Tonight: Chef Todd Gray and wife-partner Ellen Gray of Equinox and Watershed host the 11th annual Sugar & Champagne charity event at Muse inside the Corcoran Gallery of Art, featuring all sorts of goodies from about 50 area restaurants. If you don't already have tickets, you're out of luck. The swanky soiree (priced at $90 [...]
To say that the fate of new Georgetown eatery Unum hinged entirely on the outcome of U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer's 2010 election campaign is probably overstating things. But, sort of, anyway. At the time, chef Phillip Blane and wife Laura Schiller were shopping for restaurant spaces. Blane, a former sous chef at Todd Gray's Equinox, [...]
Tonight, the newly rebranded 2100 Prime (ex-Jockey Club) caters a splashy—and I mean, splashy!—opening reception for the Capital Wine Festival at the Fairfax Hotel. Sip on samples from two Virginia wineries, Leesburg's Tarara Vineyards and Middleburg's Boxwood Vineyards, and some 45 others. Admission is $65 per person, with buffet fare included. Across town, Belga Cafe [...]
Tonight, Todd Gray hosts his annual winter solstice dinner at Equinox, this time featuring the culinary stylings of new executive chef Karen Nicolas. On the menu: soft-poached duck egg, pan-roasted turbot, and juniper-brined venison.( More details here.) Elsewhere this weekend, the annual holiday "Snow Day" bar crawl kicks off in Dupont on Saturday (no actual [...]
Proof chef Haidar Karoum's lamb with spinach and coconut curry bested Watershed toque Todd Gray's potato latke with diced apple and ... well, something involving lamb. Honestly, it was pretty darn loud at last night's Capital Food Fight. I couldn't hear what Gray did with the lamb—and I was standing at the foot of the [...]
Short ribs and baby octopus may dominate many menus in the city, but that doesn't mean local chefs can't find love in an acorn squash. In our ongoing series, Chefs Veg Out, we'll prove D.C.’s chefs can play with more than just meat. Name: Karen Nicolas Title: Executive Chef Restaurant: Equinox Twitter: @EquinoxDC Cooking Since: It's [...]
"With Equinox and [chef/owner] Todd [Gray], he has so many regulars and high-profile government people that have been coming here since he opened 12 years ago and sometimes they just want you to cook for them. They don't want what's on the menu. There's a lot of catering to that here which, you know, I [...]
Arlington's Liberty Tavern is the latest D.C.-area eatery to get the Obama bump. Last Thursday, the president showed up to wine and dine some winning donors to his re-election campaign, noshing on tiny Chicago-style hot dogs and Portuguese-style swordfish. A rep for the restaurant tells Y&H that the contest is part of a series, titled [...]
Organizers of the annual Capital Food Fight have announced the contestants in this year's charity cook-off competition. And the gustatory gladiators are: Jeff Black of BlackSalt, Addie’s and Pearl Dive Oyster Palace; Todd Gray of Equinox, WaterShed, and Muse at the Corcoran; Haidar Karoum from Estadio and Proof and Brian McBride from Blue Duck Tavern. An impressive lineup [...]
Todd Gray is out $100. The acclaimed chef at Equinox took top honors as D.C.'s "Chef of the Year" last night at the 2011 Rammy awards gala at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Northwest D.C., an honor which apparently comes at a price. During his acceptance speech, Gray confessed to betting against himself and [...]
