Brian McBride is frying up some severed shrimp heads, part of an ambitious recipe for a new pasta dish.

For a veteran of the restaurant scene in Washington, with its sizeable international population and its proliferation of sushi joints, the noggins might not seem especially out of the ordinary. But McBride, the former chef at D.C.’s Blue Duck Tavern, is testing this garnish for an entirely different market: Atlantic City.

If all goes as planned, the gritty gambling town on the Jersey Shore will represent the first trans-Beltway effort by McBride and his equally D.C.-regional collaborator, Robert Weidmaier, proprietor of Marcel’s and Brasserie Beck. The duo is opening a new 230-seat eatery inside Revel Atlantic City, the state-government-backed, 47-story hotel tower and resort slated to be the newest competitor to A.C. landmarks like Harrah’s, the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa, and Caesar’s.

Atlantic City, of course, has made some significant gustatory strides in recent years, importing kitchens created by the likes of San Francisco-based Michael Mina, New York-based Bobby Flay, and Philadelphia-based Stephen Starr. McBride and Weidmaier are perhaps its first D.C.-bred toques. But like the already established celebrity chefs who regularly helm eateries in tourist towns like Atlantic City and Las Vegas, they’re hoping to become national players.

And the vehicle for their pan-American ambitions is one that Washington diners—at least those among them willing to brave suburban Maryland—would recognize. They’re calling it Mussel Bar—just like Weidmaier’s existing beer-centric, steamed mollusk-based eatery in Bethesda.

Of course, the actual establishment will feel more like Weidmaier’s more sophisticated Brasserie Beck, located downtown. “It’ll be definitely a little more upscale dining than the Mussel Bar,” says McBride. The restaurant, he points out, “sits right on the edge of the casino floor.” The new venue will feature, among other things, an open kitchen “so that everyone has a view from the dining room,” he says, as well as a proper stage for other performances, including live music.

While the current suburban Maryland location has its charms—“it is what it is and it works,” says McBride—the partners are hoping the flashier Atlantic City venue will redefine the brand for future expansion.

The foray onto the national stage suggests a new benchmark for D.C. chefs: the ability to extend name recognition and reach beyond the Beltway. Sure, there are a couple of local cooking celebrities who have already managed to open restaurants in far-flung places. Both José Andrés and Michel Richard operate eateries in Las Vegas, for instance. Andrés’ empire also extends to Los Angeles, Miami and, coming soon, Puerto Rico.

But few others have managed to make it farther than Tysons.

In Atlantic City, McBride and Weidmaier round out an impressive lineup of bold-named chefs from other cities, including Philadelphia’s Jose Garces and New York’s Marc Forgione, all of whom have been recruited to help make Revel a respectable dining destination. That’s what the hotel’s developers hope, at any rate: Weidmaier says executives from Revel Entertainment approached him after dining at Marcel’s one night four years ago and suggested he bring his business to Jersey.

“At the beginning, I was kind of, like, Atlantic City? I don’t know,” Weidmaier says. It took a few trips to some of the Jersey city’s newer resorts before the Marcel’s boss was sold on the idea. “I was amazed at how nice The Water Club and the Borgata was,” he says, “and how packed the restaurants were—even during a recession.”

For the local guys’ purposes, however, the seaside setting is just a launching pad—an example of what can be done elsewhere up and down the East Coast and beyond. “We’ve been approached from as far away as New Orleans,” says McBride. To hear him tell it, the pair has multiple concepts in mind for multiple locations, including an altogether different restaurant of McBride’s own design somewhere in the D.C. area.

But first, they’ll need to get the Jersey joint up and running. The goal is to open on Mar. 15. And there’s still a lot to do.

The duo has hired a chef de cuisine from Oakland, Calif. to head-up the staff. They’re still looking for sous chefs, among other positions, to round out the kitchen crew. Prospective candidates, know this: love of travel is a big plus. “We’re looking for guys that we can move to A.C. and move to different cities as we build,” McBride says. “We’re going to build a farm team for the future.”

