If you’ve ever thought about opening your own restaurant, you might want to first consider this anecdote from Jeff Black. Black, owner of a number of neighborhood eateries including BlackSalt and Black’s Bar & Kitchen, related this sordid tale about a diner last night at Addie’s in Rockville.

The problem started, Black says, when the man paid for his meal with a credit card, which was rejected by the processing machine. It wasn’t the diner’s fault, Black notes. It’s just a glitch in the processing system; sometimes it rejects a credit card if the expiration date is too far out.

But when the waiter-trainee (and his trainer) tried to solicit another card from the diner, the man blew up, Black recalls. “He starts calling people names,” the owner says. The word “stupid” popped up.

The man wouldn’t have entered the Addie’s Asshole Hall of Fame, however, if it weren’t for what happened next. The man paid his bill and left, Black says, only to return in a few minutes. “He walks straight into the kitchen and calls the manager a bitch,” Black says.

Read More “Diary of An Angry Diner at Addie’s” »

Now that Jeff Black and the rest of the Black Restaurant Group have stabilized the kitchen at their Bethesda property, the team can focus on their latest plan — to expand the dining empire that already includes BlackSalt, Addie’s, Black Market Bistro, and Black’s Bar & Kitchen.

Actually, Black thought he had a deal to rent an existing space on Barracks Row, with a possible option to buy, but negotiations fell apart. Not that BRG is limiting itself to Barracks Row, but the company would like to expand its presence in the District, where it has only BlackSalt in the Palisades.  BRG has been scouting locations in Georgetown, K Street NW, the U Street corridor, Columbia Heights, and Capitol Hill, Black says.

Read More “Black Restaurant Group Is Looking to Open Another Place in D.C.” »

Arra Lawson performed so well at Addie’s in Rockville that, earlier this year, the toque was given the executive chef position at Black’s Bar & Kitchen, the Black Restaurant Group’s Bethesda property. But Lawson couldn’t summon the magic touch a second time; he apparently ran into conflicts in the new kitchen and was ousted by a majority vote of BRG principals, says owner Jeff Black.

“Something misfired,” Black tells Y&H. “The chemistry just wasn’t right.”

It wasn’t any one major issue, Black says, but more a collection of small ones, like a “punctuality problem” and conflicts with some of the cooks in the kitchen.  Instead of letting it fester into a stinking black mess, BRG management decided to tackle the conflict. Black and two other BRG managers, including the one for HR, looked into the situation and took a vote amongst themselves over whether to release Lawson. The vote was 2-to-1 against the chef.

Read More “Lawson Out, Robinson In As Executive Chef at Black’s” »

Each day, we’ll run 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 how your meal was when you return.

Addie’s is easy to overlook. I don’t mean that literally, although that’s true, too. As you’re trolling the corporate canyon that is Rockville Pike, you can zip right past that persimmon-colored house as readily as Next Day Blinds. But Addie’s is also easy to take for granted because it’s so neighborly. Its menu, in the name of pleasing its many regulars, doesn’t change much and its offerings are more comforting than cutting-edge. But sometimes comfort, a friendly face, and damn fine rib-eye are all that you want from a restaurant. Under Nate Waugaman, former executive sous at Black’s, Addie’s feels invigorated, as if the new chef has adopted the restaurant’s clientele as his own flesh and blood. Waugaman’s pushing them a little, too, by adding a line of house-made charcuterie, but it’s the chef’s attention to detail and his stubborn insistence on freshness that make me want to drop by regularly.

Addie’s, 11120 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Md., (301) 881-0081

Y&H is late in reporting this — but, hell, so is everyone since Jeff Black doesn’t typically employ an army of PR agents to spoon feed us food writers with tips and breaking news  — but the Black Restaurant Group has filled the executive chef position at its flagship operation, Black’s Bar & Kitchen, following the short, messy tenure of Todd Wiss.

The nod went to Arra Lawson, former chef de cuisine at Addie’s in Rockville. Lawson, former executive chef at Daniel O’Connell’s in Old Town, took over the top spot at Black’s about three months ago, says Jeff Black, and has already overhauled the bar and brunch menus and has added a number of composed fish dishes.

So who’s in charge at Addie’s now?

That would be Nate Waugaman, former executive sous chef at Black’s who was, with the owner’s assistance, running the kitchen and developing the menus at the Bethesda restaurant after Wiss’ departure. Waugaman was up for the executive chef gig at Black’s, but the owner felt that Addie’s would be a better fit for Waugaman’s debut as head toque.

Read More “Black Restaurant Group Pulls the Old Chef Switcheroo” »

Our periodic series in which we gauge how the global economic slow down is affecting local restaurants and what they are doing to combat it. This issue: Black’s Bar and Kitchen in Bethesda.

The Problem: Revenues are all over the place at Black’s, says co-owner and chef Jeff Black. One week was slow “to the point I was feeling it,” Black says, but another week was $4,000 higher than a year ago. Overall, though, business is “down a little bit” at Black’s. The owner can’t quite pin it all on the poor economy, especially when the other operations in the Black Restaurant Group are actually doing better than last year (BlackSalt and Black Market Bistro) or holding steady (Addie’s). Black blames part of the fluctuations on Bethesda’s burgeoning dining scene, which now includes such newbies as Redwood, Assaggi Mozzarella Bar, and Lebanese Taverna. Of course, part of the issue may be that Black’s own kitchen has been in flux, the reverberations of which have been felt both in the dining room and the kitchen itself.

The Solution: More marketing. Unlike a lot of restaurateurs who cut advertising at the first sight of economic trouble, Black believes in the power of marketing to attract diners. He typically hires PR firms for special occasions only, like when he reopened the renovated Black’s in 2006. But Black recently hired Linda Roth Associates to, among other things, promote Black’s weekend brunch and its happy hours. “We’re trying to do more to point out what we do well,” Black says.

Jeff Black, co-owner of the Black Restaurant Group, confirmed today that Todd Wiss was removed as executive chef at Black’s Bar and Kitchen in Bethesda at least two weeks ago. The chef’s stay was short. Wiss, the former sous at Poste Moderne Brasserie, was installed as executive chef at Black’s in June.

“We just had philosophical differences in the ways to manage a business and manage a staff,” Black says. “It was nothing personal. Todd was a very good cook…I told him, ‘I don’t have any problem with the way you cook.’”

The difference boiled down to control. BRG, as a rule, likes to nurture its staff, both front and back of the house, and move them into positions of greater authority as they gain experience. The company, Black says, also likes to seek ideas from anyone within BRG, even if that person is far down in the pecking order. Wiss, the owner says, was more from a “corporate” environment where the mentality is, “You do what I say.”

Wiss was not immediately available for comment.

Read More “Todd Wiss Out as Executive Chef at Black’s Bar and Kitchen” »