Last week, I raised the indelicate question of whether Nando's Peri-Peri had totally wimped out its concept for the suburban stroller and babyspit crowd in Silver Spring.

Yesterday, I got an official response from one Burton Heiss, managing director for the Nando's Restaurant Group based in D.C. Heiss decided to kill me with kindness:

I was delighted to see your blog about our newest restaurant in Silver Spring. Of course, the title immediately grabbed my attention. Actually, my reaction was eerily similar to your wife’s first visit…holding breath, whole body quake, etc.. Kidding aside, I can assure you that we have not “toned down” our sauce. We use the same recipe today as we did for your first “nose dripping” experience. As well, our sauces are made centrally and thus all the locations use the same sauce.

I would like to personally apologize for your disappointment and annoyance. I am at a loss to explain the lack of spice you recently experienced. We have checked with the restaurant management, looked for other comments or complaints and tasted a whole lot of sauce. Yet, I have no explanation. The best I can suggest, is that you give us a second chance to “enflame” your palette [sic] and would like to invite you and your wife to dine with us again. When you have a moment, drop me your address and I will send a voucher.

Thank you for the feedback and the publicity. Again, I am sorry we didn’t deliver on your last visit. We strive daily to deliver an exceptional guest experience…with plenty of “heat.”

Best,

Burton Heiss | Managing Director

Incidentally, I declined the voucher, thanked Heiss for his generous response, and told him that I would give Nando's another try soon.

Based on my mouth-watering experiences at the Nando's Peri-Peri in Chinatown — and I mean that literally, since the African pepper-laced peri-peri sauce caused pools of saliva to form at the base of my tongue — I went easy on myself at the new Nando's in Silver Spring. I ordered a quarter chicken "medium," which according to Nando's lexicon, is considered a "tolerable heat."

Why the wussed-out order? Well, consider what I wrote back in August 2008 when my wife, Carrie, and I tried Nando's chicken "hot":

But Carrie’s hiccuping loudly—when, that is, she’s not plugging her nose and holding her breath, which just makes her whole body quake with the force of those seismic contractions. For my part, my nose has started to drip from the heat of my grilled chicken, a quarter section of breast and thigh meat slathered with peri-peri sauce. It’s not until I round us up a glass of water—and Carrie drinks the liquid through a napkin, my fool-proof way of curing the hiccups—that we can begin to evaluate our meals.

As much as I would have loved to recreate that experience, I chose not to. One bite into my medium chicken, however, and I'm begging for some heat treatment. I stride to the condiments counter and grab a bottle of the hot stuff in order to climb the Scoville scale. I pull off a hunk of grilled leg meat, gingerly dab it with the hot sauce, and brace for the blast. It never comes.

The most I feel is a small pinch of pepper heat on the back of my tongue. Disappointed, I pour a pool of the hot sauce on my plate and run my index finger through it for a direct contact high. It tastes mostly of vinegar. The blazing African bird's-eye chilis have been relegated to a small, almost indistinguishable note in the background — or perhaps booted completely from the peri-peri sauce in favor of a milder pepper.

Whatever the reason, I am annoyed. Has Nando's decided to tone it down for the suburban families of Silver Spring or, more conspiratorially, has the chain simply decided Americans aren't ready for the African pepper that defines this operation?

I'm curious about your recent experiences, Y&H Nation? Has Nando's heat dropped into the wimp zone?

Jackie Greenbaum, the restaurateur known for her eponymous industrial DayGlo eatery in Silver Spring, has signed a lease to open a casual Mexican restaurant in Columbia Heights. The tiny, 800-square-foot operation will be located at 3313 11th St., in a former liquor store, and will not only sell regional Mexican foods but also snacks inspired by the L.A. street food scene.

"We haven't decided how far we're going to go [with the menu]," Greenbaum told me this morning, "because of the kitchen limitations."

The kitchen, Greenbaum says, has only a fryer, four burners, and a flatop. In sheer size, it's comparable to the microscopic cooking space at Silver Spring's Quarry House, which Greenbaum bought several years ago and has transformed into a hip little watering hole.

Whatever ends up coming out of the kitchen, it will likely be conceived (if not executed by Jackie's chef Diana Davila, who has more than a passing history with Mexican food. The kitchen will also be running all day long; Greenbaum expects to serve breakfast, lunch, dinner, and, if she can get the blessing of the neighborhood, late-night snacks.

