Michael Landrum has been getting some flak lately over his portobello mushroom caps. Landrum’s Arlington eatery, Ray’s the Steaks, offers a slew of entrées for diners to choose from, including 21 different plates of beef and four kinds of seafood dishes. But, if you happen to be vegetarian, the ’shrooms, marinated in balsamic vinegar, grilled [...]
Ray's the Steaks at East River (ranked No. 39 on City Paper's list of D.C.'s 44 Most Powerful Restaurants) had raised hopes that a nice sit-down restaurant could actually survive in the culinary dead zone known as Ward 7. Is this trailblazing effort now in jeopardy? Pirate-flag-waving restaurateur Michael Landrum's no-frills steakhouse on Dix Street [...]
Dishes We Dug: Lobster reuben (pictured) at Scion; bone-in ribeye at Ray's The Steaks at East River; duck confit spring rolls at The Black Squirrel; asparagus with fried mortadella, pickled ramp coulis, and egg at Café Saint-Ex. Dishes We Didn't: Hot dog nuggets at Nathan's Famous. We should know better. Best Lack of Congressional Representation-Related [...]
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 [...]
Before it became base camp for an army of celebrity chefs, the District’s restaurant scene was ruled by steakhouses—big, gaudy ones where the size of your porterhouse determined your status. These were steakhouses for politicos, lobbyists, fundraisers, and influence peddlers, folks eating large on someone else’s nickel. With stints at Morton’s and the Capital Grille, [...]
The mayoral election may be a referendum on D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee and her role in transforming the school district, but I'd like to conduct a mini-referendum on her taste in food. According to a DCist interview that I'm just catching up with, the chancellor singled out these restaurants as her favorites: Well [...]
While reporting out this week's column on the 2011 Zagat guide, I talked to Michael Landrum, who's something of a student of the biennial survey. He surprised me early in our conversation when he said: Ray’s the Steaks never deserved to be a 27-rated restaurant, as much as I’d like to say this, but it [...]
Michael Landrum gobbles up more kitchen talent It didn't take Frank Morales long to land on his feet. Just weeks after parting ways with Jackie Greenbaum and her industrial go-go/modern American eatery, Jackie's in Silver Spring, Morales found a new gig. It's our lead item in this edition of Food News You Can Use: Michael Landrum [...]
The Five Guys burger in all its unfiltered glory We're down to the wire on the D.C. Dish Hall of Fame contest. You have only until Friday to cast your vote. As you likely know by now, the top five dishes will be part of the hall's inaugural class, with more plates to be inducted [...]
With only three weeks of voting left in the D.C. Dish Hall of Fame, the leaderboard remains virtually unchanged from last week's, save for a little jockeying at the bottom and 2Amys' suddenly move into a fourth-place tie with the falafel sandwich at Amsterdam. Remember, only the top five dishes will be part of the [...]
