Chef Rusty Holman, the chef at Eatonville My tablemate and I are sitting at a two-top by the large picture window at Eatonville, which provides a semi-comfortable, climate-controlled view of the parade of mini-skirts and flesh that walks up and down the bustling 14th Street NW corridor.  We're half way through our appetizers when the [...]

Washington City Paper food critic Tim Carman's piece "How Not to Hire a Chef" (5/22) has been selected for inclusion in Best Food Writing 2009. It is the second year in a row that Carman's work has been chosen for the anthology. Carman's piece examines, or maybe more precisely spatchcocks, local restaurateur Andy Shallal's Top [...]

Like beer? How about animals? Yes? Well, you're in luck. The annual "Brew at the Zoo" event at the National Zoo is scheduled for Thursday, August 20. Sponsored by Friends of the National Zoo (FONZ), the event will raise funds for the Zoo's education, sustainability, and conservation programs. Tickets are $35 for FONZ members; $50 [...]

Conry takes a break from his job interview to answer questions. As I noted in today's cover story on the Eatonville chef contest, Trent Conry was, without much question, the most accomplished toque among the nine finalists who competed for the $75,000-a-year gig at Andy Shallal's new Southern restaurant. And yet: The former executive chef [...]

What a week! We here at Y&H Central started it off with a bang — or more like the pop of a bottle top. We introduced the Lagerheads, who immediately chimed in with posts on Dogfish Head's new Sah'tea beer and D.C.'s ultimate suds map. But we also spent a good amount of energy chasing [...]

Eatonville Chef Search episode 1 from Electric Communications on Vimeo. Eatonville, restaurateur Andy Shallal's homage to Zora Neale Hurston, is scheduled to open in mid-May, says the founder of the mini-Busboys & Poets chain. But the Southern eatery on 14th Street NW will debut, Shallal adds, without the winner of the Eatonville chef competition, held [...]

Thanks to the Almighty Power known as Google, several oldies-but-goodies rose to the top of the hit parade this week. Of course, even the oldies took a backseat to a Power Larger Than Google: Old Ebbitt Grill. This week's faves, according to you, Y&H's readers: You'll Never Guess the No. 6 Restaurant in America in [...]

Last month, a law went into effect that officially adds the name "Langston Hughes Way" to the stretch of V Street between 13th and 14th streets NW. It's the part of V that bisects the original Busboys & Poets and the forthcoming Eatonville restaurant, so of course owner Andy Shallal had a hand in the [...]

A pre-saved Shallal chatting with Top Chef-er Carla Hall For those who thought the protracted chef competition for Andy Shallal's new Eatonville project was a sinful act of pride, you might be happy to learn that the Busboys & Poets owner was saved yesterday. Fittingly enough, Shallal's salvation came in Eatonville, Fla., the town for [...]

As if the Huffington Post hasn't already proved it, the evidence is clear on Y&H: Linking to other people's blogs serves my own insatiable need for adoring readers, or readers of any kind really. I don't know what my journalism profs would say about all this, but two out of the five top posts this [...]