Capital Spice

Think back to that first episode of Top Chef Las Vegas in August of 2009.  What was your first impression of “Mike I?”

Photo Credit: Greg Powers

Chances are, the Zaytinya chef registered as loud, brash and maybe even a bit obnoxious.

Now picture him in the final episode of Top Chef All-Stars this spring.  The Graffiato chef/owner was composed and thoughtful, but still easy-going and clearly enjoying himself.  Within a year and a half he had evolved from a subject of criticism to one of pride among supporters of the DC dining scene.

When the first patrons taste his food at Graffiato’s opening tonight, that evolution will be on full display.  The concept is his.  The menu is his.  The kitchen is his.  It’s been a team effort to get here, for sure, but this is his show.

Buzz surrounding Graffiato’s opening has reached a fever pitch over the past few weeks (we fueled the fire a month ago when we saw Chef Isabella and he teased “Could be two weeks!”).  This is absolutely one of the most anticipated restaurants of the year, and details about the pizza oven, the local partners and the prosecco on tap have only made us more eager to actually taste the food.

We had a chance to stop by for a First Look as the Graffiato team was working through some of the finishing touches in advance of tonight’s opening.  Photos and some more details on what to expect after the jump. (more…)

Call it Pink-o de Mayo.  Today at 6 PM, the District’s first outpost of Pinkberry, the California-based tart yogurt purveyor, opens with a bang – and a giveaway.  As of this posting, almost 1,200 Pinkberry fans have indicated on Facebook that they will be there for the opening, which will be celebrated with free yogurt and prizes.

Why so much excitement?  Aren’t we already awash in TangySweetGreenYogFrozBerry establishments offering variations on this theme?  We are, and it’s Pinkberry’s fault.

Pinkberry’s commitment to fresh, never-frozen toppings and eclectic yogurt flavors – and its massive success – provided a blueprint for dozens of other entrepreneurs all over the country.  As far back as 2007, West-coast transplants and other Pinkberry groupies were clamoring for the flavor here in the Washington area.  But Pinkberry wasn’t about to drop a shop in the District just to check a box.  According to local licensee Kamran Ahmed, it was important to the brand that they find the perfect combination of location and atmosphere to make their mark in DC.  While they searched and then navigated the bureaucracy that is DC real estate and permitting, local competitors opened up to meet the demand.

Now the brand that started it all in America is here for you to taste for yourself.  Does it live up to the hype?  We took a first look yesterday and have plenty of details and photos after the jump. (more…)

You have to hand it to Todd and Ellen Gray when it comes to naming restaurants.  Equinox, their downtown dining destination, has been offering balanced, seasonally-inspired menus for more than a decade now.  But they’ve taken ‘meaning’ to a whole new level with Todd Gray’s Watershed, their new restaurant which opened this weekend on First Street, NE.

Watershed announces itself as a celebration of the “Coastal Cuisine of the Eastern Seaboard,” with special emphasis on ingredients and recipes found in the Chesapeake watershed region.  Walking up to the restaurant (entered through the lobby of the new Hilton Garden Inn), it’s easy to find a second interpretation of the name.  This IS a watershed moment for the area developers branded as NoMA (North of Massachusetts Avenue), as it brings sit-down dining and a chef’s touch to a neighborhood previously served only by fast-casual chains and coffee shops.

We had the chance to take a look at Watershed a few days before its official opening on Friday night, and we stopped in again yesterday to see how things are going.  We found a raw bar with an impressive if choosy selection, a dining room with a warm and inviting palette, and a killer patio.  Oh…and the food we tried last night was a great reminder of Chef Gray’s respect for the quality of his ingredients, too.

So what can you expect to find when you have your Watershed moment?  Check it out after the jump. (more…)

An expanding chain of burger restaurants might be enough for some guys (I can think of five), but Mark Bucher is getting ready to go beyond BGR in Cleveland Park.  Medium Rare, his new prix-fixe steak bistro, opens for dinner at 5 on Monday, and we had a chance to take a look as they were putting on the finishing touches and training staff on the finer points of cafe latte.  We even saw some of Washington’s best-known chefs stopping by to wish the newcomer well.

