Three Major Players Under One Roof
 Len DePas The Grill Room's a gold mine of talent thanks to its recent acquisitions. Former Palena chef /owner Frank Ruta is now commanding the kitchen inside the Capella Washington DC Georgetown. He brought along his all-star pastry chef, Aggie Chin, who has received nods from Food & Wine, among others. Aggie's desserts stand out because she has a knack for balancing sweet and savory—like her parsnip cake. Finally, The Grill Room also brought in master sommelier Keith Goldston to jazz up the wine program. Don't worry—the Champagne cart is still rolling around.
We snapped Frank's buckwheat and Yukon Gold potato gnocchi studded with Honshiimeji mushrooms, sweet potato, wild rice, goat cheese fonduta and Reggiano. It was the first dish he added to the new menu. The winter menu is heavy on meat, like a suckling pig trio, to aid diners who are in snow-covered hibernation mode. Also look for braised beef cheeks & venison loin duo, dry-aged Shenandoah Angus ribeye and a roasted Muscovy duck breast. |
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Where to Try Moroccan Wine
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It's unlikely that booze is the first thing that pops into your head when you think of Moroccan dining, but perhaps it should be. We recently spent time with Mazagan General Manager Reda Bouizar. He runs the beverage program at the fairly new Moroccan restaurant that abuts the Arlington Cinema & Drafthouse. He says drinking in Morocco has a hybrid status. “Marrakesh is a very extravagant party town with bars everywhere.” There's still the religious bind that says you cannot drink, but Reda says drinking and being a devout Muslim are no longer mutually exclusive. “I sit with my father and have a nice glass of wine; things have changed.”
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Fez on the other hand is the spiritual and historical heartbeat of the country and it remains very conservative. While alcohol is consumed far less, that's where the country's wine is grown, creating a curious situation. Mazagan has two Moroccan wines available by the bottle, an un-oaked Chardonnay and a Cabernet Merlot blend from Domaine Ouled Thaleb. “The wine is very good—the vines are French clones, winemakers use French processes and the climate is Mediterranean,” Reda tells us. His next project is to bring in Mahia, a fig brandy. It's actually produced domestically in New York by a Jewish-Moroccan family. Moroccan mixologist Taha Ismail, who leads the drink program for Mike Isabella's restaurants, is already serving it in DC (at Kapnos). |
Food, Science and Sex at the Dinner Table
A Valentine's Day date that involves a PowerPoint presentation and projector screen doesn't sound sexy. But, when that presentation is about sex and it accompanies a three-course meal starring a PornBurger, it actually turns out to be quite hot. The “Food Science Sex” dinner held on Saturday starred Eric Schulze, a molecular biologist who you may recognize from the Ask Smithsonian series. He dispelled myths about aphrodisiacs and covered the more interesting facets of reproduction. We snapped him (center) with the evening's chef, Mathew Ramsey and event co-founder Kim Bryden of Cure[ate].
 Mathew made a name for himself dreaming up one tempting “PornBurger” after another, typically involving a cool pun and gourmet ingredients. It was such a success that he's writing a cookbook. The PornBurger at Food Sex Science was topped with foie gras pâté, port wine onion jam and black truffle demi-glace, and served with gnocchi tater tots. This followed a beet tartare appetizer called “foreplay.” Spread across the intimate table of six guests were periodic table building blocks because the dinner was a part of an ongoing supper series that folds in science called The Periodic Table. |
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EdibleDC Dives Drink First Into Events
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The glass was half full at EdibleDC's first-ever event Thursday night at Longview Gallery. That's because the 2015 Drinks Invitational was a celebration of the local beverage scene that's bloomed the past few years. Local distillers like Catoctin Creek Distilling Co, One Eight Distilling and New Columbia Distillers showed off their products in creative cocktails like Catoctin Creek's “Hot Buttered Rye,” which had a mound of butter and brown sugar requiring an immediate call to a cardiologist. We snapped the magazine's publisher, Susan Able, before the crowds arrived. |
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Joining local beverage purveyors were top restaurants showcasing cocktails and paired nibbles including Zentan, DGS Delicatessen and Rural Society. However, the most swiped-at dish seemed to be from Chaia, whose motto is “farm to taco.” Soon you'll be able to try its plant-based eats in a brick-and-mortar restaurant at 3207 Grace St NW. They paired well with a smoked moonshine Manhattan from Richmond-based Belle Isle Craft Spirits. EdibleDC Magazine covers local food culture and relaunched in June 2014 under Susan's leadership. |
No Fish Fillets at The Source
Chinese New Year dinner at The Source begins with a stroll through a night market lined with booths manned by host chef Scott Drewno and some notable visitors. Ripple's Marjorie Meek-Bradley whipped up the soup dumplings (Xie Long Bao) she learned to make on her recent trip to Shanghai, while Restaurant Eve's Cathal Armstrong spooned ma po pork belly onto rice. The whole fried rockfish in Sichuan lobster sauce stole the seated portion of the meal. It's traditional for the whole fish, head and all, to be served for Chinese New Year to signify unity, completeness, prosperity and basically anything worth hoping for over the next 365 days.
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Who Paid $250 for a Tipple?
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At the judge's table during the inaugural Mardi Gras Capital Cocktail Competition at Black Jack Tuesday, "which one are you most willing to finish?" was overheard quite a few times. That's because there were some odd drinks being crafted by some of the best barkeeps in the city, as teams of two were given a secret ingredient. The cocktails were then auctioned off. We snapped Gypsy Soul duo Bryan Tetorakis and Jo-Jo Valenzuela, who battled Founding Farmers using wasabi peas. While Gypsy Soul advanced to the next round, the team from Mike Isabella Concepts eventually won. |
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Proceeds from the auctioned cocktails, ticket sales and door donations benefited DC Central Kitchen via Black's Family Foundation. It was Jeff Black himself who forked over the most cash for a drink. We snapped him with his $250 tipple. Jeff is behind Black Restaurant Group, whose restaurants include Pearl Dive Oyster Palace, Black Jack, Blacksalt Restaurant, Republic and more. In celebration of Mardi Gras, Pearl Dive Chef Colleen Conrad (who we introduced you to) served BBQ pulled pork sandwiches on Addie's rolls with crawfish hushpuppies. |
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