In today’s Washington Business Journal, Jonathan O’Connell reports that Ray’s Hell Burger, the Oval Office’s first choice for ground beef patties, will open a branch in Adams Morgan this fall. This news was enough to ruin Y&H’s morning since I had spoken with owner Michael Landrum several weeks earlier about this very issue, and he denied any such plans.

So I got Landrum on the horn today to do some ’splainin’. Bottom line: He has no deal in place to open a Hell Burger in the former Ghana Cafe space at 2465 18th St. NW.

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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.

With each passing month, you can just feel maverick meat man Michael Landrum inching closer to mainstream respectability. First, it was his decision to move Ray’s the Steaks to a spacious spot in the Navy League building, more than doubling his previous capacity. Then it was his bold move to lure sommelier Mark Slater away from Citronelle. Finally, it was Landrum’s quasi-brown-nose behavior when Barack Obama and Joe Biden visited Ray’s Hell Burgers earlier this year. Of course, as Landrum would be the first to point out, none of these things actually define him or speak to his operating philosophies. Truth is, Landrum continues to subvert the expense-account mindset of most steakhouses at his Arlington flagship, where you can slice into a well-aged, charred-to-your-liking steak at a fraction of the price of those downtown meat emporiums.

Ray’s the Steaks, 2300 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, (703) 841-7297

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

Meaza Zemedu at her namesake restaurant

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.

Because the Ethiopian community has historically been tied to the District, whether in Adams Morgan or the U Street corridor, the suburbs typically get overlooked as a source for fine injera-based food. Yet I can’t escape the simple fact that Meaza is often far superior to the restaurants on that strip of 9th Street NW known as Little Ethiopia. There’s a reason for that, and her name is Meaza Zemedu, a veteran restaurateur who, for years, supplied homemade injera to every Ethiopian eatery that mattered in D.C. She still makes her own injera at her namesake restaurant, including an all-teff version, which has basically disappeared at most Ethiopian eateries. But her place has many other pleasures besides these spongy sour pancakes. First among equals is a sizzling platter of beef-rib tibs, all charred meat and veggies, which is essentially the Ethiopian version of fajitas. But don’t overlook Meaza’s doro wat, either, a covered pot of chicken that’s been simmered in a sauce as dark and complex as Oaxacan mole. Finally, a version of Ethiopia’s national dish that lives up to its lofty title.

 Meaza Ethiopian Cuisine and Cafe, 5700 Columbia Pike, Arlington, (703) 820-2870

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

Bob & Edith’s offers, depending on how you count them, five or six different steak-and-egg combinations, in addition to breakfast platters that include turkey, bologna, and half-smokes. Such a wealth of wacky options allows you to never order the same thing twice, but it’s really designed to let you order the same dish forever. (I like the gravy-splattered country-fried steak and eggs.) The magic of cholesterol is such, though, that it’s harder to explain the autographed Cowboys poster on the wall than to find a clunker on the menu—the sausage is superb, as is the toast and what might be the best pancakes I’ve ever tasted. And the griddled burger—get it with mayo—will necessitate some fine-tuning of your qualms about the industrial food chain. Across Columbia Pike, a crane looms over some new development, a not-so-gentle reminder that de-skeezing Columbia Pike is next on Arlington’s to-do list. That process that may have slowed down thanks to the crappy economy, but you have to wonder what its inevitability means for Bob & Edith’s. Not that the restaurant could feasibly be moved without Superfund involvement–40 years of serving up grease may have cemented the diner in place, physically as well as in the plaque-clogged hearts of late-night carousers soaking up the poison, the post-Mass crowd catching up with friends, or the guy sitting alone at a booth, reading the paper and drinking an ever-refilled cup of joe.

As far as color scheme goes, Arlington’s Metro 29 Diner delivers everything I want out of a primo diner experience: chrome, turquoise blue, and a smattering of magenta. In matters of cuisine, the eatery on, yes, Route 29 (just east of Glebe Road) is just as satisfying, with one of those endless menus where you’re somehow glad you’ll always have the option to order broiled baby beef liver with choice of onions or bacon, even though you always order the tuna melt. (Or the matzo ball soup. Or the souvlaki. Or the spinach pie. Or pretty much anything Greek at this Greek-owned operation.) What Metro 29 thankfully lacks is an overdose of ‘50s nostalgia. No Paul Anka–packed jukebox, just decent eats in clean environs surrounded by a big parking lot at prices not quite as low and at hours not quite as long as you’ll get at Bob and Edith’s.

Many of you, I suspect, will be too busy with Thanksgiving preparations today to jump into the car and fetch lunch. But for those who still need a mid-day break while pushing around papers and hiding your facebook page from the boss, I have something you might like: a make-our-own Reuben at Jackson’s Roasting and Carving Co. in Arlington, where they cure their own brisket.

The woman behind the counter at Jackson’s tells me that people call her the Green Giant, and once you spend just a few minutes with her, you can understand why. She’s a towering young woman with a passion for local, sustainable ingredients. She can tell you the source of just about everything at Jackson’s, from ‘kraut to cheese, and she’s just an employee, not the owner Stefanie Reiser, who named the place after her Jack Russell terrier. You could say I’m a sucker for these kind of women.

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Tutto Bene Italian Restaurant & Grill is not exactly what it seems—at least on the weekends when the classic red-sauce house transforms into a prime lunch-time destination along the so-called Saltena Circuit in Arlington, where thousands of Bolivian ex-pats chow down on their native cooking. If you’ve never sampled this under-appreciated cuisine—truly one of the hidden-in-plain-sight ethnic eats in the region—you should do yourself the favor.

I’ll have more to say on the subject soon, but I couldn’t pass up the chance to tell you about an even odder cultural import at Tutto Bene: the pen that the waitress gave me to sign my credit card receipt.

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