Category Archives: Food and Drink

Food and Drink, The Daily Feed
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Taste of the Hill is Coming

Photo courtesy of
‘Oyamel’
courtesy of ‘angela n.’
Get your tickets while you can — Brent Elementary’s Taste of the Hill: Beyond the Classroom 2011 Gala is almost here. For $75 you’ll be able to partake in a night of music, dancing, food and beverages, and support Brent Elementary students.

Guests will enjoy food from restaurants in the Capitol Hill area and a tad beyond. My fave places participating include Ba Bay, Belga Cafe, Poste, Sonoma & Matchbox. Wine pairings will be provided by Charlie Palmer Steak sommelier Nadine Brown.

I’ll probably buy the Ticket & Raffle package. Raffle prizes this year include: an iPad, a $200 ThinkFood Group Gift Certificate (hello Oyamel & Zaytinya!), and Redskins tickets.

Taste of the Hill takes place April 2 from 6-10 pm at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church.

All proceeds go to support the PTA programs at Brent, including physical education, Chinese, scholarships for before and aftercare, field trips, and more.

Food and Drink, The Daily Feed
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Friday Happy Hour: ARTINI Edition – Week Two

Photo credit: Daniel Swartz/REVAMP.COM Courtesy of Corcoran Gallery of Art

Once again, Friday Happy Hour takes a look at the Cocoran’s ARTINI 2011 Each of the twelve participating bars have a created a special cocktail inspired by works from the Cocoran’s collection which are on offer leading up to the April 2nd gala. Each bar gets one “feature night” when their creation is showcased and a portion of the proceeds is donated to the Corcoran – though the drink continues to be available the entire month.

Featured this week: Tabard Inn, PS7’s, and Church & State.
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Capital Chefs, Food and Drink, The Features
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Capital Chefs: Teddy Folkman of Granville Moore’s (Part 2)

Photo courtesy of
‘Seared halibut and root vegetables’
courtesy of ‘bonappetitfoodie’

I know winter is winding down, but we still have the second half of March to go which I’m betting will bring some slightly colder days. This dish with the root vegetables and the light, creamy sauce is pretty much perfect for this in-between season. Below you’ll find the recipe for Teddy Folkman’s Halibut with Keizer Blue.

Since this dish involves cooking with alcohol, allow me to remind you that adding alcohol to a hot pan results in a quick flare of fire. Don’t stick your face over the pan, keep the kids a safe distance back and have a fire extinguisher on hand if you really mess things up. I recommend practicing that one a few times before you try to make this and impress the neighbors with your en flambé skills. According to Teddy, you can find the beer he uses at liquor stores around the District that carry smaller import/craft beer selections. You might also check Whole Foods. The Keizer Blue brew is sweet and perfect for an after dinner drink with this meal.
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Capital Chefs, Food and Drink, The Features
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Capital Chefs: Teddy Folkman of Granville Moore’s (Part 1)

Courtesy of Granville Moore's/JDSilk
Chef Teddy Folkman
Courtesy of Granville Moore’s/JDSilk

A friend of Teddy Folkman’s once gave him a piece of advice when he moved to DC more than ten years ago. He told him, “If you’re driving down East Capitol Street and you see the dome of the Capitol, and you feel nothing–then it’s time to go.” Lucky for us and for Folkman, that moment hasn’t happened.

Folkman, the executive chef of Granville Moore’s and famous for winning a mussels throwdown against Bobby Flay, was actually working in marketing and sales before he traded in a suit for a chef’s coat. “It was my passion and my hobby,” he says. “I would bail out of work early to go work as a line cook.” That’s when he decided to go to culinary school, despite his family’s objections and leaving behind a steady salary.

