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, had taken some time off to raise the couple's then-newborn son. Schiller, meanwhile, was working as the California Democrat's chief of staff. The climate toward Democratic incumbents wasn't exactly favorable back then and the fact that their first deal fell through was probably a good thing. "We thought it's probably not a good time to open a restaurant," Blane says. "If Barbara loses, then we're both out of work."

Boxer eventually won re-election. Her victory is Georgetown's gustatory gain. The couple's new restaurant, derived from the Latin phrase "E pluribus unum," opens tonight in the long-shuttered Mendocino space on M Street NW. (Eater DC has the opening menu here.) "The fact is, this is something that I have been planning and saving and building toward," Blane says. "[Boxer's re-election] may have affected the timing of it. But it wasn't going to affect whether or not we were going to do it."

The new 50-seat eatery won't be quite the wine-centric operation its predecessor was. "Wine will definitely be a big focus for us, but unlike Mendocino, we are also going to have a cocktail list," Blane says, "and we're going to have at least a dozen, probably 15, maybe even closer to 20 craft beers once we get going."

Nor will it be so California-centric, either. "We have a decent amount of California wine, but we also have some French, Spanish, Australian," Blane says. Virginia, too, he adds.

Maybe a more important difference: "Mendocino was a little bit more expensive....We're trying to be a little more approachable," says Blane, noting that entrees will range in the lower 20s.

Blane describes the fare as New American, a sort of catch-all of culinary influences. "To me, New American food is a compilation of and influenced by so many different cultures and cuisines," he says. "Both American culture—Southern influences, California influences, Texas influences, New England styles and flavors—and then certainly the global community, French, Italian, Latin American....We're trying to be reflective of that diversity in the food, in the wine and in the cocktails."

He points to a garam marsala-spiced lamb shank ($24), a Mediterranean-influenced roasted chicken breast with olives and dried fruit ($18) and a hanger steak served on crawfish grits ($24) as examples of this diverse range of cooking styles.

Above all else, Blane simply hopes his neighbors will find the place cozy. "We want this to be the go-to neighborhood restaurant in Georgetown," he says.

Unum, 2917 M St. NW, (202) 621-6959

Photo by Ashley Dejean

777 I St. NW (202) 742-8550

Photo courtesy of PS 7's

No one needs to tell you to visit Frank Ruta’s precision-cooking operation in Cleveland Park, whether his cafe or the more formal dining room in back, and I hesitated to include it on my list. The obviousness of the choice pains me to a degree. But making room for Palena gave me another chance to praise the chef I admire most in this town. Frank Ruta is to cooking and his culinary team what John Wooden was to college basketball and his ballplayers: disciplined, creative, kind, stern, smart, and always on top of his game. Ruta is a marvel of consistency. Every time I think his roast chicken won’t live up to my memory of it—its skin not crisp, its flesh somehow dry, its flavors lacking their customary depth—I’m happily proved wrong. I also marvel at how Ruta continues to produce such a high-quality tasting menu in his main dining room at a price well below those of some of his more PR-savvy competitors.

3529 Connecticut Ave. NW (202) 537-9250

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

Tony Conte

It wouldn’t have been hard to include every one of Ashok Bajaj’s seven restaurants on this list. Not that I would ever do that. I mean, I’ve never been very fond of ball hogs, if you’ll allow me to use such a crude metaphor in reference to one of the most refined restaurateurs in town. But the Oval Room continues to be Bajaj’s standout, and here’s why: chef Tony Conte. His mind seems to be orbiting alone in another sphere, far removed from the work of mere mortals with cutting boards and circulators. Let me tell you about one of Conte’s latest creations, a white-asparagus soup. No big deal, eh? Just one more chef squeezing seasonal ingredients for a spring menu? Well, yes and no. Conte’s soup isn’t just an expression of spring; it’s an experience. His delicate liquid conceals treasures of great rarity: miniature ravioli packed with explosive bursts of Meyer lemon, which shoot tart juice right through that creamy wall of white asparagus. It’s a bold dish in that there are moments of utter imbalance as those ravioli break open, but that imbalance is also its genius. The soup has an impudence that’s hard to find in the increasingly jaded gastronomic playground known as fine dining.

