Five months after a fire ravaged the joint, Tackle Box is back in business in Georgetown. The restaurant announced its somewhat delayed reopening on Tuesday via Twitter: "We are so glad to be back up and running in Georgetown!" The same blaze also took out adjacent sustainable seafood spot Hook, which proprietor Jonathan Umbel, who [...]

Well, that was fast. Earlier this morning, Graffiato's Mike Isabella brushed aside the rumor that he would be opening a new eatery inside the fire-ravaged former Hook restaurant in Georgetown. Now, mere hours later, he confirms that, yes, the whole thing is true: Bandolero will be the name of the place. Why deny the truth [...]

In town for the Metropolitan Cooking and Entertainment Show over the weekend, comely kitchen vixen Giada De Laurentiis dished up some tantalizing D.C. restaurant gossip, telling Endless Simmer's Russell Warnick: “Georgetown needs some better food gosh darn it, and I hear that [Graffiato's] Mike [Isabella]’s gonna open up a place there, a Spanish/Mexican food place. [...]

Grist magazine checks in with former Hook and Blue Ridge chef Barton Seaver for a little Q&A. Seaver is the author of a new cookbook, For Cod and Country, which is chock full of recipes for "alternatives to the obvious seafood choices that have become unsustainable for our ocean ecosystems." In the interview, Seaver plays [...]

The Baltimore Sun reports on a "new twist on the sustainable food movement"—local chefs serving snakeheads, the invasive fish species from Asia that is overtaking Chesapeake-area rivers. The Sun cites some of the biggest names in the D.C.-area food scene as taking part in the campaign, including Volt's Bryan Voltaggio ("Here's a fish you can [...]

Y&H just received an official statement from Jonathan Umbel, owner of Georgetown eateries Tackle Box and Hook, both damaged by fire on Wednesday: The cause of today's fire in Georgetown behind Hook and Tackle Box restaurants is yet to be determined. It is believed that the fire started outside of Hook in the loading dock, however [...]

D.C. Fire and EMS spokesperson Pete Piringer says Hook restaurant sustained "pretty significant" damage as a result of a two-alarm blaze at the Georgetown seafood joint on Wednesday afternoon, adding, "I’m sure they’ll be closed for a while." That description somewhat differs from an earlier account given by a rep for the restaurant, who downplayed [...]

WJLA-TV reports that firefighters have squelched a two-alarm fire at Hook restaurant in Georgetown: "There were no injures reported in the blaze, which was contained within about 15 minutes. The Tackle Box and Saloun, two nearby establishments, suffered water and smoke damage. M Street is shut down for about four blocks in the area." D.C. [...]

Damn, the things you miss when you're out videotaping large, chain-let restaurants that aren't quite as large as they think. On Friday, Bravo announced the 12 contestants for the debut season of Top Chef: Just Desserts, and among them are D.C.'s Heather Chittum, pastry chef for Pure Hospitality's two Georgetown properties, Hook and Tackle Box. [...]

I had been trying to reach Barton Seaver for weeks, hoping he might have something to say about his short time at Blue Ridge and about the Glover Park eatery's new focus on beer. But Seaver is a busy man, and we missed phone calls on several occasions. It was only late last week that [...]