Rick Bayless Drops by G Street Food This Morning

Bayless and Furstenberg: Men of the street

Imagine Y&H's surprise when he stopped by G Street Food, baker Mark Furstenberg's new operation inspired by international street foods, and saw Rick Bayless casually walk in the door.  As if the celebrity chef lives just across the street, not half way across the country.

Bayless, fresh off his victory on Top Chef Masters, no doubt wanted to chat with Furstenberg about his new project, since the Chicago chef recently launched a similar street-food restaurant in the Windy City. The two toques spoke for awhile; I tried to leave them alone, save for the picture above, but when Bayless finally said he had to go, I button-holed him near the exit.

Bayless told me he was in town for a private event yesterday and decided to stop by G Street after he read Furstenberg's announcement e-mail (best line in the baker's note: "I hope to see you soon. I will try hard not to be cranky.") and noticed that the place was only two blocks from where he was staying.

Bayless arrived between the breakfast and lunch services, which for mere mortals meant that you couldn't order any freshly prepared foods. You'd have to wait 'til 11 a.m. for one of Furstenberg's sandwiches or tartines or sausages or even a Roman flatbread pizza. But, of course, Furstenberg made sure Bayless left with a sandwich for the trip home.

What did Bayless want?

A banh mi, he told me. "I love Vietnamese food," he said.

And with that, he said politely excused himself to catch his plane.

G Street Food, 1706 G St. NW, (202) 408-7474

The logo on the entrance.

These giant loaves were only for display.

The G Street team prepping for lunch, which runs til 2:30 p.m.

One of the Montreal-style bagels available at G Street.