I didn't get to Tallula in time to see Nathan Anda do some butchering. But the former Tallula chef, who's heading up the Neighborhood Restaurant Group's cured-meat initiative, Red Apron, had plenty to show me.

After six years working at the Subway in Cleveland Park (3520 Connecticut Ave. NW), you'd think manager Uma Mali would get sick of the airy bread, the pressed meats, the sliced cukes. But no. "I eat it every day. I never get tired of the sandwiches," she says. Today it was the veggie burger: "I [...]

Ruth Samuelson, in residence with personal chef Monica Thomas, keeps churning out little tidbits: *Don't buy any tomato larger than a grape before July. Right now, in fact, is the worst time of the year to be bothering with tomatoes. Grape tomatoes: The only variety that's good year-round. *Stay healthy. If you're cooking meat, or [...]

Phil Mendelson has been an at-large councilmember since 1998. Favorite Restaurant: American City Diner. LL pointed out this is a political pick; ACD owner Jeffrey Gildenhorn is active in local politics. Replied Mendo, "It's a diner! You don't have an appreciation for diners!" Power Lunch Locale: M&S Grill, at 13th and F. He gets the [...]

The Old Ebbitt Grill doesn't care much for hard-and-fast policies, which may seem strange for a restaurant located across the way from the White House and owned by the Clyde's Restaurant Group. When celebrities visit the city's oldest restaurant, for instance, the staff is not required by management to act all cool. Servers, bussers, bartenders, whoever can [...]

The cold prep team, which is sequestered in the basement at Old Ebbitt Grill, is bringing up clear plastic containers into the kitchen. Four of them are filled with these beautiful discs of freshly made crab cakes, more crab cakes than you've ever seen at one time in your life. By General Manager Kyle Gaffney's count, those containers hold [...]

Of all the burgundy-and-gold-themed restaurants and bars that have served us over the years Joe Theismann's remains the cock of the block. Good golly, there have been a bunch of these places. From the mid-1970s through the early 1990s, when even in off seasons George Allen and Joe Gibbs’ teams were in the playoff contention, [...]

Carrie S. Kohns is chief of staff to Mayor Adrian M. Fenty. She has been described to LL as a "definite foodie." So Hot Right Now: "Sei, on 7th Street. Love the fish-and-chips roll." Old Standby: "You can't go wrong with BLT [Steak]. That's an old standby. Delicious every time, great service—best steak in town, [...]

If you had to stand in a 3-foot-by-3-foot vending cart all day, pouring butter and cheese powder over popped corn five days a week, you'd hate it too. "It's like if you worked at McDonald's. Maybe you'd eat it for a week, but after that?...," says the owner and chef at Fresh Popcorn for All [...]