The D.C. Dish Hall of Fame leaderboard remains virtually unchanged after a week of voting, save for the flip-flop of the ninth and tenth place dishes. After a strong surge last week, Horace & Dickie’s  fried whiting moves up a notch into ninth place.

But I have to say, I think the list is still missing some great dishes. Plates like Frank Ruta’s roast chicken and Michel Richard’s lobster burger are nowhere to be seen, meaning they will not, at present, be part of the inaugural class of the D.C. Dish Hall of Fame. A shame that would be, to paraphase a certain elderly sage.

A comment we received this morning, I think, sums up the feelings of a number of voters, who seem to view this contest as an exercise in classism, not a genuine search for D.C.’s finest plates:

like most things in DC, the options show extreme class stratification. I’d love to know the percentage of DC residents who’ve enjoyed the CityZen Parker House Rolls or Komi’s spit roasted goat.

I understand that more people can afford to eat at Ben’s Chili Bowl over CityZen. But I don’t think you should hold that against a great side like Eric Ziebold’s Parker House rolls. It deserves a place among the city’s best as much as the chili half-smoke. Well, almost as much.

So, c’mon, let’s try to put our prole resentments aside and vote for the best, regardless of price.  You can vote here.

The leaderboard:

1. Half-smoke with chili at Ben’s Chili Bowl, 298 votes
2. Hamburger at Five Guys, 142
3. Peruvian chicken at El Pollo Rico, 115
4. Falafel at Amsterdam Falafelshop, 107
5. Margherita pizza at 2Amys, 100
6. Burger from Ray’s Hell Burger, 89
7. Salty oat cookie at Teaism, 85
8. Palak chaat at Rasika, 80
9. Fried whiting at Horace & Dickie’s, 76
10. Pho at Pho 75, 75

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

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

Ruta emerged from Palena’s kitchen, pictured with Maddy Beckwith

So how unique was last night’s opening reception for Sou’Wester? So unique that Frank Ruta showed up. In all the years Y&H has been covering the dining scene in D.C., I’ve never seen the semi-reclusive Palena chef and owner at an industry event. I barely recognized him out of his whites.

“This is only the second time I’ve been to one of these,” Ruta told Y&H.

“Only the second ever?” I asked Ruta, knowing his years on the scene.

“No, this is the second time this year,” he responded.

Ruta’s presence wasn’t the only unusual thing about this dual-themed party, which celebrated both the fifth anniversary of CityZen and the launch of Sou’Wester, the latest project from Eric Ziebold, chef of the City Paper’s reigning Best Restaurant. There was a tattooed DJ spinning rap and funk tunes in the CityZen dining room, one of the most formal spaces in town, where food stations had been set up to pass out samples of Sou’Wester’s menu. That’s right, people were dancing in the CityZen dining room (including Y&H, but it’s best not to think about that). The cognitive dissonance was palpable.

Avert your eyes, restaurant industry folks are getting down

Not that Y&H enjoys playing the role of Reliable Source, but the list of restaurant players was pretty impressive. Aside from Ruta, other attendees included Vidalia chef R.J. Cooper, Cork chef Ron Tanaka, Rasika chef Vikram Sunderam, Clyde’s Group chef John Guattery, baker and G Street Food’s  Mark Furstenberg, Inox sommelier John Wabeck, The Source’s GM Adam Crocini, Bourbon Steak GM Mark Politzer, FreshFarm Market’s Maddy Beckwith, Bistro Bis and Vidalia owner Jeffrey Buben, Bourbon Steak chef David Varley,  and Cork owners Diane Gross and Khalid Pitts.

The media/blogger types were out in force, too. Aside from Y&H, other attendees included Nycci Nellis, David Hagedorn, Jennifer Barger, Monica Bhide, Erin Hartigan, Michael Birchenall, Melissa McCart, Don Rockwell, and Carol Blymire.

I can’t speak for anyone else, but I know I’m still having trouble adjusting to the new name for the Southern-inspired restaurant in the former Cafe MoZu space. If you’ll recall, the operation was originally dubbed South by Southwest, which Y&H ridiculed and which Ziebold defended. Because of a legal threat by certain festival organizers in Austin, the Mandarin Oriental switched to the current Sou’Wester, which rolls off the tongue like…rock candy stuck in the back of your throat.

I have much higher hopes for the restaurant itself, which is under the direction of CityZen sous chef Rachael Harriman, who will serve as chef de cuisine at Sou’Wester. Her menu will include blackened bluefish, chicken and dumplings, rabbit sausage with cheese grits, and a unique take on pork and beans.

Scratch that.

During a phone conversation yesterday, Ziebold said that South by Southwest, which replaces Cafe MoZU at the Mandarin Oriental, wouldn’t open until September. The problem, Ziebold said, is that the original designer envisioned a “bold, bright” space. Unfortunately, that wasn’t Ziebold’s vision.

“We were looking to make a statement by not making a statement. You know what I mean?” Ziebold told Y&H. “I’m a less-is-more kind of person…It wasn’t going in that direction.”

But it took the SXSW team six weeks to pull the plug on the first designer, Ziebold said. The new designer, based in Los Angeles, is working out far better, helping put together a space that doesn’t feel so designed, the chef added.

Still, the new designers have run into delays, too, whether learning that the curtain fabric they originally wanted was no longer in production or trying to design custom-made china for South by Southwest. The china maker is apparently based in Colombia, Ziebold said. “So the process of getting samples is not exactly efficient,” he deadpans.