After going through most of culinary school (Folkman didn’t complete culinary school due to a snafu with the Dean and what sounded to me like a clash of egos and a few absences from class), chef Ann Cashion mentored Folkman, telling him he didn’t need culinary school if he wanted to work in her restaurant and learn as much as possible. I’d say things turned out pretty well for Folkman–throwing down with Bobby Flay, being on season 5 of The Next Food Network Star, running a successful restaurant, doing consultant work on a variety of projects and volunteering on the Chef Advisory Board for Brainfood.

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Food and Drink, The Daily Feed
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This Week in Food

Photo courtesy of
‘Hank’s Oyster Bar’
courtesy of ‘jichen2’
Running Indefinitely: Kushi Izakaya & Sushi will donate 100% of the sales of its popular Buta Bara Kushiyaki (Pork Belly Kushiyaki) to the Japanese Red Cross to support earthquake and tsunami disaster relief in Japan. The Pork Belly Kushiyaki, made with North Carolina pigs and cooked sous vide for several hours, is Kushi’s best-selling menu item averaging monthly sales of approximately $7,500.00. 

Getting Bigger…Come May Hank’s Oyster Bar will double in size, adding a bar & lounge as well as a private dining room. So what does this mean? Late night hours! Two am on weeknights and 3 am weekends. Our devoted readers might also remember that restaurant partners Jamie Leeds and Sandy Lewis from Hank’s sold CommonWealth Gastro Pub in Columbia Heights last month.

Opening: Because I live for press releases with a lot of adjectives and love the movie Burlesque…”From the restaurateurs behind distinctive dining concepts OYA and SEI comes SAX, an exclusive lounge and restaurant with provocative live entertainment designed to amuse, please and divert the senses with opulent grandeur.” Look for it in May.

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Food and Drink, People, The Features, We Love Drinks
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We Love Drinks: Jeff Faile

Jeff Garnishes
All photos by the author

We Love Drinks continues our series where we look behind the bar, profiling the many people – from mixologists to bartenders, sommeliers to publicans – who make your drinks experience happen.

“You could just write a short little paragraph: ‘Jeff hates vodka.’ That would sum it up perfectly.”

On a recent afternoon I sat down with Jeff Faile, until next Thursday the bar manager at Palena, and soon to be the bar manager (part of an excellent team) at Fabio Trabocchi’s return to DC, Fiola.

An army brat born in Rhode Island, he has a history degree from Clemson. Previously a manager at Tower Records in Philadelphia who moonlighted as a bartender, he moved to DC about five years ago and began bartending full-time. In November he got married, became bar manager at Palena, and was invited to join the DC Craft Bartenders Guild. And he owes at least part of his success to Twitter, of all things.

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Food and Drink, The Daily Feed
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New Chef at Central: Jason Maddens

Photo courtesy of
‘cheeseburger @ Central, Michel Richard’
courtesy of ‘PlantainsandKimchi.com’

A little while ago, Ashley brought you the news that Michel Richard is now offering buckets of fried chicken. And now the latest news from Central is the appointment of a new executive chef, Jason Maddens.

Not entirely new to the Michel Richard empire, Maddens was previously the sous chef at Michel in Tyson’s Corner. Prior to that he worked as the executive sous chef at 2941 in Falls Church, VA.

“Jason is a wonderful young chef, with good experience in high volume restaurants.  We have been working together for several months and I am glad to have him join us at Central,” says Richard. 

My guess is that the menu will remain mostly the same (don’t worry, that fried chicken isn’t going anywhere). According to Mel Davis, the executive assistant to Richard, Maddens will work with Richard on seasonal changes to the menu.

Food and Drink, The Daily Feed
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Chinatown Coffee Co. + Food Trucks Happy Hours


Courtesy of Bravery Corporation

The scene: you work in the no-man’s land for food trucks. You watch with envy as all your friends get to take advantage of the food that’s rolling about, tweeting up and down about the latest and greatest dish they’ve gotten from a truck, while you’re stuck with a frozen TV dinner at the office. Whine no more. This spring is your chance to try the trucks you’ve been craving during this year’s “Food Truck Thursdays.”

