In a year full of high-profile restaurant openings, perhaps no restaurant’s opening was more highly anticipated among the foodie crowd than PS 7’s. Why? The Penn Quarter restaurant would pair former Vidalia chef Peter Smith with 2006 RAMMY award winner and former Notti Bianche general manager Danny Boylen. And how couldn’t that be a winner? Not much more than a month after its opening, we’ve heard through the grapevine that Boylen has parted ways…

Walgreens To Invade Yenching Palace? The old restaurants are dropping like flies. At the end of 2005, Truman-era steakhouse Blackie’s House of Beef served up its last porterhouse. In August, embattled real estate developer Douglas Jemal purchased the land occupied by A.V. Ristorante — a move that will force the 57-year-old Italian restaurant to close by October 2007. And yesterday, an enterprising tipster told us that the rumor on the street (well, on Connecticut Avenue)…

Amid alcohol, music, rain, and a little glam rock style, the 2006 Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington awards — a/k/a the RAMMYs — were handed out last night at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Woodley Park. Fabio Trabocchi’s Maestro took home the Best Picture equivalent by winning the award for top Fine Dining Restaurant in the D.C. area, while tapas king Jose Andres earned Chef of the Year honors. Among the other victors were…

No Rammies, No Rammies, STOP This week is mostly going to be about the Rammies. The Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington has released its nominees for its annual Rammy awards, setting the whole Washington area atwitter with speculation about who will win and who will be the sorest loser come the award ceremony in June. There are a lot of powerhouses on this list, which we delve into a little more after the jump, and…