Now, it's a yearly thing, with a spiffy new logo and everything! Pigs replace stars in the new D.C. flag motif. "That was the animal that we had the highest resolution graphic of," says co-organizer, Mr. Capital Spice, Mike Bober. "And we tried it with three different animals in place of the stars. It didn't speak to the D.C. flag the same way that a repetition of three did."

Tonight, the 'cue carnival converges at Hill Country. Then, it's off to Pork Barrel, Smoke & Barrel, and even a few non-barrel-titled venues, too. See the full agenda below:

Monday, Jan. 30, 6:30 PM
Hill Country, 410 7th St. NW
www.hillcountrywdc.com

*Specials: All you can eat Brisket, Pork Ribs, Barbecue Chicken and all the Sides for $20. Drink Specials: $2 PBRs & $20 Pitchers of Shiner all night; $5 well drinks and margaritas til 7 PM.

Tuesday, Jan. 31, 7 PM
Pork Barrel BBQ Restaurant,
2312 Mt. Vernon Ave., Alexandria
www.porkbarrelbbq.com

*Specials: Meat Week Sampler Platter for $20.12.
1/4 pound Pulled Pork, 1/4 pound Brisket, 3 Ribs, 1/4 Chicken, 1 Brisket Sausage, 2 Sides

Wednesday, Feb. 1, 7 p.m.
PORC (Purveyors of Rolling Cuisine – hosted by Torries @ Wilson), 700 V Street, NW
www.porcmobile.com

Please RSVP here.

*Specials: $25 All-You-Can-Eat Buffet, including pulled pork, Smokey Joe (PORC’’s take on the sloppy joe), Goat BBQ, PORC Hot Links (debut item!), Mac and Cheese, BBQ Beans, Coleslaw, Collard Greens, Chocolate Truffles on a Stick.

Thursday, Feb. 2, 7 p.m.
Smoke & Barrel, 2471 18th Street, NW
smokeandbarreldc.com

SORRY – THIS EVENT IS COMPLETELY SOLD OUT. NO WALK-INS CAN BE ACCOMMODATED.
*Specials: Meat Week Buffet for $22.95

Friday, Feb. 3, 7 PM
Memphis BBQ, 320 S. 23rd St., Arlington

*Specials: Free dessert with a minimum $15 purchase of food and beverage (including alcohol)

Saturday, Feb. 4, 1 PM
Mr. P’s Ribs & Fish, 566 25th Pl. NE (in the Rhode Island Avenue Safeway parking lot – look for the converted school bus)

Sunday, Feb. 5, 11AM to 2PM
Rocklands BBQ, 2418 Wisconsin Ave NW
www.rocklands.com

*Specials: PB&E Sandwich (pulled pork, bacon & fried egg) for $7.99
Southern Chicken Sandwich with white sauce for $6.99
Brunswick Stew with cornbread – single serving for $3.49, pint for $5.99

For the second time now,  the opening of Spike Mendelsohn's We, The Pizza is being pushed to a later date.

First, the New York-style pizza joint was supposed to open on Monday, July 12. It was then supposed to open today for lunch, which didn't happen. Now, according to Capital Spice, We, The Pizza will open on Friday.

I guess there must have been more arguments over the music playlist.

Spike Mendelsohn held a party last night at his forthcoming We, The Pizza on Capitol Hill. Y&H didn't get an invite, but we understand. Some wounds take time to heal.

Regardless, Mendelsohn is planning to open his New York-style pizza joint on Monday, July 19, a week later than previously announced to the press. Through his publicist, the former Top Chef-er sent Y&H the following statement on the short delay:

"Opening dates are a moving target but we are excited to bring our pizza to the masses! There's always plenty to do like finalizing music playlist and all. We had a lil friends + family gathering there last night. It got a bit rowdy!"

Back when Mendelsohn and I were still on speaking terms, the chef told me about the pizza project and how he didn't want to launch yet-another Neapolitan joint. To prep for We, The Pizza, he visited some NYC pizzerias to refresh his palate on the kind of pies he wanted to create in D.C.

What's interesting about his opening menu at We, The Pizza is its diversity. It includes not only some traditional and chef-driven pies (a round with bechamel, sauteed spinach, and roasted artichokes, for instance) but also "cast iron pies," several versions of chicken wings, Italian subs, a plate of spaghetti and meatballs, gelati, and Italian sodas.

Mendelsohn, in other words, is doing for rustic Italian-American food what he did for the All-American burger at Good Stuff Eatery: adapting it for the modern American (read: pampered) palate.

By the way, Y&H's buds at Capital Spice have pictures of We, The Pizza, if you want to catch a glimpse of the place.

You probably figured this one out already. Local Meat Week organizer Mike Bober has decided to call off tomorrow's final gathering at Mr. P's Ribs & Fish in the Safeway parking lot at 514 Rhode Island Ave. NE.

