Food and Wine Names Komi’s Monis Best New Chef Food and Wine has released their list of best new chefs for 2007, and Komi’s chef Johnny Monis has made the cut. Focusing on “modest, low-key restaurants” and chefs who are “obsessed with ingredients,” Food and Wine selected ten chefs from across the country who are steadily climbing the vertical food tower of greatness. Well, ten chefs other than Rachael Ray and Sandra Lee, who they…

NoVa Empire Expands The owners of Tallula, Vermillion, Planet Wine Evening Star Café in Arlington, Old Town, and Del Ray are expanding yet again. Rustico Restaurant, tucked away on Slater Avenue in Alexandria opens this weekend, and it looks like it might itch your scratch for great beer. With over 250 bottle and can selections, and an impressive draft list of 30 assorted beers, you will get all the malt-hops-yeast punch you could want. A…

A couple weeks ago, Palena’s $10 burger caused some debate as to whether a $10 burger was worth it. With that in mind, a couple DCists dropped in to Palena’s café a few weeks ago to try their roast organic chicken and see how it compared to the roast chicken we prepare at home. And we were blown away. The skin was perfectly crispy, while miraculously adhering to the flesh of the bird. The meat…

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…