The dishes will all run under $15 a plate, Greenbaum says, and the bar program (yes there will be a full bar in the place!) will focus on designer margaritas and premium tequilas. There will also be a small line of craft beers available, all curated by Gordon Banks, Greenbaum's long-time Quarry House manager.

Banks will also be a partner in the new eatery, which will have an entirely different ownership structure than Greenbaum's other two places in Silver Spring. Greenbaum's long-time partner, Patrick Higgins, will not be part of the restaurant, which will be her first in D.C.

"We're still one big happy family up at Jackie's and the Quarry House," Greenbaum notes. "It's a matter of branching out into a small independent project with some of the same players. We view this sort of like an artist putting out a solo record, but still being part of the band...you know, like Buster Poindexter to the New York Dolls."

Greenbaum had been eyeballing Columbia Heights as a potential neighborhood for a new restaurant for awhile. She had even been approached by some of the major developers along 14th Street to put an eatery into one of the massive new condos there. But that's not her style. She likes funky. She like historic. She likes personality.

"You can't make a new place seem old," Greenbaum says.

Plus, with the addition of Greenbaum's still-unnamed restaurant, the 11th Street strip is beginning to take on the air of a gastronomic destination. The street already includes RedRocks Pizzeria, Meridian Pint, Room 11, and Wonderland Ballroom. Greenbaum's place will be more Room 11 in scope, with perhaps 40 seats inside, but she's hoping to build a rooftop deck on the structure, which would add an extra 40 to 50 seats.

Greenbaum hopes to have the place open early next year.

Photo courtesy of the building owner

6 Post Office Road, Silver Spring (301) 562-8787

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

Fire Station 1's Cuban sandwich: almost good

The early public reviews of Fire Station 1 Restaurant and Brewing Co. were disturbing enough to sound at least three alarms. By the time I walked into the new eatery carved out of Silver Spring's historic fire station, my confidence in the place was flatter than a deflated fire hose.

The interior of Fire Station 1 didn't inspire much more hope, either. The split-level dining room, its generic Chili's ambiance pumped up with a haphazard collection of firefighting accessories, looks like a chain waiting to happen.  The Fire Station 1 logo was emblazoned on every piece of glassware at our table.

The margherita pizza with the Marilyn Manson crust

The place offers a line of pizzas baked in a gas-powered oven. Per my usual pie-testing ritual, I ordered the margherita — and braced for the worst. What arrived at our table was this pizza with an explosion of fresh, uncooked basil on top, a promise of at least quality ingredients. The crust, however, looked like death warmed over. It was oddly pale, like Marilyn Manson circa Mechanical Animals.  Still, it had an airiness and a satisfying crackle, which served the round well. Was it a genuine Neapolitan margherita, like you can find a few doors down at Pacci's? Don't make me laugh, but it was superior to take-out pie. That, frankly, surpassed my expectations.

So did the Cuban, which, like the marghertia, does not strictly conform to tradition. The sandwich features pig way one — roast pork only, not roast pork paired with the usual slices of deli ham. The pickles are also more sweet than dill. Regardless, the Cuban went down well, its crunch loud enough to stir the pigeons along Georgia Avenue and its flavors deep enough to almost forgive its omissions. I'm this close to calling the sandwich good.

Which is more than I can say for the "Rockfish Imperial," a fillet of the Maryland state fish draped in crab imperial. The smell wafting from the plate made me wonder how long this poor specimen of the sea had been waiting for its moment in the spotlight. No amount of mayo-slathered crab meat could smother the off-flavors of the fillet. And that accompanying swirl of piped mashed potatoes? It had the consistency of grade-school paste.

Someone needed to call 911 on that dish.

Rockfish imperial: Someone call 911

Good morning, Y&H Nation. We're running behind today in more ways than one. Y&H is still neck-deep in this year's Young & Hungry Dining Guide, so the blog may be a little thin over the next couple of days. Work with us here, folks.

In the meantime, here are the most-popular items from last week:

1. Drinking the World Cup: Biergarten Haus Opens Friday (*)
2. Chef R.J. Cooper Leaves Vidalia
3. Roberto Donna Pleads Guilty to Felony Embezzlement in Arlington County
4. Fire Station 1 Restaurant and Brewing Co. Could Open on Friday
5. DC Finally Getting a German Beer Garden? The Lagerheads Share Their Outdoor Picks in the Meantime.

