Voting is just a couple of weeks old for the inaugural class of the D.C. Dish Hall of Fame, but already a pattern has emerged: Fast foods are dominating the competition.

That’s hardly surprising, of course. On a daily basis, you know that people order about 500 more half smokes at Ben’s Chili Bowl than, say, order Frank Ruta’s roast chicken at Palena Cafe. But just because the odds are stacked against your favorite dish, that’s no excuse to sit back and let the fast foods run away with this.

Start pressing your friends to vote for your favorite dish. The voting doesn’t end until Dec. 11, when we will induct the top 5 into Washington City Paper’s inaugural D.C. Dish Hall of Fame.

Take a look at the current leaders:

Read More “Fast Foods Take the Lead in D.C. Dish Hall of Fame Voting” »

 Michael Landrum, the man who put the meat into the Ray’s mini-empire, has never been shy about telling the world about the superiority of his beef.  The New York Times‘ investigation of the commercial ground-beef industry gave him another chance to do more of the same.

Landrum responded to three of the four questions posed by Y&H in the wake of the investigation. I asked Landrum — and BGR’s Mark Bucher before him — to try to alleviate public fears by explaining the differences between commercial ground beef and their ground beef.

Y&H: What was your overall impression of the Times‘ piece and what do you think it will mean for ground beef and burger sales in the future?

Landrum: Didn’t see the piece, so I can’t comment on question 1.  Read More “Michael Landrum Makes His Case for Gourmet Burgers in the Face of the Times’ Investigation” »

Y&H does some side work for Askmen.com, but this week he took a break and asked Michael Landrum to step in and recommend a few manly places for the site’s D.C. readership. Obviously, that was too humdrum a task for Landrum. He went ahead and wrote an essay about “how to be a man in a restaurant.” It involves tipping generously. Very generously.

Sample lines from Landrum:  “Tip to the point beyond fear and, like a roller coaster ride, be prepared for an experience more exhilarating and rewarding than you could have previously imagined or hoped for. Do not make the mistake of tipping what you think the person deserves; instead, tip based on the man you want to be — and you will be taken for that man. Remember, though, that the equation works both ways. There are many things that reveal the difference between a man and a punk — and being cheap will always make you a punk.”

You can imagine the shitstorm this has started over at Askmen.com. Let me quote just a few of the comments Landrum’s essay has generated:

Read More “Michael Landrum Pisses Off Askmen Readers with His Strategies on Tipping” »

In the September/October issue of Imbibe, the editors selected their 99 favorite beers in different categories, such as seasonals or beers to drink with a burger. In “Imbibe Vs. Beerspotter,” Y&H’s Beerspotter takes each list to task.

The editors of Imbibe write that their ideal burger beers “complement, rather than overwhelm” the flavors of their burger. I suppose that’s fine if you’re writing from Portland, Ore. — the dry, hoppy Victory Prima Pils does cut through unctuous beef fat like, um, a knife through unctuous beef fat. But in D.C., where our chain burgers are Five Guys and our boutique patties are presidential, we want our beers to punch their weight.

I want my burger juicy in the middle and charred on the outside, and I want a Stone Smoked Porter to go with it. Its bittersweet chocolate flavors give it a hefty body, while a dose of smoked malt puts grill marks on your pint glass. Nonsmokers should try Duck Rabbit Schwarzbier, a black lager that swaps the smoke for chewier flavors in the form of toasted coffee. Samuel Adams Black Lager would do in a pinch, too.
Read More “Imbibe Vs. Beerspotter: Beers to Drink With a Burger” »

This blog has gone to Hell, and readers are taking Select 55 with it. For Christ’s sake, people, can we get over this Budweiser post, which tops the list for the third straight week?

The most-read items for the week:

1. Budweiser Launches Select 55, Light Beer Arms Race Gets Absurd
2. Not So Fast: There’s No Deal for a Ray’s Hell Burger in Adams Morgan
3. No Hell Burger for Adams Morgan, but a Ray’s the Steaks for NE
4. Did Vidalia Use “Inferior” Ingredients During Restaurant Week?
5. Drool List: Pizzeria Paradiso at Dupont Circle
   

Adams Morgan may have to wait — as in forever — for a Ray’s Hell Burger, but Northeast D.C. will have to drum their fingers only ’til this fall for the debut of Ray’s the Steaks at East River, says owner Michael Landrum.

When WaPo first announced RTS@ER, it was known as Ray’s the Heat, but Landrum decided to change the name as a sort of official notice to the neighborhood, which restaurateurs have historically neglected like an ugly stepchild. The name-change, Landrum says, is “a signal to that community that they’re getting my A property.”

Read More “No Hell Burger for Adams Morgan, but a Ray’s the Steaks for NE” »

Beer and controversy, controversy and beer. They are the backbone of the Young & Hungry blog. Here’s what you’ve been reading this  week:

1. Budweiser Launches Select 55, Light Beer Arms Race Gets Absurd
2. WTF: Makoto Is Once Again the Top-Rated Restaurant in the Annual Zagat Guide
3. Not So Fast: There’s No Deal for a Ray’s Hell Burger in Adams Morgan
4. Birch & Barley Hires NYC Chef to Replace Frank Morales
5. Woes Continue for Cap City Diner’s Owners
   

In today’s Washington Business Journal, Jonathan O’Connell reports that Ray’s Hell Burger, the Oval Office’s first choice for ground beef patties, will open a branch in Adams Morgan this fall. This news was enough to ruin Y&H’s morning since I had spoken with owner Michael Landrum several weeks earlier about this very issue, and he denied any such plans.

So I got Landrum on the horn today to do some ’splainin’. Bottom line: He has no deal in place to open a Hell Burger in the former Ghana Cafe space at 2465 18th St. NW.

Read More “Not So Fast: There’s No Deal for a Ray’s Hell Burger in Adams Morgan” »

So Michelle Obama and the First Family’s defacto White House chef, Sam Kass, dined at Oyamel last week, and you know what? The local media didn’t Tweet their fingers to a pulp to report every last chip slathered with salsa that crossed the First Lady’s lips.

Eddie Gehman Kohan, the indefatigable blogger who covers all things Obama and food at (what else?) Obama Foodorama, thinks she knows why:

Read More “Have We Stopped Caring About the Obamas’ Restaurant Visits Already?” »

…Melissa Castro at the Washington Business Journal has dug up a juicy, mouth-watering, medium-rare bit of news (requires subscription to read full text) on Z-Burger, whose founder has been caught Tweeting about his chain under the names of Elevation Burger and Ray’s Hell Burger, two of Z’s major competitors.

I guess if you don’t have organic beef, steakhouse cuts, or some other selling point (“The president ate here!”), you can always turn to disinformation campaigns on Twitter. Reports Castro:

We all know what President Barack Obama’s burger runs did for the competitive burger market in Washington. But the burger wars actually started before that, when the founder of Z-Burger was caught Tweeting about his chain using fake online personas of two of his rivals, Elevation Burger and Ray’s Hell Burger.

Masquerading under the Elevation Burger persona on social networking site Twitter, the Z-Burger founder allegedly Tweeted: “I’m going to eat at Z-Burger for lunch today.” The public messages were discovered by an Elevation Burger vendor.

Read More “Z-Burger Founder Tweets Under Competitors’ Names; BGR to Compete in Burger Summit” »