Estadio owner Mark Kuller says there aren't many tapas bars in Spain any better than his own place right here in D.C.  Admittedly, he's biased. [Washingtonian]

Westend Bistro's Eric Ripert thinks National Airport's Matsutake Sushi is actually pretty good. You know, for airport food. [Wall Street Journal]

Good Stuff Eatery's Spike Mendelsohn can't wait for the current tenant of his new Georgetown location to get out. Until then, he's keeping mum on the address. Estimated time of opening: Fall 2012. [Patch]

A former jumbo slice and kabob dive in Adams Morgan might become a ramen house. At least that's what it sounded like the owner was saying. [Prince of Petworth]

Slurp it up! A visual tour of D.C.'s soup scene. [HuffPo]

Cedric Maupillier

Cookie-themed café Uncle Chip's has opened in Truxton Circle [Prince of Petworth]

Oh, truck it: The guys behind nightspots Ultrabar, Lima, and Barcode are launching two new food trucks. One is Latin themed. The other is Italian. [Dining Bisnow]

Who cares about the Top 100 Very Best Restaurants? D.C. standouts ChurchKey and Ripple each make the grade on Garden & Gun's coveted Top 50 Southern Bars list. [Washingtonian]

How many local bars, restaurants and breweries incorporate the D.C. flag into their logos? Let's see. There's The Passenger, District Kitchen, Sticky Fingers Bakery , DC Empanadas, Chinatown Coffee Co.,  DC Brau, Chocolate City Beer, Three Stars Brewing.... [Metrocurean]

Photo courtesy of Mintwood Place

"We know that Adams Mill had a certain reputation," says Anthony Lupo, co-owner of the forthcoming restaurant Southern Hospitality. "It's a hard situation because we don't want to lose those neighborhood people at all. We're obviously going to be a much different place but we also don't ostracize those people that wanted to come there and that we believe will come to our place, too. It's different. But we still want to be a staple neighborhood bar."

By the numbers: the new restaurant will have around 160 seats, including both high and low tops; around 30 wines by the glass and between 10 to 12 beers on tap. Small plates will cost around $10; bigger entrees will run "into the 20's," says Lupo. The restaurant will be open for lunch, he assures Y&H, which is somewhat rare in the nightlife-centric neighborhood.

As previously reported, the D.C. eatery will have no affiliation with the New York barbecue chain of the same name—nor any creative connection to pop singer Justin Timberlake. "No J.T. over here," Lupo laughs.

He describes the menu as "American fare with a Southern flair," but declined to get into specifics. "We're just kind of putting the menu together now," he says. The restaurant has enlisted a chef but Lupo is keeping the name under wraps for the moment.

Similarly, there is no set opening date, though Lupo says he's aiming for "right around the end of the year," provided everything falls into place with permits, construction, and the usual rigmarole of opening a restaurant in D.C. "Definitely running on all cylinders post-New Year," he predicts.

"It's a great space," Lupo says of the location at the intersection of 18th Street, Columbia and Adams Mill roads. "I look it at as one of the better corners in D.C....Given the future, with Marriott and some of these other restaurants coming in, it's going to be great."

Adams Morgan has long been a rather dubious dining destination and a magnet for the city's less experienced operators. (City Paper's original Young & Hungry columnist, Brett Anderson, now the food critic at the New Orleans Times-Picayune, wrote about this all the way back in 1998.)

Lupo looks at some of the most recent additions to the 18th Street retail strip, particularly the arrival of Atlanta-based pizza chain Mellow Mushroom, as evidence that the food part of the neighborhood's eating and drinking scene might finally be coming into its own. "We did a pretty intense demographic study in the area," he says, "and there's a reason those people are coming in. It's a great, great neighborhood with tons of potential."

Logo courtesy of Southern Hospitality

He's not talking about airline logistics. He's talking about spice. In other words, am I going to go the mild American-tourist route, or take the indigenous path to hot times?

Frankly, I'd like to spend the day climbing the falls at Ocho Rios, or sampling the local underground agriculture—preferably both—but I have no idea what gustatory metaphor that would imply. Luckily, I'm not dining alone, so my friend and I order one of each and split 'em.

Now, I'm no Caribbean native (far from it) but I do come to the table with a basic understanding of what jerk chicken is supposed to taste like. My first time trying the stuff, I was on a mission trip, building a church in the mountainous Jamaican countryside. One day, a local villager brought us a big batch of her homemade jerk chicken and, after multiple afternoons of bagged lunches, it was about the best thing I'd ever tasted.

The kind at Jamaican Joe's new Adams Morgan location (priced at $7.50) is pretty irie, too, but a lot saucier than the authentic dry-rubbed stuff I remember. The pulled chicken is smothered to almost McRib-like proportions in the spiced sauce, interspersed with slivers of plantains, topped with lettuce and tomato and a tad of mayo. Maybe the tastiest part of the whole thing, though, is the coco bread it's served on, which kind of reminds me of a pillow-soft dinner roll.

As for the fly-over versus Kingston-landing equation, the difference is not immediately apparent, though my lips begin to detect a slight temperature uptick as I'm half-way through the capital city version. Our server, intuitively spotting our spice confusion, brings over an extra bowl of Scotch bonnet peppers to amp up the tropical degrees. That helps! Whew!

Gotta say I am pleasantly surprised at how much I like this sandwich—particularly given the rather unappetizing signage out front, "Wanna Get Jerked?" Not to mention the t-shirt that the chef is wearing: "Jerk Off Fridays."

For once, I am really happy it is Wednesday.

Photo by Chris Shott

Photo courtesy of Southern Hospitality BBQ

Sweet Themez

But, the husband and wife proprietors say their business isn't just about the miniature sweets. "I have a niche because I do specialty cakes," says co-owner Adrienne Holmes, who operates the shop alongside spouse Maurice Holmes. A rotating digital display inside the shop flips through an assortment of uniquely designed full-sized cakes, including one shaped like a Sony Playstation. Her Facebook page is full of other quirky designs.

The store also sells "cake pops"—tiny gateaux on a stick—for $1.50. Cupcakes cost $2.50. That's a full quarter less than at that store in Georgetown you've probably heard about.

Looking for something seasonal? Holmes recommends the sweet potato variety.

Photo by Odochi Ibe

I took their advice. This particular pie is described on the menu as such: "Olive oil and garlic base pizza loaded with red potato, Applewood smoked bacon, caramelized onions, cheddar and mozzarella cheeses, sprinkled with chives & drizzled with sour cream & spicy ranch dressing."

If that sounds like a pizza with a big stuffed potato plopped on top, well, that's pretty much the experience in a nutshell—er, pizza box, as the case would be. Colleagues who tried a slice also compared it to a breakfast pizza, what with the bacon standing out most prominently, and an open-faced farmer's omelet, sans the egg.

Photo by Chris Shott

Photo by Chris Shott

Photo by Roland Tanglao/Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license