Scratch that.

During a phone conversation yesterday, Ziebold said that South by Southwest, which replaces Cafe MoZU at the Mandarin Oriental, wouldn't open until September. The problem, Ziebold said, is that the original designer envisioned a "bold, bright" space. Unfortunately, that wasn't Ziebold's vision.

"We were looking to make a statement by not making a statement. You know what I mean?" Ziebold told Y&H. "I'm a less-is-more kind of person...It wasn't going in that direction."

But it took the SXSW team six weeks to pull the plug on the first designer, Ziebold said. The new designer, based in Los Angeles, is working out far better, helping put together a space that doesn't feel so designed, the chef added.

Still, the new designers have run into delays, too, whether learning that the curtain fabric they originally wanted was no longer in production or trying to design custom-made china for South by Southwest. The china maker is apparently based in Colombia, Ziebold said. "So the process of getting samples is not exactly efficient," he deadpans.

Photo courtesy of the Mandarin Oriental

Thefts! Celebs! Confessions! Free food! C'mon, folks, let's not be so damn predictable in our reading material! Frankly, this week, I'm taking small pleasure in the fact that none of top items contained a question as a headline. Y&H has a bad habit of overusing the question-as-headline gimmick. Oh, the shame...

1. Credit Card Theft a Common Occurence in Restaurants
2. U.S. News' Bedard Lists the Top 10 Restaurants to Spot Celebs
3. Best of D.C.: A Confession About Best New Restaurant
4. Joking Aside, Free Sandwiches Tomorrow at Pollo Campero
5. Eric Ziebold Responds to Y&H's Pot Shot at South by Southwest

Ziebold was not at all defensive. He even agreed with my basic premise: that MoZU's new name, South by Southwest, said more about the hotel where the restaurant is housed than the cuisine itself, which presumably will funnel Eastern Shore flavors. But he wanted me to understand where he was coming from. His concept, as you might expect from the City Paper's top toque, was pretty well thought out.

If you walk outside the hotel, he says, and into the D.C. neighborhood that is SW, you start to get a sense the slower pace that once marked this sleepy Southern town. You might feel it down at the Maine Avenue Fish Market, where folks still haggle over the price of rockfish, or along the Tidal Basin, where you can still take a leisurely walk.

South by Southwest will capture, in part, "this mindset of Southern hospitality and Southern ease and comfort, but in Southwest Washington," Ziebold says.

Photo courtesy of Mandarin Oriental

CityZen's second-in-command in the kitchen, Rachel Harriman, will be the chef de cuisine at the revamped MoZU, which will serve, according to Sietsema, "blue crab soup, chicken and dumplings, braised rabbit leg with grits and hush puppies with honey butter," not to mention desserts like "carrot cake, strawberry shortcake, peach cobbler and grasshopper pie."

Simply put, Y&H loves the idea of a white-tablecloth restaurant embracing local/regional flavors. We can only assume Maryland fried chicken will have a place on the menu, too.

What Y&H doesn't love?

The name of the place: South by Southwest, a reference to the hotel's location in the District. I'm sorry but it's a terrible name for a restaurant looking to funnel the Eastern Shore. It's more about the hotel than about the cuisine. South by Southwest doesn't make me think of the Chesapeake. It makes me think of overzealous indie bands trying to impress a bunch of asshole A&R reps....oh, and puke in the middle of Sixth Street in Austin.

It's not too late, folks. Give us a better name! The restaurant is not expected to relaunch until early this summer.

Photo courtesy of Mandarin Oriental