By his own estimate, Don Rockwell eats approximately 700 restaurant meals a year, spending nearly $30,000 of his modest computer consultant’s salary at high and low-end establishments alike. Rockwell reviews many of those meals in minute detail on his eponymous food board, which he founded in 2005 and which has become a prime local destination for chefs, sommeliers, restaurateurs, and diners, many of whom engage with DonRockwell.com on a weekly or daily basis.

Between his prodigious eating habits and his online gastronomic gathering place, Rockwell has accumulated a lot of knowledge about the local dining scene—and the people and organizations that comprise it. He knows, for example, that many of the folks who have waited on him and cooked for him lack health insurance. He knows the frustrations of restaurant owners who must battle the District’s bureaucracy to even open for business. And he especially knows about their frustrations with the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington, the trade group established to promote and protect the hospitality industry’s interests.

One of those exasperated restaurateurs is Michael Landrum, the man behind Ray’s the Steaks, Ray’s the Classics, and Ray’s Hell Burger. His regular comments on Rockwell’s boards include this Oct. 28 salvo, fired the day after RAMW split with its parent organization, the National Restaurant Association: “They are a self-serving, parasitical organization where often-times the parasite has grown larger than its hosts. They are openly hostile to employee’s rights,” Landrum wrote. “One thing to be clear, they do not, do not, represent or work on behalf of independent restaurants, restaurant workers, farmers or chefs.”

In an interview, Landrum levels a few other charges. “RAMW is an organization that uses its substantial financial clout to enrich itself,” he tells me. What’s more, he adds, the organization’s “political agenda is hostile to what most people would consider the interests of the restaurant community as a whole.”

By that, Landrum means that RAMW’s lobbying hasn’t always represented the best interests of either restaurant workers or restaurant eaters. Fighting against a higher minimum wage, for instance, may please owners, but it undercuts the line cooks, bussers, and others employees who rely on those meager salaries. Likewise, RAMW’s efforts to exempt bartenders and wait staff from the District’s Accrued Sick and Safe Leave Act of 2008 took away basic rights from hundreds of workers. And RAMW efforts directed at battling food trucks, smoking bans, and menu labels have also tended to favor traditional brick-and-mortar owners over everyone from street vendors to diners who’d prefer clean restaurant air.

Rockwell doesn’t have answers for all of these issues, or even most of them, but does have a vision for the future of the local hospitality industry. He has tentatively started an organization, the Association of Independent Restaurants, which will attempt to harness the collective power of the area’s independent restaurants to assist both management and workers. Rockwell wants to offer discount group health insurance for line cooks, wait staff, bar backs, and everyone else who needs it. He wants to put quality ingredients in the hands of smaller restaurants by pooling their purchases and negotiating lower prices. He wants to help employees get work visas, and he wants to help restaurateurs negotiate the cumbersome process of establishing an eatery in the District and elsewhere.

Rockwell is still a long way from accomplishing these goals. At present, he doesn’t have an office, employees, a budget, or even a solid business plan. He just has a domain name (air-dc.com) and a desire. “I see a need that needs to be filled, and I want to fill it,” Rockwell says over lunch at Circle Bistro last week. “I view [AIR] as more a complementary thing than a takeover attempt” of RAMW.

What Rockwell does have, however, is the support from some influential people in the industry, like Landrum, chef Eric Ziebold of CityZen, and Cathal Armstrong at Restaurant Eve.

He also has his own frustrations with the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington to motivate him. Like the annual RAMMY awards, where it remains a mystery as to how or why a restaurant earns a win or gets nominated. Or the association’s bi-annual Restaurant Week, in which participating RAMW members offer three-course lunch and dinner menus for around $20 and $35 respectively. Rockwell, for one, thinks this is not a deal for anyone, unless they’re dining at one of the area’s few fine-dining palaces.

“I think the dining public is being absolutely duped by this,” he says. He’d like his organization to work with restaurants to offer discount menus year-around, perhaps at off hours or on slow week days.

Restaurant Week is sore spot for some restaurateurs, too. Not only do owners have to pay a fee to participate in Restaurant Week (typically $500) and offer meal discounts, but ever since RAMW started steering people to OpenTable to book reservations, restaurateurs must pay a $1 fee for each person who goes through the online service. The money adds up quickly, biting into whatever profit may be available during the week. Bob Kinkead, the Beard Award-winning chef and owner of Kinkead’s in Foggy Bottom, says his payments to OpenTable will usually double or triple to nearly $3,000 a month during the promotion, which often runs longer than a week.

Kinkead, like other restaurateurs I spoke with, has mixed feelings about RAMW. He’s a past board member who understands what RAMW does well and what it doesn’t. He believes the association does a good job of preventing governments from raiding the pocketbooks of local restaurateurs when budgets fall short. At the same time, Kinkead thinks RAMW didn’t fight hard enough to stop the city from raising parking meter fees and extending their hours into the evening, thereby hammering downtown eateries.

