For all the Cajun-Creole-themed cooking going on inWashington these days, you’d think the city would see a sudden spike in capsaicin overdoses. Not so.

The stuff that generally passes for New Orleans-style fare around here would barely register on the Scoville scale. To put it mildly, so to speak: My first bowls of gumbo and crawfish étouffée at Pearl Dive Oyster Palace would have been entirely forgettable, except for their unforgettable lack of heat.

Thankfully, I’m not the only one who noticed.

“When we opened, there were a lot of dishes that I thought weren’t spicy enough,” says chef and owner Jeff Black.

A subdued stew runs counter to the restaurant’s whole raison d’etre. “I want people to think it’s going to be spicy,” Black says. “I don’t want ’em coming in thinking it’s going to be timid.” For weeks, Black has been hounding his kitchen staff to amp up the piquant. “I started sounding like a broken record,” he says. “I’d say, ‘It’s not hot enough.’ Everything I tried. ‘It’s not hot enough.’”

The gumbos, for example, were initially touched up with a blend of Crystal and Tabasco hot sauces. It led to a little lingering background heat, Black explains, but no immediate punch. Lately, though, his cooks have been scaling back on the Tabasco and adding more jalapeño to the mix in the hopes of a stronger first taste. “Finally, I looked at Danny [Wells], my chef de cuisine, and said, ‘We did it—it’s too hot!’” he laughs. “So we racheted it back down.”

My most recent bowl of the chunky soup, swimming with oysters, shrimp, and diced ham, suggests that Black and company have finally struck the right balance: hot enough to spark faster sips of beer but not so scorching to justify the $3 fee for a refill on bread.

“A lot of times you get beat up,” says Black. “‘They hate this, chef.’ ‘Way too spicy, chef.’ And you start to alter the way you cook. When I hire guys, I tell them, your cooking needs to be assertive, it needs to reach up and grab somebody. Subtle is fine, but subtle is what everybody else is doing. Let’s have a dish that just grabs a hold of somebody and then when they leave, they think, I want to come back and have that. Instead of, ‘Oh, that was pretty good,’ and then they can’t remember they ate.”

At Pearl Dive, the dish I found most grabbing would be the braised pork cheeks appetizer, priced at $9. Dusted with flour and seared, the meat is then braised in ancho chipotle, mirepoix, and veal stock for four to five hours, Black says. Served with grits and topped with fried onions, it’s a solid combination of creamy, rich, and crunchy. It packs some nice heat, too. The zesty flavor snatched my attention on first bite and had me coming back for seconds a few nights later.

The Vietnamese pickled shrimp, on the other hand, was the most non-grabbing of dishes. The $10 appetizer reflects Black’s admirably broadminded view of the culture of his native Gulf Coast—where Vietnamese cuisine has become enough of a staple to shape the culinary tastes of non-Vietnamese chefs like him. But this particular item has a problem: It’s not very pickled.

Served fried, the cured crustacean is supposed to taste sweet and spicy beneath its crunchy coating. I gave it three tries on three separate nights and found it virtually indistinguishable from the common battered butterfly variety. The only noticeable difference: a bed of super-spicy slaw underneath, which Black also uses in bánh mì during Sunday brunch.

If the menu reflects the old and the new of the Gulf Coast, the act of getting seated is strictly D.C. Snagging a table works a bit like having your license renewed at the Georgetown Park DMV branch: Give your name to the receptionist and take a number, then wait for your digits to appear on multiple screens mounted around the establishment. Fortunately, the waiting area includes a bar—two, actually. The more intriguing one, a somewhat separate (but uniformly owned) concept called Black Jack, is upstairs. It has its own distinct food and drinks menus, including a vastly more diverse, and more pleasing, selection of beers than the actual restaurant downstairs.

The signature cocktail is called “The Cigar,” featuring a heavy a dose of mezcal, chilled with a block of ice curiously prepared in an andouille smoker, then refrozen and infused with peach nectar. The cocktail tastes sweeter the longer the ice is allowed to melt. While I was fascinated by the icy element, my friend couldn’t get past the garnish: a slice of prosciutto on a stick that kept sliding around the rim with each sip. “The meat keeps smacking me in the face!” she cried.

Once your number comes up, you descend from the dimly lit lounge back into the bright white walls of the main restaurant. Chilled oysters are a must—they’d better be, given the joint’s name. Pearl Dive offers between 12 and 15 varieties, a vastly bigger selection than rival Northwest D.C. mollusk mecca Hank’s Oyster Bar (six per night) or even renowned oyster hotspot Old Ebbitt Grill (eight per night). “We’re going through probably 7,000 to 8,000 oysters a week,” Black says.

The choices are so abundant that Black now has staffers categorizing the things by flavor profile—“from mildest all the way up to Belon, which is the biggest, fullest, mineral-y, in-your-face, suck-on-a-copper-penny flavor profile you’re ever going to get,” he says.

