Dave Chappelle is a comedic genius, and his skit for Samuel L. Jackson Beer compares favorably with any of the fake commercials produced by SNL. 

I wonder if Greg Engert at Birch & Barley/ChurchKey can add this to his 500-plus beer list? Maybe even hire Chappelle to do his Sammy Jackson shtick? It might actually clear out enough people at the Logan Circle hotspot so that I could get a seat.

What a finish! The competition for the top spot in the hearts and minds of Young & Hungry readers was decided by just a single pageview. Guess who won this week?

Nope, not Select 55.

Your fave posts this week:

1. Birch & Barley Opens Today. What’s Inside?
2. Budweiser Launches Select 55, Light Beer Arms Race Gets Absurd
3. Nick Cho’s Tax Troubles: Where Does That Leave Chinatown Coffee?
4. Frank Morales Takes Over as Chef at Jackie’s
5. Dupont BGR: The Burger Joint Set to Open Thursday or Friday [Note: Now scheduled for a Monday opening.]

Carrie and I were planning to eat at Nicaro, mostly to see if the salt bomb of a muffaletta on chef Luis Martinez’s menu was an aberration or a sign of lesser things to come. The jazz combo swinging away in the lounge, I’m ashamed to admit, forced us to change our minds. It was Friday night, the tail end of a long week, and I just wanted a quiet dinner with the wife, not an evening of Dave Brubeck covers.

So we walked down to Jackie’s on the south end of downtown Silver Spring to see what the heck was going on with Jackie Greenbaum’s place now that chef Sam Adkins was apparently shown the door. I was not prepared for what I found: former Rustico chef Frank Morales leading the kitchen.

In all fairness, Greenbaum wasn’t exactly prepared for me, either. We met last year to discuss her plans for the still-latent Jackie’s a Go-Go, so she knows me by face. She wasn’t happy to see it Friday night, because she wasn’t ready to make an announcement about Morales. But it’s hard to hide your new chef when he’s standing right there in the open kitchen.

Read More “Frank Morales Takes Over as Chef at Jackie’s” »

Let’s just call it Birch & Barley week, shall we? The new Neighborhood Restaurant Group establishment dominated Y&H this week, along with other beer-related posts.

Check it out:

1. Birch & Barley Opens Today. What’s Inside?
2. Budweiser Launches Select 55, Light Beer Arms Race Gets Absurd
3. DC Finally Getting a German Beer Garden? The Lagerheads Share their Outdoor Picks in the Meantime
4. Birch & Barley Opening Tomorrow?
5. Birch & Barley Slated for Summer Opening. Maybe.
   

Bar Trick Challenge – The Impossible Beer Lift – The funniest videos are a click away
In honor of Birch & Barley/ChurchKey’s long-awaited opening, Y&H offers this nifty bar trick that will, no doubt, impress your friends — and annoy the crap out of the servers at the new Logan Circle establishment as the sound of dropping bottles reverberates throughout the place.

UPDATE: NRG spokesperson Amber Pfau says that Birch & Barley/ChurchKey will open tomorrow, “barring natural disasters.” For an inside look, see Metrocurean’s preview on the place.

The DC-Beer listserv has been humming today on a rumor that Birch & Barley/ChurchKey, the long-awaited twin-concept, beer-soaked bar and restaurant (which is not a gastropub!), will finally open tomorrow. Neighborhood Restaurant Group has been conducting mock services already, but one member of the listserv writes:

My wife got a press release/e-mail in her e-mail from a local business networking group which states that Birch & Barley opens tomorrow.

Beerspotter Orr Shtuhl says the rumors are true, but I’m trying to get confirmation on this from NRG. More as I know it.

Y&H is thrilled to report that Select 55 has been dethroned — by another beer, Guinness, which celebrated a birthday yesterday.

Let’s raise a glass to Select 55’s long run and to the new king of the Y&H blog.

This week’s most-read posts:

1. Raise a Toast to Guinness’ 250th Anniversary
2. Budweiser Launches Select 55, Light Beer Arms Race Gets Absurd
3. Joe Englert Offers a REAL Tribute to the Dean of D.C. Liquor Lawyers
4. Two Things Y&H Didn’t Expect to See at Sou’Wester’s Opening Party: Frank Ruta and Dancing
5. Stand in Judgment of Georgetown Chefs!
   

This blog has gone to Hell, and readers are taking Select 55 with it. For Christ’s sake, people, can we get over this Budweiser post, which tops the list for the third straight week?

The most-read items for the week:

1. Budweiser Launches Select 55, Light Beer Arms Race Gets Absurd
2. Not So Fast: There’s No Deal for a Ray’s Hell Burger in Adams Morgan
3. No Hell Burger for Adams Morgan, but a Ray’s the Steaks for NE
4. Did Vidalia Use “Inferior” Ingredients During Restaurant Week?
5. Drool List: Pizzeria Paradiso at Dupont Circle
   

I am probably stretching the definition of street food here, since some of the comestibles I ate were actually purchased in open-air buildings that faced the street, not from free-standing carts that have to be pushed into place every morning. Regardless, the food from all of these places had three things in common: It could be bought right off the sidewalk, it had to be eaten somewhere else than the place where I bought it, and it was delicious (with one exception).

Just outside of Chichen-Itza, that Mayan tourist magnet, this dude smokes up amazing roadside chicken in a tiny burg called Piste. Our full-bird was moist, charred, and smokey all the way to the bone. We got rice, slaw, a bag of hot sauce (yep, a bag), and the chicken for the price of a fast-food meal back in the states.

Read More “What I Ate on My Summer Vacation: Street Food” »

Temperance Fountain at 7th & Pennsylvania

Ever so often I’m forced to confront the reality that hanging out with some of my fellow craft bartenders is like being at a Lambda Lambda Lambda frat party. (Imagine Fred “the Ogre” Palowakski shouting: “Nerds!”) Our topics of discussion range from fermentation yeasts to ice density and on our nights off, which are few, we get together in tasting groups and geek out over obscure Belgian Beers, small batched gins and “Aquavit” from the West Coast.

This is far from the romantic ideal of a bartender partying late, getting the girl and tossing piles of cash in the air as he lies down to bed at sunrise. Yet that’s not really a bad thing in a city where the president, no matter how much beer he downs or cocaine he admits to snorting (not that anyone remembers him doing it), receives more than a few comparisons to Steve Urkel. So embrace it, I do.

But the modern cocktail nerd requires certain trappings. And how to fit in? You already know about the Rickey, you may have purchased a fedora, vintage vest and bar spoon and practiced craft bartending signature moves such as the hard shake. Now let’s take it the next step. In the next couple of days I’m going to point you in the direction of becoming a genuine cocktail nerd.
Read More “So You Want to be a Cocktail Nerd? Pt. I” »