By new DCist Food and Drink Contributor Erin Zimmer

As legend has it, when a Waldorf-Astoria guest back in the 1940s forcefully requested the hotel’s secret red velvet cake recipe, the hotel gave it to her—along with a hefty bill for the prized information. The miffed guest, whose lawyer supposedly advised her that she had to pay, apparently took revenge by spreading the recipe everywhere she could.

Whether the Waldorf-Astoria tale is real or no more than an urban legend, the red velvet tradition most likely has its origins in the Deep South—just south of the White House, where red velvet cake appeared a little more than a week ago on President Bush’s Christmas Day lunch menu alongside overplayed pumpkin and pecan pies.

Can’t picture red velvet cake? Think sweet. Like southern sweet tea-sweet. Dye it red, and mold it into cake form. Coat it in a thick layer of cream cheese frosting because, hey, dental care becomes less of an issue the further south you go. Add a hint of cocoa, and you’ve got the Red Velvet Devil herself.

Days later, the luscious, sultry red has still got us all riled up. And we ask, other than the White House garbage disposal, where else does Red Velvet linger within the District’s core and periphery? When someone Asked Tom where to find the cake at roughly this time last year, the current godfather of all Washington food critics himself was stumped. Caught a little off-guard, Mr. Siestsma replied with a decided “Hmmmm.” He eventually offered up the Majestic Café in Old Town Alexandria, but we’re still hungry for more answers. Unlike Dubya, we don’t have our very own Cristeta Comerford in the kitchen—and we didn’t get our red velvet-fill during the holidays.