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.

The unexpected build-out has, of course, delayed Hollywood East’s expected reopening date following the restaurant’s unceremonious ousting from its former location on University Boulevard in Wheaton. The dim-sum operation was supposed to celebrate its grand reopening in August. Now, Yu says, she’s looking at a soft reopening on Monday, Dec. 14.

Even more painful is the price of the upgrades. Yu says the costs are “almost $200,000 more than I expected.” She tried to turn to the banks for a loan but found that path blocked.

“It’s not good for anybody,” Yu says about bank loans. “Nobody wants to fund restaurants, even SBA.”

The good news is that the new Hollywood East will be about 700 square feet larger than the old space, and it will be much greener, with energy-saving lights and wind-powered energy. The reopening will also mean good news for many of the former employees who have been not-so-patiently waiting for the restaurant’s re-emergence.

“Some of them are just collecting unemployment,” Yu says of her employees. “Some have been trying to find part time jobs.”

Yu is hoping Hollywood East passes all the necessary inspections for the Dec. 14 opening. That way, employees can get acquainted with the new space — and reacquainted with the menu, which will remain the same. “Then we can have a big Christmas party for customers,” Yu says.

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.

Some of the best breads anywhere are being baked by Atwater’s in Baltimore; you’ll find their terrific baguettes and San Francisco-style sourdough bread at the FRESHFARM Dupont Circle and Takoma Park farmers markets. For jams, check out Copper Pot’s excellent line of spreads made by former Mio chef Stefano Frigerio. You can order them at www.copperpotfoodco.com.

Your guests may never make it to the dinner table after this opening feast.

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.

But here’s the thing: I never would have put together the bite on my own. I had asked Hoil what two toppings I should put on my standard egg, cheese, and salsa taco, otherwise known as District Taco’s Basic 1.

He, without hesitation, suggested bacon and sausage. I, without hesitation, took up his offer. By the time I started eating the taco, I felt as if Hoil had just given me a tiny glimpse into his native cuisine.

The hand-bite has what few tacos possess: real crunch. It’s provided by the tiny crumbles of crispy bacon, which contrast perfectly with the fluffy yellow curds. But that Valladolid-style sausage (called chorizo on the menu) plays a vital role here: It provides a gentle spice and releases small pools of orange-colored, paprika-stained grease, which add both depth of flavor and aromatics to what often is a fairly bland bite.

In other words, don’t be afraid of the grease. It is your friend.

Oh, one final note: Remember to tell Hoil that you want your breakfast taco prepared with corn tortillas. Otherwise, they will use those horrid flour ones.

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:

Andrés told me the story behind the dish: On a Sunday in 1993, the legendary French chef Jean-Louis Palladin, who had a restaurant in D.C., walked into Jaleo. He ordered tortilla de patatas, sent it back, and told Andrés to do it the right way. “At first I had no idea who he was,” Andrés says. Palladin dragged Andrés back into the Jaleo kitchen, and taught him how to make an omelet the French way. Now, sixteen years later, it’s still made according to Palladin’s specifications. A wonderful story. A lovely omelet.

A good story and a good get by Richman. Y&H congratulates Andrés on the recognition. It’s an honor well-deserved.

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:

The milkshakes, all quick-frozen with “LN2” (liquid nitrogen), are brought to the table trailing a cloudlike fog. The most talked-about flavor is the creamy Krispy Kreme concoction (yes, it tastes exactly like drinking a KK doughnut, only very cold), but the best flavor is the groovy green pistachio laced with white truffles. Drink them with a meal, or order them for dessert.

Other than the shakes, the menu reads like an after-hours bet on who could create the funkiest burger ever. There are some creative patties here, from the Tartare burger (hanger steak with garlic, chili, capers, Worcestershire, pickled onion, frisée, smoked mayo, and a sous- vide egg yolk), the Korean (Wagyu beef and short rib with kimchi ketchup, pickled veggies, and crispy tempura onion), and the Ossobuco (veal patty with braised veal, gremolata mayo, braised ketchup, and crispy fried onions).

(A side question: Just what the hell is braised ketchup?)

Again from Ford with the AJC:

Beyond that, this jazzy joint is more fun than a barrel of burgers, which are beef, house-ground of short ribs, hangar steak and brisket. The mix makes them fattier — and juicier — than a burger made with leaner meat.

Smaller than average, but certainly larger than sliders, the size encourages ordering more than one — and so does the price (ranging from $6.50 to $11). Think of them as — dare I say it? — tapas burgers. Take a group of friends. Take your kids (there are always kids in this dining room). Take your wife. Your boss. Take a first date.

Then try as many of these little round marvels as you can wrap your chops around: a country-fried burger smeared with tangy pimento cheese and topped with house-made pickles dipped in house-made ketchup; a Japanese Kobe burger crowned with seared foie gras, truffle butter, bread-and-butter pickles, onion-and-red-wine jam and frisee; a “pate melt” of ground veal and pork sandwiched with Dijon and cornichons. What fun.

Could this place give Ray’s Hell Burgers a run for its money as the metro area’s most popular hamburger? Blais tells NBC Washington that he plans to open a Flip Burger Boutique in the Verizon Center area (aka Penn Quarter) next spring.

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:

• 1.5 pounds of Burgundy-style pheasant  pâté with lardons and pinot noir pearl onions
• Two loops (1.5 pounds) of Portuguese linguica
• Two links (12 ounces) of smoked duck petito
• Eight ounces of bresaola
• One pound of cardamom-scented and lightly smoked salame cotto.
• Quince and pear chutney

If you like charcuterie, this is a no-brainer purchase. Stachowski, who works under his own brand, is an obsessive for quality cured meats. You can taste it in every bite of his charcuterie, which is, hands down, the best in the city.

To place your order, call Stachowski at (202) 413-7355 or e-mail him at jamiestachowski@gmail.com.