It was an eventful week in local food. Kim O'Donnel went from losing her weekly cooking chat to launching another. Mark Slater got a new job, and Georgetown Wine and Spirits still can't drop any bomber bottles. Without further ado, the Top 5 posts... How Does Tom Sietsema Avoid Wolfing Down Useless Calories? Slater to [...]

The biggest news of the day has been the sommelier shuffle in which Mark Slater, the 12-year veteran at Citronelle, has left Michel Richard's venerable four-star restaurant in favor of Michael Landrum's populist meat emporium, Ray's the Steaks. Former 2941 sommelier Kathryn Morgan has taken over Slater's old job at Citronelle. Slater's move, of course, [...]

Just in time for March Madness, the latest issue of Every Day with Rachael Ray features an NCAA-esque bracket that pits the country's best steakhouses against each other, leading up to a final showdown between Grill 23 in Boston and Bern's in Tampa, Fla. Bern's ultimately takes the title, which is not so surprising. What's [...]

It's been a strange week for Young & Hungry. All you folks hiding behind computers seemed to prefer last week's postings over this week's. What's more, Mr. Y&H took one day off to follow the meandering ambitions of Joe Englert. So, with those disclaimers, here's the Top 5 of the week: I've Eaten Enough Shawarma [...]

Opening night at Ray's the Steaks' new location in the Navy League Building was not exactly The Towering Inferno, even if chef/owner Michael Landrum did describe last Tuesday's scene in '70s-era disaster movie terms. Well, it turns out that the so-called hood system failure, which caused heavy smoke to drift into the dining room, was [...]

We in the D.C. region are fortunate. Restaurants, ones that aren't afraid to pump serious money into their build-outs and staffing, are still opening in our area, despite the nasty economy. In the past week, three new places have been launched and one Arlington institution has moved into a swankier space. It's making my weekend [...]

That's at least what the mercurial Michael Landrum, owner of Ray's the Steaks, told readers last week when he guest hosted Grill Warren, food critic Warren Rojas' weekly chat for Northern Virginia magazine. Question from "Aldie": When is Ray's the Net going to be up and running? Any chance a seafood paella might make the [...]

Here are the top 10 items this week on the Young & Hungry blog, as decided by you, the loyal readers. 1. More on Gillian Clark's New Restaurant Ventures 2. Ray's the Steaks Set to Move Soon...Or Not 3. El Pollo Rico Reopens in Wheaton 4. What Ris Lacoste Learned While Working at Friendly's 5. [...]

Leave it to Michael Landrum, the socially conscious improprietor of Ray's the Steaks and Ray's the Classics, to regurgitate one of the Reagan Administration's more embarrassing, non-Iran/Contra moments. And he's done it right there on his condiments counter at Ray's Hell Burgers. The salty-dog toque even teased his meat-crazed followers with this taunt on DonRockwell.com: [...]

Michael Landrum gave me an impromptu tour today of the still-unfinished Ray's the Steaks in the Navy League Building at 2300 Wilson Blvd, just a few blocks west of the current location in Arlington. The space is enormous, nearly 5,000 square feet spread over three rooms, including a front section built to resemble the no-frills, [...]