has announced its 2010 semifinalists for the Restaurant and Chef Awards. Twenty-two D.C., Virginia, and Maryland restaurants are represented; a significant honor and indication that the D.C. region is a culinary hot spot.
Congratulations to all of the nominees!
Outstanding Restaurateur
* Ashok Bajaj, 701/Ardeo/Bardeo/Bibiana Osteria-Enoteca/The Bombay Club/The Oval Room/Rasika – D.C.
Outstanding Chef
* Jose Andres, minibar – D.C.
Image: SF Weekly
Outstanding Restaurant
* Vidalia – D.C.
Rising Star Chef of the Year
* Johnny Monis, Komi – D.C.
Best New Restaurant
* Eventide
* J & G Steakhouse – D.C.
Outstanding Pastry Chef
* Amanda Cook, CityZen – D.C.
Outstanding Wine Service
Outstanding Wine and Spirits Professional
Image: Jonathan Timmes
* Derek Brown, The Passenger – D.C.
Outstanding Service
* Marcel’s – D.C.
Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic
* Cathal Armstrong, Restaurant Eve
* Tony Conte, The Oval Room – D.C.
* Melissa Close Hart, Palladio at Barboursville Vineyards
* Peter Pastan, Obelisk - D.C.
* Dale Reitzer, Acacia
* Vikram Sunderam, Rasika- D.C.
* Bryan Voltaggio, Volt – Md.
The five finalists in each category will be unveiled March 22, with the winners honored at the May 3rd Beard Foundation awards gala in New York.
–Aisha Salazar
NoVA Restaurants Score Big at 2009 RAMMYS
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Sunday, June 7th, 2009
(Image: Michael Birchenall)
A cadre of stellar local toques and restaurants (many of whom we’ve crowed about in the magazine) did NoVA proud at the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington’s 2009 RAMMY awards.
Top honors takers from here in the Old Dominion included:
* Restaurant Eve (Fine Dining Restaurant of the Year)
* The Liberty Tavern (Neighborhood Gathering Place)
* Anthony Chittum (Rising Culinary Star of the Year), and,
* Kate Jansen (Pastry Chef of the Year)
Congratulations to all the 2009 nominees and, of course, to the aforementioned award winners. Peruse the full list of 2009 RAMMY contenders here.
–Warren
Sustainable Chefs Look Westward this Summer
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Friday, May 8th, 2009
Looks like ’09 is shaping up to be the summer sustainable dining takes NoVA by storm.
(Photo: LuluMom)
First came the news that the Outstanding in the Field folks were setting up camp at Ayrshire Farm all Labor Day weekend.
Now, we’ve got a pair of award-winning local toques spearheading dueling solstice (June 20) dinners at some of their favorite local farms.
Having successfully piloted/survived last year’s maiden OitF event here in the area, it appears Vermilion chef Anthony Chittum has fully succumbed to the cooking-under-the-stars bug. A Neighborhood Restaurant Group spokesperson said Chittum kept in touch with the OitF crew and immediately signed up when they mapped out a return trip.
Meanwhile, Chittum huddled with the NRG brass all winter in an effort to cook up their own “meet the farmer”-style dining experience.
The result: their debut Virginia Farmland Solstice Supper.
“It’s almost a 5-for-1 deal … getting to mingle with the farmers on their own property,” the NRG spokesperson said, noting that the participating specialty producers–Greenstone Fields, Moutoux Orchard, Potomac Vegetable Farms, Tree and Leaf Farm, and Wheatland Farms–collectively farm the adjoining tracts of land where the dinner will take place.
Guests will be invited to interact with the artisan purveyors, tour their respective properties or just enjoy the Virginia countryside prior to the meal and will be treated to wine pairings by local winemaker Dennis Horton as part of the seasonally-inspired banquet.
“This is definitely going to be an annual event,” the NRG spokesperson predicted, adding, “I think it’s a real natural fit for Vermilion.” The NRG aide noted, however, that the event could eventually evolve into more of a “harvest festival” involving other interested NRG properties.
That same day, Restaurant Eve founder Cathal Armstrong is poised to host the nascent Summer Solstice Farm Dinner at Sperryville’s Mount Vernon Farm.
An event spokesperson said a farm-to-table concept had been bandied about since last winter, but the dinner only really came together once Armstrong came aboard. The spokesperson noted that Armstrong has already been out to Mount Vernon Farm, Sunnyside Farm and Watterpenny Farm to become firmly acquainted with their wares, but warned stringent locavores to cut them some slack.
“Not every single thing will be local … because we don’t have a supply of trout in Rappahannock County,” the spokesperson joked.Best of all: a portion of the proceeds will go right back t the Rappahannock County Farmland Preservation Fund.
Reserve your ticket for Vermilion’s solstice event ($160 per person) here. Claim your seat at Gourmet Rappahannock’s solstice sit-down ($180 per person) here.
