Last week when I spoke with James Alefantis, owner of Buck's Fishing and Camping and Comet Ping Pong, he mentioned that his newly hired baker would not only work for his two restaurants but also for Modern Times Coffeehouse, the subterranean cafe at Politics and Prose, which he co-owns. Oh, and by the way, Alefantis [...]

Buck's fresh apricot summer punch Buck's Fishing and Camping owner James Alefantis first met chef Vickie Reh not at Food Matters in Alexandria, where she was once sous chef, but through a wine importer. Alefantis, in fact, never ate Reh's food at her previous gig. So how exactly did Reh end up as head chef [...]

Yours truly is thrilled to report that, for the first time in weeks, the vintage TV beer commercials did not crack the Top 5 posts. I'll drink to that news. Instead, readers this week were fascinated by a D.C. Department of Health inspector's report on Breadline, which found 19 separate violations of the food code. [...]

Urban Bar-B-Que: Still not a consistent winner. There must have been a hundred different reasons why I decided to include or pass over a restaurant for this year's Dining Guide. I thought I'd give you a glimpse into a few of the restaurants that didn't make the cut and why: Comet Ping-Pong and Buck's Fishing and Camping: Carole Greenwood's [...]

The Washington Post's Tom Sietsema reports that Carole Greenwood, co-owner/chef of Chevy Chase touchstones Buck's Fishing & Camping and Comet Ping Pong, is no longer involved with the establishments. According to Greenwood's former business partner James Alefantis, Griffin Market chef and co-owner Laura Bonino will replace Greenwood at Comet; Buck's will offer a dubious-sounding "summer [...]