Posts Tagged ‘Eric Ziebold’
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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A Cold Chill Coming from Sou’Wester
The Sou’Wester pork jowl BLT sounded too mouthwatering to pass up, even if we were way past tomato season, but at $7 per sandwich, I had to ask our waiter how large the lunch-time portion was. He indicated that the sammie was small, perhaps the size of my hand, and that depending on my appetite, I might need a side or two to supplement it. I appreciated his frankness.
Turns out that size wasn’t a problem. Flavor was. Texture was. Presentation was. If you had sat that sandwich on a table, without informing me of its place of origin, I would have thought it came from Potbelly or Cosi or maybe even a government cafeteria, not a Mandarin Oriental restaurant under the watchful eye of Eric Ziebold. (Well, I guess the fatty, gelatinous jowl meat immediately places the sandwich under the trendy nose-to-tail banner, and therefore renders it gourmet, but trust me, the meat alone couldn’t save this sucker.)
This Week’s Greatest Hits on the Young & Hungry Blog
Y&H is thrilled to report that Select 55 has been dethroned — by another beer, Guinness, which celebrated a birthday yesterday.
Let’s raise a glass to Select 55’s long run and to the new king of the Y&H blog.
This week’s most-read posts:
- Raise a Toast to Guinness’ 250th Anniversary
- Budweiser Launches Select 55, Light Beer Arms Race Gets Absurd
- Joe Englert Offers a REAL Tribute to the Dean of D.C. Liquor Lawyers
- Two Things Y&H Didn’t Expect to See at Sou’Wester’s Opening Party: Frank Ruta and Dancing
- Stand in Judgment of Georgetown Chefs!
Food News You Can Use: Michelle Obama Edition
The First Lady has been the topic of foodie chatter on two fronts this week — first for her stop at Gramercy Tavern on Thursday, followed shortly thereafter with the launch of the “Michelle Melt” at Good Stuff Eatery.
Let’s see what the media had to say on these and other urgent foodie matters:
- Eater has the pics and Obama Foodorama has the insider deets on Michelle Obama’s lunch at Gramercy.
- The AP has the story on Spike Mendelsohn’s healthy new “Michelle Melt,” which categorically did not include any assist from assistant White House chef Sam Kass.
- Michael Birchenall breaks the news that Yannick Cam will soon be back on the dining scene.
- Thrillist has the details on the opening date of Mark Furstenberg’s G Street Food.
- The Washingtonian has learned who will take over the Olives space.
- Yours truly had the news on Taylor Gourmet II’s pending opening.
- Y&H also covered the opening of Eric Ziebold’s latest, Sou’Wester.
Two Things Y&H Didn’t Expect to See at Sou’Wester’s Opening Party: Frank Ruta and Dancing
Ruta emerged from Palena’s kitchen, pictured with Maddy Beckwith
So how unique was last night’s opening reception for Sou’Wester? So unique that Frank Ruta showed up. In all the years Y&H has been covering the dining scene in D.C., I’ve never seen the semi-reclusive Palena chef and owner at an industry event. I barely recognized him out of his whites.
“This is only the second time I’ve been to one of these,” Ruta told Y&H.
“Only the second ever?” I asked Ruta, knowing his years on the scene.
“No, this is the second time this year,” he responded.
Ruta’s presence wasn’t the only unusual thing about this dual-themed party, which celebrated both the fifth anniversary of CityZen and the launch of Sou’Wester, the latest project from Eric Ziebold, chef of the City Paper’s reigning Best Restaurant. There was a tattooed DJ spinning rap and funk tunes in the CityZen dining room, one of the most formal spaces in town, where food stations had been set up to pass out samples of Sou’Wester’s menu. That’s right, people were dancing in the CityZen dining room (including Y&H, but it’s best not to think about that). The cognitive dissonance was palpable.
Mandarin’s South by Southwest Is Running Behind Schedule
When last we checked in with Eric Ziebold — to hear him defend the name of his latest project, South by Southwest, which is actually a restaurant, not an excuse to get drunk in Austin — the esteemed chef said the Southern-minded operation would open in early summer.
Scratch that.
During a phone conversation yesterday, Ziebold said that South by Southwest, which replaces Cafe MoZU at the Mandarin Oriental, wouldn’t open until September. The problem, Ziebold said, is that the original designer envisioned a “bold, bright” space. Unfortunately, that wasn’t Ziebold’s vision.
“We were looking to make a statement by not making a statement. You know what I mean?” Ziebold told Y&H. “I’m a less-is-more kind of person…It wasn’t going in that direction.”
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The Hard Realities of Commercial Bread Making
Silent Treatment: Loic Feillet knows how to take criticism
Loic Feillet is, without question, one of the area’s most skilled bakers. The owner of Panorama Baking Co. in Alexandria has, over the years, sold bread to some of the finest restaurants in the District, including both CityZen and Citronelle. But when Feillet took part in the Washington City Paper’s debut baguette competition, his entry finished far down the list.
Feillet’s loaf scored only 24 out of a possible 80 points, placing it eighth among the 12 competing breads. The baker, whom I asked to join our contest as a non-voting judge, remained mum as his fellow critics sliced and diced their way through the various baguettes. Some of the judges were not kind to Feillet’s bread.
“It looks really good,” said CityZen chef Eric Ziebold. “I was surprised. It did not taste good.” On his scorecard, Ziebold awarded the baguette only 10 out of a possible 20 points. Mark Furstenberg, founder of both Marvelous Market and Breadline, scored the bread slightly higher, giving Feillet 11.5 points, but his comments were coarser than Ziebold’s.
The crust, Furstenberg noted, was “old — should be better.” As for the crumb, or the interior of the bread, the baker wrote on his scorecard that it was “dense” and “badly done.”
It was only after all the breads were sampled and all the scores tallied that Feillet finally spoke in defense of his baguette.
What’s the Best Baguette in Town?
A number of experts spent part of the day at the City Paper offices this afternoon to figure that out. Y&H invited two of the heaviest hitters in the local bread-making business to turn a critical eye — and palate — on our area’s baguettes: Mark Furstenberg, the founder of both Marvelous Market and Breadline, and fellow baker, Loic Feillet, owner of Panorama Baking Co. in Alexandria.
To round out the panel, we also invited Eric Ziebold, chef at this year’s Best Restaurant, and esteemed cookbook author Joan Nathan. We even asked City Paper’s resident baker, Jule Banville (also known as our assistant managing editor), to provide more of the lay-editor’s perspective.
We’ll report our findings next week in Young & Hungry, but in the meantime, let’s jump start the debate: What do you consider the best baguette in town?
More pictures from today’s competition below the fold, courtesy of staff shooter, Darrow Montgomery.
This Week’s Greatest Hits on the Young & Hungry Blog
Thefts! Celebs! Confessions! Free food! C’mon, folks, let’s not be so damn predictable in our reading material! Frankly, this week, I’m taking small pleasure in the fact that none of top items contained a question as a headline. Y&H has a bad habit of overusing the question-as-headline gimmick. Oh, the shame…
Eric Ziebold Responds to Y&H’s Pot Shot at South by Southwest
Imagine Y&H’s surprise when, just two hours after posting this item, chef Eric Ziebold was on the phone defending the decision to rename Cafe MoZU and identify it by the restaurant’s location within the District.
Ziebold was not at all defensive. He even agreed with my basic premise: that MoZU’s new name, South by Southwest, said more about the hotel where the restaurant is housed than the cuisine itself, which presumably will funnel Eastern Shore flavors. But he wanted me to understand where he was coming from. His concept, as you might expect from the City Paper’s top toque, was pretty well thought out.
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