* * *

On Friday afternoon, McBride is working in the kitchen at Brasserie Beck, testing new recipes for the beachfront launch. One dish is a traditional onion soup with a slight spin: a gruyere soufflé on top of the standard crouton. (“Needs more cheese,” he decides after sampling the delicate topping.) Another is a homemade shrimp ravioli made from wonton skins, tossed in a creamy butter and white wine sauce with fresh-cut corn. Fried shrimp heads or not, he thinks the pasta will prove quite popular come summertime, when the restaurateurs expect to “get hammered,” he says—at least in terms of foot-traffic.

McBride is also tinkering with what could be the most important component to the menu in Atlantic City: the steak. The seaside town has about as many steakhouses as casinos and a prime cut of beef is virtually obligatory for any restaurant that wants to lure high rollers.

“We want a sexy steak,” McBride says, brandishing two substantial cuts of beef, a 52-ounce porterhouse and a noticeably smaller but still considerable tomahawk chop. He plans to cook both and see which works best. “We’re going to do this in more of an Italian style,” says McBride. “We’re going to crust it heavily, with salt, pepper, garlic, rosemary, thyme, and we’re going to put it on the grill until we get a huge char on it.”

As he chops up the seasonings, McBride dishes a bit about his new deal with Weidmaier, a guy he’s known for more than 20 years. “I had a few things that I wanted to do,” he says. “He had a few things that he wanted to do. We decided to team up and do ’em together.” Normally, you’d expect the pairing of two big-name chefs to quickly devolve into irreconcilable ego-clashes. But so far, McBride says, things are working out nicely.

Locals who don’t want to drive to Atlantic City to lose at blackjack can also sample McBride’s current handiwork on what he says is a revamped menu at Brasserie Beck, where he’s attempting to refocus the kitchen on “traditional techniques and the long slow cook.” Working with new chef de cuisine Will Morris, McBride’s already jettisoned the restaurant’s previous incarnation of a cassoulet, which he describes as a sort of modern deconstructed version, and replaced it with a more classic style. He’s also streamlined the varieties of mussels available, reducing the options from nine to five. The old lamb ragout pasta is gone, but McBride has added salmon cooked inside parchment paper. In a few months, he aims to introduce new plats du jour and more seafood.

“I would like to see things like octopus and squid on the menu,” McBride says. “In researching the brasseries of Belgium, you know, they were kind of a seafaring nation. And there was a lot of seafood to be had. Not enough here.”

In interviews, McBride casts Weidmaier as a partner. But while it’s true that McBride has an interest in the shared venture, the Marcel’s proprietor is the boss. “I brought Brian in as basically my corporate chef for all my restaurants,” Weidmaier says. “I needed to bring in a seasoned chef that I trust as a good friend to help me expand and do what I want to do.”

In exchange for his chef-partner’s culinary retooling, Weidmaier will be backing McBride in developing a new restaurant concept that is all his own. He doesn’t elaborate on what it will be. “I don’t believe necessarily in chef-driven concepts,” McBride says. “I like concepts. Concepts last forever. Chefs come and go....You have to come up with the right concept and then the concept will continue.” He says he hopes to include a retail component to the standard sit-down dining experience.

After some substantial grilling time, McBride slices his two test steaks into thin slivers, almost like roast beef—a style he cribbed from former Tosca chef Cesare Lanfranconi. He suggests that the skinny cuts help to even out the steak’s inherent saltiness. “Cutting it like this gives you all that flavor, but it doesn’t overpower you,” he says.

McBride plates the sliced meats alongside their bones and adds a little red wine jus. But the key ingredient comes last: fresh-squeezed lemon splashed all over. “This makes the difference right here,” he says.

