The D.C. Dish Hall of Fame leaderboard remains virtually unchanged after a week of voting, save for the flip-flop of the ninth and tenth place dishes. After a strong surge last week, Horace & Dickie’s  fried whiting moves up a notch into ninth place.

But I have to say, I think the list is still missing some great dishes. Plates like Frank Ruta’s roast chicken and Michel Richard’s lobster burger are nowhere to be seen, meaning they will not, at present, be part of the inaugural class of the D.C. Dish Hall of Fame. A shame that would be, to paraphase a certain elderly sage.

A comment we received this morning, I think, sums up the feelings of a number of voters, who seem to view this contest as an exercise in classism, not a genuine search for D.C.’s finest plates:

like most things in DC, the options show extreme class stratification. I’d love to know the percentage of DC residents who’ve enjoyed the CityZen Parker House Rolls or Komi’s spit roasted goat.

I understand that more people can afford to eat at Ben’s Chili Bowl over CityZen. But I don’t think you should hold that against a great side like Eric Ziebold’s Parker House rolls. It deserves a place among the city’s best as much as the chili half-smoke. Well, almost as much.

So, c’mon, let’s try to put our prole resentments aside and vote for the best, regardless of price.  You can vote here.

The leaderboard:

Read More “D.C. Dish Hall of Fame Leaderboard: Same As It Ever Was” »

Y&H has been promoting the pleasures of fried whiting for years. It’s truly one of the District’s under-appreciated plates, which is why I was happy to see the whiting at Horace & Dickie’s enter this week’s leaderboard for the D.C Dish Hall of Fame.

Granted, the dish still doesn’t have enough votes to enter the Hall. It needs to be among the top five to earn that honor. But regardless, I’m glad to see it get some love. Maybe you’d like to give it more affection? Vote here.

Speaking of which, the falafel sandwich at Amsterdam Falafelshop also made a strong move last week, adding nearly 30 votes to its total despite the owners’, ahem, questionable behavior at the Strathmore. I credit the uptick to a groundswell of vegan/vegetarian voters, who were no doubt spurred by some online petition. How do I know this?

Because Y&H received a number of e-mails like this one from avalon345:

“Not enough vegetarian/vegan choices! Looks like 1950s fare…”

Yeah, sure. Where were you eating palak chaat, pho, and Peruvian chicken in the ’50s, avalon345?

The current leaderboard after the jump:

Read More “Horace & Dickie’s Enters the Leaderboard in D.C. Hall of Fame Voting” »

Voting is just a couple of weeks old for the inaugural class of the D.C. Dish Hall of Fame, but already a pattern has emerged: Fast foods are dominating the competition.

That’s hardly surprising, of course. On a daily basis, you know that people order about 500 more half smokes at Ben’s Chili Bowl than, say, order Frank Ruta’s roast chicken at Palena Cafe. But just because the odds are stacked against your favorite dish, that’s no excuse to sit back and let the fast foods run away with this.

Start pressing your friends to vote for your favorite dish. The voting doesn’t end until Dec. 11, when we will induct the top 5 into Washington City Paper’s inaugural D.C. Dish Hall of Fame.

Take a look at the current leaders:

Read More “Fast Foods Take the Lead in D.C. Dish Hall of Fame Voting” »

The Margherita at 2Amys: Does it make the cut?

Earlier this week, I was noshing on the roast chicken at Palena Cafe, reveling once again in Frank Ruta’s ability to add and coax flavors from this generous, succulent portion of breast, wing, and leg meat. That’s when the thought struck me: This is, hands-down, one of the area’s greatest dishes. It deserves a spot in some sort of local culinary hall of fame.

The roast chicken is an obvious one, but what other dishes would make the cut? I’ve been pondering this and have drafted a number of nominees. The list is, by no means, complete. It needs your suggestions.

Once we get a solid roster of nominees, we’ll put them to a public vote here on the Y&H blog. The top 10 vote getters will go into the City Paper’s inaugural D.C. Dish Hall of Fame. Winners will receive everlasting glory.

The working list of nominees:

Read More “Seeking Nominees for City Paper’s Inaugural D.C. Dish Hall of Fame” »

How can you go to 2Amys and resist this pie? Meliakristin explains.

Go to 2Amys for something other than pizza? That seems an act bordering on sacrilege, at least to this critic who still thinks Peter Pastan is turning out the best pies in town.

But Restaurant Rater meliakristin’s mind turns to other delicacies when visiting the pizzeria. Here’s what she writes:

Read More “Vox Populi: Restaurant Rater meliakristin on 2Amys” »

One by one, we’re running through the 50 restaurants that made the cut on this year’s Young & Hungry Dining Guide. If you have visited the day’s featured restaurant, let us know what you think. If you’re planning to visit for the first time, tell us about your meal when you return.

