Tom and Derek Brown have pour, mixed, and stirred drinks at some of the best spots in the District: Komi, Citronelle, Palena, the Gibson, Corduroy, and Cork. But when the brothers decided to open their own joint, The Passenger, they didn’t want anything as formal as their former places of employment.

“I wanted a place where I could drink wine and play Motörhead,” says Derek Brown, the younger of the two siblings who grew up in Olney. “I’ve grown in my tastes. I haven’t grown in my want for a laid-back environment.”

True to their word, the brothers Brown are building a watering hole high on quirkiness — and low on pretension. It begins with the very building in which the Passenger is housed: the former bar/cafe space at the Warehouse at 1021 7th St. NW.  The space, co-owned by Paul Ruppert (who’s also a partner in the Passenger), dates back to 1890 and once was home to Ruppert Hardware, a fixture in D.C. for nearly 100 years.

Read More “Tom and Derek Brown to Channel Spirits and Iggy Pop at the Passenger” »

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:

Read More “Seeking Nominees for City Paper’s Inaugural D.C. Dish Hall of Fame” »

Instead of doing my usual thing — picking through every rack at Calvert Woodley, wasting an hour looking for my bottle — I decided to buttonhole a floor clerk to help me find Domaines Ott’s 2007 vintage of Côtes de Provence rosé. Citronelle sommelier Kathryn Morgan introduced me to this wine during  a recent press dinner; I told Pepi Almodovar, the personable wine guru at Calvert, that it was the best rosé I’ve ever had.

He harrumphed a dismissive harrumph.

Almodovar then directed me to a 2007 bottle of Château d’Esclans rosé, which he pronounced the best in the world. At $39.99 a bottle, I thought, it better be at least a Top 10 player.

Then Almodovar told me that Calvert was the only wine store in the country to carry Château d’Esclans rosé, which pretty much meant I had to buy it now. I mean, the combination of exclusivity, expensive price, and excessive praise presses more of my buttons than Rachael Ray on Iron Chef.

Whether I loved it or hated it, I knew I had a good story to tell.

Read More “Chateau d’Esclans: The Best Rosé in the World?” »

This morning, I got into a small online argument with a fellow D.C. gastronome (can I just pause here and say that I hate almost all the words used to describe a food lover; they all carry the connotation that you can’t tie your shoes without the help of a sommelier or bus boy) who disagreed with my decision to exclude the local heavy hitters from my Young & Hungry Dining Guide.

Wrote this epicure (again with the gastro-dandy terms) over two separate e-mails:

No Komi? Omitting Citronelle is trendy. Omitting Komi is foolhardy. (And no, I’m not a New Yorker. I think Komi beats Pierre Gagnaire in Paris, which is 3 stars and top ten in the “best in the world” list.)

Having places on your list that are not on Tom’s or Todd’s is what makes it interesting and cool. But entirely omitting from the list a place that’s on everyone’s list, and tops on many of them, seems deliberately provocative. But we’ll just agree to disagree (unless you want to buy me dinner at Komi so we can sit down together and you can make your case against their inclusion!)”

 Here was my response back to this international eater:

Read More “The Decision to Skip Komi, Citronelle, Etc.: Provocative? Legit? Or Stupid?” »

Allow me to tell you about some of the restaurants that didn’t make this year’s Young & Hungry guide to the 50 Best Restaurants in D.C. Michel Richard Citronelle, for one. Komi didn’t, either, no matter how many times some New Yorker wants to tell me what a genius Johnny Monis is. I sent other sacred cows to slaughter, too: Palena, Restaurant Eve, Minibar at Café Atlantico, CityZen, 2Amys, Inn at Little Washington,  and Central didn’t make my final cut. You want more? Buh-bye, CityZen and Ray’s Hell Burger.

Trust me, I’m not trying to be difficult. I’m just trying to be realistic. Do you really need me—or anyone else for that matter—to tell you to eat at these places? I might as well tell you to wear clothes when you go outside.

Photograph of Palena’s Frank Ruta by Darrow Montgomery

Silent Treatment: Loic Feillet knows how to take criticism

Loic Feillet is, without question, one of the area’s most skilled bakers. The owner of Panorama Baking Co. in Alexandria has, over the years, sold bread to some of the finest restaurants in the District, including both CityZen and Citronelle. But when Feillet took part in the Washington City Paper’s debut baguette competition, his entry finished far down the list.

Feillet’s loaf scored only 24 out of a possible 80 points, placing it eighth among the 12 competing breads. The baker, whom I asked to join our contest as a non-voting judge, remained mum as his fellow critics sliced and diced their way through the various baguettes. Some of the judges were not kind to Feillet’s bread.

