It is the best of times. It is the worst of times. There’s matzoh ball soup and the apple-and-nut goodness of charoset, but then there’s arid sheets of matzoh and denser-than-dense Passover desserts. If you’re a kosher-for-Passover diehard, forget about eating out—that’s a situation filled with chometz (what’s forbidden on Passover) pitfalls. We can remember many times of being halfway through the breadbasket before realizing that Moses wandered through the desert around this time of…

D.C.’s own Roberto Donna will show his face on the Today show tomorrow morning. NBC has shipped the Torino native and Galileo owner across the Pond to showcase local cuisine during the Olympics. Donna will appear as needed on Today as well as on other NBC affiliates. Check out NBC4 on Wednesday at 5 p.m. for another glimpse. Will he score a gold medal from Katie and Matt by showcasing his culinary chops? Or will…

Thor Cheston is serious about beer. The manager of Birreria Paradiso, the new basement bar of Georgetown’s Pizza Paradiso featuring 16 taps and 80 bottled beers, can rattle off adjectives about brews that are usually reserved for fine wines. Here’s Thor on the Duchesse de Bourgogne, a Flanders red ale: “It’s very complex. It would go well with desserts,” he told DCist. “There’s a palate-cleansing sourness.” Beer as a palate-cleanser? Maybe, but the Duchesse, a…

Perhaps the tapas craze should be put behind us. Why does every restaurant have to focus on “little plates?” That said, we still enjoy those tapas made with an eye on Spanish tradition. Jose Andres first cookbook, Tapas: A Taste of Spain in America, makes it easy for a U.S. cook to make these dishes with what’s readily available on our shores. And from the Basque-style stuffed Maryland blue crabs to the Route 11 potato…

Hate to say it, but last night’s Food Network premiere of Sugar Rush, featuring Cakelove’s Warren Brown, gets mixed reviews from us. On one hand, Brown is great to look at and has fun with his interviewees. But on the other hand, he’s like a smiling deer in headlights when it’s just him and the camera. Next time, do a few head rolls and shake out those lanky limbs, Warren. If we had a…

In a town rife with mediocre Mexican food (read Austin Grill) and big-time chains (read Chipotle), Taqueria Distrito Federal is neither of the above. This Columbia Heights taco joint is the real deal. The menu is honed to the bare essentials and specialties with burritos and tacos and homemade soft drinks like tamarind juice and horchata, a cinnamony concoction made of pulverized rice. Nothing exceeds $5. When DCist ventured over there, two ate for $13…

It’s a restaurant, bar, bookstore and performance space, brought to you by Andy Shallal, owner of Luna Grill and Diner and Mimi’s American Bistro. It would seem that such an ambitious project would have to fall flat on its face, but in the month since its opening, Busboys and Poets is not only packed, it’s likable. The space is at once comfortable and chic, with many non-generic touches like hand-appliquéd mirrors in the bathrooms and…

Virginia has two. And now Maryland is going to have one. On Oct. 2, Wegmans will open in Hunt Valley, Md.—way on the north side of Baltimore. Hunt Valley will be the largest Wegmans to date. According to Progressive Grocer (doesn’t everybody read it?), the store will carry 700 varieties of produce, 400 cheeses, a 300-seat café and a 44-item Asian buffet. DCist wants to go on the record as saying that Wegmans is the…

OK, maybe not just the Jews. There probably will be a few gentiles there. In any case, Loveline co-host Dr. Drew Pinsky will be here tomorrow at 7 p.m. to talk about his new book Cracked: Putting Broken Lives Together Again. DCist likes the addiction specialist as much as the next guy, but what is really appealing about the event is its location, the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue. By the way, it’s at the…

In an age when broadcast radio is increasingly homogenized and corporate, WAMU’s Hot Jazz Saturday Night is a refuge for those with an interest in vintage jazz, swing and big band from the ’20s, ’30s, and ’40s. Host Rob Bamberger, whose record collection has taken over his basement and laundry room, has been laying down jazz knowledge every Saturday night from 7 to 10 p.m. since 1980. That makes 25 years — congrats to…