Photo courtesy of the Mandarin Oriental

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:

Provocative, yes, but really more realistic. Let’s be honest here, man. What are these types of lists about? Are they about the critic, who wants to parrot much of the same list so that she/he can prove his/her bonafides as a diner and critic? If so, then, yes, it should include Komi and Citronelle and all the usual players. But I think these lists should be practical: They shouldn’t be all about the critic. (I realize the built-in absurdity of that last sentence, given the list is mine only and reflects my biases, but work with me here!) They should be useful tools for the local diners who love to eat out. Seriously, do you really want me to waste 10 spots on places you already know about, just so you can hear me prattle on about how great the place is? Isn’t that the equivalent of people who buy political rant books that cater to their own bias?

What are your thoughts on this matter? Should the D.C. scene’s 800-pound gorillas have been included?

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.

“I made this baguette not to my personal tastes,” Feillet told the crew gathered around the conference room table. “It’s made according to the will of my customers.”

In fact, Feillet told us, he used to make a baguette based on master baker Eric Kayser’s recipe, but when Feillet moved from Florida to Alexandria about four years ago, he learned that his clientele wasn’t interested in a classic French baguette. “It was a nightmare,” Feillet added. “All the customers wailed, ‘What is this baguette?’”

Feillet calls what he makes now “commercial bread,” meant for many of the restaurants he serves, not for retail sales. (I should note that the high-end restaurants mentioned above don’t or didn’t buy Feillet’s baguettes, but some of the other breads he produces.)

His customers, Feillet added, “want something very soft. I can’t go against my customers.”

Upon hearing this tale of woe, Furstenberg offered some advice to Feillet: “Never lower yourself to your customers’ tastes.”

Perhaps realizing the harshness of his words, Furstenberg immediately changed his tone. “You don’t want to fight with your customers, I understand that,” Furstenberg said. “I want to fight with my customers.”

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

Ziebold was not at all defensive. He even agreed with my basic premise: that MoZU’s new name, South by Southwest, said more about the hotel where the restaurant is housed than the cuisine itself, which presumably will funnel Eastern Shore flavors. But he wanted me to understand where he was coming from. His concept, as you might expect from the City Paper’s top toque, was pretty well thought out.

If you walk outside the hotel, he says, and into the D.C. neighborhood that is SW, you start to get a sense the slower pace that once marked this sleepy Southern town. You might feel it down at the Maine Avenue Fish Market, where folks still haggle over the price of rockfish, or along the Tidal Basin, where you can still take a leisurely walk.

South by Southwest will capture, in part, “this mindset of Southern hospitality and Southern ease and comfort, but in Southwest Washington,” Ziebold says.

Photo courtesy of Mandarin Oriental

CityZen’s second-in-command in the kitchen, Rachel Harriman, will be the chef de cuisine at the revamped MoZU, which will serve, according to Sietsema, “blue crab soup, chicken and dumplings, braised rabbit leg with grits and hush puppies with honey butter,” not to mention desserts like “carrot cake, strawberry shortcake, peach cobbler and grasshopper pie.”

Simply put, Y&H loves the idea of a white-tablecloth restaurant embracing local/regional flavors. We can only assume Maryland fried chicken will have a place on the menu, too.

What Y&H doesn’t love?

The name of the place: South by Southwest, a reference to the hotel’s location in the District. I’m sorry but it’s a terrible name for a restaurant looking to funnel the Eastern Shore. It’s more about the hotel than about the cuisine. South by Southwest doesn’t make me think of the Chesapeake. It makes me think of overzealous indie bands trying to impress a bunch of asshole A&R reps….oh, and puke in the middle of Sixth Street in Austin.

It’s not too late, folks. Give us a better name! The restaurant is not expected to relaunch until early this summer.

Photo courtesy of Mandarin Oriental

With all of the time you spent in Thomas Keller’s kitchens, it’s obvious that he had confidence in you. What was it like at the beginning, when you first went to work for him? What are some of the most important things that you learned, in order to be able to survive and thrive in that milieu?

Say Harriman:

Well, my first day at The French Laundry, as you can imagine, was nerve wrecking. It was 9 years ago, but I remember it like it was yesterday. I arrived at 5:30 in the morning; this is the time the commis and butchers start. One of the commis was out sick, so I had to fill that spot, luckily a sous chef, Lisa, was working with me, and training me. I tried to make everything perfect, though nothing was. I remember making potato diamonds. When I finished, I showed Lisa my work. She looked at it, shook her head, and then threw it in the trash. I tried again. A couple months later, Lisa told me she was surprised I lasted as long as I did. She said she thought for sure I wouldn’t make it.

Learn fast. That’s one important thing I learned in the beginning. Next, I learned that in this business, you really need to want to learn. So many people go into restaurants, like The French Laundry, and act like know it alls. Confidence is good to have, and very important, but to be over confident is sudden death.

Questions are always important. I asked a lot, I still do. You just have to know which ones to ask and when. For example, Thomas once told me that I asked too many questions. Not meaning that it was a bad thing, but imagine someone would stop you from what you were doing, 3 or 4 times a day, to ask a question. With all the work you would have I am sure you would find that annoying. I learned to consolidate, and ask 1 question in a way that would answer 2 questions that I would have. I still try to do that with Eric [Ziebold, chef at CityZen]. If I have a few questions I try to hit him as soon as he gets to work before he starts his day. That way when I can’t find him, because he is in meetings or on the phone, or writing a menu, I don’t have to bother him.