For the first time in three weeks, the Rogue States trial didn't dominate blog traffic. Instead, y'all favored a mix of subjects, from Starbucks' plan to start selling alcohol to a four-star restaurant that lost its cache to the ongoing fascination with the sale of the Brickskeller.

Hmm, I'm thinking the ultimate traffic-generating blog item would look something like this: Starbucks buys the Brickskeller and transforms it into a four-star gastropub, complete with Chicago hot dogs and strippers. Lindsay Lohan is a regular — and drunk all the time.

I'll get to work on that. In the meantime...

1. Starbucks Goes for Bar Bucks by Selling Beer
2. Tap Lessons: Advice for the Brickskeller's New Owners
3. The Family Guise: Two New Italian Eateries Take Radically Different Approaches
4. Changing Tables: Chicago Dogs Headed to D.C.
5. How Did CityZen Go from Four Stars to No Show in WaPo's Dining Guide? Sietsema Explains.

Photo by Bill Roehl via Flickr/Creative Commons Attribution 2.0

This news has been reported in many other places, but Esquire finally posted the 20 Best New Restaurants feature online, where we can read what John Mariani had to say about Bibiana, Ashok Bajaj's sleek new Italian operation.

Bibiana is the lone representative from the District, and like last year's D.C. pick (and the two locals from the 2007 list), the eatery was/is handled by the same public relations team, which makes me think Mariani isn't doing much legwork in each city before making his selections. But at least this year's Washington representative hasn't generated the same controversy as Mariani's decision to pick Barton Seaver as chef of the year in 2009.

Interestingly enough, Bibiana didn't make Tom Sietsema's Dining Guide for 2010, nor mine (although I do really dig chef Nicholas Stefanelli's grilled sardines). Bibiana also couldn't fare any better than 99th place on the Washingtonian's Best 100 Restaurants list for 2010.

Nonetheless, Mariani marches ahead. Here's what he had to say about Bibiana:

There was a time when the idea of an Indian restaurateur opening a true Italian ristorante — in Washington, D. C., of all places — seemed about as likely as Stuart Smalley getting elected to the Senate. Even if that restaurateur were the great Ashok Bajaj, proprietor of power haunts the Oval Room and Rasika, one of America's finest Indian restaurants. But now we have Senator Al Franken, and — thanks to Bajaj's ambition, the wider availability of great Italian ingredients, and an ascendant chef named Nicholas Stefanelli — we have Bibiana. Stefanelli has worked at Galileo in D. C. and at Fiamma in New York, and his food has helped make Bibiana the best Italian restaurant to open in the capital in years, as true to tradition as it is stylish on its own. The secret to all good cooking is care, and that's what Stefanelli delivers, whether in the form of grilled Mediterranean sardines or cavatelli grano arso (burned grain) with fennel sausage, broccoli rabe, and chile. And the prices are fair, which allows the lobbyists to splurge a little on the highly splurgable wine list.

Y&H Nation, what do you think of the place?

Was it the David vs. Goliath storyline? Or the sheer absurdity of a nuisance trial based on that hot-grill perfume known as hamburger fumes? Or just that lawyers love reading about other lawyers in potentially precedent-setting cases?

Whatever the reason, thousands of you clicked on Y&H's Steptoe & Johnson vs. Rogue States coverage last week. It dominated everyone's attention. The case is supposed to wrap on Tuesday when D.C. Superior Court Judge John M. Mott issues his verdict.

In the meantime, your Top 5:

1. Law Firm Takes the Stand to Complain About Burger Fumes
2. Curbside Cookoff Starts Today at CityCenterDC
3. Trial Starts Today to Determine if Rogue States Burger Joint Is a 'Nuisance'
4. Law & Odor
5. Changing Tables: The Restaurants That Are Closing and Opening

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

Coffee from Northside Social

If you haven't noticed already, we at Y&H Central decided it would be a good idea to stop confusing readers. We will no longer have separate spots on the website for the Young & Hungry blog and the Young & Hungry column. From now on, you'll find everything you want under this banner.

For some reason, I was a little worried that long-time Y&H readers wouldn't follow the column to the blog. It would seem that I was worried for nothing. Thanks, as always, for reading us.

1. Above-Average Joes
2. Dave and Diane Alexander in Negotiations to Sell the Brickskeller
3. Adams Morgan Pizzeria and Lounge for Sale on Craigslist
4. District Taco Makes a Move to the Great Indoors
5. Tired of the Same Old Spots? Look for These Newbies (*)

* A certain light-drinking Budweiser beer was, once again, a popular item among readers, but we’ve stopped counting it.

As promised last week, online producer Emily Kaiser has put together a visual tour of the new, 20,000-square-foot Carmine's in Penn Quarter, the almost-but-not-quite largest restaurant in D.C.  Check out that industrial-sized pasta cooker!

It's not clear from this signage (or from the company's Web site) whether this promised pizzeria in Glover Park is part of the budding Angelico empire or not. My good liege over at Prince of Petworth wondered the same thing on Wednesday (with a much nicer photo, I must say).

