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.

Before he was installed as chef at Teatro Goldoni, that once-fading K Street institution, Enzo Fargione was perhaps best known as a Roberto Donna acolyte. Isn’t it funny how things have changed? These days, chef Donna, once lord over a vast empire, has no working restaurant to his name, while Fargione leads a kitchen that’s cooking up the most inventive Italian dishes I’ve tasted around these parts since Fabio Trabocchi left McLean for the hollow promise of New York City.

Addendum: Read Young & Hungry’s full review of Teatro Goldoni.

 Teatro Goldoni, 1909 K St. NW, (202) 955-9494

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

When Michael Kosmides and Jose Garcia took control of Teatro Goldoni on K Street NW, the owners did something that few thought possible: They made the old power-alley, commedia dell’Arte haunt an actual player again on the restaurant scene. They did so by hiring former Roberto Donna acolyte, Enzo Fargione, who’s not only developed his own style of cooking in recent years, but has also quickly established himself as one of the top chefs in the District.

Kosmides and Garcia hope to strike gold again when they open another place, still unnamed, just a couple of blocks from Teatro Goldoni. According to a well-placed source who requested anonymity, the partners signed a lease on a space near 19th and I streets for a planned Mediterranean-style restaurant. The concept hasn’t been finalized yet, but it could include tapas and Neapolitan-style pizzas.

Read More “Teatro Goldoni Owners Plan to Open Mediterranean-Style Restaurant” »

I’m no Reliable Source, and the City Paper  is not exactly known for its celebrity gossip. But these are trying times, and the Young & Hungry blog could use the hits that will no doubt come his way once he types “Halle Berry” into the meta-tag field.

• Berry is supposed to be dining Monday night at Teatro Goldoni, as part of a private party at the K Street institution, now under the creative command of chef Enzo Fargione. According to Fargione, the party will also include the likes of Spike Lee, Ron Howard, and Susan Sarandon. But you autograph seekers should just cool your jets. All the celebs will be safely ensconced in private rooms, and there will be security at the front door. You could nurse a few drinks at the bar, and sample a few plates from Fargione’s dynamite bar menu, in hopes that you might still be there when the famous folks walk out the door. But that’s as close as you’re gonna get.
• NewsHour host Jim Lehrer and Joel L. Klein, chancellor of New York City’s public schools, will be dining at Ardeo on Inauguration Day, presumably separately. They’ll have a chance to sample the cooking of Alex McWilliams, a promising chef who took over the kitchen late last year.
• Washington Post Chairman Donald Graham is planning to eat at the Oval Room on the big day. Lucky him. Tony Conte, I think, is the most underrated chef in town.

Oh, and just to mess with the Google search engines: Halle Berry, Halle Berry, Halle Berry.

Image by Flickr user tostie14