The bulk of the selection comes from the nearby Chesapeake Bay, but the meatiest ones, I find, are from the West Coast: If the server mentions Naked Roys or Skookums, get ’em. Black’s house-made “dive juice” dipping sauce, made daily with scallions, cilantro, and jalapeño, nicely compensates for any stragglers.

Among the four styles of the cooked oysters, the Angels on Horseback, at $9, is my favorite. Wrapped in thinly sliced applewood-smoked bacon, the pillowy oysters arrive in a vin blanc and vinegar reduction that is both rich and a tad tart; the bacon is so thin as to not overwhelm the oyster. I found the tasso ham of the Tchoupitoulas variety to create the opposite effect.

If the place were open for breakfast, Black’s C.E.B.L.T. po’boy would become my morning ritual. The sandwich features fried catfish topped with a fried egg and salty bacon procured from every pork gourmand’s favorite farmer, Allan Benton. “The key is, you gotta push it down,” Black says. “You push it down and the yoke runs through it.”

But for dinner, despite the restaurant’s theme, you’d be ill-advised not to order the fried chicken. It’s a sort of makeshift recipe that the cooks at Black’s Rockville restaurant Addie’s used to throw together to feed the dishwashers, incorporating braised chicken normally reserved for coq au vin. “We’d take that braised chicken, dust it, flour it, and fry it,” says Black. “Well, one day, I was like, ‘You know what? That looks pretty good. I’m going to try it.’ And I was like, ‘Holy crap, this is freakin’ delicious!’”

At Pearl Dive, Black doesn’t use red wine as he might with a traditional coq au vin; instead, he braises the meat in white wine, blond mirepoix and chicken stock. “It’s fully cooked, so when you order it, all I’m doing when I fry it is, I’m setting a crust on it. So it’s not in the fryer for very long.” The crispy crust is quite spicy—there’s a lot of cayenne in there. And a bit of Parmesan, believe it or not. The collard greens it comes with are pretty damn tasty, too. And not so bitter. “I don’t add vinegar, which a lot of people do,” Black says. “I just let it be. You can cook that bitterness out if you cook ‘’em long enough.”

When dessert comes, a woman at an adjacent table suggests Black needed to spend more time cooking off the booze. She’s eating the bourbon-infused pecan pie made with wild Texas nuts—a standard, sticky, sweet version of the southern classic. My neighbor claims to be “getting high” off the liquor. Later, when I ask Black about it, he suggests she must have been a lightweight. “There’s not that much [alcohol],” he says.

Photos by Darrow Montgomery

Pearl Dive Oyster Palace, 1612 14th Street NW, (202) 986-8778

Eatery tips? Food pursuits? Send suggestions to hungry@washingtoncitypaper.com.

Full details on the upcoming event in press release form below:

2011 FOOD FIGHT NAMES ALL STAR CAST

Annual Foodie Event Features Celebrity Judges Alongside Area Chefs

WASHINGTON, D.C.:  On Nov. 10, four celebrated, local chefs will bring knives and know-how to the 2011 Food Fight battle – each 10-minute cook-off containing a surprise ingredient.  This year’s battling chefs are: Jeff Black of BlackSalt, Addie’s and Pearl Dive Oyster Palace, Todd Gray of Equinox, WaterShed, and Muse at the Corcoran, Haidar Karoum from Estadio and Proof and Brian McBride from Blue Duck Tavern.  More than 60 local restaurants will provide delectable “tastes” for those attending the annual event.

When: November 10, 2011 at 6 pm

Where: Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center

1300 Pennsylvania Ave, NW  - Washington, DC

Tickets: $200 and available online at www.capitalfoodfight.org

Presenting sponsor Walmart provides the main stage for host Anthony Bourdain, of Travel Channel’s No Reservations, and Capital Food Fight chairman Jose Andres, DC’s own celebrity chef and James Beard Award winner. Crowning the Food Fight champion is a panel of celebrity chefs including Ted Allen, host of the Food Network’s Chopped, Joan Nathan, cook book author and recipient of multiple James Beard Awards, and Ming Tsai, Chef/Owner of Blue Ginger and Host/Producer of Simply Ming.   All proceeds benefit the many programs of DC Central Kitchen.