In a friendly showing of brick and mortar restaurant and food truck collaboration, Chinatown Coffee Co. is hosting a happy hour series from 6:30 – 8:30 PM starting at the end of March. Each week a different food truck will serve outside, and you’ll be able to take advantage of $3 beer specials, wine and absinthe from Chinatown Coffee Co. No need to scope out a park bench–patrons are welcome to bring food from the trucks into the coffee shop.

Here’s the schedule for Food Truck Thursdays, though more trucks will be  added to the calendar for the summer:

March 31: Takorean
April 7: Red Hook Lobster Pound
April 14: Fojol Bros.
April 21: DC Empanadas
April 28: Big Cheese
May 5: Sabor’a Street
May 12: Eat Wonky
May 19: CapMac
May 26: DC Slices
June 2: PORC

Food and Drink, The Daily Feed
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First Look: Hill Country

photo4
As a DC native who spent one lovely year living in Wichita Falls, Texas, let me tell you that if I’m ever missing the Lone Star State, DC’s new Hill Country Barbecue will easily take me right back to Texas.

My caveat: I am super snotty and like going to a restaurant where the food comes to me — I’m not all about the cafeteria-style (hello again DCPS) lunch line…but I LOVE this place.
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Dupont Circle, Food and Drink, The Features, We Love Food
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We Love Food: Zorba’s Cafe

Photo courtesy of
‘Zorba’s Cafe’
courtesy of ‘Mr. T in DC’

So now that it is sort of starting to get warmer (right? RIGHT?) all I can think about is eating and drinking outside. As a native Washingtonian, I know that the window of outdoor eating opportunity here in our nation’s capital is small, and I like to take advantage of it when I can. Since we’ve been friends for a while, Internet readers, I feel like it’s high time I let you in on my absolute favorite outdoor dining spot — Zorba’s. If you’ve never been here before, you have without a doubt walked by it a thousand times and never looked twice. Right by the Q St. exit of the Dupont Circle Metro stop, it doesn’t exactly scream “fancy dining experience.” And to be honest, you’re right. It may not be fancy, but they’ve got lots of patio seating, pitchers of beer and food that reminds me of sunny days nursing a hangover on the beaches of Greece. Or at least, that’s what I think they’d be like.

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Food and Drink, The Daily Feed
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Friday Happy Hour: ARTINI Edition – Week One

Photo credit: Daniel Swartz/REVAMP.COM Courtesy of Corcoran Gallery of Art

As Jenn posted at the beginning of the week the Cocoran’s annual fundraiser ARTINI 2011 is underway. Each of the twelve participating bars have a created a special cocktail inspired by works from the Cocoran’s collection which are on offer leading up to the April 2nd gala.

Throughout March, each bar gets one “feature night” when their creation is showcased and a portion of the proceeds is donated to the Corcoran – though the drink continues to be available the entire month. Because the We Love DC drinks team loves both drinks and art, we are especially enthusiastic about this project and will be using the Friday Happy Hours to recap the “feature nights” of each week.

The Week One contestants (and there is a competition element to this, too, after all): SEI Restaurant|Lounge, Farmers & Fishers, and Mie N Yu.
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Capital Chefs, Food and Drink, The Features
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Capital Chefs: Ed Witt of 701 (Part 2)

Photo courtesy of
‘To make a good salad is…….’
courtesy of ‘LaTur’

The recipe for this week is a simple one, but can be used in variety of ways. According to Witt, these maple candied walnuts are used to garnish the red wine pear, arugula, date and goat cheese salads at 701. While that sounds delicious, I’m sure you creative and ambitious foodies could find plenty of other uses for these walnuts. Read on for the full recipe.
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Food and Drink, The Features
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Capital Chefs: Ed Witt of 701 (Part 1)

Photo courtesy of
‘Chef Ed Witt of 701’
courtesy of ‘bonappetitfoodie’

Like many chefs I talk to, Ed Witt went into the restaurant industry in a sort of roundabout way. He had cooked in high school and enjoyed it, but it wasn’t until after four majors and three years in college that he decided to really pursue being a chef.