800 Connecticut Ave. NW (202) 463-8700

Photo courtesy of the Oval Room

Not that I was actively looking for it, but I finally found Eventide’s weakness: its brunch menu, into which chef Miles Vaden has injected a little whimsy and sophistication in an attempt to shake up that most predictable of services. The dish I’m thinking about specifically is the BPLT, the standard three-ingredient sandwich but with an added layer of starchy fried plantains. The bite is, by far, the driest, dullest thing that has ever passed my lips at Eventide. I point this out not to embarrass Vaden but to prove that even brilliant young chefs miss the mark on occasion. Fortunately, Vaden doesn’t miss it often at this Clarendon eatery, whose imaginative New American menus have helped turn a once conservative dining neighborhood into a culinary destination.

3165 N. Wilson Blvd., Arlington (703) 276-3165

UPDATED: 5:13 p.m. 8/9/2010

R.J. Cooper, the chef who won a James Beard award in 2007 while helming the Vidalia kitchen, has abruptly left the downtown restaurant. Cooper confirmed his departure this afternoon but declined to provide further details.

Cooper did say that he would try to resurrect his celebrated "24" tasting menu elsewhere while he prepares to open his own restaurant, Pigtails, a reference to his twin daughters and his love of pork products. He's close to signing a deal on a neighborhood location away from downtown.

The Detroit native has been at Vidalia since 2004, after working at New Heights and Toka Cafe. In a 2006 interview with StarChefs.com, Cooper said that he considered Vidalia and Bistro Bis owner Jeffrey Buben a mentor.

"Jeffrey Buben taught me about running a business, corporate structure, and keeping systems in place — things that make you successful," Cooper said.

Buben could not immediately be reached for comment.

During an interview I conducted late last year with Ris Lacoste, the fixture for a decade at 1789, the chef revealed some of the inspiration behind her new place, RIS, in the West End:

Bob Kinkead, my dearest friend and mentor, said, ‘Ris, you look for an underserved neighborhood, you know.’ He would always say, ‘Open a diner.’ I always wanted to open a diner…My working title of the project was Lacoste Fine Diner, and that’s what helped me create my concept. It just said what it was. You know: fine diner...

RIS is indeed a fascinating blend of chef-driven, seasonal New American dishes and chef-driven All American comfort food, the stuff that can be enjoyed year-'round. At RIS, you can order a $36 veal chop with gremolata sauce or a $10 cheeseburger with onion jam.

If you want to know the truth, though, I favored one side of RIS over the other. You can find out in this week's Young & Hungry column.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

Nothing has come easy for Todd and Ellen Gray since a fire gutted their kitchen at Equinox in December. The owners have been battling their insurance company, battling weather delays, and battling their own expectations on when they can get back to work.

The Grays figured they'd be back in business by March; they even took reservations from devoted Equinox  fans eager to taste Todd Gray's cooking again. "It's looking like April now," says Ellen Kassoff Gray, co-owner and GM, "if we're lucky."

The major issue has been the insurance company, which has been fighting the restaurateurs over "everything," Kassoff Gray says. The owners still have not received a settlement check from the carrier, forcing them to secure a bank line of credit or even asking for favors to begin reconstruction. The Grays only recently got the insurance company to start covering the tips of their best servers, so the employees wouldn't flee (which many of them haven't, based solely on loyalty).

 "The insurance has just been awful, awful, awful, awful," Kassoff Gray says.

Several people and practices have helped the Grays deal with the insurance company's "forensic adjusters," the  GM says. For starters, Kassoff Gray credits Equinox's bookkeeper, who has kept meticulous records. The insurance company has demanded invoices for everything. "Every single bottle of wine, every single plate," Kassoff Gray notes.

She also acknowledges the work of public adjusters, Goodman-Gable-Gould, which has been advocating for Equinox on all claims. "Even with them, it's been frustrating," Kassoff Gray says. "But I can't even imagine life without them."

