CatherineAndrews

Happy post-election day, everyone! Your thoughts are probably more on politics than on food, but wanted to let you know about a few things.

-We're holding a Kliman Online contest to celebrate three years of online chats! Entering is simple. Just list three dishes from three local restaurants - one for each course - and give a brief description of your rationale for choosing them. The menu that captures what Todd loves most about Washington dining will win a gift certificate worth $150 to the Italian trattoria Notti Bianche in Foggy Bottom. Email your answers to me at candrews@washingtonian.com before November 17.

-We ask you today which restaurants you'd tell Barack Obama to hit when he moves into the White House. And if you can, give him a suggestion for a favorite dish. The discussion is already rolling with lots of ideas.

-We're starting a new twice a month feature by Kelly DiNardo called the Frugal Foodie. She'll ask local chefs to whip up delicious meals on a budget. For the first one, Tony Conte of the Oval Room comes up with a winner for just $10.

Thanks!

Catherine
washingtonian.com

Hi everybody - just wanted to post a few of our latest links that I thought you'd enjoy.

Raising the Bar: Best Wine Bars in Washington, DC: Wine bars have emerged as a hot restaurant trend. Where are the best places to sip a half glass of Pinot Noir? Here’s how to separate the wine temples from the wannabes.

Burger Wars: The burger wars have erupted, with three new spots duking it out for fast-foodie supremacy.

Cocoa a Go Go: Chocolate has been turned into candy, cakes, and drinks. Now pastry chefs are saying it’s worthy of an entire restaurant.

The Big Chill: How Chefs Are Embracing Fall Ingredients

An Early Look at Founding Farmers

Enjoy!

Thanks,

Catherine

washingtonian.com

Hi everybody - just passing a few of our latest links your way.

Move Over, Citronelle: Johnny Monis has made Komi into the most soulful and personal restaurant in DC - and maybe the best.

Eric Who? Marino Keeps 'Em Coming to Westend

Hidden Eats: Pupatella: Great pizza from a little red food cart in Ballston.

First Look: Ray's Hell-Burger

A Night Out: Outstanding in the Field Dinner

Video FeedBack: Hello Cupcake

Also, we've started a new feature. Every Monday, Table to Table will give you a weekly schedule of the best food events coming up. Check back for it!

Enjoy,

Catherine
washingtonian.com

Hi everybody - just wanted to give you a heads up on our food critics' coverage of Adour last night. To wit:

"Alain Ducasse and his 14 Michelin stars blew into town last night for the opening of Adour at the St. Regis, and we were there.

Part one of our coverage began with food and wine editor Todd Kliman's dispatches from the dining room - our first-ever real-time restaurant review.

Part two concludes today.

Below we give you not one critic's appraisal of the restaurant but three - three scorecards (Adour cards, if you will). We follow that with an assessment of Adour's wine program because the restaurant has billed its technique-driven French cooking as "designed with wine in mind."

Four critics weighing in on things would seem as much an instance of overkill as following a multicourse meal with cheese and dessert and a tray of petits fours - not to mention a violation of the usual critical imperative to give a new place a few weeks to a month to settle in and work out the kinks."

You can read all the scorecards here. Enjoy!

Catherine
washingtonian.com

I do in fact read the chat every Tuesday and try as much as possible to help Todd out behind the scenes. I've never had any tech problems when I read it, so I suspect that it depends on the computer/browser being used. That information is helpful to me to pass on to our developers to try to resolve the problem.

Catherine

washingtonian.com

I would suggest that they have someone from washingtonian.com actually read the chat every once and a while and then the problems would be quite obvious. I can't imagine that anyone does that and doesn't know the problems. Soliciting complaints seems like it would be the second step, not the first.

I love Todd's chats, but they are loaded with technical difficulties.

I thought the same thing, but while it remains rude to blackberry or text at restaurants, I'm not sure it makes him stand out all that much - especially if he makes a modest effort to do so with a modicum of discretion.

We're making an effort to improve some of the aspects of the chat. If there are particular technological issues or other problems you are having with Todd's chat, could you message me with the details? It'd be enormously helpful.

Thanks!

Catherine

washingtonian.com

Hi folks - just wanted to pass along the latest links from Best Bites and washingtonian.com.

-Hello Cupcake: Are these cupcakes worth the line?

-Good Humor: Who says summer's only for kids? We asked six chefs to rejigger the iconic ice-cream truck's goodies for grown-up tastes. Check out the recipes they came up with.

-Review of Thirsty Bernie: Meat master Jamie Stachowski's Arlington sports bar offers brews, brats, and the promise of big things.

-First Look: La Sandia: The menu is a traipse through Sandoval's native Mexico and amounts to a sometimes compelling, sometimes dispiriting travelogue.

-Video FeedBack: CommonWealth: This week, we staked out CommonWealth, the new Columbia Heights gastropub from Hank's Oyster Bar chef/owner Jamie Leeds.

Enjoy!

