With its cutesy, annual one-penny price hike, winter Restaurant Week starts today. Three-course meals at selected D.C. restaurants are $20.10 for lunch and $35.10 for dinner. Longtime residents know the drill by now: you either love getting to try to new dining options for a relative bargain, or you feel the restaurants don’t put their best foot forward, for whatever the reason, and prefer to sit it out. If you’re new to Restaurant Week,…

We told you a few months ago about a new venture by CityZen’s Eric Ziebold at the Mandarin Oriental called South by Southwest. The restaurant is supposed to offer less pricey regional fare. The name was questioned by the City Paper’s Tim Carman, so when a number of folks received invitations to save the date for the opening of Sou’wester, we wondered, what’s going on here? According to Ziebold, the rationale was a lawsuit…