Buck's Has a Cow
Over at DCFoodies.com, our restaurant-reviewing pal Jason Storch has run into some legal trouble. It seems that he received a cease-and-desist letter from an attorney purporting to represent Buck's Fishing and Camping.

What did Storch do to deserve this? Did he too loudly insist that chef Carole Greenwood stop stalking him through his television set? Did he open a restaurant next door called Jason's Hunting and Whitewater-Rafting? No, it simply seems that Storch took photos of Buck's food in anticipation of using them on his Web site for a review of the place before Greenwood demanded that he stop.

Putting aside the purely legal question of whether Buck's may ban its patrons from taking photos inside the restaurant and subsequently using them without permission, we -- like Kenny Rogers -- think that you've got to know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em. Why owner James Alefantis and Greenwood, who consistently turns out delicious fare, would put the kibbosh on potential publicity (which, according to Storch, would have been positive in any event), we have no idea. It's not as if Storch was the Good Burger to Buck's Mondo Burger. The C&D threat has thus far generated much negative publicity for Buck's -- and showcased, ahem, the importance of blogs in the foodie community. What's more, the whole thing reminds us of one Gillian Clark -- the Colorado Kitchen maven who does things exactly her way, PR be damned.

Quite honestly, we don't blame Storch for not wanting to return to Buck's.

To the Slaughterhouse: Blackie's House of Beef
Among the foodie news that nearly went unnoticed over the holidays was the report that waning Washington power-dining institution Blackie's House of Beef shut its doors for good on New Year's Eve. Blackie's -- whose pink neon sign and garish New Orleans-esque grillwork lit up the street corner under the Marriott at 22nd and M Streets NW -- was perhaps the very last of the old-school D.C. politico haunts to survive into the 21st century. Like a past-its-prime sitcom bringing on a child actor in the seventh season, Blackie's hired journeyman French chef Claude Rodier to spice things up in 2000. But critics saw beyond the largely aesthetic facelift. With the twin blows of a modernized D.C. dining scene and the death of longtime owner and namesake Ulysses "Blackie" Auger in November 2004, it was only a matter of time before Blackie's went the way of its late contemporaries, Duke Ziebert's and Costin's Sirloin Room. At least Washington still boasts what's, in effect, a slightly more modern Blackie's to suggest what Bay of Pigs-era dining must have been like -- when it wasn't about the food but rather who was at the table with you. Where will Larry King and his pals dine now?

Photo by flickr user antimega.