Catherine
washingtonian.com

Hi everybody - just passing along a few blog posts, etc, that I thought you'd enjoy. First up is the news that I've convinced Todd Kliman to sign up for a Twitter account I haven't actually convinced him to start using it, yet, but baby steps. He's at twitter.com/toddkliman - and there's also a Washingtonian one at twitter.com/washingtonian

Secondly, we posted an early look at CommonWealth that's getting some really interesting comments.

We also have Restaurant Week menus, RW extensions, and Todd's personal RW picks.

And we just put up a video FeedBack for Nando's! And if you missed it, we did a video FeedBack for Good Stuff Eatery last week.

Phew. Enjoy!

Catherine

washingtonian.com

Hi everybody - we just put up a few online items that I wanted to pass along to you all. First off, if you didn't see, Todd Kliman is doing a second contest for his chat. The details are here, and the prize is a $150 gift certificate to Circle Bistro.

Also, we just put up a video FeedBack taken outside of Ray's Hell-Burger. You can watch it here.

Finally! We did an audio slideshow with Jamie Leeds about the process she went through opening up CommonWealth. We took several of her personal notes, documents, and drawings from the period when she was brainstorming about the restaurant up until a nearly-final version of the menu, and she narrated over them. You can see the slideshow and CommonWealth's menu here.

Hope you enjoy these posts!

Catherine

washingtonian.com

Hi everybody - had a few fun links I wanted to pass your way. First off, we interviewed Granville Moore's Teddy Folkman about his experience up against Bobby Flay, and got a video demo of his recipe for the winning mussels. You can get that all here.

Second, we were at Spike's Good Stuff Eatery grand opening party on Monday, and got bunches of video interviews with some Top Chef folks (Lisa, Antonia, and Stephanie), and lots of photos. Check it out!

Cheers,

Catherine

washingtonian.com

Exciting restaurant day yesterday...bit more back to normal on the Best Bites blog today, where we've got a look at Bar Baudelaire at Le Gaulois. Enjoy!

Catherine

washingtonian.com

Hi everybody - just wanted to let you know about a breaking news item Todd Kliman just posted on Washingtonian.com.

BREAKING NEWS: Barton Seaver Splits with Hook

Hook chef Barton Seaver, who made a name for himself in guiding the slick seafood emporium to foodie prominence and who also helped to launch a more casual spot, Tackle Box, has split with his ownership group, Pure Hospitality.

This is the second dust-up at Hook this month, following the bitter (and very public break-up) of Tackle Box and chef Richard Bechtold a couple of weeks ago.

More here.

Hi everybody - just wanted to let you know we just posted an Early Look with photos of Locolat in Adams Morgan. Enjoy!

http://www.washingtonian.com/blogarticles/...bites/8246.html

Cheers,

Catherine

washingtonian.com

Hi everybody,

Just wanted to point you towards our latest Video FeedBack, where we ask diners on the street what they thought of the restaurant. This week, it was Co Co. Sala: http://www.washingtonian.com/blogarticles/...bites/8090.html

You can see all FeedBacks here (we've done Corduroy, Tackle Box, Cork, etc): http://www.washingtonian.com/blogs/bestbit...back/index.html

Cheers,

Catherine

washingtonian.com

Hi everybody - thought you might find this quick blog post we just put up interesting. It's about which local restaurants presidential campaigns have been spending the most at for fundraisers and to feed their staffs:

http://www.washingtonian.com/blogarticles/...mment/7883.html

Cheers!

Catherine

washingtonian.com

Hi everybody - just wanted to let you know that we just put Todd Kliman's profile of Eric Ripert from the May issue online:

http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/restaurants/7843.html

Thanks,

Catherine

washingtonian.com

what happened to the third member of the panel?

Yared Tesfaye was running late to the chat, but still answered several questions - just later than the other folks. It's all here: http://www.washingtonian.com/chats/restaurants/7762.html

Thanks!

Catherine

washingtonian.com

Hi everybody,

Wanted to alert you to a new feature we've started doing on the Best Bites blog. It's a Video FeedBack: We film the opinions of diners who've just left a restaurant. This week we did Corduroy (previous installments were on Cork and Tackle Box). Hope you enjoy!

http://www.washingtonian.com/blogs/bestbit...back/index.html

Cheers,

Catherine

www.washingtonian.com

Morning everybody - wanted to let you know about an online chat we're doing on washingtonian.com this Thursday. Three chefs (Barbara Black of BlackSalt, Terrell Danley of Creme, and Anthony Chittum of Vermilion) will be coming in at 11 AM to answer any and all questions about brunch (or anything else you might want to ask!).

You can submit questions in advance here: http://www.washingtonian.com/chats/restaurants/7679.html

Thanks,

Catherine

washingtonian.com

Hi folks,

Just wanted to let you know about an online chat we're doing this Thursday with Greg Engert of Rustico:

Greg Engert is the 28-year-old beer guru at Alexandria's Rustico, where he pairs the gourmet pizzas and comfort fare with brews from his hand-picked list of over 300. Want to learn some tricks for pairing beer with food? Wondering how he progressed from English lit major to beer sommelier? Ask him anything!

