Category Archives: Food and Drink

Food and Drink, The Daily Feed
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Chef News: Dan Giusti of 1789 Heads to Denmark

Photo courtesy of
‘Barely mixing the dough’
courtesy of ‘CathyLovesDC’

As Tim Carman and The Washington Post reported yesterday, executive chef Dan Giusti of 1789 is packing his bags for Denmark. The 27-year-old chef is heading to work at Noma, a two Michelin star restaurant in Copenhagen. The restaurant has been listed as “the best” restaurant in the world for two years in a row by Restaurant Magazine.

According to The Post, Dan spent two weeks staging at Noma in July when he was told that there might be an opening there for him to come join their team. One thing led to another and now the chef is moving to Denmark. Dan will be staying at 1789 through August 28th.

Dan was the first chef I met in DC when I started writing about food and was still green on the restaurant scene. I always liked chatting with him at events when he would indulge any of my snarky comments about food and I liked to see a fellow New Jerseyan be successful in DC. No doubt Dan’s passion for food is what’s taking him to Noma, though DC will miss him. Best of luck, chef!

Food and Drink, The Features
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We Love Food: August 2011 Restaurant Week

Photo courtesy of
‘Watershed- Washington, DC’
courtesy of ‘Plantains & Kimchi’

It’s that time of year again: restaurant week. For those in need of a quick refresher, restaurant week this summer runs from August 15 to 21, and at restaurants across the city, you get three-course lunches for $20.11 per person and three-course dinners for $35.11 per person. So dial-up that OpenTable app, expand your stomach and click through for some tips on what to do and where to eat for summer 2011’s restaurant week.
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Food and Drink
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First Look: Station 4

pool1 001
This swanky restaurant right across from the Waterfront metro station in Southwest comes to us from the team behind Bullfeathers and Tunnicliffs on Capitol Hill. It’s a much welcome addition to a neighborhood that is still short on great places to eat.

Station 4 doesn’t stick out as you walk by it, with its name written on the door in small cursive. The inside is beautiful and chic with a modern design. Sitting at the long bar you’ll have at least two friendly bartenders and a row of drinks to look at, plus a picture of a woman’s lips (you’ll find those throughout the establishment).
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Capital Chefs, Food and Drink, The Features
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Capital Chefs: Haidar Karoum of Estadio & Proof (Part 2)

Photo courtesy of
‘Haidar Karoum’s Spice-Grilled Chicken’
courtesy of ‘bonappetitfoodie’

Everybody needs a good chicken recipe now and then. And chef Haidar Karoum has just the recipe for his spice-grilled chicken with salsa loca. It involves a straight-forward but powerfully tasty marinade and the salsa adds another level to the dish. You might have even had it at Estadio before. So roll up your sleeves and fire up the grill; the full recipe is after the jump.
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Capital Chefs, Food and Drink, The Features
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Capital Chefs: Haidar Karoum of Estadio & Proof (Part 1)

Photo courtesy of
‘Haidar Karoum of Proof and Estadio’
courtesy of ‘bonappetitfoodie’

Haidar Karoum, executive chef of Estadio and Proof, is a breed of chef who always knew he belonged in the kitchen. Looking back on his childhood, he can remember being in awe of the produce and meat aisles of grocery stores and one time getting purposely lost in Harrod’s food hall when he was 9 years old. He remembers being “obsessed” with cooking shows such as Great Chefs of the West and rushing home to catch them on TV when he was 12. “I’m constantly immersed in food. My condo is littered with cookbooks. You can’t go into any room without there being a stack of them,” Haidar laughs.

After high school, the northern Virginia native attended the Culinary Institute of America and thus began his long and impressive cooking career. He externed with Michele Richard at Citronelle and much later he became chef de cuisine at Restaurant Nora in Dupont Circle. Straight out of culinary school, he worked at the now-closed Gerard’s Place. “He was like a God,” says Haidar, talking about french chef Gerard Panguard and his first job out of culinary school. “His philosophy of simplicity and his influence were important to me. It was an honor to work in his kitchen.”
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Food and Drink, Foodie Roundup, The Features, We Love Food
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We Love Food: DC Eats for August

Photo courtesy of
‘Cafe Atlantico’
courtesy of ‘needlessspaces’
Put on your elastic waistband pants, people. There’s plenty to eat and do in the city for the next few weeks. So click on through and you’ll find where you should be wining and dining this month.
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Food and Drink, Night Life, Special Events, The Daily Feed
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Reminder: Rickey Month Party Tonight

August Rickey on the @tabardinn patio. Yum.

You may recall from previous years that July is Rickey Month. July’s over, but tonight the DC Craft Bartenders Guild wraps things up for 2011 with its Rickey Month Party at Jack Rose.