But most exciting of all was the advance look at the menus (“fresh from the printer today”) that confirmed what other sites have been reporting for some time now: a full dinner of bread, salad, steak and fries for a mere $19.50. At that price saving room for dessert seems like a really good idea, and Medium Rare is happy to oblige with one of five sweet options.

We’ve got some interior shots and a copy of the menu – not that you need to take any time with it before you visit – after the jump.

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I passed the storefront countless times: heading to CVS, picking up my dry cleaning, depositing a check.  Each time, I found myself staring in the window and wondering what was going on behind the brown paper.  I found out last week, and as of Monday Pound Coffee’s new location is officially open.  And not a moment too soon, it turns out.

Pound the Hill, as they’re calling their new digs, was meant to be the second space for one of NOMA’s earliest arrivals.  The plan was to keep the original open, get the new space up and running, and maybe even look ahead to another location when the time was right.  On Monday, Eater DC reported that the NOMA shop was closing for good, the victim of a landlord dispute and fortunate timing.

We stopped by to take a First Look around the Capitol Hill space just over a week ago, and the reports of early crowds come as no surprise.  The coffee has always been a hit – Pound is the only coffee shop on the East Coast carrying Kickap00 Coffee, Roast Magazine’s 2010 Roaster of the Year and purveyor of “organic, fair trade, artisan-roasted,” and their Nutella latte has a rabid following.  Couple that with the welcoming space we found when we visited and you’ve got the makings of a new neighborhood destination.

We’ve got more pictures, an overview of what visitors can expect, and some big news for Hill staffers after the jump.

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It’s a simple fact that one of the key ingredients in good barbecue is time.  The best pitmasters can slow-smoke a brisket for hours on end and then pull it off at just the right moment to maximize taste and tenderness.  So it stands to reason that the folks behind Washington’s newest ‘cue joint would take their time to make sure everything was done just right.

For those of us who’ve been eagerly awaiting Hill Country Barbecue Market’s opening, knowing this hasn’t made it any easier.  Thankfully, the wait is over.  If you smelled smoke in Penn Quarter this weekend, that’s because Hill Country threw open its doors on Saturday night.  This Washington offshoot of one of New York’s most popular barbecue restaurants is finally ready to go.

It’s not hyperbole to say that Hill Country represents a whole new way of looking at barbecue for Washingtonians.  This is not a lowest-common-denominator, give everyone a little taste of what they like best kind of place – it’s Texan through and through.  Executive Chef Elizabeth Karmel may hail from North Carolina, but she’s unapologetic in her Texan approach to ‘cue, eschewing sauces and mops in favor of a dry rub that includes salt, pepper and “enough cayenne to turn it pink” and serves to emphasize the flavors of the meat itself.  They don’t even offer barbecue sauce on the table (though they do offer an “If You’ve Gotta Have It” sauce).  Just ordering your meal may take some getting used to, as Hill Country utilizes a “meal ticket” to track your purchases as you move from counter to counter and build your plate.

We had a chance to take a first look around Hill Country on Friday, and we’ve got some photos to help you navigate the ordering system before you pay a visit.  Check them out after the jump. (more…)

By the time you read this post, Roti Mediterranean Grill will be open for breakfast.  If  you hurry, you might still beat the rush to be one of the first to try a sandwich wrapped in laffa or tucked into a house-baked pita pocket.  Even if you’re not enough of an early bird to check out their breakfast offerings, you may want to check out Roti in NoMa sooner rather than later.

Why?  Roti is offering up spit-roasted meats and freshly made toppings that will make up for all those mediocre gyros and kebabs you’ve settled for in the past.  They’re even baking their own pita bread on site.  And they’re delivering all these big sit-down style flavors at carryout prices.

There was a time when the area north of Union Station on First Street, NE, was an expanse of vacant lots and dilapidated buildings.  These days, with multiple federal offices and other large employers moving into the area, there are new dining options opening every week.  Even so, Roti Mediterranean Grill is poised to stand out among its neighbors.

So what’s Roti all about?  Imagine Chipotle with the flavors of the eastern Mediterranean.  Got it?  Now check out that picture to the right.  Pretty close, right?  On the surface, Roti’s quick-service, choose-your-own-adventure style is similar to that of the ubiquitous burrito place.  But their flavors are miles apart.