“It looks really good,” said CityZen chef Eric Ziebold. “I was surprised. It did not taste good.” On his scorecard, Ziebold awarded the baguette only 10 out of a possible 20 points. Mark Furstenberg, founder of both Marvelous Market and Breadline, scored the bread slightly higher, giving Feillet 11.5 points, but his comments were coarser than Ziebold’s.

The crust, Furstenberg noted, was “old — should be better.” As for the crumb, or the interior of the bread, the baker wrote on his scorecard that it was “dense” and “badly done.”

It was only after all the breads were sampled and all the scores tallied that Feillet finally spoke in defense of his baguette.

Read More “The Hard Realities of Commercial Bread Making” »

As you might have guessed, traffic to Y&H spiked tremendously this week on the news that celebrity chef Michel Richard had plans to move his base to the Ritz-Carlton, Tysons Corner. No other post this week had nearly as much traffic, despite the fact that Thursday was Food Day here at the paper.

1. Michel Richard Plans to Move His Home Base to Tysons Corner
2. Pepsi Throwback: Right Back Where We Started
3. The University of Florida Arrives, Dines, and Dashes
4. Watch the Deleted Eamonn’s Segment from Bourdain’s ‘No Reservations’ Show on D.C.
5. If Not Expansion Plans, What Is Ben’s Next Move? Think Shipping.
   

Richard: NoVa bound

Note: This story was updated on 4:36 p.m. Monday.

The rumors appear to be true: Michel Richard, the city’s most celebrated chef, will shift his “home” base to the Ritz-Carlton, Tysons Corner, where he will open a new, fine-dining restaurant in the former Maestro space. It’s not clear yet what the move could mean for Citronelle, Richard’s current home at the Latham Hotel and one of D.C.’s most-honored restaurants, and whether the chef would abandon the spot completely.

Michel Richard Restaurants mailed a packet of information to potential investors last week, seeking nearly $2 million to develop the 5,000-square-foot, 110-seat restaurant inside the Ritz. The celebrity chef, according to the document,  “plans to enter into a 10-year primary lease on or about April 30, 2009″ for the dining space made famous by chef Fabio Trabocchi, who left Maestro in September 2007. The restaurant has been dark since then.

“Citronelle is not closing…Michel’s offices are still there, his kitchen that he loves is still there, and business is going on as usual,” says Mel Davis, PR coordinator for Richard. “I have to reiterate, there are no plans to move or close Citronelle from the Latham hotel.”

Mark Sherwin, general manager for the Ritz-Carlton, Tysons Corner, emphasized that no contract has been signed for the Maestro space. “We continue to talk to a number of high-profile chefs,” Sherwin said. The Ritz has narrowed the list down to three different groups, the GM added, but Sherwin wasn’t at liberty to name any of them.

Read More “Michel Richard Plans to Move His Home Base to Tysons Corner” »

The biggest news of the day has been the sommelier shuffle in which Mark Slater, the 12-year veteran at Citronelle, has left Michel Richard’s venerable four-star restaurant in favor of Michael Landrum’s populist meat emporium, Ray’s the Steaks. Former 2941 sommelier Kathryn Morgan has taken over Slater’s old job at Citronelle.

Slater’s move, of course, is the real curiosity. He’ll go from a temple of haute gastronomy with a French-heavy wine list that’s dotted with such bottles as a three-liter 1986 Lafite-Rothschild ($5,600) to a steakhouse with a list that prides itself on selling good wine under $50 a bottle.

Read More “Slater to “Subvert” the Way Wine Programs Work While at Ray’s” »

Try as they might to prevent it, downtown restaurants, even fine ones like The Source by Wolfgang Puck or Central Michel Richard, will lose customers on Inauguration Night. Some folks won’t show up because they got a better, last-minute offer, like a ball invite. Others simply won’t arrive because they’ve decided the benefits of the meal don’t outweigh the hassles of traveling downtown (even after many of the streets open back up after 7 p.m.).

Just ask Ashok Bajaj, the veteran D.C. restaurateur who owns a number of operations downtown, including 701, the Oval Room, the Bombay Club, and Rasika. Bajaj has been through five previous inaugurations, and every time, he says about 10 percent of his reservations don’t show up. That compares to about two percent of his reservations on an average weekend.

The problem for restaurateurs like Bajaj is that it’s hard to fill those no-shows on Inauguration Night, because everyone already has plans or they decided long ago they weren’t going to deal with the BS. Bajaj says he can fill those empty seats only about 30 percent of the time.

Read More “Can’t Get into Your Favorite Restaurant on Inauguration Night? Just Wait.” »