Category Archives: The Daily Feed

Capital Chefs, Food and Drink, The Daily Feed
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Chef Moves at RIS and The Hamilton

Photo courtesy of Jenn Larsen

Chefs don’t stay still in the kitchen, so why would you expect otherwise in the DC dining scene? Two of the recent chef moves around DC are happening at RIS and The Hamilton.

Last week, chef/owner Ris Lacoste named Sue Drabkin as the executive pastry chef. Drabkin was previously the executive pastry chef at the Inn at Perry Cabin about two hours outside of the city in St. Michaels, MD. In a press release, Drabkin mentioned that her love of art and antiques, as well as her hobby of jewelry design serve as inspiration for her desserts. Some of Drabkin’s first desserts at RIS will include a basque cake with strawberry-rhubarb compote with brown sugar ice cream and toasted walnuts, as well as a Valhrona milk chocolate semifreddo with chocolate sauce, chocolate crisps and a whipped crème fraîche.

A little further downtown, the colossal Hamilton named Salvatore Ferro as their new executive chef. No stranger to the Clyde’s Restaurant Group, Ferro had previously worked in Las Vegas at Guy Savoy’s restaurant at Caesar’s Palace, where he met former 1789 executive chef, Dan Giusti. Following his time in Vegas, Ferro became the executive sous chef at 1789 in 2009, and was later the executive chef at Clyde’s of Georgetown. Some of the highlights on Ferro’s menu will include dishes such as flat iron steak frites, duck carbonara and charcuterie options.

The Daily Feed
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Food Truck Tracker

Photo courtesy of yostinator
Tasty kabob
courtesy of yostinator

You made it to Friday! Now that the work week is under your belt, put some food truck lunch in your belly. Bonus: it’s Truckeroo today. And if you don’t get your fill today, there’s always Mother Trucker tomorrow at the Capitol Skyline Hotel–sit pool side, enjoy a slip ‘n’ slide, and yes, there are food trucks to tide you over if you’re feeling a little peckish. Mother Trucker is $15 and runs from 11 AM to 8 PM.

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Downtown, Food and Drink, The Daily Feed
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Cuba Libre Hosts Pop-Up Paladares Dinners

Photo courtesy of amarino17
cuba libre
courtesy of amarino17

So you can’t jet off to Cuba that easily for a bite to eat, but perhaps you’ll find the next best thing in DC next week. Cuba Libre is hosting their second series of Pop-Up Paladares dinners June 12 through 14.

Cuba Libre’s chef and partner Guillermo Pernot is teaming up with chef Alain Rivera Santana from Doctor Café in Havana to create a four-course prix fixe dinner. Some of the dishes will include a fresh cod escabéche with lamb tongue and a beet salad, chilled mango soup, grilled yellow fin tuna and a fresh corn pasta cannelloni with a crabmeat filling. And since Cuba Libre is partially a rum bar after all, you’ll get to enjoy some of their rum ice cream for dessert.

The Pop-Up Paladares dinner is available at 6 PM and 8:30 PM on June 12-14 and is $45 per person (excluding beverages, tax and gratuity). Reservations can be made by calling the restaurant at 202-408-1600.

The Daily Feed
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Middle of the Order Comes Through as Nats Defeat Mets 5-3

Photo courtesy of Keith Allison
Washington Nationals first baseman Adam LaRoche (25)
courtesy of Keith Allison

Coming into this evening’s game against the Mets the Nats heart of the order had been struggling, but Zimmerman and LaRoche hadn’t done much of anything over about a two week period and Michael Morse was still freshly added to a line-up he had been missing from all season. The lack of production from the heart of the order was one of the reasons the Nats were 2-4 in their most recent six game stretch, and were struggling to find ways to score.

Tonight the Nats made it simple as Harper reached on a Daniel Murphy error and Zimmerman walked ahead of an Adam LaRoche homer. LaRoche got off to an unusual hot start to the season but over the last week LaRoche had just one walk and no hits in 14 plate appearances. LaRoche wasn’t the only middle of the order bat to find himself struggling over the most recent stretch as Zimmerman was just 2 for 14 over the last seven days with no walks and both hits being singles.

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The Daily Feed
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Rumors swirl and tensions rise at Wilson Building

Photo courtesy of dbking
IMG_4631
courtesy of dbking

The difficulty with Federal Investigations is that they tend to be like wraiths. You can’t see them, you can only hear their effects. While it’s clear that the next shoe is certainly airborne toward the ground in the District, what’s not as clear is the height from where it was dropped and who it will fall on.

The latest scuttlebutt began with WUSA 9’s crack investigative reporter Bruce Johnson, who broke news with a tweet on Monday afternoon:

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The Daily Feed
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Seersucker Ride this weekend!

Photo courtesy of Kevin H.
The Croquet Crew
courtesy of Kevin H.

