Much A-Dough About Nothing Over the last two weeks, Todd Kliman's chatters have gotten riled up over CityZen's Parker House rolls. A chatter wrote in about his/her experience at CityZen a few months ago with pleasant servers and delicious food. But then he/she complained that his/her party of seven requested a second serving of the Parker House rolls. Apparently the server hesitated and seemed uncomfortable, but said he would check with the kitchen. The chatter......

Countdown to Westend Bistro It's almost here. The opening that all the foodies in town have been waiting for. The one that all the critics are getting more than a little excited about. The chef that makes all the ladies swoon with his French accent. Westend Bistro by Eric Ripert at the Ritz-Carlton on Thursday, November 8. Menus have been posted to their web site leaving many, including Don Rockwell posters, mystified. Rather than......

For those folks who tune into Washingtonian food critic Todd Kliman's weekly chogs, we know he can get a little outta control. If you were paying attention to the chog this morning, you may have noticed this rather interesting exchange: DC: Hi Todd, Several well known chefs are lending their names to new restaurants in DC... Do you agree with DonRockwell of donrockwell.com that the latter two are merely "hype-driven, let's-give-the-restaurant-critics-an-erection outposts" or do you......

Go home. Tell your boss it's for your own safety. Maybe it's the heat or people who are waiting to go on summer vacation, but it seems that there's madness in the city. I should have known it was getting bad when I spotted this tree with a ring of cheese curls around it. The madness certainly seems to have infected Todd Kliman of Washingtonian. If you didn't catch his chog this week, you......

Welcome to this week's Feed, coming to you from Albuquerque, N.M.! This Feed will be a little more free flowing than usual. Why? I'm sitting on the patio, drinking a Fat Tire, enjoying the dry climate, and looking out on Sandia Peak. I just wanted to rub it in. 2007 RAMMYs To Feature Snakes That's what "Black Tie and Boas"—the theme of this year's RAMMY awards dinner—means, right? Tuxedos and Anacondas? Seems like a bad......

For the last few weeks you couldn't read any D.C.-area food publication without seeing something about Robert Wiedmaier's Brasserie Beck. And all before it even opened. From Wiedmaier guest hosting Todd Kliman's chog, two pre-opening mentions in DCist's Weekly Feed, and frequent but casual mentions by The Washington Post and the blogosphere. And here Beck's is being written about yet again. Whoever the restaurant's publicist is, she's sure earning her keep. The best way to......

To Beck With It The buzz is all over the place about Brasserie Beck, Robert Wiedmaier of Marcel's new Belgian gastropub on 11th and K, NW. Though not open quite yet (scheduled for an opening in the next couple of weeks), the Brasserie scored two articles in this week's Post, and a post full of restaurant eye candy over at the Washingtonian. The Post used Beck as the latest example in the growing trend of......

It's hard to know where to start this week, given all the news in Washington's food world. Chef changes, award nominations, scandals, and battles have enveloped us without us even noticing. Let's dig right in, juicy stuff first. Review Not, that Ye be Not Reviewed A couple weeks back we told you about a fight between New York Times critic Frank Bruni and restaurateur Jeffery Chodorow. Now, close your eyes, replace Frank Bruni with a......

This post by DCist Food contributor Analiese Bendorf Since their 2005 inceptions, 14th Street, NW establishments Café Saint-Ex and sister restaurant, Bar Pilar, both headed up by Chef Barton Seaver, have been serving up satisfying fare to Washingtonians hungry for a pre-Black Cat bite or low-key weekend brunch. Seaver, as Todd Kliman recently reported, is bidding farewell to Café Saint-Ex and Bar Pilar, but fans of the chef's casual cooking will be able to get......

Corrections In last week's Feed, we mentioned that the unearthing of Eric Ripert's impending move to D.C. was courtesy of Tom Sietsema in a May 2006 TomChat. We were mistaken, however. The scoop on the story goes to the Washingtonian's Todd Kliman, who uncovered the story in his chat first (link is unavailable, sorry, you can read his latest chat though). Apologies all around to you Mr. Kliman; you deserve full credit for your footwork.......

By DCist contributor Analiese Bendorf The Big Apple's Harvest Export Attention, all ye who still doubt whether one may dine seriously in DC (and we hope there aren't many of you left), you may soon be tempted to cancel that weekend jaunt to Manhattan. Washingtonian's Todd Kliman reports in this week's online chat that high-profile chef Eric Ripert, of N.Y.C.'s famed Le Bernardin, plans to bring his four-star culinary talent to D.C., where he will......