After stints in San Francisco and New York City, Witt returned to the DC area in 2009. Although he is originally from Binghamton, New York, Witt went to high school in DC and later attended University of Maryland. In June 2010, he became part of restauranteur Ashok Bajaj’s empire when he was hired as the executive chef of 701 Restaurant in Penn Quarter.

At times working in a restaurant downtown with a largely tourist-based clientele can be challenging. But for Witt there are plenty of positives in the kitchen. “I get to be pretty creative as long as it’s within our costs,” Witt says. At 701, Witt gets to experiment with housemade charcuterie and he’s excited about getting a pasta extruder for the restaurant. For those not familiar, a pasta extruder is a machine that can make pasta in various shapes that cannot be done by hand. “We keep pushing it, keep the menu fresh and keep changing things,” says Witt. Continue reading →

Food and Drink, We Love Drinks
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Drinks Special: Irish Whiskey


‘Redbreast’
courtesy of ‘philipmatarese’

I come from a line of whiskey drinkers. Well, that’s really only about half true. The other line drinks whisky. But perhaps I should explain. Irish whiskey gets the ‘e’ (as does most American whiskey), while Scotch whisky goes without (and shares that spelling with Canadian whisky). Even the paper of record updated its style on the subject. By surname, my father’s family is more Irish than anything else. On the other hand, my mother’s family can be traced to Scotland. Both family histories, for what it’s worth, pass through Kentucky, itself no slouch when it comes to distilling. To the best of my knowledge there weren’t actually any distillers (or moonshiners) in the family, but I digress.

I do enjoy a wee dram now and again, but I like to do so on the merits of the spirit, not just for the benefit of getting blind. As such I tend to avoid bars on the major drinking holidays. Since I believe that one should respect the spirit, and I also believe that Irish whiskey deserves that respect, here’s a primer on some of the Irish whiskey you can find in the DC area in advance of St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. If I’ve left out your favorite, please feel free to set me straight in the comments. It’s been too long since I’ve had Clontarf for me to have an opinion on its merits.

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Food and Drink, The Daily Feed
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This Week in Food

Photo courtesy of
‘Ray’s Hell-Burger’
courtesy of ‘KentonNgo’
It’s been quite a busy week in food!

The food truck/cupcake/small business/personal quest (?) wars continue…and get quite strange indeed. Read Sprinklegate turns food truck war in The Washington Examiner.

Are you always arguing with friends about which burger joint in DC is actually the best? Well, Food & Wine picks two DC restaurants for us as part of its “Best Burgers in DC” slideshow. Their picks: Ray’s Hell Burger in Arlington (shocking) and Palena Café.

Agora is adding a new fixed price, three-course lunch menu at $14.99 per person Monday through Friday from 11 AM until 3 PM. You can pick Turkish and Greek inspired dishes like grilled ground lamb and beef kebab with sumac onions & Baklava, along with a choice of non-alcoholic beverage. 

If you really follow chef moves, Top Chef Finalist Carla Hall joins DC Central Kitchen’s Board of Directors. DCCK is also looking to start a Truck Farm. Curious? Find out more here. 

Executive Chef Brian McBride has tapped Eric Fleischer as the New Chef de Cuisine of the Award-Winning Blue Duck Tavern. Most recently, Fleischer worked as chef de cuisine at Zola in Penn Quarter.

Speaking of PQ, accoring to Penn Quarter Insider, Hill Country BBQ opens on Saturday (or maybe the 17th?). So check it out one of those days or go to U Street’s newest sports bar, Touchdown. TBD reports that Touchdown opened its doors Tuesday in the former space of Momo’s Sports Bar. The bar shows-off old photographs of the Washington Senators from the 1924 World Series.

Happy eating!