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

The mozzarella in corrozza at Sergio's

I realize that this may come across as self-serving — as in, gosh, you should trust Y&H over those folks on various community sites — but after I read these reviews on Yelp about Sergio’s Ristorante Italiano, my interest in and suspicions about the place swelled to equal proportions. A few sample comments about the Silver Spring institution:

• As a Silver Spring local, i feel like this place should be among the top places to eat in the DC area. Its true, the atmosphere is a bit lacking but the food really does make up for it. It is amazingly delicious and delectable and year after year, it does not disappoint. I look forward to visiting this great restaurant. Maybe because it is so hidden away, its still a true gem.

• Sergios is so good I hesitate to review it on Yelp...The crowd is a good mixture of longterm devoted local fans and random  walk ins from the hotel. They never advertise and they never seem to make anyone's "Best Of" list.  I think it's because the regulars don't brag about it for fear of it being overrun.
• While this place can only be described as traditional Italian food, it's too basic of a phrase to actually describe the flavors and meal itself.
• It's a great, small family-owned business.  The owner is from Italy, goes back every year, and brings back new inspiration!  The menu changes constantly and the chef is great with improvising if there is something in particular you like...It's probably the best italian food I've had in that area.. and better than many of the overpriced italian restaurants in dc.

There literally is not a single bad review on Yelp about Sergio's, which averages 4.5 stars based on 12 separate critiques. To the average Web surfer looking for a good Italian restaurant in the D.C. area, Sergio's would land near the top of the list. Its rating is better than those for Ristorante Tosca, Siroc, Bibiana, 2Amys, and many others. It shares the same rating as Obelisk.

On Friday night, I invited a well-known Italian chef, with more than 20 years experience in the kitchen, to join me at Sergio's to assess the restaurant's authenticity — or at least its resemblance to regional Italian cooking. I granted the chef anonymity in return for his honest opinions. I'll call him Claudio for the sake of this story.

Not long after we were ushered to our seats in the subterranean restaurant inside the Hilton on Colesville Road, Claudio told me, in no uncertain terms, that  Sergio's didn't feel Italian to him. I asked him what he meant. Claudio started talking about the smells and the music and the general aura of small family-owned restaurants back in Italy; Sergio's is aiming for that kind of easy, carefree vibe, but falls short with its dated, nondescript decor and its cheerless staff. Claudio says he didn't see anyone smile during our visit.

Things didn't get much better when we started reviewing the plastic-covered menus. They were written in both Italian and English or, as Claudio noted, the dishes were Italian "by name but not by execution."

We started with the mozzarella in corrozza, which Claudio tells me is a street food readily available in Naples and Apulia. A round of fresh mozzarella is typically concealed between slices of a good, hearty Italian loaf. The concoction is then dipped in milk and eggs and fried. An anchovy fillet, or half of one, is usually sandwiched inside the bite. It should be crunchy, airy, buttery, and pungent all at once. The version at Sergio's was as soft as a grilled cheese sandwich on Wonder Bread, and it tasted mostly of fryer oil, although we both liked the accompanying creamy anchovy sauce for dipping.

For our mains, we were thwarted on our first requests. Sergio's had exhausted most of its housemade pastas, including the fettuccine and tonnarelli. We settled for Sergio's ragu served on penne (instead of the advertised fettuccine) as well as its manicotti ai spinaci, in which house-made manicotti is stuffed with spinach and ricotta.

The manicotti was so overcooked that it had the texture of cream cheese. Even more troubling to Claudio, the manicotti was topped with a thin layer of provolone cheese, which has all the authenticity of Olive Garden. The penne was likewise overcooked, although it was properly salted and flavorful; the ragu itself was sparsely applied and watery, as if the cooks hadn't drained the pasta completely. For Claudio, the dish's main fault was its inability to tie its flavors together into a coherent whole.

As we sat there at the table, picking at our plates, we started talking about Sergio's reputation among diners and why they're so passionate about it. Claudio thought Sergio's modest prices factored into diners' assessments. He also noted how most of the people who commented on Sergio's were local to Silver Spring and perhaps long-time fans. The implication was that they are perhaps biased to the place.

As we finally left Sergio's and headed to our respective cars, I had to ask Claudio one final question: Was there anything authentic about our meals? He turned to me and said, straight-up, "There was nothing Italian about our meals."

While one Silver Spring restaurant gets ready to celebrate its launch, another takes a fall. After four years in business, Taste of Jerusalem recently closed.

UPDATED 5:25 P.M. Tuesday, May 18

The project has been in the works since early 2007, when the Washington Post first announced plans to turn the historic Fire Station No. 1 in Silver Spring into a brewpub co-owned by the town's own craft brewer, Hook & Ladder. Three years later, Fire Station 1 Restaurant and Brewing Co. is finally set to open on Friday — or next week at the latest.