Get our your finest seersucker and strawboater, DC, it’s time mount up on your finest chromoly frame or penny farthing and head out for the big party. Saturday is this year’s Seersucker Social by Dandies & Quaintrelles. The ride, while optional, is a grand bit of fun before the Jazz Age party at the Hillwood Mansion. I promise you, this is every bit of fun you think it is. Get dressed up and ride!

Education, The Daily Feed
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Back to School, For Free This Time

Photo courtesy of andradeXcobain
School’s Out
courtesy of andradeXcobain

If you’ve ever wanted to learn how to hem jeans, or read Shakespeare, or just explore something new, Knowledge Commons DC might be able to help. KCDC is DC’s floating school, where locals meet all over the city to learn something new for free. They offer sessions once every quarter, including June. This month, they’re also celebrating a year of free education in the city.

DC’s floating school is by no means the only one in the US; but it’s fairly distinct because it doesn’t try to cater to a specific audience of, say, artists or entrepreneurs. The course offerings tend to be more diverse and attract a wider range of people. I, for one, was surprised to see a course discussing human rights awareness listed right next to courses on remixing and office gardening. Now if only we could combine the three…

June’s session is underway, and spots are still available in some of the classes. The instructors will teach you just about anything; but if there’s something missing from the list that you know how to do, you can propose to instruct a course of your own for the next session.

KCDC courses take place in public spaces all over DC, from Metro cars to parks and plazas. See individual course listings for more info.

The Daily Feed
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Nats Select Lucas Giolito with the 16th Pick in the Rule Four First Year Player Draft

Photo courtesy of dbking
IMG_1265
courtesy of dbking

As Mark Appel fell down the draft board it started to look like Scott Boras was trying to steer him to the Nationals at 16, but that wasn’t to be when the Pirates selected him with the 8th overall pick. Instead the Nats still ended up shocking baseball by drafting Lucas Giolito a right handed pitcher out of Havard-Westlake high school. The reason this pick was a shock is because Giolito was thought to have 1/1 potential, but was injured for much of the 2012 season. It isn’t the first time the Nats have taken a risk on a player that fell to them as just last season they took both Anthony Rendon and Matt Purke.

Mike Rizzo said of the pick, “We decided that the reward out weighed the risk.” The Nats believe that when healthy Giolito has top of the rotation potential. Rizzo also complimented his make-up and work ethic, and said the Nats are familiar with his medicals and will prescribe a program when he is in a Nats uniform. Rizzo described him as having three plus pitches and the Nats believe he would have gone top three if healthy. Even with the new draft rules the Nats feel confident they can sign Giolito and will try and sell him on what the Nats are doing here. Rizzo says that the Nats will stick to their plan of taking the best player available despite the new rules and restricted budget for top ten picks.

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Food and Drink, The Daily Feed
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19th Annual Taste of Georgetown on June 2


Courtesy of ThreeLockharts Public Relations

Thirty restaurants, 60 dishes and five hours to make your way down Wisconsin Avenue at the 19th annual Taste of Georgetown. Restaurants from the neighborhood, such as Baked & Wired, Filomena Ristorante and Thunder Burger, will offer up various savory and sweet dishes. In the end, a panel of judges, including new-kid-on-the-M-street-block, Mike Isabella, will pick winners for five categories: best overall dish, best use of seasonal ingredients, best vegetarian dish, best meat dish and best dessert.

Tickets can be purchased online and are $5 for one tasting or $20 for five tastings, $10 for three drinks or $4 for one drink. Proceeds will go to the Georgetown Ministry Center, an organization and shelter aiming to reduce homelessness in DC. Taste of Georgetown runs from 11 am – 4 pm on Saturday, June 2.

Food and Drink, Music, Special Events, The Daily Feed
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Food, Music, and Charity: Sound Bites 2012

An annual fundraiser for DC Central Kitchen, Sound Bites took over the 9:30 Club – and V Street outside in block party style – on Sunday evening. The event featured music from a variety of local performers, a cocktail-mixing competition among some of the city’s top bartenders, and samples of fare by many local restaurants.

The event, now in its third year, is a different take on the many fancy charity galas that have been all over town the last few weeks. DC Central Kitchen wanted to do something casual, accessible, and lighthearted to raise funds for their vital projects. All of the restaurants involved donated their food and staff time to the cause. Attendees were able to stroll around the outdoor area tasting samples or duck out of the sun into the club to listen to a band or DJ between bites.
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The Daily Feed
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Nationals use Battery Power, beat Orioles 9-3

Photo courtesy of philliefan99
throwing to the promised land
courtesy of philliefan99

It is a time of feast and famine from the Nationals’ offense, with half of their last ten games over six runs, and the other half under three. Sunday was a welcome feast for Nationals fans, with a triumphant 9-3 victory over the troublesome Orioles, and an end to a three-game slide that saw the Nationals drop out of first place in the NL East. The Nationals took their lead on the power of their battery – an unlikely source if ever there was one. 