The interesting thing about Kinkead is that he’s no sideline critic. In the late 1990s, he and some fellow restaurateurs created the Council of Independent Restaurants of America, a nationwide organization designed to battle the major chains. At one point, CIRA had chapters in 17 cities, including the District, where its membership peaked at about 50 establishments.

CIRA’s ambitions were similar to those of Don Rockwell and his budding association. CIRA tried to establish health care coverage for the employees of its 100-plus restaurant members (it proved almost impossible to find a policy to cover workers in the various states, Kinkead says); it tried to create a central ordering system for restaurants so members could take advantage of group purchasing rates (some cities already had companies performing this function, Kinkead says; chefs in other cities sometimes couldn’t agree on what ingredients to purchase); and it even tried its hand at expediting to help owners negotiate the Byzantine bureaucracy necessary to get restaurants open (lawyers already have this market well covered).

In the end, Kinkead says, the local chapter of CIRA was undone by the kind of things that bring down most such organizations: a lack of funds and a chronic inability to reach consensus. CIRA remains alive in other areas, Kinkead says, mostly smaller towns where members are willing to put aside their own needs for the greater good of the chapter. The veteran restaurateur believes one factor will determine whether Rockwell succeeds with AIR: “If he’s extremely well funded, there’s not a reason why it shouldn’t work,” Kinkead says. “If not, don’t bother, buddy.”

But another industry insider expresses a separate worry about Rockwell’s budding venture: Should AIR get traction, assemble a healthy number of dues-paying members, and start offering insurance and group purchasing, it could step on the toes of some powerful interests. The hotel and restaurant workers union, not to mention the companies that already offer group buying, would not sit idly and watch AIR take over their markets. “In the beginning,” says the source, “I don’t think anybody’s going to pay very much attention because [AIR] is so small.” But should AIR grow, Rockwell needs to be prepared for battle.

At the same time, the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington will not be standing still, either. The group no doubt has heard about the situation in New York City, where a number of high-profile restaurateurs including Stephen Hanson and Keith McNally recently started the NYC Hospitality Coalition to serve as a complement to the local chapter of the New York State Restaurant Association. The question here, of course, is this: How long will it take before this “complementary” organization becomes an actual competitor, fighting for the limited number of dues-paying members and donors.

Lynne Breaux, a former restaurateur herself, is the president of the non-profit RAMW. As the leader of the association with more than 650 members in the District and Northern Virginia, Breaux oversees an organization that took in $1.26 million during fiscal 2009. Far from being a group that cares only for owners and management, Breaux says, RAMW also looks out for workers. The association has a lawyer available for members to help them secure work visas for employees. Earlier in its history, Breaux notes, RAMW also offered group health insurance for restaurant workers and is looking into the proposition again. “It’s down the road,” she says. (A RAMW board member who spoke on the condition of anonymity confirmed that the association had a “substantial conversation” last week about a group health plan for workers.)

But Breaux is clearly aware that RAMW has its detractors, whether Landrum and his belief that RAMW lives to enrich itself (Breaux, incidentally, earned about $161,000 last year as president) or restaurateurs who are frustrated by the economics of Restaurant Week (Breaux says the group is talking to OpenTable about lowering its rates). “Maybe you can’t please everybody all the time,” she says.

That may be a lesson Don Rockwell will learn when the Association of Independent Restaurants finally gets off the ground. Or will it get off the ground? Or will local restaurateurs and their employees be forced to live with the imperfect work of the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington? Michael Landrum has an opinion on this.

“I think there’s nothing that Don can’t accomplish once he sets his mind to it,” Landrum says.

Eatery tips? Food pursuits? Send suggestions to hungry@washingtoncitypaper.com. Or call (202) 650-6925.

Photos by Darrow Montgomery

Forget about D.C. Slices. This new truck, which can be found every Sunday at the Bethesda Central Farm Market on Elm Street, redefines the term "hot rod." Fired Up Pizzas is a mobile pie unit with a built-in wood-burning oven. Its creator, Dennis Friedman, has a seriously gourmet background, including stints at Citronelle, Daniel, and Kinkead's. Check out Friedman's story about auditioning for Daniel Boulud on Thanksgiving.

More food truck news after the jump.

• TBD reports that another food truck/cart has launched in MoCo: Chez Dikel, which can be found in Silver Spring on Colesville Road, apparently serves a fusion of French and Malian dishes, although the writer shares no specifics on dishes. Like the District Taco cart, Chez Dikel fled to the 'burbs while D.C. continues to battle over the vending regulations.
• Dangerously Delicious Pies, the Baltimore pie hole that opened a shop here earlier this year, is looking to take its act on the road. By the look of DDP's Facebook page, the operation already has a vehicle wrapped and apparently ready to roll.
• Finally, Y&H received word through backdoor channels — as in the operation started "following" me on Twitter — that The Big Cheese will be hitting our streets soon. At first blush, DCRA had not yet heard about said Big Cheese. More as we know it.

