Food and Drink: February 2008 Archives

This week Tom Sietsema wrote a feature article about tasting menus. He posits:

They tend to be too much food and require too much of a time commitment. ...

Continue reading "The Weekly Feed: Just a Taste Edition"

Who doesn't love arbitrary rankings? Cooking Light, in celebration of recycling the same healthy recipes for the past 20 years, recently aggregated a bunch of statistics to create a list of the healthiest cities in America. The District finished a respectable third overall, falling just behind the granola-totin' cities of Seattle and Portland, OR. At least we're the champs east of the Mississippi!

Apparently Starbucks wasn’t the only coffee shop closed yesterday. According to a post on Murky Coffee's website, their Capitol Hill location was shuttered on Tuesday by the D.C. government.

We've had a hiccup with the DC Government, and were shut-down for a couple of non-compliance issues. We're in communication with them, and expect to be back up-and-running in a couple of days.

An employee at their Arlington location told us this afternoon the issue is related to back-taxes owed to the city. Owner Nick Cho apologized to his customers for the inconvenience. It’s a bit of disconcerting news coming from a top-notch, local favorite. We hope they do indeed get it sorted out soon.

Our pals over at Seattlest have been following this far longer than we have, but in case you hadn't heard, Starbucks will be closing its 7,100 stores nationwide tonight from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in order to re-train all of its employees simultaneously on ... how to make coffee.

The Nationals have officially announced their complete lineup of food vendors that will serve the new stadium. The list of 11 pretty much runs the gamut of sporting events foodstuffs, including: Boardwalk Fries, Gifford’s Ice Cream, Red Hot and Blue, Hard Time’s Café, and Kosher Sports. Most notably on the list is Ben’s Chili Bowl, whose rumored second location at the stadium has been teasing Nats fans since December. Marc Fisher offers a great breakdown of the local pedigrees of many of the chosen vendors.

Nominations are in for the James Beard Foundation Awards. The list includes nods to a number of locals.

• Outstanding Restaurateur - Ashok Bajaj - Ardeo, Bardeo, Bombay Club, The Oval Room, Rasika, and 701
• Best Chef Mid-Atlantic - Cathal Armstrong, Restaurant Eve; Carole Greenwood, Buck's Fishing & Camping; Koji Terano, Sushi-Ko; Eric Ziebold, CityZen
• Outstanding Pastry Chef - Naomi Gallego, PS 7
• Rising Star of the Year - Johnny Monis, Komi
• Outstanding Chef - José Ramon Andres, Minibar
• Outstanding Restaurant - Vidalia
• Outstanding Wine Service - Vidalia
• Outstanding Wine & Spirits Professional - Terry Theise, Terry Theise Estate Selections; Todd Thrasher, Restaurant Eve
• Best New Restaurant - Central Michel Richard; The Source

Journeyman chef Anthony Bourdain and Michael Ruhlman have also announced their nominations for the First Golden Clog Awards [via Eater]. Naming the famous and the infamous, the list is chock full of the Food Network-hatred we've all grown to love, as well as some categories that show the softer side of Bourdain. Lucky for the area we had one nomination, and it was a nice one:

Written by DCist contributor Lauren Jacob

For any coffee lover brave enough to venture through the coffee saturated air and contact caffeine high in the D.C. Convention Center this past weekend, both the Mid-Atlantic Regional Barista Competition and Millrock Latte Art Championship proved to be a feast for the nose, as well as the eyes.

It has been about six weeks since Chef Stefano Frigerio, the former sous chef from Maestro, joined Mio and called in fellow Maestro alum Nick Fragelli Stefanelli. As has been noted, the restaurant has had many staff changes in its short history and gone through a lot of turmoil. And because of that, most food writers, including myself, have abstained from making much comment about the restaurant. There's no question that it is a charming space, though perhaps not in the easiest of locations. And I am sure many a person may have wandered into Il Mulino mistakenly due to the slight similarity between the names.

Though Georgetown Cupcake was holding off opening until Valentine's Day, their debut yesterday seemed to be missing something — cupcakes. Last night, potential customers were turned away by an apologetic sign, "We are so sorry! We have completely run out again." This was one of many times the tiny boutique bakery off M Street (right across from Quick Pita, a Hoya mainstay) had to temporarily shut down to keep up with orders. It was two years ago we were assessing the cupcake phenomenon, and apparently, the trend isn't over yet.

Come 7 a.m., D.C.-area coffee counters turn into mini-war zones. Every morning, baristas are assaulted with wave after wave of java-heads, looking for their morning fix, and only the most grizzled, hardened and well-trained survive.

Last night D.C., Maryland, and Virginia all showed their love for Obamarama, but in all the chaos leading up to the Crab cake primary, did you forget that Valentine’s Day is just a day away? Whether you’re looking to make plans for one, two or three (we won’t ask), here are some dining and drinking options that are still available to procrastinators.

Yesterday at the DC Improv, the Food Network's Robert Irvine filmed an episode of "Dinner: Impossible". For those of you not aware of the premise of the show, Irvine is tasked with cooking for a large number of people in a limited amount of time.

Peruvian chicken in the D.C. metro area is just about as touchy a subject as it gets. Religious ponderings and political debates can expect to take a back seat when it comes to defending rotisserie chicken loyalties. Everyone has their favorite, which is why the opinion herein is bound to receive adulation from some and harsh criticism from others. That being said, I am officially declaring my allegiance to El Pollo Rico.

Washingtonian's Todd Kliman revealed that celeb chef Gordon Ramsay, star of such reality shows at Hell's Kitchen and Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares is likely to take over Maestro at the Ritz Carlton in Tysons Corner. Much like the other chef-utantes breaking into D.C., he will only serve in a consulting capacity. Given his penchant for blasting anything less than perfection, it seems unlikely that the food will be anything less than amazing. However, Kliman says that the move is "all but certain," which we know in this town means there's a 40 percent of chance of this all coming to fruition.