From the moment I first walked into Pete’s, I thought I had good grasp of its operating ethos—a sort of sloppy, garlic-breathed hug of New Haven, Italian-American traditions, with just enough refinement to appease the magazine-toting foodies. But with each subsequent visit to the Columbia Heights pizzeria, I realize just how wrong my initial impression was. I’ve come to see that Pete’s is actually a cool urban outpost dedicated to classic Italian/Mediterranean ways. Perhaps it has always been thus, and I was just bamboozled by the “Apizza” in Pete’s name. Whatever the concept, though, this operation turns out raised, crispy crusts with a slightly airy, slightly chewy crumb, which strike me as New Haven in style, even without the coal ovens. Pete’s may be more refined than its Connecticut cousins, but the pie parlor still aims for an honest homemade simplicity, which in our processed age has become a strange signifier of quality and class. I have no doubt that Pete’s has 2Amys in its sights.

 Pete’s Apizza, 1400 Irving St. NW, (202) 332-7383

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

One by one, we’re running through the 50 restaurants that made the cut on this year’s Young & Hungry Dining Guide. If you have visited the day’s featured restaurant, let us know what you think. If you’re planning to visit for the first time, tell us about your meal when you return.

Peter Pastan not only runs 2Amys, the District’s best pizzeria, but he also oversees what is, to my mind, the most underrated dining room in town. Perhaps that’s a hard argument to make, given the generally high marks that Obelisk earns from the city’s professional eaters, but I believe Pastan’s name should rank right up there with D.C.’s signature chefs, whether Michel Richard or Frank Ruta. The thing that prevents Pastan from entering the upper echelon is the critical world’s bias for sheer creativity over simple purity of expression. Course after course after course, Pastan and Esther Lee, his long-time head chef at Obelisk, turn out exquisite bites of rustic Italian cooking. Eggplant caponata on crostini with anchovy. Smoked duck breast with caramelized-onion sauce. Arugula ravioli with walnut butter sauce. Ravioli in brodo. Grilled mullet with asparagus. Nothing too fancy, but everything executed for maximum flavor. The most impressive thing about Obelisk, though, may be that Pastan and Lee design a new tasting menu each and every day.

Obelisk, 2029 P St. NW, (202) 872-1180

This morning, I got into a small online argument with a fellow D.C. gastronome (can I just pause here and say that I hate almost all the words used to describe a food lover; they all carry the connotation that you can’t tie your shoes without the help of a sommelier or bus boy) who disagreed with my decision to exclude the local heavy hitters from my Young & Hungry Dining Guide.

Wrote this epicure (again with the gastro-dandy terms) over two separate e-mails:

No Komi? Omitting Citronelle is trendy. Omitting Komi is foolhardy. (And no, I’m not a New Yorker. I think Komi beats Pierre Gagnaire in Paris, which is 3 stars and top ten in the “best in the world” list.)

Having places on your list that are not on Tom’s or Todd’s is what makes it interesting and cool. But entirely omitting from the list a place that’s on everyone’s list, and tops on many of them, seems deliberately provocative. But we’ll just agree to disagree (unless you want to buy me dinner at Komi so we can sit down together and you can make your case against their inclusion!)”

 Here was my response back to this international eater:

Read More “The Decision to Skip Komi, Citronelle, Etc.: Provocative? Legit? Or Stupid?” »

Allow me to tell you about some of the restaurants that didn’t make this year’s Young & Hungry guide to the 50 Best Restaurants in D.C. Michel Richard Citronelle, for one. Komi didn’t, either, no matter how many times some New Yorker wants to tell me what a genius Johnny Monis is. I sent other sacred cows to slaughter, too: Palena, Restaurant Eve, Minibar at Café Atlantico, CityZen, 2Amys, Inn at Little Washington,  and Central didn’t make my final cut. You want more? Buh-bye, CityZen and Ray’s Hell Burger.

Trust me, I’m not trying to be difficult. I’m just trying to be realistic. Do you really need me—or anyone else for that matter—to tell you to eat at these places? I might as well tell you to wear clothes when you go outside.

Photograph of Palena’s Frank Ruta by Darrow Montgomery

Y&H has had Spike Mendelsohn on speed dial today, but so far no calls back from the former Top Chef-er turned burger man. But Mendelsohn himself, according to a food diary he kept for New York magazine, says that he plans to open a yet-unnamed pizzeria in D.C. in the “next three or four months.”

Mendelsohn has been conducting research in New York for his planned pie palace. So far, he’s visited Lombardi’s, 99¢ Fresh Pizza, Grimaldi’s, Emporio, Una Pizza Napoletana, Kesté, San Marzano, and Tonda. The chef isn’t tipping his hat (oh, we kill ourselves) on what kind of pie he’ll make, other than to admit it won’t be a true Neapolitan, like those at 2Amys (which is just as well, since Mendelsohn can’t spell the name to begin with):

Read More “Spike Mendelsohn Set to Open Pizzeria in D.C.” »