Maybe the best part about launching a new restaurant on the Jersey shore: McBride and Weidmaier get a crash pad on the beach. Leasing such a spot is another item on McBride’s to-do list this week. It’s the sort of set up one might expect to attract some of the Jersey shore’s most nefarious characters. McBride fields that question with a wry grin.

“That was the whole PR plan—get Snooki in sometime,” he says. “We joke around. But, hey, who knows?”

Photos by Darrow Montgomery

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

On the bitches' shit list: Mie n Yu ("horrendous service, soggy salads, and cold brunch dishes"), Taberna del Alabardero ("overpriced...one of the worst [buffets] we’ve experienced"), Whitlow’s on Wilson ("worst Bloody Mary bar"), Circa ("worst mimosa"), The Diner ("worst place to brunch sober"), Puro Café ("worst patio...everything was stained, dirty, haphazardly disorganized, and poorly taken care of"), Blue Duck Tavern ("staggering $7 cups of coffee" !!!), Open City ("worst wait"), and, finally, Tabaq ("require[s] a climb up not one, not two, but three steep sets of narrow wooden stairs. Treacherous with a hangover.")

Image courtesy of Bitches Who Brunch

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

Openings, closings, events, charities, compiled from press releases, compressed into haiku

Roman-kind ah-peetz/Floating mozzarella trough/Blue crab, vegan pies; Fiorella Pizzeria, opening May 26, 152 National Plaza, National Harbor, Md., (301) 839-1811

Local chefs compete/Chili cook-off charity/Hot-dog eating match; from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., May 30, Café Saint-Ex, 1847 14th St. NW, (202) 265-7839

Eating, painting, drinks/Meet "Masters' of Food & Wine"/Local vino, cheese; June 2-5, Blue Duck Tavern at the Park Hyatt Washington, (202) 419-6755

Top Chef's Carla Hall/Silver Spring tasting event/Challah bread pudding; from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., June 12, $125 per person, address provided upon registration, (202) 450-2837

Photo courtesy of Café Saint-Ex

The table at Dupont Circle’s Eola is covered in small appetizers that seem innocuous—tortellini, chicken fried steak, tempura fries. But take a second glance. All three dishes are made from parts of a pig’s head: The pasta is filled with brain. The golden, deep fried tempura batter hides slivers of ear. And the “steak” is a gloriously fatty jowl. The spread marks an opening salvo in an exuberant exploration of all things offal. And, in classic 21st-century culinary-culture fashion, the preparation of entrails and internal organs also represents something of a political gesture. Eola chef and co-owner Daniel Singhofen says he didn’t create his menu to shock his guests. Rather, he’s demonstrating his respect for ingredients.

“If we’re responsible for taking life, then we need to be responsible with what we do with that animal,” Singhofen says. “We try to use as much as we can, as often as we can, and not waste anything.” Not that the Culinary Institute of America–trained chef will cop to sacrificing taste on the altar of non-waste. “It’s a challenge to turn this stuff into a wonderful dish and then convince people to order it,” says Singhofen. “But when it’s good, it’s like nothing you’ve ever tasted.”

Singhofen believes that diners’ interest in this approach to cooking may come from adventure-food TV, not just from Michael Pollan–era ethics. “When people see Anthony Bourdain and Andrew Zimmern traveling the world eating testicles and hearts, they’re intrigued by it,” he says. At any rate, he’s not alone in the local haute snout-to-tail category: Galileo III, Bar Pilar, and Blue Duck Tavern have all embraced the movement, to varying degrees. But Eola may go farther still. “I don’t see it as a trend, because I have the responsibility, the knowledge and the ability to use cuts of an animal that a home cook maybe can’t use,” Singhofen says.