Owner Jeremy Gruber, a retired Montgomery County Fire and Rescue captain who worked at the Silver Spring station early in his career, says he's just waiting for good weather to finish the roof. With the roof complete and the interior finished, Gruber hopes to have his certificate of occupancy by this week and an opening celebration on Friday.

Hook & Ladder even Red Brick Station (*) has a new beer ready for the debut: Fire Station 1's Daily Crisis, an IPA made just for the Silver Spring restaurant. The entire line of Hook & Ladder brews, of course, will be available, too, even though the Silver Spring brewer had to officially pull out of the project.

"They were involved in the beginning," says Gruber, who's an investor in Hook & Ladder. "It just didn't work out."

Hook & Ladder founder and brewmaster Rich Fleischer says the economy played a role in the brewery pulling out of the restaurant and brewpub. "It just didn't make sense for us to continue on the project," he says.

Gruber may be a first-time restaurateur, but he's surrounded himself with a "seasoned staff" of hospitality professionals. His chef, Chad Wisner, spent the past few years cooking for the Baltimore-based Erickson group, which develops and manages retirement communities. GM Michael Mountain and Wisner have been spending the last two weeks training staff for opening day, Gruber says, sometimes in the new Silver Spring fire station across the street.

Wisner's opening day menu is posted online, and its mostly all-American focus on steaks, sandwiches, wraps, and pizza has already drawn some shrugs from locals, who expected more. Gruber says the beer program will include 12 taps and 20 bottles and will venture beyond Hook & Ladder selections.  He plans to include Flying Dog, Magic Hat, Stella, Blue Moon, Sam Adams seasonal, and other options on draft; the bottle selection will mix familiar commercial lagers with offerings from Kona and Goose Island, among others. There will be no brewing on premise to start, but Gruber hasn't ruled that out in the future.

There have been numerous challenges in getting the two-story, 180-seat Fire Station 1 ready for opening day, Gruber says. Financing, of course, was difficult in this economic environment; so was the permitting process in Montgomery County. But Gruber also had to appease local historical preservationists who made sure renovations didn't alter the exterior of the building.

"They love what I did for it," Gruber says.

The interior, as you can see from this photo I snapped through a window, was still in disarray this weekend, but Gruber says it's not as bad as it looks. The place should be ready to roll in days.

* Fleischer called Y&H to say that Hook & Ladder does not produce the Daily Crisis IPA. I called Gruber back to clarify, and he said the beer is actually brewed by Red Brick Station, located just outside Baltimore. Gruber also took the opportunity to say that it looks like Fire Station 1 won't open until early next week.

This weekend while walking the streets of Chinatown, I ran into Tom Brown standing outside the Passenger. He was trying to absorb the last few rays of  sunshine before taking his turn behind the bar. We got to talking, and he mentioned the latest madness among bar drinkers: those who ask for a shot of Jameson chased by a shot of pickle juice.

It's known as the "pickleback," and it's become a hit in bars across the country.

I made a face.

Brown personally disdains the combination but, more problematic, the combo drains the juice from the pricey pickles that he and brother, Derek Brown, buy to accompany their sandwiches, like that wonderfully pungent link known as the kimchi hot dog. Tom has already made his feelings public about the Jameson/pickle juice combo.

He thinks the trend started in Philadelphia and trickled its way down to D.C.  (Though the New York Times credits a Brooklyn bar.) Now before you start dissing on our brothers and sisters up North, you might consider this: They may be onto something (though a little off-course).

When I stopped at the Sidebar last week to bid farewell to Tiffany Short, she told me about the latest trend among bartenders: concocting your own "shrub," which is a vinegar infused with fruit. Short had her own shrub right there at the bar.

On its own, the shrub is a big puckering wallop of sour, unfit for human consumption. I know: I sneaked a straw from the bar and tried it straight. But when mixed into the right cocktail, it can add an extra level of complexity to a drink, an added layer of sour underneath all the other flavors.

Short, for example, mixed me one of her latest creations: a drink made with Rittenhouse rye, egg whites, her homemade shrub, and ice. When shaken thoroughly and topped with a little soda, it made for a frothy, slightly spicy but mellow libation — with this excellent undercurrent of tang. If you're  a fan of sour margaritas prepared with a quart of fresh lime juice, you'd love this shrub-based cocktail. The puckerish properties are there, but in far better balance.

I'm working on Short to see if she'll share the recipe. More later.