–Warren
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Tuesday, April 21st, 2009
Photo by wwarby/Flickr
Save the bees with Todd Thrasher’s new honey-infused cocktail
Bon Appetit’s blog, The BA Foodist, reports that local mixologist Todd Thrasher is offering a honey bee-themed cocktail at all the Armstrong locations (Restaurant Eve, Eamonn’s, The Majestic and PX) to support research on “Colony Collapse Disorder” (CCD), a serious threat to the nation’s population of honey bees. For every “Plight of the Honeybee” cocktail sold, Thrasher will donate $1 to CCD research at UC Davis.
U.K. bar renders chugging obsolete with new vaporized G&Ts
A couple of British guys transform a bar into a giant gin and tonic (complete with giant limes and the soundtrack of “the noise of liquid being poured over ice cubes”). Inside, patrons can simply breathe in the booze-y air:
“Just 40 minutes inside the venue – which delivers an intoxicating vapour of gin and tonic – will leave you feeling slightly merry.”
Screenshot of KFC's website.
KFC hopes to revamp its brand with healthier KGC
Original Recipe, Extra Crispy…or grilled? TIME reports on KFC’s effort to target health-conscious consumers with a new line of Kentucky grilled chicken (4-9 grams of fat per piece compared to 7-21 grams per piece of Original Recipe):
“They still have the credibility barrier to overcome,” [restaurant analyst Larry] Miller said. While achievable, “it’s tough when your name has ‘fried’ in the middle.”
Select KFC locations will be offering customers a free piece of its new grilled chicken on April 27.
Foodie reflects on her reluctantly gluten-free diet
Diagnosed with celiac’s disease, Boston Globe correspondant Louisa Kasdon learns she can no longer indulge in breads, pasta, French fries or even sushi:
“It may sound overly dramatic, but for someone who lives to eat, accepting these huge restrictions was very difficult…Was there anything left to eat?”
– Christina Lee
Bourdain Gets Bested By Eamonn’s
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Thursday, April 16th, 2009
While carousing in our nation’s capital last fall, I had the rare privilege of sitting in on a scouting session for the D.C. episode of Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations.”
Which is why I was mildly perplexed when Bourdain’s afternoon jaunt to our award-winning Irish chipper, Eamonn’s
(Photo: Eamonn’s)
was apparently left on the cutting room floor (my sources say Bourdain was thoroughly wiped after a marathon day of multiple bahn mi and slice-your-own tere sega).
Luckily, the footage has since been restored for overseas broadcast (thanks for the tip, Meshelle!).
Click through to watch Bourdain mix it up with Dublin native Cathal Armstrong
(Photo: Restaurant Eve)
who explains that chocolaty pints and deep-fried everything are exactly what he most craves after a long night behind the burners at the gourmet temple that is Eve.
*Best quote of the show: Armstrong equates drinking Guinness with “angels pissing on your tongue.”
*Second best quote: After being handed a “chip” sandwich (french fries, cold butter and vinegar on a potato roll), Bourdain warns Armstrong, “I’m already on Lipitor.”
–Warren Rojas
Kudos to our Local Beard Foundation Awards Contenders
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Monday, March 23rd, 2009
The finalists for the 2009 James Beard Foundation Awards are now official, and we’ve got a host of hometown talents vying for the coveted food industry prizes.
Restaurant Eve toque Cathal Armstrong,
(Photo: Jonathan Timmes)
Rasika chef Vikram Sunderam and Peter Pastan (2Amys/Obelisk) [*my apologies to Pastan for leaving him off the original post*] are all in the hunt for the Best Chef – Mid-Atlantic mantle.
Chef Johnny Monis got a nod in the Rising Star category.
(Photo: Jamie McCarthy/wireimage.com)
The now bi-coastal José Andrés could theoretically score a Beard Foundation hat trick if he were to take the top honors in the web/radio, best new restaurant and outstanding chef categories.
(Photo: Bernardo Peréz)
Meanwhile, Washington Post dining critic Tom Sietsema racked up two nominations (newspaper features about restaurants and/or chefs, restaurant reviews) while the WaPo food section is in the mix for best newspaper food section (stellar work, Mr. Yonan!).
As for other media, several cookbooks/food tomes that we’ve recommended in our print edition are gunning for more widespread prestige (as if that were even possible), including: Cooking Up a Storm (American cooking category), Fat (single subject category) and Milk (reference and scholarship category).
You can view the full slate of 2009 nominees here.
To see the winners get their due live, you’ll have to break out your fancy duds and make your way up to enwhycee for the May 4 Awards Gala. The Beard Foundation is offering $50 discount for all ticket orders placed before April 4.
If you’ve never been, the event is quite an eye-opener. At least it was last year.
–Warren Rojas