The chef has been honing his menu in the year since he opened. Eola takes nice care of non-porcine details, too: The breadbasket —often an overlooked element—is treated with the utmost respect. Slightly sweet brioche rolls are made in-house, dusted with sea salt, and served warm with salted butter. The space, likewise, is simple and pleasant. The first-floor dining room is a relatively narrow exposed-brick affair with a yellow back wall; the closeness gives the restaurant an intimacy and warmth. Black-and-white photos of autumnal sequences line the sides—a pair of lifeless leaves keep each other company in one shot, while another captures a wispy vine curling into thin air. The theme continues through the leaf-entwined light fixtures and candleholders. The kitchen peeks out from behind the pass, where a fake pig snout playfully covers the barrel of the smoke gun.

To the right of the kitchen, in the back, is a tile-lined bar. Unfortunately, you can’t sit there, which is a bit of a drawback for people waiting for the rest of their party to show up. Luckily, there is another bar upstairs, along with a second dining room, this one decorated with photos from a cross country road trip, where you can have a glass of wine or one of a dozen cocktails. Two notables are the Moscow Mule, which dresses up vodka with the zing of ginger beer, and the Bee’s Knees, which combines the floral sweetness of honey with a tart hint of lemon and the bite of strong gin.

But of course, we’re not here for fancy cocktails. We’re here to chow down on pig skull. Since we don’t want to leave any part of the porker feeling left out, we order everything, which constitutes almost an entire hog head. The ears are cut into three-bite-long straws, tempura battered, and then fried. When you crunch into them, there’s none of the chewy resistance you might expect if you’ve only seen pig ears offered as dog chews. Singhofen’s version melts in your mouth to reveal only the faintest hint of ham. A side of tartar sauce is a nice complement, but isn’t necessary to enjoy the dish.

Next up is the brain tortellini. There’s an odd, primal thrill that comes from knowing that you’re sucking down gray matter. That being said, if you didn’t know the pasta was filled with brain, you’d just think you were eating a mushy meat. The dish is interesting in theory, but unremarkable in execution. On the other hand, the chicken-fried tongue with lentils, pickled shallot, and spiced apple puree is interesting in both concept and execution. The other offal-centric starter, the FBLT, is pure genius. Foie gras stands in for the bacon on a decadently truffled brioche and each bite threatens to overwhelm you with fatty depravity. It’s a haute cuisine glutton bomb of epic proportions.

All in all, Singhofen’s 360-degree ethos works to create a symbiotic relationship between the chef and his purveyors, like David Ober of West Virginia’s Cedarbrook Farms, who provides Eola with all things swine. “He’s maximizing his pigs and I’m keeping my customers happy,” explains Singhofen. “Because it means I’m getting all these odd little bits and pieces that we try to turn into beautiful meals.”

You’re not obligated to go the offal route at Eola. A vegetable-meets-fruit salad is a study in contrasts. The earthiness of the beets finds nice opposition in the tangy zing of the grapefruit slices, while the crunch of the pistachios contrasts nicely with the silkiness of the ricotta.

The velvety celery velouté is a little salty, so the main ingredient is drowned out behind a wall of saline. Celery has such a slight flavor profile to begin with that it has to be treated with incredible delicacy if it’s going to register. The crispy wild rice scattered across the soup adds a snap, crackle, and pop to the proceedings, but still don’t bring back that elusive celery flavor.

More successful are the quarter-sized scoops of trout rillette that rest on miniature toast chips and come topped with a caper and a sliver of lemon. The briny fish provides a nice backdrop for the salty pop of the caper and the spiky tang of the citrus.

Still, there’s a restraint and surprising lightness to Singhofen’s entrees. Where a more classically influenced chef might be heavy-handed with sauces and preparations, Singhofen lets his ingredients speak for themselves. The claws are left on the confited quail, reaching out in supplication for a prayer that was clearly never answered. This faithful departed rests next to a griddled rye cake and a tumble of jus-dressed winter root vegetables. The bird’s rich, duck-like flavor, works well with the slightly sweet jus and the grassy, earthy tones of the rye. It’s totally irresistible; in a short time it’s reduced to a pile of toothpick-thin bones sucked clean and a picked over miniature ribcage.