Because the damages to Equinox were extensive, the owners are taking the opportunity to renovate the entire restaurant, just two years or so after sinking a bunch of cash into a previous renovation. Not only will the kitchen get a makeover, but so will the bar, the private dining room, and the main dining rooms. Demolition crews, working on credit at this point, have already stripped the place down to the walls, Kassoff Gray says.

Chef Gray has taken the opportunity to do a little stripping down of his own. His menu will have some new streamlined touches when Equinox reopens in the spring.

The chef is looking to create a section of small shareable plates, perhaps featuring his seasonal specialties like risotto fritters or asparagus tempura. He's also flirting with the idea of making his own dried pasta, but Gray's most dramatic addition could be a simply grilled or simply pan-roasted section, in which he takes his pristinely sourced proteins and plates them with little adornment, other than a drizzle of oil or a sprinkling of spices.

He wants, in other words, to find ways to better show off the meats and fish that he works so hard to acquire. It sounds like the kind of approach that only a well-seasoned chef would take, someone who's no longer trying to dazzle diners with 25 ingredients on a plate. Or as Gray says, "I don't have anything to prove anymore." 

But to create such a section, Gray has to take a leap that he has been loathe to take in the past: He has to source those spices and oils from foreign locales. The idea is to marry his superior local product with the best of the international spices and oils (while still maintaining, for lack of a better phrase, Equinox's greatest hits for diners still wanting those dishes).

It's really the only way to do such a simple approach, the chef says. Adds Kassoff-Gray: "Let's not pretend we can get amazing spices in Middleburg."

One by one, we’re running through the 50 restaurants that made the cut on this year’s Young & Hungry Dining Guide. If you have visited the day’s featured restaurant, let us know what you think. If you’re planning to visit for the first time, tell us about your meal when you return.

The dish was described on 2941’s prix-fixe lunch menu in the barest of terms: East Coast halibut, heirloom tomato, tomato gazpacho, basil salad. The early (out of?) season tomatoes did give me pause, but I ordered the entrée anyway. What chef Bertrand Chemel plated was something I never could have imagined: the halibut version of tomato and mozzarella salad. Let me explain: Chemel, former chef de cuisine at Café Boulud, prepared the halibut as medallions, which were laid atop slices of yellow tomatoes, then surrounded with the delicate gazpacho and topped with thin ribbons of asparagus, julienne red peppers, and other garnishes. The medallions were so fresh—and so moist and firm and white—that they took on an almost mozzarella-like quality when paired with the tomato preparations. Each garnish then added these precise little complementary flavors (a woodsy note here, a piquant one there) that only heightened the dish’s sense of freshness. I savored that lunch as if it were my last meal, seasonal tomatoes or not. This is the kind of creative cooking that Chemel has brought to 2941 since he arrived from New York, and he’s not the only master in the kitchen. Pastry chef Anthony Chavez turns out terrific seasonal desserts, while Patrick Deiss produces a wide line of in-house breads, some so good you’re tempted to gorge yourself on them before Chemel’s handiwork even arrives.

2941, 2941 Fairview Park Drive, Falls Church, (703) 270-1500

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

A professional, if not a genius, is someone who can who adapt to public criticism while still maintaining a sense of personal integrity. Chef Peter Smith is such a person. When diners found his opening day menu at PS 7’s too baffling to parse—a sort of build-your-own tasting menu, back when people still had money and thought they wanted to blow it on 10 courses—Smith quickly retreated and developed more approachable ways to showcase his talents. His latest menu, unveiled in late May, is without a doubt his best attempt yet to expand the dining experience without overwhelming anyone. The menu sports a section called “For the Table” that features sharable plates, from his signature petite hot dogs to his delicious flatbreads topped with duck confit and other juicy morsels. But the menu also disposes with the traditional appetizer course in favor of a two-pronged section of “Cool” and “Hot” bites, including scallop ceviche, “oxtail tots,” and foie-gras-studded braised short ribs in pastry. The beauty of this approach, of course, is that some of these bites are so enticing that you want to…well, build your own mini-tasting menu.

PS 7's, 777 I St. NW, (202) 742-8550