You can submit a question in advance here: http://www.washingtonian.com/chats/restaurants/7419.html

He'll be in Thursday at 11 AM.

Thanks!

Catherine

washingtonian.com

Hi everybody! Had a few links recently that I thought you'd enjoy.

-We created a late-night eats dining guide: http://www.washingtonian.com/blogarticles/...bites/7422.html

-We interviewed Top Chef's Spike about his Cap Hill restaurant plans: http://www.washingtonian.com/blogarticles/...bites/7432.html

-And we have a new newsletter, that will send you Todd Kliman's most recent chat transcript every Tuesday afternoon: http://www.washingtonian.com/Registration/index_html

Thanks!

Catherine

washingtonian.com

Hi everybody,

We did a quick interview with Wolfgang Puck when he was here in town on Friday for the Newseum grand opening party. He talks about opening more restaurants in DC, where he eats when he's here, and more. Here's the post:

http://www.washingtonian.com/blogarticles/...bites/7404.html

Cheers,

Catherine

washingtonian.com

Hi everybody - just wanted to let you know that we just finished up a chat with Joe Englert, nightlife and restaurant developer extraordinaire. There was a lot of nightlife/bar talk, but some good restaurant tidbits, too, so I wanted to pass it along:

http://www.washingtonian.com/chats/artsfun/7344.html

Thanks!

Catherine

washingtonian.com

Hi everbody - just wanted to let you know we're doing another special foodie roundtable chat, this time with pastry chefs! Here's the info, and you can submit your questions in advance at the link below. Also, if you have any thoughts on other food-type chats you'd like to see us do, I'd love to know. You can email me at candrews@washingtonian.com.

February's round-table with three mixologists and last week's Chinese food chat with Jennifer 8. Lee were such hits that we're bringing in more food-world folks for Q&A. On Thursday at 11 am, three of the area's top pastry chefs - all 2008 RAMMY award nominees - will chat live on Washingtonian.com. Want to know their take on the current cupcake craze? Or how to avoid home baking disasters? Submit a question in advance for our pastry panel:

Heather Chittum has been a fixture on the local pastry scene for the past several years - first at Notti Bianche and Dish, then at Citronelle, and now at Hook. Her desserts - such as a tic-tac-toe board of chocolate whoopie pies and vanilla shortbread "x" cookies - often have a fun flair, but her simple, buttery madeleines could make any Francophile swoon.

Michelle Garbee owns Alexandria's cozy-chic Bastille with her chef husband, Christophe Poteaux. Her desserts often draw from French bistro classics: warm apple tarte tatin with creme fraiche sabayon; Valrhona chocolate mousse with brandied cherries. She also has a hand in the savory side of the menu - think sea scallop creme brulee and black truffle ice cream.

Josh Short is the Neighborhood Restaurant Group's executive pastry chef, based out of Alexandria's Buzz Bakery. He dreams up elegant plated desserts for NRG's restaurants (Evening Star Cafe, Rustico, Tallula/EatBar, and Vermilion), but we can't get enough of his scrumptious chocolate-filled bumble bee cupcakes and espresso-laced brownies.

Submit questions early here: http://www.washingtonian.com/chats/restaurants/7214.html

Oh, and I wanted to let you guys know we're doing an online chat this Thursday at 11 AM with Jennifer 8. Lee of the NYTimes. Here's the how and the why and the what:

On Thursday, March 20, at 11 AM, Jennifer 8. Lee will be chatting right here about her new book, The Fortune Cookie Chronicles. Lee, a Harvard grad and New York Times reporter, set out to trace the origins of the fortune cookie. Along the way, she visited Chinese restaurants in almost every part of the United States, exploring questions such as why Jews love Chinese food on Christmas, why most soy sauce doesn't contain actual soy, and what the greatest Chinese restaurant in the world is. The resulting narrative is full of wit, adventure, and fascinating history. Stiff author Mary Roach described it as "Anthony Bourdain meets Calvin Trillin."

Lee used to be based in DC (her parties were the stuff of plenty of headlines while she was here), so she knows a lot about the Cuban-missile-crisis talks at Cleveland Park's Yenching Palace and the history of downtown DC's Wok n Roll (its building was once the boardinghouse where John Wilkes Booth plotted to kill Abraham Lincoln). One of the most interesting parts of the book is the chapter she devotes to the 1989 kosher-duck scandal at Rockville's Golden Dragon restaurant.

So if you have a question about the colorful tradition of Chinese restaurants in our area, how Chinese cooking varies in the US versus China, or anything else, Lee is your girl. Here's our question: Why did she conspicuously omit our area in her search for the greatest Chinese restaurant?

You can submit questions in advance here: http://www.washingtonian.com/chats/restaurants/6927.html

Cheers,
Catherine
Washingtonian.com