Tasting Restaurants:

Adour  • AGAINN Gastropub •  America Eats • Argia’s Italian •  Art and Soul •  Bar Pilar •  Bastille  •  Belga Café •  Bistro Bis • BLT Steak • Blue Duck Tavern •  Brasserie Beck  • Carmine’s  •  Casa Nonna •  Cava •  Central • Chipotle • Cork  •  Cuba Libre • Dolcezza Artisanal Gelato •  Equinox  • Estadio • Evening Star Café • Hank’s Oyster Bar •  Harry’s Smokehouse •  iCi Urban Bistro • Indique • J&G Steakhouse  • Jackson 20 •  Jaleo •  Kaz Sushi Bar  •  Lebanese Taverna  •  Light Horse • Lima • Lost Society • Mandu  • Masa 14 •  Mie N Yu  •  Muse at the Corcoran • Occidental  • P.J. Clarke’s  • Pearl Dive Oyster Palace •  Ping Pong Dim Sum • Policy  • Poste Moderne Brasserie  • Proof •  PS7’s •  Rappahannock River Oysters  •   Ris • Ronald Reagan Building • Santa Lucia Coffee • SAX • Taberna del Alabardero  • Taylor Gourmet •  The Grille at Morrison House •  The Majestic •  The Source • Vidalia •  Watershed • We the Pizza • Westend Bistro by Eric Ripert  • Willow • Zaytinya • Zengo  • Zola

About DC Central Kitchen

2011 marks DC Central Kitchen’s 22nd year of combating hunger and creating opportunity in Washington, DC. The Kitchen works 365 days a year to provide low-income individuals and families with nutritious food, assist local farmers, empower unemployed men and women through effective job training, and reach out to chronically homeless DC residents. Each day, the Kitchen serves 5,000 meals to at-risk children and adults while preparing dozens of struggling individuals for new careers in the culinary industry. To learn more about the Kitchen and its nationally-recognized approach to fighting the interrelated problems of hunger, poverty and poor health, visit www.dccentralkitchen.org.

Logo courtesy of Capital Food Fight

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.

Then the dude calls Black today to paint a picture of a victimized diner, the owner says. Black was ready for him. He gathered intel from his staff and gave the man a piece of his mind. "Just because you spend money in my restaurants," Black says he told the diner, "doesn't mean you can demean the staff."

More umbrage ensued from the man, who said he would never return to a Black restaurant. "I look forward to your never coming back to my restaurants," Black says he told him.

"Where is the civility?" Black wonders to Y&H this afternoon. "It was just an honest mistake."

Photo by Orange_Beard, Flickr Creative Commons Attribution License

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.

"I'm not sure where we'll end up," he adds.

Nor is Black sure yet what the concept of the new place will be, save for one element: It'll offer affordable fare. The owner wants to hit a "mid-price point."

"And not lip service to a mid-range, but a real mid-range," Black says.

Arra Lawson

"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.

Black was the lone dissenter. As the big dog at BRG, Black could have trumped his managers, but he opted to let the majority rule. "I have to look at the whole and what's best for the restaurant."

BRG typically doesn't offer severance packages, but in this case, Black says he gave Lawson "the single largest severance in the history of the company."

Black didn't have to look far for Lawson's replacement: Quanta Robinson was already the No. 2 cook at Black's when BRG tagged her to take the lead spot. She's been with the Black Restaurant Group for years now, working her way up from line cook at BlackSalt to the top position at Black's.

Robinson isn't revamping the menu at Black's — at least not yet. With all the changes in the kitchen of late — Robinson is the fourth executive chef at Black's in the past 15 months — Black says he doesn't want to create more chaos by overhauling the menu, too. Instead, Robinson has been using the specials menu to test her new creations, like a soft shell crab with black-eyed peas in a light veal-based sauce.

"There's been enough change," Black says. "We got to think of the customer here."

Photo courtesy of Black's Bar & Kitchen

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

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.

Black's Bar & Kitchen "is such a big restaurant and it's such a busy restaurant," Black told Y&H via the phone today. Addie's, by contrast, does smaller numbers and has an extremely loyal clientele that likes its menu to remain fairly constant. As an example, Black tells me about a customer who called the owner at home when Black dared to take the steak off the menu.

Nonetheless, Waugaman has tweaked the Addie's menu in small ways since taking over earlier this year, securing a local source for that beloved rib-eye steak and adding a scallop entree. More impressive, Waugaman has joined a number of local chefs — Peter Smith at PS 7's and Nathan Anda for Neighborhood Restaurant Group — who are making their own charcuterie. Black says Waugaman is curing his own salami and prosciutto in-house and even making his own head cheese.

The recent hiring decisions, Black admits, were based in part on the troubles Black's had with Wiss, who apparently never fit into the BRG system. "Barring catastrophe, that will be the last time I hire a No. 1" outside of the Black Restaurant Group, the owner says.

In other BRG news, Black says he's partnering with former Black's head chef, Mallory Buford, on an upcoming project. Buford will be a partner in the restaurant, which will likely be in the District. Black and Buford are currently scouting locations. Black preferred not to talk about the concept yet, since it could change depending on the location.

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.

"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.

in the meantime, Black's executive sous chef Nate Waugaman is running the kitchen and developing menus, in consultation with the owner. Waugaman, along with Arra Lawson, chef de cuisine at Addie's in Rockville, are both in the running to replace Wiss, Black confirms. One other person, also in-house at BRG, is in the hunt.

Lawson "has done a great job," says Black about the former toque at Daniel O’Connell’s in Old Town. "He's on the short list of names."