In the fourth inning, tied up at three apiece, Jesus Flores stepped in against Wei-Yin Chin and sent an 81mph change up into the second row of the stands in right center.  Three pitches later, Stephen Strasburg would join the home run club, sitting and waiting for a curveball, and launching it into the Orioles’ bullpen. Strasburg’s first career home run ran about 398 feet according to ESPN, and he had just about the slowest home run trot I’ve ever seen, though, according to the Tater Trot Tracker, he didn’t even make the ten slowest list of the year.

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The Daily Feed
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Nats Offense Attempts A Comeback, Orioles Win 6-5

Photo courtesy of MudflapDC
Nationals Baseball
courtesy of MudflapDC

Nationals starting pitcher Ross Detwiler went into Saturday night’s game with a 2.63 ERA and came out of it with a 3.65. Long story short – Detwiler didn’t have a good night against the first place Baltimore Orioles.

As the newest member of Steve McCatty’s rotation, having landed the fifth spot just before the start of the season, Detwiler’s had a good couple months with Washington. The Orioles found a way around that with their bats, though, and that’s all it took to secure an early lead and eventual 6-5 victory over Washington. Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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Poor Hitting, Decision Making Leads to 2-1 Loss to Orioles

Photo courtesy of oddlittlebird.
Zimmerman
courtesy of oddlittlebird.

The Nationals offense has struggled to score runs all season and it is starting to look like it is getting the manager Davey Johnson. With the Nationals trailing by the score of 1-0 in the fourth inning Bryce Harper tried to steal second after drawing a one out walk and was thrown out easily by Matt Wieters. Danny Espinosa then struck out looking to end the inning. One inning later Jesus Flores would single with one out before being caught stealing on a botched hit and run with the pitcher, Edwin Jackson, batting.

As puzzling as the second of those moves was nothing would beat what happened in the bottom of the eleventh inning after Nick Markakis hit a go ahead homer for the Orioles in the top half of the inning on a cookie served to him by Ryan Mattheus. After Steve Lombardozzi led off the inning being hit by pitch Ian Desmond was looking to bunt him to second in order to stay out of the double play and give Zimmerman a chance to bat as the winning run. Desmond would pull back on his first attempt which was a ball before fouling off his next two bunt attempts on balls out of the strike zone. With the bunt sign off Desmond would proceed to ground into the double play Davey was looking to avoid.

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Food and Drink, The Daily Feed
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Summer Cocktails Debut at the W

POV at the W always launches their seasonal cocktail menus with great flare. This time the cocktail party was summer boardwalk carnival themed with tickets sold to the public through Gilt City and gave attendees a chance to sample the drinks while indulging in some fancy takes on carnival-themed snacks – herbed popcorn, churros with strawberry-rhubarb compote – playing games and even getting bright summer-colored manicures from Bliss Spa.

Ultimately, the drinks are the stars, though – and remain available to purchase at POV throughout the season. These drinks may be the best batch of seasonal cocktails offered by the bar in some time. While they mostly share a pink color palette and general inclination towards the sweet, they are fun, great summer drinks that do not disappoint.

Pictured above is the Luchador Rosa, which seemed to be the favorite among people I asked at the event – and was my strong favorite as well. Silver tequila, fresh squeezed lime, and juicy raspberries make for a classic summertime flavor combo – but the drink is elevated by spicy hellfire bitters and a garden of green, aromatic cilantro. This concoction is awesome and I cannot wait to head back to the roof lounge on a hot summer day to tipple several.

Also great was the Bourbon Summer Sour. Bartender Meghan told me that, in the week or so before the launch event that they have been offering this drink menu, she has made the most of these – and warned me it might be because the cocktail is a bit too easy to drink. After that, I expected something weak and sugary – that watermelon is a major ingredient lead to this assumption – but in fact it was simply light and fun to drink. Mingled with the watermelon was Makers Mark bourbon, mint, lemon, and a touch of sugar. Though it was, in fact, dangerously quaffable (indeed, even as someone who rarely finishes a drink at a tasting, this one disappeared from my glass before I even noticed) it was not sticky or overly “fruit flavored.” Instead, it takes the essential summertime formula of bourbon-plus-mint and just adds a bit of bright, natural fruit juiciness.

The Raspberry Sour was the weakest entry in the bunch. While passable – and, by the looks of things at the event, popular – it was a bit candy-cloying with raspberry simple syrup that largely overpowered the gin base. The French Reception was better, with tons of muddled fresh blackberries floating in the glass with gin, St-Germain, lemon juice, and a fizzy pour of Champagne.

Expect to find me at POV’s roof lounge all summer long. Drinking cocktails under a permanent roof canopy is, after all, about as close as I get to “sunshine” or the “outdoors.”