There are other appealing main courses. A tangle of oxtail sits in a savory broth filled with barley. It looks like it could be a soggy mess, but when you bite into it the beef it’s pleasantly chewy and the barley kernels have the consistency of wild rice. The Tamworth pork is glazed in sarsaparilla, easily the most underrated root soda of all time—bravo to Singhofen for recognizing its rightful place at the forefront of American cuisine. The sweetness of sarsaparilla is a nice complement to the pork’s own sugary tones, but never threaten to drown out its natural flavors.

This is all a nice lead-up to dessert. The brioche bread pudding is perfectly caramelized on the edges and served with a chantilly whipped cream sprinkled with nuts and dried fruits, which ties back to the pudding’s innards. Buttery and moist, it recalls the richness of the offal starters, but the portion is restrained so that diners don’t overstuff themselves in the final leg of the race.

A cookie plate full of choices like a crunchy chocolate hazelnut biscotti, a duo of soft brownie cubes, a bittersweet chocolate chunk cookie and a pair of ginger infused molasses drops is a comforting swansong. A peppermint meringue disc is picked up without design at the very end and becomes the perfect last bite, leaving a lingering freshness on the tongue.

Eola, 2020 P St. NW; 202-466-4441

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

Photos by Darrow Montgomery

Here are some more holiday menu options. For more from our on-going series featuring holiday menus, click here.

Since Christmas Eve is exactly a week away, it's too late to make the proper reservations for a Poste roast for Christmas Eve at Poste Moderne Brasserie in the Hotel Monaco. But it's not too late to think about booking one for the week after Christmas (through Dec. 29) for you and at least seven other people. (But no more than 12 people.) Carved tableside and served family-style, there are two holiday roasts to choose from. First, porchetta served with roasted heirloom apples, kale, choucroute ($55 per person); and second, rib roast served with Yorkshire pudding, mushroom duxelle, horseradish, and roasted organic root vegetables ($85 per person). There's armagnac-date bread pudding with Guinness toffee sauce for dessert, with eggnog, glogg or hot chocolate as a holiday beverage.

For reservations and additional information, contact Stacy Isabella at (202) 449-7062. If you miss out on a Poste roast for the holidays, Poste is continuing the the indoor roasts through the winter until it is warm enough to bring the roast events outdoors again. (I celebrated my birthday last year with a lamb roast in Poste's courtyard. And it was wonderful.)

Blue Duck Tavern will be serving an a la carte menu on Christmas Eve and on Christmas night, the restaurant at the Park Hyatt hotel will serve a three-course buffet-style brunch on Christmas Day from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Some of what you'll find: roasted loin of venison with spiced date glaze, braised striped bass with fennel, carrots and yellow onion; Muscovy duck breast with duck leg ragout and huckleberries; whole-gratin mustard spaetzle "Mac-n-Cheese" duck confit, brussel sprouts with bacon and vinegar-glazed red onion; and devils food cake with white chocolate ganache and sweet potato pie with brown sugar pecans.

The brunch is $90 per adult and $45 for children. Call for reservations at (202) 419-6755.

Smith Commons on H Street NE doesn't even officially open its doors until next week, but there's already a three-course New Years Eve dinner planned. Some of the options include little neck clams, eggplant lasagna, grilled prawns, confit of duck leg, sea bass, veal porterhouse, Belgian chocolate lava cake and sherbet.

The $50-per-person price includes one glass of wine, beer, or specialty cocktail. Smith Commons' regular menu won't be available on New Years Eve and the prix fixe menu will be served starting at 6 p.m. Call (202) 396-0038 for a reservation.