"We can either revisit later in the month or — maybe easier — plan to finish on the Meat Week half-anniversary by doing it in early July," e-mails Bober earlier today.

It's a good thing Bober decided to cancel. When he called Mr. P, the barbecue man said he wasn't even planning to be at the Safeway lot today, let alone tomorrow, when the Snowmageddon hits.

As far as tonight's trip to Branded '72 in Rockville, Bober is leaving it up to you. "I'm encouraging folks to use their judgment," he pings me. "If they live in Rockville and can make it, have fun."

Just don't look for Bober. He's staying home and making pizza.

Speaking of Meat Week, there is a non-Meat Week Meat Week now. It's called Meat-FREE Week and it starts, ahem, tomorrow. More on that later today.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

The opening night of Meat Week apparently surpassed the local organizer's expectations, which perhaps wasn't hard, since they hovered somewhere near rock bottom. But 24 people showed up last night at Urban Bar-B-Que, which stayed open late to handle all the carnivores.

"I was really impressed at the way Urban Bar-B-Que stepped up to handle our mob of two dozen Meat Weekers," e-mails organizer and Capital Spice's Mike Bober.

"This was definitely the right way to kick things off, and it bodes well for the rest of our get-togethers," he adds. "People are really excited about the Pork Barrel BBQ event on Wednesday night and they're ready to brave the cold to sample Mr. P's ribs in the Safeway parking lot on Saturday."

Remember, Meat Week goes 'til Saturday. Tonight's meat and greet is at Rocklands in Glover Park. The full schedule is here.

Photo illustration by Brooke Hatfield

Our week of rampant carnivorism is almost upon us, and many of you have apparently been bombarding our captain with questions about just what the hell is Meat Week? Or how do you participate? How much does it cost? Do you have to go every night? Does it come with a free prescription of Lipitor?

Fortunately, Mike Bober at Capital Spice has the answers to all your barbecue-related Meat Week questions. But he also has one more thing: the menu for Wednesday night's sneak preview of Pork Barrel BBQ, which looks to include both brisket and pulled pork. We'll have to see which side of the Texas-Carolina barbecue axis the Pork Barrel crew knows best.

In the meantime, start starving yourself now so you'll be ready for Meat Week's opening gorge-fest: a 7 p.m. meat up at Urban Bar-B-Quein Rockville. Oh, the smoke is already filling my nostrils! 

Photo illustration by Brooke Hatfield

Meat Week, if I'm truly honest with myself, is not designed for cities like Washington D.C., where barbecue joints have to cater to the many different styles of American smoked meats. The smokehouse that dares to specialize in, say, Texas 'cue or Carolina pulled pork is the smokehouse destined to fail in the District. At least that's what a veteran restaurant consultant once told me.

This more than explains the mediocre barbecue we have in the metro area. Perfecting one style of barbecue is hard enough; perfecting them all is a task more impossible than landing an unauthorized helicopter on the White House lawn.

The best pit men we have are those who try (if not always succeed) to master a particular style, like Fate Pittman who specializes in western North Carolina 'cue at Mr. P's Ribs and Fish or David Calkins who fell in love with Texas barbecue and has been working hard to duplicate Lone Star State brisket at Urban.

But after those two places (as well as the smokehouse in Clinton and possibly, with more visits, Branded '72), my interest in local barbecue drops off significantly. I don't think I could ever muster enough interest, let alone appetite, to hit seven straight local smokehouses. (In Texas, by contrast, I think I could eat the stuff straight for a month and not tire of it.)

The beauty of Meat Week, though, is that you don't have to attend all of the gatherings — not unless you're Mr. Capital Spice, Mike Bober, who's leading the charge for the D.C. Chapter of Meat Week. Talk about talking a bullet for the team.

Of course, I'm not saying anything that Bober doesn't already know.

"The biggest headache I ran into was trying to set the schedule," Bober e-mailed Y&H earlier today. "[U]nless you're willing to drive outside the Beltway, it's hard to find seven really good barbecue joints in the area. I went with a few of the names everyone knows because they really are representative of what's available in DC right now (for better AND for worse), but I also tried to balance them out with some of the less well-known establishments."

Bober certainly knows good 'cue when he tastes it. He's a Kansas City Barbecue Society-certified judge. To his palate, the 'cue offerings are on the uptick in the area.

"Thankfully, it seems like DC's barbecue prospects are improving as we speak. Washington may not be a world-class barbecue city yet, but we've already got a few places that are doing it right and there are a couple of big names on the horizon. I'm really excited that we were able to work something out with the guys from Pork Barrel BBQ to get a sneak peek at what they'll be bringing to Del Ray this year."

The best way to judge for yourself is to take part in one, or all, of the Meat Week 2010 gatherings.

Meat Week 2010 Schedule

Jan. 31: Urban Bar-B-Cue (Rockville) 7 p.m.

