Food and Drink: May 2009 Archives

Courtesy of NBC4

Drink of the Week: Jack Rose

   

Bread has become a big topic recently. According to health codes, retail sales cannot be made from foods produced in a home kitchen unless that kitchen is on a farm. So it makes sense that there are covert home businesses, such as that of my friend, Joe (not his real name) who runs an underground artisanal bread baking business.

              

Opening tonight is H Street Country Club, the much anticipated, long awaited indoor mini-golf course/Mexican eatery in Northeast. We’ve heard rumors about the DC-themed holes bordering on two years now. Chalk up their logo, which says "Est. 2008," to overzealousness. Even the hard hat tour in February 2009 showed a place still in development; there wasn’t a blade of fake grass in sight. Last night we had the chance to be among the first to test out the course, margarita in hand, at a press preview.

It has been soft shell crab season for a few weeks now. Most of them are coming up from North Carolina at present, but the Maryland ones should be in season soon. One of the best versions around town is at Proof. Chef Haidar Karoum serves them fried with a cucumber slaw and a creamy chili garlic dressing. Karoum has a great ability to seamlessly adapt Asian flavors into more modern interpretations without making them seem kitschy or hackneyed. This dish is a perfect example. The cucumber slaw is a quick sweet pickle with jalapeno reminiscent of the pickled vegetables found on banh mi sandwiches. The dressing hints at sriracha. With a nice French baguette, this dish would make a superlative banh mi.

The event finally happened last week, but the interview didn't come up. Instead, Waters and Bourdain danced around the topic of local food prices and the recession, without ever fully addressing it.

            

Baltimore-based Pitango Gelato officially opens its first D.C.-area location today. Located across from the P Street Whole Foods, it is a welcome addition to the neighborhood. And Virginians, don't fret, as another Pitango will be opening soon in Reston Town Center.

You may already be following the story of the Capital City Diner, a new restaurant planned by Trinidad resident Matt Ashburn (City Paper wrote about it yesterday). Ashburn and his partner, Patrick Carl, bought a Silk City Diner, one of those original 1940s era sleek modular diner buildings, in upstate New York and planned to install it on the site of one of the former used car lots shut recently shut down by Mayor Fenty. Great idea, right? We were definitely intrigued by the news, and had already set up a time for a photographer to go down there this weekend to check the place out.

           

So much to taste this past weekend—so little stomach space. And so little time on a Sunday afternoon before the food runs out, the tables get broken down, and the crowds thin. As we tipped you off to in our Weekly Feed, eaters had the chance to eat their way through Taste of Arlington , Taste of Wheaton, and a local church’s 2009 International Vegetarian Food Fair on Sunday, all with a decidedly different feel and flavor profile.

Dish of the Week: Rhubarb

Mark your calendars, Washington. Eastern Market's official reopening has been set for June 26, as D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty announced yesterday. It's been a little over two years since the historic building was ravaged by fire. A temporary structure was eventually built to house the market's vendors while a $22 million renovation project began on the building itself.

The Going Out Gurus are reporting that two Adams Morgan bars, Bossa Bistro & Lounge and Bobby Lew's Saloon, have had their liquor licenses revoked by the D.C. Alcohol Control Board for low food sales. Both bars had restaurant-class licenses, which require 45 percent of gross receipts to be derived from food sales. Neither establishment has ever been in trouble regarding their liquor licenses before, but it's unclear what will happen now, as the board seems bent on sticking to the letter of the law and making an example out of the two.

Inside Edition's "Rat Patrol" returned to the District this week, taking aim, perhaps predictably, at the various D.C. fast food joints recently frequented by the Obamas. The television program confirmed that two of the eateries featured in the upcoming episode were Five Guys restaurants, including the Dupont Circle location where Michelle Obama took members of her staff for lunch back in February. Indeed, the Five Guys located at 1645 Connecticut Ave NW is shuttered this morning, with a sign on the door explaining that the fast food restaurant is "closed until further notice."

The annual Häagen-Dazs free scoop promotion is tonight from 4-8 p.m. In an effort to raise awareness about the deaths of honeybee colonies, the Dazs will be giving away scoops of "bee-built" ice cream - meaning any flavor with ingredients that would have required a bee to pollinate a fruit or flower. You can grab your free scoop from locations in Gallery Place, Union Station, Georgetown, Pentagon City and Bethesda. While you wait until 4, check out these ridiculous videos by Häagen-Dazs: Bee Dance Disco and Bee Dance Krumpin'.

This photo has the color and composition of a cubist collage. Is blueiris2006 revisiting Jean Arp? Citing Stuart Davis? Nope, it's just Spike's hat! He (and colleague Carla) appeared in Adams Morgan to demonstrate some top cheffery, but it's a mystery as to where.

Dish of the Week: Montreal-style bagels

Barack may like Ray's Hell Burger, but Michelle is all about the Good Stuff. Spike Mendelsohn's Good Stuff Eatery, that is. Blogger DC365 spotted the first lady earlier today stopping in the Capitol Hill burger spot to pick up some lunch.

She whizzed past us, waving and smiling, in a kicky little ponytail and grey capri pants, as the crowd shouted "We love you!"

Not that it'll be that hard. Jumbo Slice-bashing aside, former Top Chef contestant Spike Mendelsohn is planning to branch out from his signature Good Stuff Eatery's burgers into another facet of the upscale fast food trend: pizza. He's been eating his way through New York's pizza in order to "research" the new establishment, which will open in the next three to four months, according to a journal he kept last week for New York Magazine.

Hot hot Arlington burger joint Ray's Hell Burger got even hotter today after President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden stopped in for lunch around 12:30 p.m.

For the food nerd set, the James Beard Awards are akin to the Oscars. Sunday night, media awards were handed out, and The Washington Post was the winner of the best newspaper food section this year. Tonight, the winners of the restaurant industry portion will be announced. You can follow the announcements as they happen on The James Beard Foundation's Twitter feed starting at 6 p.m.