Photo of Poste's eggnog courtesy Kimpton Hotels. ]]> http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/youngandhungry/2010/12/17/perusing-holiday-menus-part-ii-poste-extends-its-roasting-season/feed/ 0 http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/youngandhungry/2010/12/01/more-offbeat-brunch-options-the-baked-cinnamon-bun-french-toast-at-blue-duck/ http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/youngandhungry/2010/12/01/more-offbeat-brunch-options-the-baked-cinnamon-bun-french-toast-at-blue-duck/#comments Wed, 01 Dec 2010 14:01:53 +0000 Tim Carman http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/youngandhungry/?p=29906

If the plate of "French toast" at Blue Duck Tavern looks more like a pair of cinnamon rolls conjoined at the hip, there's a reason. Chef Brian McBride developed this weekend special (no doubt in a subterranean laboratory with a hunchback assistant and lots of beakers overflowing with dry-ice clouds) by fusing a mall-court favorite with a brunch-menu staple.

McBride calls his creation "Baked Cinnamon Bun French Toast," and the monster sells for $15 a plate during the weekend brunch at Blue Duck. On first blush, the dish looks like something out of White Trash Cooking. (Step 1: Stop at Cinnabon and purchase sticky buns. Step 2: Smush them together. Step 3: Squeeze more sticky sweet icing over the top and/or maple syrup. Step 4: Watch game shows for rest of the day.)

But on closer inspection (and repeated tastings), Blue Duck's cinnamon bun French toast reveals its more subtle shades. For one thing, it is not loaded down with enough cinnamon and sugar to qualify for a federal subsidy. Its sweetness is tempered by the chopped candied pecans and the cream cheese icing, but even more telling is the dish's quiet nod to French toast. The kitchen produces the coiled buns first and then gives them a standard soak before baking them to a golden hue. The flavor of French toast bubbles just beneath the cinnamon surface, the unmistakable softness and richness of milk and eggs.

Still, regardless of the dish's finer points, eating a pair of cinnamon buns for brunch leaves you with this vague feeling that you have crossed an unholy line. You start to worry that you'll crave Rice Krispies Treats for dinner.

I'm exaggerating, but get this: When I spoke with our waiter about the French toast, he mentioned that the kitchen is close to rolling out a new version of the cinnamon bun-based dish. He said the new Blue Duck French toast will be based on house-made Krispy Kremes.

R.J. Cooper's "24" tasting menu abruptly ended this month at Vidalia.

Putting together this year's Young & Hungry Dining Guide was an exercise in managing the chaos of the local dining scene. Several places that had all but secured a spot on my list of the 50 most fascinating restaurants — Inox, Teatro Goldoni, and Vidalia — suddenly found themselves on the outs. In Inox's case, it was unavoidable; the fine-dining operation closed after putting up a good fight in this poor excuse of an economy.

In Vidalia's case, R.J. Cooper's abrupt departure threw the kitchen into flux, lowering expectations enough to force me to give the downtown restaurant the boot. I say that even though Jeffrey "Mr. Obsessive" Buben continues to oversee Vidalia, no doubt applying the whip whenever his feverishly high standards are not maintained. But you cannot immediately replace one chef's vision, particularly Cooper's refined one, with another's and expect instant results.

The same holds true for Teatro Goldoni, whose owners gave chef Enzo Fargione his walking papers for doing nothing less than making that dated, commedia dell'arte restaurant relevant again. With Fargione out of the way, Goldoni installed a more casual, rustic Italian menu, which instantly put the K Street institution in the same league as about 1,000 other places.

After bumping these three destinations off the list, I ultimately selected only 10 fine-dining restaurants for this year's guide, which still represents 20 percent of my picks. The rest of the 40 slots have been taken up with casual or neighborhood or even fast-casual operations, which  makes sense. These kinds of eateries continue to multiply like bacteria on raw chicken.

One of the traps of putting together such a guide is to fall under the spell of the new. All the hype that surrounds freshly launched restaurants can distract a critic from the more mature restaurants that still deserve attention. I tried to be aware of that as I compiled this guide.  Seventeen restaurants from last year's list held their spots this time around. Of the 33 other spots, 15 are occupied by restaurants that have opened since the 2009 guide, which means 30 percent of the list features new eateries.