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:

• Lobster burger at Central
• Half smoke with chili at Ben's Chili Bowl
• Fried whiting at Horace & Dickie's
• Foie-gras lollipops at minibar
• Parker House rolls at CityZen
• Irish BLT at Restaurant Eve
• Shrimp and grits at Vidalia
• Lobster roll at Kinkead's
• Green papaya salad at Four Sisters
• Margherita pizza at 2Amys
• Floating market noodle soup at Nava Thai
• Butter chicken at Heritage India
• Roasted bone marrow at Blue Duck Tavern
• Palak chaat at Rasika
• Roast chicken at El Pollo Rico
• Mac 'n' cheese at Oohhs & Aahhs
• Spare ribs at Mr. P's
• Pho at Pho 75
• Paella at Jaleo
• Hamburger at Five Guys
• Lingonberry linzertorte at Hook
• Salty oat cookie at Teaism
• Lobster "begula" pasta at Citronelle
• Spit roasted goat at Komi

It's a bit early to get too pump over this list, which was whittled down from more than 15,000 entries. At present, many of the categories boast 20 or more semi-finalists, but by March 23, each will be pared down to five. The winners will be honored on May 4 at the Lincoln Center in New York City.

With that said, D.C. was well represented among the semi-finalists. Young & Hungry sends out a hearty congratulations for those local chefs and restaurants that made the cut. They include:

OUTSTANDING RESTAURATEUR

Ashok Bajaj, The Oval Room, The Bombay Club, Ardeo, Bardeo, 701, and Rasika.

OUTSTANDING CHEF

José Andrés, Minibar

OUTSTANDING RESTAURANT

Kinkead’s

Vidalia

BEST NEW RESTAURANT

The Bazaar by José Andrés at SLS Hotel at Beverly Hills, Los Angeles

Cork

Volt

RISING STAR CHEF OF THE YEAR

Johnny Monis, Komi

OUTSTANDING WINE AND SPIRITS PROFESSIONAL

Todd Thrasher, Restaurant Eve

BEST CHEF: MID-ATLANTIC

Cathal Armstrong, Restaurant Eve

Anthony Chittum, Vermilion

Haidar Karoum, Proof

Peter Pastan, Obelisk

Tom Power, Corduroy

Vikram Sunderam, Rasika

Cindy Wolf, Charleston, Baltimore

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

If I may, allow me to boil down Yuki Noguchi's Morning Edition report today on how local restaurants are surviving this vicious economy: creating affordable prix-fixe menus, doing more with lesser ingredients, and, well, being Micheal Landrum.

For the life of me, I can't understand why NPR would choose to focus on only two restaurants, Ray's Hell Burgers and 1789 Restaurant. The former is owned and operated by Landrum, who, by sheer act of will, philosophy, and maybe lunacy, sells a 10-ounce steakhouse burger for $6.95, a feat that no one restaurateur in town can match. The latter is owned by the Clyde's Restaurant Group, which has far deeper pockets than your average neighborhood eatery looking to escape this economic quicksand.

First of all, the economy is not hitting casual, counter-service restaurants as hard as the upscale ones, so why focus on Ray's Hell Burgers to begin with? The hamburger, after all, is considered recession-proof. And if you want to understand how fine-dining places will ride out this storm, talk to owners of single restaurants, where their livelihood depends on survival. Talk to Tom Power at Corduroy. Talk to Bob Kinkead at Kinkead's (yes, he owns another place, but it's in Boston). Talk to Kaz Okochi at Kaz Sushi Bistro. You get the point.

I'm not saying anything about the stability of these restaurants, but I bet all three owners spend more than a few nights worrying over the economy—and what they will do to survive.

Photo by Charles Steck

Reports the Journal:

The Alcoholic Beverage Control Board of Annapolis on Wednesday granted Robert Kinkead a liquor license transfer for the waterfront City Dock property. The restaurant owner operates Kinkead’s, a Mobil four-star restaurant in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington.

The deal is contingent on obtaining financing in a credit-crunched market, Kinkead said in an interview.

“Banks are not lending much money,” he said. “It’s making it very difficult.”

Kinkead would take over two-thirds of Phillips’ 15,000-square-foot restaurant. The remaining, which includes outdoor seating, is under contract by the National Sailing Hall of Fame, which wants to use the space as a museum. The real estate is valued at $2.9 million, according to state property records.

The 180-seat restaurant would open in March at the earliest, Kinkead said. Kinkead came up with the name because that part of town was once called Hell Point.

Kinkead has reportedly been on the prowl for real estate for another restaurant ever since he closed Colvin Run Tavern in 2007. More as we know it.