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.

I absolutely refuse to feel ashamed that D.C.’s best taqueria is run by a Harvard-grad gringa with a James Beard Award to her credit. Hell, if that were the case, I’d also have to feel bad that one of the District’s best hamburgers is produced by a Frenchman (Michel Richard at Central). The truth is, Ann Cashion is a student of la cocina mexicana, and her tiny takeout behind Johnny’s Half Shell proves she has deep respect for a cuisine too often bastardized for an easy buck. (You listening, you Salvadoran-Mexican joints?) I’m still trying to figure out how her corn tortillas taste so fresh when they’re not even made in house.

Taqueria Nacional, 400 N. Capitol St. NW, (202) 737-7070

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

Because Y&H has developed a warm, personal relationship with Joe Englert, Mr. Fatlas, I mean Mr. Atlas, District invited me to a sneak-preview of the long, long, long-awaited H Street Country Club on Sunday night, and I have just one thing to say: You’ll never get a tee time.

This place is going to have longer lines than Ben’s Chili Bowl during the inauguration. Everyone will want to putt-putt their ball between the bloated legs of a D.C. parking meter-reader who’s exposing just a little too much butt crack. Or across the Reflecting Pool and up the stairs of the Lincoln Memorial. Or between the decomposing bodies of several dead presidents. Or around a multi-car pileup on the Beltway. Or….oh, hell, you get the point. This is miniature golf as imagined by the Coen Brothers.

Come to think of it, some people might even visit H Street just to sample the Tex-Mex menu designed by Ann Cashion, founder of Taqueria Nacional. Well, maybe.

Read More “H Street Country Club Swings Opens Tomorrow” »

After months — no, wait, years — of delays, the H Street Country Club is set to open at the end of the month. So says Walter Nicholls over at BizBash, which even has a few up-to-date photos of the place (as opposed to the months-old construction crap above).

As fun as putt-putting my way around a miniature Washington Monument sounds, I’m even more interested in the Mexican/Tex-Mex menus conceived by Ann Cashion and executed by former Cashion’s cook, Pablo Cordoso. The south-of-the-border food has a decidedly modern feel. Think “masa puffs” with roasted pumpkin and poblano pepper, instead of old-fashioned stuffed gorditas. Or a tostada with mashed avocado and warm lobster salad, not a thick layer of lard and beans.

Read More “H Street Country Club Ready to Tee Off at the End of the Month” »

Members of the esteemed Southern Foodways Alliance descended upon D.C. this past weekend to down potlikker and spread the gospel on the deep-fried ways of the South.

Ann Cashion, an SFA board member, hosted the Potlikker Film Festival on Saturday at Johnny’s Half Shell, an event that featured not only some of the District’s best Southern-flavored chefs (Vidalia’s Jeffrey Buben, the General Store’s Gillian Clark, and Creme’s Terrell Danley) but also four documentaries on subjects ranging from sweet potato pie to Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack in Nashville.

(Let me pause here and say for the record that Buben’s version of pigs in a blanket — which he called, with a flair for the highfalutin, “heirloom pigs in handstitched blankets” — was the best goddamn thing I put in my mouth all weekend, a sort of rich, fragrant homemade sausage wrapped in buttery pastry.)

One of the visitors this weekend was John T. Edge, director of the SFA and writer for…well, everyone. He conveniently Twittered his way through his dining adventures while in D.C. You can read his purloined Tweets after the jump. (Text has been boldfaced by Y&H.)

Read More “John T. Edge Eats and Tweets His Way Through D.C.” »

The disappointments were stacking up yesterday morning by the time I took my huevos rancheros back to the car. For reasons I couldn’t explain, I wanted a plate of warm, airy beignets dusted with powdered sugar. Maybe all the talk of Mardi Gras had made me miss New Orleans. I don’t know. Whatever the reason, I knew I could get them at Johnny’s Half Shell. What I didn’t know is that I could get them only til 9:30. I was a good 30 minutes late.

So I ducked behind the Half Shell and ordered a to-go box of huevos rancheros from Taqueria Nacional.

Read More “Please Drown Me in the Refried Beans at Taqueria Nacional” »

Whether on foot or in the car, traveling was a pain in the ass during Inauguration Weekend. John Fulchino, co-owner of Johnny’s Half Shell, knew it would be, which is why he and five other managers didn’t leave the Capitol Hill restaurant for several days.

From Saturday through Tuesday night, Fulchino and company made work their home. When the hungry masses finally left each night—by Fulchino’s best estimate, Johnny’s served up more than 2,100 meals during the four-day period—the managers simply pulled out their air mattresses and “French Foreign Legion” cots and went to sleep. The rest of the staff crashed at the homes of other workers who lived nearby. Chef Ann Cashion, who lives in Mount Pleasant, opted to take the Metro home.

Read More “Johnny’s Half Shell Figured Out How to Deal with Inaugural Traffic: Never Go Home” »