That's an uncomfortably high number for me. So I've decided to list the five veteran restaurants that just missed the cut.

• Corduroy: Chef Tom Power is a master at manipulating seasonal ingredients for maximum flavor.
• Blue Duck Tavern: The hotel restaurant still has one of the best brunches in the city.
• El Pollo Rico: The legion of Super Pollo fans is wrong. Those dry, lackluster birds don't begin to compare to EPR's.
• Poste Moderne Brasserie: Chef Rob Weland has turned his outdoor patio into a backyard farm for his kitchen — not to mention a backyard barbecue with his Poste Roasts.
• Joe's Noodle House: Still my favorite spot for authentic Szechuan cooking.

Dean Gold is giving it away...for Haitian relief

It's time for some housekeeping here at Y&H Central. Lots of news has passed through our inbox and computer screen. Here are the highlights:

• Following a slammed Restaurant Week, Hook and chef Jonathan Seningen parted ways; yesterday the Georgetown seafood emporium announced a replacement, former Blue Duck Tavern chef de cuisine, Mark Hellyar (via Top Shelf).
• Dino in Cleveland Park is setting aside Monday nights in February for Haitian earthquake relief. Owner Dean Gold is donating 10 percent of his Monday night sales to several charities.

• The International Wine and Food Festival takes place on Feb. 11-14, and Metrocurean is giving away a pair of tickets to Sunday's Grand Tasting.
• CakeLove has soured on Charm City (via Washington Business Journal).
• The new Hush underground supper club has an Indian accent (via Thrillist) — not to be confused with the old Hush supper club, which did not.
• The Pupatella Neapolitan Pizza Cart is heading indoors this spring.
• Chef Gerard Pangaud starts his military career (via Tom Sietsema)
• Two new cupcakes shops open in NoVa.
• J.D. Salinger and all things food (via Diner's Journal).
• Rumors are circulating that Wagamama won't be opening in Penn Quarter after all (via Don Rockwell)
• A.M. Wine Shoppe finally opens, nearly two months later than expected.

The Margherita at 2Amys: Does it make the cut?

Earlier this week, I was noshing on the roast chicken at Palena Cafe, reveling once again in Frank Ruta's ability to add and coax flavors from this generous, succulent portion of breast, wing, and leg meat. That's when the thought struck me: This is, hands-down, one of the area's greatest dishes. It deserves a spot in some sort of local culinary hall of fame.

The roast chicken is an obvious one, but what other dishes would make the cut? I've been pondering this and have drafted a number of nominees. The list is, by no means, complete. It needs your suggestions.

Once we get a solid roster of nominees, we'll put them to a public vote here on the Y&H blog. The top 10 vote getters will go into the City Paper's inaugural D.C. Dish Hall of Fame. Winners will receive everlasting glory.

The working list of nominees:

• Lobster burger at Central
• Half smoke with chili at Ben's Chili Bowl
• Fried whiting at Horace & Dickie's
• Foie-gras lollipops at minibar
• Parker House rolls at CityZen
• Irish BLT at Restaurant Eve
• Shrimp and grits at Vidalia
• Lobster roll at Kinkead's
• Green papaya salad at Four Sisters
• Margherita pizza at 2Amys
• Floating market noodle soup at Nava Thai
• Butter chicken at Heritage India
• Roasted bone marrow at Blue Duck Tavern
• Palak chaat at Rasika
• Roast chicken at El Pollo Rico
• Mac 'n' cheese at Oohhs & Aahhs
• Spare ribs at Mr. P's
• Pho at Pho 75
• Paella at Jaleo
• Hamburger at Five Guys
• Lingonberry linzertorte at Hook
• Salty oat cookie at Teaism
• Lobster "begula" pasta at Citronelle
• Spit roasted goat at Komi