Coming Soon:

• People's Bao, a bao food truck will be hitting the streets sometime around February, serving up Asian specialty steamed buns with a variety of fillings. (Metrocurean)
• Three-level neighborhood bistro Smith Commons, which will feature a globally inspired menu, is scheduled to open on Tuesday at 1245 H St. NE. (Y&H)
• Tim Carman got the scoop on Gillian Clark's grand plans for a new Colorado Kitchen near Union Station. (WaPo)
• Big things are happening in Crystal City. Only a few days short of the grand opening of its first Buffalo Wild Wings, Fairfax-based Paisano's Pizza has also announced it will be adding a location at Market Square at Potomac Yard. (ARLnow)
• Crystal City isn't the only place getting a new pizza joint: Angelico's Pizza is on its way to 1421 H St. NE. (Prince of Petworth)
• And the next NYC restaurant heading to D.C. is...Hill Country BBQ! A Penn Quarter location at 406 7th St. NW is slated to open in March and will feature all sorts of barbecued goodness. (PQ Living)
• After nearly three years of speculation, multiple sources are claiming that U.K.-based noodle shop Wagamama may finally be on the path to opening in Chinatown sometime next year. (DCist)
• The D.C. Alcoholic Beverage Control Board has granted the Dupont location of Hank's Oyster Bar permission to expand into its neighboring retail space at 1622 Q St. NW. (Borderstan)

Openings:

• The Big Cheese truck
• Tegeste in Columbia Heights
• Pho DC in Chinatown
• Yola in Dupont Circle

Photo of some nice looking Xiaolong bao from Shanghai by Flickr user Gary Soup using an Attribution 2.0 Generic Creative Commons license

Photo of a grilled cheese sandwich by Flickr user pirateyjoe via a Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic Creative Commons license

This afternoon, Y&H and online producer Emily Kaiser, with video camera in tow, took a tour of Carmine's, the 20,000-square-foot, family-style Italian-American operation set to open on Tuesday in Penn Quarter. Well, perhaps on Tuesday. It could open the following Tuesday, August 10, or even the Tuesday after that, August 17.

But rest assured, it will be a Tuesday very soon. The New York City-based chain is a little superstitious about its opening dates. It always has to be a Tuesday. Whenever it opens, Kaiser will have a has video ready to give you a glimpse of what the chain is calling "the largest restaurant in Washington D.C."

Now, I'd hate to get persnickety here, but in terms of sheer square footage, it appears Carmine's still takes a backseat to the Clyde's of Gallery Place, which claims to cover 23,000 square feet of prime real estate along 7th Street NW. But in terms of seating capacity, Carmine's appears to win the battle for the biggest with nearly 700 seats, compared to 537 at Clyde's.

UPDATE: Check out our tour recap:

Frankly, Y&H is not into these who's-bigger contests, which smacks too much of high school locker rooms. Wherever it ranks among D.C.'s mega-dining palaces, Carmine's is huge, with nine private dining rooms and a spacious, slightly sunken kitchen designed to prepare massive amounts of pasta and chicken parm.

Now get this: Carmine's parent, the Alicart Restaurant Group, is not done with D.C. yet. CEO Jeffrey Bank told Y&H today that the group has been talking with landlords about bringing Alicart's Virgil's Real Barbecue to downtown D.C. Bank has looked at the space for the long-promised Wagamama, located across 7th Street NW from Carmine's, which the UK-based noodle chain is apparently trying to sub-lease.

Bank didn't think the Wagamama space would be ideal for Virgil's, but he has another downtown space in mind for the smokehouse. No deal has been signed however. The CEO does think the Wagamama space may be good for Alicart's other concept, the New York Jewish deli known as Artie's, named after the late founder of Carmine's, Artie Cutler.

It would seem that D.C. is poised to see a lot more of Alicart's restaurants in the near future.

Domino's Pizza: Perhaps doesn't suck as hard as it used to?

The snowmageddon has laid waste to most of our weekend plans here at Y&H Central, which is a pisser. Maybe Carrie and I will, instead, take part in the urban adventure offered by a few restaurants and bars, which are planning to ride the storm out. Or maybe we'll just hibernate with our nuclear winter's worth of pantry provisions.

With all the snow, of course, it'll be a good time to catch up on your Y&H reading. Here's a start. The most popular posts from the week:

1. Is the New and Improved Domino's Pizza Any Good? (*)
2. Food News You Can Use: Wine and Wagamama Edition
3. If You Must Buy Enough Supplies for a Stand Down with ATF Agents, Go to Target
4. Chili Reception: Where Do You Go for a Good (Non-Ben's) Bowl?
5. Cupcake Craze Hits NoVa: Alexandria and Clarendon Shops Open
   

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

Dean Gold is giving it away...for Haitian relief

It's time for some housekeeping here at Y&H Central. Lots of news has passed through our inbox and computer screen. Here are the highlights:

• Following a slammed Restaurant Week, Hook and chef Jonathan Seningen parted ways; yesterday the Georgetown seafood emporium announced a replacement, former Blue Duck Tavern chef de cuisine, Mark Hellyar (via Top Shelf).
• Dino in Cleveland Park is setting aside Monday nights in February for Haitian earthquake relief. Owner Dean Gold is donating 10 percent of his Monday night sales to several charities.

• The International Wine and Food Festival takes place on Feb. 11-14, and Metrocurean is giving away a pair of tickets to Sunday's Grand Tasting.
• CakeLove has soured on Charm City (via Washington Business Journal).
• The new Hush underground supper club has an Indian accent (via Thrillist) — not to be confused with the old Hush supper club, which did not.
• The Pupatella Neapolitan Pizza Cart is heading indoors this spring.
• Chef Gerard Pangaud starts his military career (via Tom Sietsema)
• Two new cupcakes shops open in NoVa.
• J.D. Salinger and all things food (via Diner's Journal).
• Rumors are circulating that Wagamama won't be opening in Penn Quarter after all (via Don Rockwell)
• A.M. Wine Shoppe finally opens, nearly two months later than expected.

It's long been a truism that if you wanted good (or even decent) pho or ramen or soba soups, you had to drive to the 'burbs, whether Falls Church or Rockville, to get your fill. But there's been encouraging news lately for Washingtonians who want to stay closer to home for noodle soups.

First up is Saigon Bistro, an inviting Vietnamese shop that recently opened in the old Fractured Prune spot on P Street NW off Dupont Circle.  According to the restaurant's Web site, it is owned by "Luna Howard, a native Washingtonian and entrepreneur, and her relatives, who recently emigrated to the U.S. after running an exquisite Vietnamese gourmet restaurant in their native homeland." Aside from the usual Vietnamese options, Saigon is serving up not only pho but also hu tieu and mi soups.

Next on the horizon appears to be Pho 14, a Vietnamese noodle shop on Park Road NW in Columbia Heights. But now comes the word, via the Washington Business Journal, that London-based Wagamama will open one of its pan-Asian noodle shops in the former Olsson's Books & Records location on Seventh Street NW in Penn Quarter. Wagamama is aiming for a 2010 opening.

Don't know about you, but I'm ready to start slurpin'.