Finalists, announced via email on Friday, are after the jump, along with a few tasting notes from our team on the ones we tried.
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Arlington, Food and Drink, People, Special Events, The Features
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Mondavi Salutes Local Hero

Photo courtesy of
‘Alison Kindler’
courtesy of ‘Jenn Larsen’

Interest in gardening is on the rise, from my neighbors growing tomatoes in patio containers to community gardens bursting with multiple produce plots. Increasingly there’s a practical need to provide access to affordable food through growing your own. Early this week I attended an intimate event honoring a local community gardening hero. It was by far one of the more inspiring evenings I’ve spent in a while, whose honoree proves that persistence to a simple idea and dedication to helping others can result in good for all.

For the past three years, Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi has supported Giving Through Growing, a partnership program with the American Community Gardening Association (ACGA). This year they’ve awarded $40,000 to four community gardening ‘Heroes’ who made the grade in a nationwide contest, and Arlington’s Alison Kindler of the Fort Barnard Community Garden is one. Top Chef alum Candice Kumai is the GTG ambassador, and she was also on hand to salute Kindler’s efforts to enrich our community through growing fresh food for urban families. Fort Barnard has been in operation since 1975 – they even have their own bee hives! The garden works closely with the Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC), which helps provide groceries to families in need. Some 8% of Arlingtonians live below the poverty line and the percentage is increasing – AFAC distributes to over 1,200 families each week. Fort Barnard dedicates one of their garden plots exclusively to AFAC.

Kindler started gardening at Fort Barnard some twenty years ago, with a plot as a Father’s Day present for her husband. “Here, honey, you can go play in the dirt,” she quipped, but her main motivation at the time was really to grow organic produce and be able to put “healthy, safe food on the table.” Continue reading →

Food and Drink
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A Round With… Rico Wisner

In our ongoing “A Round With…” series, We Love DC chats with some of the interesting people behind our local bars.

In this installment, I had the opportunity to sit down with Rico Wisner at the recently-remodeled Bar Rouge inside the Hotel Rouge. The bar space has been expanded and spruced up – and, under Rico’s direction, the menu of wines on tap and craft cocktails has been upgraded as well.

The current menu is summer to the max, featuring combinations of flavors like pineapple with basil and blueberry with sage. Many of the key ingredients come from Wisner’s rooftop garden, the tending to which he describes as among the most gratifying parts of his work day. Unlike the garden he became accustomed to snipping from while working at Poste, the garden at Rouge is closed to the public and affords him a quiet moment to water, clip, and consider new recipes. Recipes like the extra-tasty San Juan Swizzle – a combination of ginger, rum, soda, and ruby port.

1. What is your current position and how did you get to where you are today?

Lounge Manager at Bar Rouge.

I started out bartending at a country club while in college. Within a couple of months I was the head bartender. I then bounced around to all kinds of places and ended up as the Bar Manager at McCormick & Schmick’s, that’s where I got into the history of cocktails and creating cocktails.

Then I joined Kimpton Hotels five years ago at Poste, where I shortly thereafter took over as the Bar Supervisor/Beverage Manager/Mixologist. Then in January I was promoted over to Bar Rouge to oversee the reconcepting of the bar and overhaul the beverage program.
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Adams Morgan, Food and Drink, The Features
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Tryst $365 Giveaway from Scoutmob

Adams Morgan sure has it good with Tryst. I’m always in envy of my friends who live in close proximity to this classic coffeehouse – as they lounge around, using it as their office so often they get sandwiches named after them. It’s hard to believe Tryst’s been in operation since 1998, one of the pioneers of the cafe/bar/lounge hybrids that have become so deservedly popular. When you can hang around pounding down well-poured Counter Culture coffee morning til afternoon and then switch over to happy hour and sip well-crafted cocktails, all the while randomly meeting up with friends and catching up spontaneously, that’s a true “third place.” I love it.

Tryst’s beverage director, David Fritzler, not only knows his coffee but can mix up a daring Blue Blazer, as we learned in a Drinks profile last year. He’s also started up Tiki Tuesdays with ten new cocktails and a fiery Volcano Bowl (wait, trend alert! Tiki must be in, as Tryst is following in the footsteps of The Passenger’s popular Tiki Tuesdays. It’s only a matter of time before we’re all Tiki bar-hopping in hulu skirts!). Plus as it’s Rickey Month here in DC, you can try his version of DC’s official cocktail – the Summer Lovin’ Rickey.

Just as in love with Tryst is Scoutmob, newly launched in DC last week offering deals that are exclusively from locally-owned restaurants and boutique shops. As we’re all about local here at We Love DC, we’re happy to partner with Scoutmob as they showcase what’s unique about our city. Today they’re offering a 50% off discount to Tryst, which would certainly help a cappuccino obsession like mine. It’s free, like all Scoutmob’s deals. But in addition they’ve got a special giveaway for our readers – a $365 Tryst giftcard! You’ve got a week to enter for a chance to win, just by joining the mob and signing up for their email alerts. Seriously, $365 of Counter Culture coffee drinks, housemade sodas, craft cocktails, not to mention all-day brunch and the Ben sandwich and… ok, I’m heading over now. Meet you there.