We’ve noticed a trend in a handful of our neighborhood bars lately. It seems that staff who pride themselves in stocking high-quality, flavorful beers are figuring out ways to undermine their need to sell yellow water to the masses. And they’re speaking up about it.

The Black Squirrel, for example, has a section of their beer list dedicated to “lightly-hopped lagers” and describes them as “classic” and “mild,” the kind of beers that “whisper instead of scream.” A use of euphemism if we’ve ever seen one.

The Reef’s approach is even better. Their description of Miller Light states it’s from “somewhere in America” and reads, “The aroma of beer precedes a distinct beer taste. Finishes like beer.” Next to their thoughtful descriptions of the craft and imported beers they can always be trusted to have on draft, this is an obvious slight.

Bourbon is by far the best example, as you can see from the photo above. They boldly state how they feel on their board, as well as their beer menu, which has ”Something Light” listed where the  fizzy yellow stuff should be. When we asked our server recently why they couldn’t bring themselves to write  the B-u-d word anywhere in the bar, he said they didn’t like that stuff there and that it was a jab at the weekend clientèle who demand it.

We’ve heard some bar owners say it’s good to carry what your customers want and then nudge them along toward more flavorful styles. We’ve also heard beer directors with a “no-crap-on-tap” mentality say that the big beer companies make enough money without their help. We pose the question to you. Have you seen treatment like this anywhere and what do you think about it?

As if you needed any more proof that we’re mired in a recession, just check out the top posts from this week: They’re focused on good, old-fashioned drinkin’. Here’s to better times, y’all…

In the meantime, the most-read posts from the week:

1. Women of Craft Beer: A Quick List (*)
2. Paste Names Best 25 American Breweries
3. The Passenger Set to Open Tomorrow
4. D.C. Dish Hall of Fame Leaderboard: Same As It Ever Was
5. Yaku to Close and Turn into a Rock ‘n’ Roll/Sushi Concept

* A certain light-drinking Budweiser beer was, once again, the most-read item, but we’ve stopped counting it.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

As we head toward Thanksgiving, Y&H wants to help you eat like a pilgrim (a Native American, too, because we’re all about equal opportunity eating here). In other words, we want to help you eat locally for the holiday. Almost 400 years ago, the pilgrims had no choice but to eat local. These days, we do. It’s not easy.

You want options with your first drink at Thanksgiving, and apple cider gives you exactly that.

Now let me say this: The apple cider from Twin Springs Fruit Farm, based in Orrtanna, Pa., may be the best I’ve ever had. Buy lots of it, because your guests will drink the stuff as if it were water in the desert. Twin Springs sells its cider at farmers markets around the area, from Dupont Circle to Arlington. You can serve the juice any number of ways: straight up; mulled with cinnamon, allspice, cloves, ginger and/or nutmeg and served warm; or stirred over ice with a good bourbon to make a holiday cocktail, perfect for surviving even the most tedious of family gatherings.

Photo by Phillie Casablanca via Flickr Creative Commons, Attribution License

Little has gone the way Janet Yu expected in trying to reopen her Hollywood East dim-sum parlor in the Westfield Shopping Center in Wheaton.

The owner quickly discovered that the new space, a former restaurant in the mall, was not suited to her needs, at least not as currently equipped. The duct work needed to be replaced. The gas lines needed to be upgraded to handle Hollywood East’s powerful woks. The bathrooms needed to be expanded.

The whole space, in short, was in dire need of an overhaul, save for the air conditioning and the ceiling, Yu tells Y&H this afternoon. “We gutted the whole place, and we had to start all over,” she says.

Read More “Hollywood East Tentatively Set to Reopen on Dec. 14″ »

Why does it not surprise Y&H that all three of these items have their roots in the South? The honey-baked ham segment, in particular, is quite fascinating, even though I’d rather eat the roadkill off an 18-wheeler’s tires than a honey-baked ham. (Just kidding, Smithfield. Keep those PR letters to yourself please!)