Feb. 1: Rocklands Barbeque & Grilling (Glover Park) 7 p.m.

Feb. 2: Red Hot & Blue (Arlington) 7 p.m.

Feb. 3: Pork Barrel BBQ at Mango Mike's (Alexandria) 7 p.m.

Feb. 4: Capital Q (Penn Quarter/Chinatown) 7 p.m.

Feb. 5: Branded 72 Pit Barbecue (Rockville) 7 p.m.

Feb. 6: Mr. P's Ribs and Fish (Safeway parking lot at 5th St., NE) 3pm

Feb. 7:  Free Day. Enjoy your favorite 'cue at a Super Bowl Party. 6 p.m.

Photo illustration by Brooke Hatfield

Guess which trend got dissed by local food writers?

Yes, it's started already: The lists. The roundups. The endless regurgitation of the year's best and worst in dining trends/meals/restaurants/chefs/bathroom door handles. We love 'em, and we hate 'em.

BrightestYoungThings gets out of the gate early with its D.C. Foodie Writer 2009 Wrap Up, which includes bloggers such as Capital Spice, Endless Simmer, DCist, and DC Gastronome. BYT's Alex Nicholson also asked a few of us dead-tree media types to contribute, including Young & Hungry.

You can get the full blast of our gastronomic gas-baggery over at BYT. Oh, and by the way, Young & Hungry will contribute more such gas-baggery at the end of the year, when I roll out my list of Best New Restaurants of 2009.

Mmm, dinner is served.

News is breaking faster than Y&H can keep up with it, which means that it's time to get all HuffPo and do a little link aggregation. Let's get right to it:

• WaPo's Tom Sietsema breaks the news about Michael Landrum's latest projects, Ray's the Glass, a Personal Wine Bar with Mark Slater (why does this sound like a late-night talk show?), and Ray's the Game, a burger joint featuring game meats.
• For those who thought the gourmet cupcake craze was an attempt to fetishize our childhood tastes, consider this Washington Business Journal report from Missy Frederick, who tells us that the Cereal Bowl will be opening in Cleveland Park. Yep, it's a place that peddles Fruity Pebbles, Froot Loops (which the place can't even spell correctly on its Web site), Lucky Charms and the like.  This better not affect Palena's ability to expand.

• As they head into Wednesday night's finale, Top Chef producers are milking the Voltaggio brothers'  long-time sibling rivalry for every last drop of drama. And Y&H's buds over at Capital Spice are milking the drama of the finale by organizing a contest to convince Top Chef producers to bring the franchise to the District. The person who submits the best D.C. challenge to Capital Spice wins a prize package.
• ReadysetDC has photos of the newly opened Cork Market on the increasingly fashionable 14th Street corridor. Y&H stopped by the market this weekend and liked the rustic, brick-and-wood vibe of the place. He also liked the bacon egg salad!
• WaPo's Jane Black takes a look at Founding Farmers' sustainable food and sourcing claims and finds them wanting.
• Finally, Metrocurean gives us some insight on the homey menu that Ris Lacoste rolls out tonight with the long-awaited opening of RIS in the West End.

Photo by Zanastardust via Flickr Creative Commons, Attribution License

You have to salute Mike and Elizabeth Bober over at Capital Spice. They know how to take one for the team.

The husband-and-wife food bloggers have compiled a Google map featuring the places that made the Washington Post, Washingtonian, and the Washington City Paper's annual best restaurants lists. Just as helpful, they've also included the highest-rated eateries from the 2009 Zagat guide and have plans to add the 50 restaurants on Northern Virginia's list once it becomes available online.

In a post today on their blog, the couple explained why they invested so much of their free time in providing this public service:

With the announcement of Tom Sietsema’s annual Fall Dining Guide in the Washington Post last month, we found ourselves comparing it to similar lists like Tim Carman’s 50 Best Restaurants list in the Washington City Paper and Washingtonian magazine’s annual 100 Best Restaurants list. We were eager to see which restaurants were universally celebrated and which ones were personal favorites for each critic. As we were looking at the lists side by side, inspiration struck.

Wouldn’t it be helpful if all of these lists were available in one place? We could check out everything that Tom, Tim and Todd (Kliman at Washingtonian) had to say about an establishment all at once.

Y&H e-mailed the couple this morning to gauge exactly how much time they invested in this project, which must have been as work-intensive as the inauguration after-hours booze map they compiled earlier this year. Here's what Mike Bober wrote back:

I've been working on this off and on for a few weeks – adding 10 or 20 restaurants at a time and working my way through each list. On Saturday I got called into work during the healthcare debate and finished it off during some downtime mid-debate. All told, I'd say there's probably a good 7 or 8 hours' worth of work in this...bringing up each review in turn, copying the URL, adding it into the tab for each restaurant.

Somebody needs to buy these folks a drink.