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.)

Read More “A Cold Chill Coming from Sou’Wester” »

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.”

Read More “Mandarin’s South by Southwest Is Running Behind Schedule” »

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.

Read More “Eric Ziebold Responds to Y&H’s Pot Shot at South by Southwest” »

The Post’s Tom Sietsema broke the news yesterday that the Mandarin Oriental and chef Eric Ziebold will be transforming Cafe MoZU—the pan-Asian restaurant best known as the place everyone wanders into when looking for CityZen—into a more modestly priced outlet featuring Eastern Shore flavors.

CityZen’s second-in-command in the kitchen, Rachel Harriman, will be the chef de cuisine at the revamped MoZU, which will serve, according to Sietsema, “blue crab soup, chicken and dumplings, braised rabbit leg with grits and hush puppies with honey butter,” not to mention desserts like “carrot cake, strawberry shortcake, peach cobbler and grasshopper pie.”

Simply put, Y&H loves the idea of a white-tablecloth restaurant embracing local/regional flavors. We can only assume Maryland fried chicken will have a place on the menu, too.

What Y&H doesn’t love?

Read More “South by Southwest at the Mandarin: Love the Idea, Hate the Name” »

This is sort of like reporting that, new flash, no one was killed today in Congress, but I figured my wife, Carrie, can’t be the only person who heard this item on WAMU this morning. She called to tell me there was a fire at the Mandarin Oriental, which houses one of the city’s finest restaurants, CityZen, home to James Beard-award winning chef, Eric Ziebold.

Read More “False Alarm: No Fire at Mandarin Oriental Hotel” »