Posts Tagged ‘El Pollo Rico’
D.C. Dish Hall of Fame Leaderboard: Same As It Ever Was
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:
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Horace & Dickie’s Enters the Leaderboard in D.C. Hall of Fame Voting
Y&H has been promoting the pleasures of fried whiting for years. It’s truly one of the District’s under-appreciated plates, which is why I was happy to see the whiting at Horace & Dickie’s enter this week’s leaderboard for the D.C Dish Hall of Fame.
Granted, the dish still doesn’t have enough votes to enter the Hall. It needs to be among the top five to earn that honor. But regardless, I’m glad to see it get some love. Maybe you’d like to give it more affection? Vote here.
Speaking of which, the falafel sandwich at Amsterdam Falafelshop also made a strong move last week, adding nearly 30 votes to its total despite the owners’, ahem, questionable behavior at the Strathmore. I credit the uptick to a groundswell of vegan/vegetarian voters, who were no doubt spurred by some online petition. How do I know this?
Because Y&H received a number of e-mails like this one from avalon345:
“Not enough vegetarian/vegan choices! Looks like 1950s fare…”
Yeah, sure. Where were you eating palak chaat, pho, and Peruvian chicken in the ’50s, avalon345?
The current leaderboard after the jump:
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Fast Foods Take the Lead in D.C. Dish Hall of Fame Voting
Voting is just a couple of weeks old for the inaugural class of the D.C. Dish Hall of Fame, but already a pattern has emerged: Fast foods are dominating the competition.
That’s hardly surprising, of course. On a daily basis, you know that people order about 500 more half smokes at Ben’s Chili Bowl than, say, order Frank Ruta’s roast chicken at Palena Cafe. But just because the odds are stacked against your favorite dish, that’s no excuse to sit back and let the fast foods run away with this.
Start pressing your friends to vote for your favorite dish. The voting doesn’t end until Dec. 11, when we will induct the top 5 into Washington City Paper’s inaugural D.C. Dish Hall of Fame.
Take a look at the current leaders:
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Seeking Nominees for City Paper’s Inaugural D.C. Dish Hall of Fame
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:
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Pollo Wow!: Silly Name, Good Peruvian Chicken, Great Chicken Rice
El Pollo Rico’s bird, not to be confused with Pollo Wow!’s
The strip mall on New Hampshire Avenue, just south of University Boulevard, feels stuck in some parody of ’70s-era urban/suburban life. If you walk the full length of the strip, you won’t find a single Starbucks or T-Mobile or any other corporate storefront. Instead, you’ll stumble upon a wig shop, a “fabrics” outlet, and a liquor store that has the air of servicing emergency alcohol needs.
One storefront, however, sticks out. It’s the overly enthusiastic Peruvian chicken outlet named Pollo Wow! There’s a banner that hangs out front, saying “Best Charcoal Chicken in MD.” Or something like that. I didn’t have a note pad with me. What I do know about the place comes from Don Rockwell, who accidentally got caught in the middle of some sort of name infringement battle between El Pollo Rico and Pollo Wow!, which used to be called Pollo Rico (minus the article) before it adopted the gushing interjection. (Of marginal note, Pollo Wow! is still listed as Pollo Rico in the 411 directory.)
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Young & Hungry Dining Guide by the Day: El Pollo Rico
One by one, we’re running through the 50 restaurants that made the cut on this year’s Young & Hungry Dining Guide. If you have visited the day’s featured restaurant, let us know what you think. If you’re planning to visit for the first time, tell us about your meal when you return.
Last year, the husband-and-wife owners confessed to multiple federal crimes and agreed to forfeit millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains. But the Solano family’s notoriety hasn’t affected the popularity of their reopened Peruvian chicken outlet in Wheaton, where the charcoal-grilled birds, loaded down with salt, cumin, herbs, smoke, and God knows what else, are so good they’re criminal.
Addendum: Read my original defense for El Pollo Rico.
El Pollo Rico, 2517 University Blvd., Wheaton, Md., (301) 942-4419
Photo by Darrow Montgomery
Crisp & Juicy in Silver Spring: Birds in a Saltwater Bath
The owners of the small Crisp & Juicy chain are living the dream. They’ve taken a once foreign dish—seriously, who knew about Peruvian chicken 20 years ago?—and introduced it to Washingtonians in the most American of ways: via shopping malls like Westfield Wheaton and strip centers like the Blair Shops in Silver Spring. But if they’ve learned that expansion is the key to empire-building, they’ve also learned that mass success relies on appealing to the lowest common denominator, much like every other fast-food chain in this country.
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This Week’s Greatest Hits from the Young & Hungry Blog
Thanks to a Huffington Post mention, Mike DeBonis‘ item last week about Adrian Fenty and Michelle Obama lunching at Georgia Brown’s took the top honors this week. After DeBonis’ upset win, the Top 5 settled down into the usual Young & Hungry mix of posts, which apparently aren’t good enough for Huffington.
El Pollo Rico: Is It a Magnet Because It’s Good or Hyped?
The new El Pollo Rico in Wheaton looks as if it were actually designed for its intended purpose—selling those browned beauties pulled from the charcoal rotisserie. Unlike its previous location just a block or two away, this Pollo Rico spot is both stylish and functional.
The stylish elements—the upscale advertising posters, the French bistro paintings—don’t do a thing for me, unless they’re intended as irony (which would then tickle me no end). But I love the place’s new sense of functionality, beginning with the waiting line that’s actually inside the structure. No longer do you need to brave the elements to satisfy your urge for a to-go container of the joint’s namesake “delicious chicken.” But I also like where the owners placed the butcher board—right in front of your face at the counter, behind a protective window, where a woman pulls the charcoal birds from a holding unit and whacks away at them with a cleaver. The act is aggressive. It’s dramatic. It’s dinner and show at El Pollo Rico.
But as I’m proving with this very blog post, El Pollo Rico gets a lot of media attention; sometimes, of course, it’s not so flattering. But often it is, including Anthony Bourdain’s drive-by on his recent No Reservations episode on D.C. (Full disclosure: I gave Bourdain’s producer the tip for El Pollo Rico.)
Our region, however, is stuffed with pollo a la brasa. I want to know where you like to eat Peruvian chicken. After the jump, I’ve listed a number of spots that sell the stuff. Do me a solid and write some comments on your favorites. I have a sneaking suspicion that your words may end up in next week’s paper, if you catch my drift, and I think you do.
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This Week’s Greatest Hits from the Young & Hungry Blog
Here are the top 10 items this week on the Young & Hungry blog, as decided by you, the loyal readers.
1. More on Gillian Clark’s New Restaurant Ventures
2. Ray’s the Steaks Set to Move Soon…Or Not
3. El Pollo Rico Reopens in Wheaton
4. What Ris Lacoste Learned While Working at Friendly’s
5. Are Ethiopian Eateries Really Hurting Because of the New Cab Meters?
6. Woman Returns Nearly 100K Found at Cracker Barrel
7. WSJ: Chuck E. Cheese’s May Be the Most Dangerous Restaurant in Town
8. What Does a $19 ‘Mixed Grill’ Get You at Lebanese Taverna’s New Bethesda Spot?