This week over on Don Rockwell, Sushi-Ko’s master chef, Koji Terano, has been taking questions from foodies about one of our favorite food genres: sushi. Although we enjoy reading "TomChats" and "chogs" with Todd Kliman, we also enjoy the rare opportunity to talk with chefs firsthand. Koji pulls back the nori, as it were, and dishes about buying fish, ordering sushi, and embracing Japanese chopstick customs, among other things. On fish quality Koji confirmed......

The Revolving Torte It seems like it's the season for pastry chef musical chairs, as the Washingtonian's Todd Kliman lets us in on a bevy of changes in Washington's world of caster sugar and ganache. Equinox' Lisa Scruggs starts the chain reaction, as she is headed across the river to serve as dessert overseer for the Neighborhood Restaurant Group (the folks who own Vermillion, Evening Star Café, Tallula, and Rustico). She and the managers for......

Del Ray Dreamery Forced to Change Name Just when we thought it was safe to go get some frozen custard, corporate evil rears its ugly head yet again. Del Ray institution, the Dreamery, is being forced to change its name by Integrated Brands, Inc., the folks who make Edy's. "Integrated Brands." What kind of name is that? Apparently the kind that hates fun. And freedom. Anyway, Dreamery owner Liz Davis is holding a contest......

Wondering about the Next Kliman After yesterday's news that Todd Kliman was leaving the City Paper, we got to wondering about who his eventual replacement would be. Kliman -- like many food writers -- did not get the position from any formal "food writing" training, but from a love of writing and food. In a prior life, he was one of Howard University's coolest professors, and it took him a year to finally land a......

Just two days after the announcement that Garrett Graff was joining the Washingtonian as Editor-at-Large, it has been announced that Todd Kliman, award-winning food writer for the Washington City Paper, has been named Dining Editor for the city's monthly glossy. According to Don Rockwell, Kliman will hav[e] editorial control over the upcoming Best 100 Restaurants and Cheap Eats issues. Thomas Head and Cynthia Hacinli will remain at the Washingtonian and work with Todd, who will......

Could Leopold's Really Be That Bad? In his weekly chats for the last four weeks, Tom Sietsema has been hinting at having one of the worst service experiences ever at a local restaurant. Readers of the Sunday Post Magazine finally read about the experience in full when Sietsema reviewed Leopold's Kafe & Konditorei this past Sunday. From the "clueless mannequin on duty" to "[t]he human peacocks supposedly hired to supervise," this review was rough --......

Todd Kliman was the only winner from D.C. at this year's Beard Awards. Last night at the Beard Award's Restaurant Gala (a separate event from the Journalism Gala Sunday evening), Marc Vetri of the eponymous Vetri in Philadelphia won the award for Best Chef, Mid-Atlantic region, despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that the category was dominated by the D.C. area. Michael Flynn, nominated for best wine service at Kinkead's, lost out to wine......

A few weeks ago we reported that the City Paper's Todd Kliman had been nominated for a prestigious Beard Award. And Friday night at a gala in New York, it was announced that Todd, who's Young & Hungry column has recently covered suburban ethnic restaurants as well as the joys of shad, won the award for Best Newspaper Column. Kliman's column for the City Paper is one of our favorite bits of weekly reading. More......

When Tom Sietsema gave a shoutout to Don Rockwell during last weeks' Ask Tom, it was a quiet nod to one of the lesser-known food writers active in D.C.: Speaking of online food discussions, Don Rockwell, a former egullet host, has just launched a fun one: DonRockwell.com. Don is a fine writer, has good taste and eats out almost as much as I do. If you care about food in Washington, his is a site......

The 2005 RAMMYs aren't the only culinary awards on the horizon. The nominees for the 2005 James Beard Foundation awards were announced yesterday (.pdf). The awards are separated into three general segments, cookbooks, journalism, and restaurants and chefs. In the journalism segment, Todd Kliman of the City Paper (who most recently "reviewed" Perdu) was nominated for Best Newspaper Column for his weekly "Young and Hungry" feature. Tom Sietsema of the Post has been nominated for......

For his April 1 column, City Paper writer Todd Kliman reviews a peculiar kind of restaurant. If smelling is "at least half of the pleasure to be had in wine" Todd reasons "why should it be any different when it comes to food?" Thus he visits a restaurant which sells no food at all, just an "experience of uncorrupted sensual pleasure" - a nine-course "meal" of scents for $65. He goes on to describe the......