As we head toward Thanksgiving, Y&H wants to help you eat like a pilgrim (a Native American, too, because we’re all about equal opportunity eating here). In other words, we want to help you eat locally for the holiday. Almost 400 years ago, the pilgrims had no choice but to eat local. These days, we do. It’s not easy. First up: the appetizer course.

For a great opening spread, try a slection of local cheeses, charcuterie, breads, and jam.

Several local dairies hawk their cheeses at area farmers markets, including Everona Dairy, Keswick Creamery, Blue Ridge, and Cherry Glen. For charcuterie, check out Red Apron, which sells Nathan Anda’s wide-ranging selection of house-cured meats at Planet Wine in Del Ray and at the FRESHFARM Penn Quarter market (until Dec. 17). Or order Jamie Stachowski’s holiday charcuterie board, which includes enough sausage and salami and pâté to serve 10 people, by calling the chef at (202) 413-7355.

Read More “Pilgrim’s Pride: The Appetizers” »

Osiris Hoil tells me that he’s from Yucatan, Mexico, near Merida, and I tell him that I just visited the peninsula this summer.  We instantly bond. Specifically, we bond over the famous longaniza from Valladolid, these long ropes of sour and smokey sausages sold from roadside stands throughout the central part of the Yucatan.

Then, as if he just remembers it, Hoil breaks the important news about the breakfast bite I just order at his District Taco stand in Rosslyn: Its sausage is very similar to those Valladolid links. Hoil says he buys the sausages from a Latin market at Loehmann’s Plaza in Falls Church.  I mentally record this information as if it were a state secret.

Then I dig into what has to be the best breakfast taco I’ve had since leaving Houston.

Read More “Rosslyn Is Your Place for Breakfast Tacos” »

First it was Esquire, which recently stirred the pot by selecting Blue Ridge’s Barton Seaver as chef of the year. Now comes GQ, which just named José Andrés as its chef of the year.

GQ’s Alan Richman virtually gushes over Andrés and his approach to tapas:

America in recent years has became obsessed with undersized portions—the inexpensiveness, the informality, the joy of knowing that if the food turns out to be not quite what you had in mind, you aren’t stuck with a lot of it. There’s even intimacy in small plates, the sharing of a couple of bites. Nobody does this better or more expansively than Andrés, and it’s no coincidence that the five dishes I liked best at his restaurants in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles are all miniaturized. I could eat all five at one sitting, and I would do so if traveling didn’t make it impractical.

That’s all nice. But here’s the part of Richman’s essay that I found most interesting: how, 16 years ago, Andrés refined his tortilla de patatas at the behest of the legendary Jean-Louis Palladin. Writes Richman:

Read More “GQ Names José Andrés Chef of the Year” »

When I first heard, via this NBC Washington report, that former Top Chef contestant Richard Blais was going to open a burger joint in D.C., I immediately thought: God, it’s come to this. Chefs are following Spike Mendelsohn’s lead.

But then I looked further into Blais’ concept at Flip Burger Boutique in Atlanta, the hamburger joint with the pretentious name and the cool concept. The operation combines Blais’ affection for molecular gastronomy with the foodstuff that Washingtonians seem to love more than even Wimpy does.

The molecular gastronomy side of Flip seems, for the most part, limited to the milkshake section of the menu (PDF), where the creamy drinks are flash frozen with liquid nitrogen and come in oddball flavors such as Krispy Kreme and (I kid you not) foie gras. Here’s what the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Meridith Ford wrote in her (I kid you not) four-star review of Flip:

Read More “Former Top Chef Contestant Blais to Open Flip Burger in D.C.” »

I randomly dropped an e-mail to Jamie Stachowskiyesterday, wondering if the chef might have made enough charcuterie to peddle to the public during the holidays. I wasn’t ready for his response:

The Jamie Stachowski Holiday Charcuterie Board, which for $95 provides enough pâté, sausage, salame, and bresaola to feed 10 hungry carnivores. Here’s what you get for your money:

Read More “Just in Time for the Holidays II: Stachowski Charcuterie” »