Check out some of what Roti will be offering when they open today after the jump. (more…)

The amazing retro-airline ticket menu at DC-3

When I say “hot dog,” what do you picture?  The frank and the bun are pretty much universal, but what else is on there – did you “drag it through the garden?”  Are there poppy seeds on the bun (or could it even be a pretzel roll)?  Is the dog long and thin, like the ones they offer at Nathan’s on Coney Island, bright red like a Kayem, or is it more like a sausage?  Did you reflexively go to a half-smoke from Ben’s Chili Bowl?

We don’t tend to think about these regional differences when we’re grilling on the Fourth of July, but there’s a wide world of wieners out there as you make your way from coast to coast.  Starting tomorrow today, you can eat your way from Maine to California without ever leaving Barracks Row, as DC-3 opens for business at 11 AM.

This new fast-casual concept from the guys who brought you Matchbox and Ted’s Bulletin is banking on hot dogs as the next big thing.  But don’t think of DC-3 as a sit-down street cart or even a direct competitor to Ben’s.  With their complete commitment to a “vintage aviation” concept that starts with a Douglas Commercial-3 (get it?) propeller on the wall when you enter and continues all the way down to the ticket-jacket menus, DC-3 is a full-on restaurant that just happens to focus on hot dogs from across the country.

We’ve been talking with the team for months now – after a friend heard us raving about Chicago’s Hot Doug’s he tipped us off to this work-in-progress.  When Ted’s launched with a DC-3 teaser on the newsprint menu, we smiled and eagerly awaited the arrival.  Now the wait is over.

A “taxi down the runway” look at what you’ll be able to order after the jump. (more…)

I have a confession to make: when it comes to Cuban cuisine, my knowledge is pretty much limited to ropa vieja and the oh-so-delicious sandwich with its pork, ham, cheese, pickles and mustard.  Cuba is a blank spot on my culinary map, and the dearth of Cuban restaurants in the district hasn’t done anything to help that.  But all that can change tonight, courtesy of Cuba Libre.

It’s official.  Tonight is opening night, and after a few days of soft service it looks like they’re ready to go.  The latest in a line of recent DC imports (the original is in Philadelphia and they’ve also got locations in Atlantic City and Orlando), Cuba Libre will be bringing an updated version of Cuban and Latin classics to Chinatown.

If you’re wondering what took so long (besides the fact that Cuba Libre is opening in Washington, DC) you need only look around when you step inside and you’ll see.  The restaurant goes out of its way to make you feel like you’ve stepped back in time to pre-revolution Havana…or at least the idealized version of pre-revolution Havana.  It’s like you’ve sneaked onto the set of Godfather II.

No expense has been spared to create that atmosphere.  Above the dining area (the space is two floors high), facades have been created by Kevin Hale with a set designer’s eye for detail.  Stucco building-fronts feature backlit windows and real curtains.  A mural presents a Cuban street scene in one corner of the space.  The long, pale wooden bar was recovered from Havana’s Hotel Nacional.  It’s all tastefully accomplished – this isn’t Pirates of the Caribbean: the Restaurant.

More interior photos and a look at what Cuba Libre offers to eat and drink after the jump.  (more…)

On the 600 block of Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, there’s a storefront that has intrigued me for more than a year.  The floor-to-ceiling glass windows have been covered by black plastic from time to time, but they’ve since come down and revealed something like the ruins of Pompey.  A tableau of a restaurant, frozen in time.  Place settings went untouched.  Quality glassware acquired a thick layer of dust.  And no one seemed to know just what was happening with Locanda, the refined Italian eatery that closed so suddenly at the end of last May.

All that is about to change for the better, as the cousin team of Khoa and Denise Nguyen prepare to open a new Vietnamese restaurant they’re calling Ba Bay.  If those names sound familiar, it’s probably not because you saw them on short-lived cooking competition show Chopping Block last year (few people did, which is why the show was canceled so quickly).  But they decided that they enjoyed the experience enough that they would continue the partnership.

I spoke with Denise a few weeks ago and have been trading emails with her since.  This weekend, she and Khoa went back to their roots to learn the secrets to some classic family recipes with their mothers – and to put their own spin on a few dishes, as well.

After the jump, some more details about what to expect when Ba Bay opens (and when that might be). (more…)