I made a couple of calls yesterday and learned that the restaurant is part of the Angelico chain. It's supposed to open in two to four weeks. There are other Angelico locations throughout the metro area, too, including forthcoming ones on H Street NE and 12 Street NW.

I don't know if this is a good thing or not. Personally, I've never step foot inside an Angelico pizzeria. Are its pies any good? Chime in, Y&H Nation!

I don't know about you, but between the cold weather and the post-vacation stupor, your semi-friendly Y&H just hasn't been able to embrace the work-at-all-costs mentality yet. I'm feeling so, so unAmerican.

I have, however,  enjoyed mixing it up again on the blog, and you readers have been clicking in droves this week. I (and the publisher) appreciate that. Here's what you've been clicking on most:

1. The Restaurants Coming Soon to a Neighborhood Near You
2. The Taco Bell Drive-Thru Diet: You Don't Even Have to Lift Your Ass from the Car to Lose Weight! (*)
3. Critics of Iron Chef America, White House Edition, Wonder If the Fix Was In
4. The Whole Foods' Ground Beef Grind Clock
5. 2009: Looking Back at a Growing Beer City Part 2
   

* A certain light-drinking Budweiser beer was, once again, a popular item, but we’ve stopped counting it.

Here's the city-by-city breakdown of the other 49 spots:

• Chicago: Four restaurants
• New York City: Nine
• San Francisco: Eight
• Houston: Four
• Seattle: Seven

• Atlanta: One
• Atlantic City, N.J.: One
• Boston: One
• Cambridge, Mass.: One
• Dallas: One
• Glendale, Calif.: One
• Las Vegas: One
• Los Angeles: One (Gee, guess which one?)
• Miami: One
• Minneapolis: One
• Napa Valley: One
• New Orleans: One
• Oakland: One
• Peoria Heights, Ill.: One
• Philadelphia: One
• Portland, Ore.: One
• Raleigh, N.C.: One

Now, I'm still quite puzzled by the metro area's performance on this survey. Regardless of what you think about Founding Farmers — and Tom Sietsema doesn't think much — you have to wonder how T+L's editors overlooked far superior newbies in the area.

How, for instance, did Inox not make the list? Or Eventide? Or even Ray's Hell Burger, for chrissakes. That has to be one of the most celebrated burger joints in America.

Hey, Travel + Leisure, pick up a phone and call me next time. I'll be happy to point you in better directions.

Yesterday, I posted about construction at the old Bi-Rite building, up the road from Wonderland Ballroom on 11th Street in Columbia Heights. Today, I reached John Andrade, owner of the future lounge/restaurant Meridian Pint, which will move into the building “any fall now,” as he put it.

Without further adieu, more details about the space: Starting in late 2008, most of the old Bi-Rite building was demolished. Meridian Pint will occupy 6,000-square-feet (humongous) and be the building’s primary tenant, with a lounge in the newly, dug-out basement level, and a restaurant on the ground level. There will be offices on the second floor.

Andrade says he expects that the building’s owner will deliver his space within four to five months. At that point, he can begin the build-out, which will take another four to five months. In the meanwhile, he’ll hire a chef. A while back, he started interviewing people—but the process was ultimately paused as the landlord’s construction schedule changed (thanks to the usual city permitting hurdles, says Andrade).

“I definitely have several in mind, and several in line—it’s a little difficult to say ‘hey I want you to be my chef, I can’t employ you until next year,’ he says.

Bottom-line, if all goes according to plan, expect an opening “tail end of this year, beginning of next year,” says Andrade.

Image by Intangible Arts, Flickr Creative Commons

New restaurants are news.

Hate to say it, but here I go again: My most recent segment on Metro Connection was devoted to some of new restaurants that have opened in the D.C. region, including such rank newbies as Eventide, BRABO by Robert Wiedmaier, and Inox. When host David Furst and I recorded the segment, I hadn't yet visited any of the three aforementioned establishments, but as part of my ongoing Best of D.C. research, I recently ate at Inox, the sleek new crib from chef/owners Jon Mathieson and Jonathan Krinn.

Is it worthy of Best New Restaurant?

Maybe. I mean, I don't really want to tip my hand yet, but here's the thing about Inox:

At present, it isn't even close to what it will be in, say, six months or a year from now. Mathieson and Krinn, the former brain trust behind 2941, seem to be trying awfully hard to live up to the unrealistic hype that preceded Inox's opening. Their flavor combinations are often challenging—seared day-boat scallops with pickled green mango or pumpkin peirogi with black eyed peas—but they don't always gel into that expected moment of ecstasy. They make you think more often than they make your mouth water. If I'm going to have my paradigm shifted, I at least want to drool over it, like I do with the chefs' brilliant appetizer of butter-poached Maine lobster served with braised-short-rib ravioli.

Now, with that said, I love the ambition at Inox. I think it will serve Mathieson and Krinn well for years to come, long after the hype has died down and Inox has to compete, like the bitching chef at top, with all the other restaurants in the area without the benefit of media saturation coverage.

Image courtesy of Inox