UPDATE (10:55 a.m.): Straight from the source: there's no fire at the restaurant, "just soot from the oven." Everything is okay and the restaurant will be open for business as usual today. more ›

I did not want to miss out on what is arguably the District's hottest opening of the year. And I'm glad that I didn't: Mike Isabella's Graffiato is already firing on all cylinders. more ›

Graffiato, the new Penn Quarter restaurant from former Zaytinya chef and Top Chef contestant Mike Isabella, is set to open on Thursday, June 23. more ›

Top Chef All-Stars premieres at 10 p.m. tonight on Bravo. This season features top contestants from the show's previous seasons squaring off for a second chance at becoming a Top Chef. Luckily for D.C., we've got the culinary chops to have three hometown toques competing in the competition: Carla Hall, Mike Isabella and the darling of the DCist commentariat himself, Spike Mendelsohn. more ›

With the completion of Top Chef D.C. -- you can relive our coverage of the entire season here -- we're all still rubbing our eyes a bit from malaise. Last night, Bravo announced that they've decided to go back and revisit some of our favorite contestants with Top Chef All Stars. more ›

Tim Carman gets the scoop that former Top Chef contestant Mike Isabella will be departing from the head chef position at Zaytinya to open his own place. Isabella has been the head chef at Zaytinya since March 2007, and will not depart until August 7. Carman notes that Isabella's new restaurant will be located in Penn Quarter. The new venture -- which will reportedly focus on Venetian small plates, called cicchetti -- sounds like a fairly natural transition; we'll be interested to see what comes of it. more ›

WARNING: This post contains Top Chef spoilers, albeit from last week's episode. Read no further if you are behind on this season. more ›

We’re five episodes in to the sixth season of Top Chef, with episode six airing tonight on Bravo at 10 p.m. As we've written before, the cast is relatively packed with local talent. There’s Michael Isabella, executive chef of downtown crowd pleaser Zaytinya; Bryan Voltaggio, who opened VOLT up north in his hometown of Frederick, Md. after spending several years on the Hill at Charlie Palmer Steak; and his younger brother, Michael Voltaggio, who shares his culinary passion and Maryland roots, has a D.C. boss in José Andrés, even if he's based in Los Angeles. All three have firm footing in Top Chef’s Las Vegas kitchen. more ›

Last season, we were excited to see our hometown gal Carla Hall make it to the top three on Bravo's Top Chef. This year, we have three chefs with local ties to cheer for. First, we get some sibling rivalry between brothers Bryan and Michael Voltaggio. Will they pair up to take down the others or fight it out from the very start? Bryan is the chef-owner of Volt in Frederick, and was formerly at Charlie Palmer Steak. Michael now serves at the chef de cuisine at Jose Andres' Bazaar in Los Angeles. Rounding out the three is Mike Isabella, who is the executive chef at Zaytinya. One thing is for sure with this season. We'll have a good bunch to root for, and Jose Andres is going to be raking in some big money with all the publicity. Season 6 premieres Wednesday, August 26. more ›