After three months of searching and 10 different tastings, the ownership group of the forthcoming Sushi Rock has selected its opening chef for the Arlington restaurant, which will combine Japanese cuisine with delusions of pop-star grandeur. The Public Group has plucked Sonny Tena, a former sous chef at SEI in Penn Quarter. "Sonny is the [...]

With its Spinal Tap-like logo, Sushi Rock will share one other trait with the 1984 rockumentary: faux rawk-star glamor. The new concept from the folks behind Public Bar will mix Japanese cuisine with American rock 'n' roll in an environment that Tony Hudgins, a managing partner for Public Group, says will make diners feel like [...]

Maybe I should have seen this coming earlier. The signs were right in front of me. Mauricio Fraga-Rosenfeld, the founder and owner of Latin Concepts, and his wife, Nesrin, who actually runs the company, had already pulled the plug on Ceviche in Glover Park and sold their experiment in Peruvian-chifa cuisine in Arlington. But yesterday, [...]

Yaku will be history by January. The poor economy keeps putting the squeeze on local restaurants. The latest to shut their doors (or scheduled to shut their doors) include Vegetate in Shaw, the  CPK on Connecticut Avenue, Yaku in Arlington, D'Acqua on Pennsylvania Avenue, Savory Cafe in Takoma Park, and Enjera Eritrean Restaurant and Bar [...]

As if you needed any more proof that we're mired in a recession, just check out the top posts from this week: They're focused on good, old-fashioned drinkin'. Here's to better times, y'all... In the meantime, the most-read posts from the week: Women of Craft Beer: A Quick List (*) Paste Names Best 25 American [...]

Yaku to swim with the (raw) fishes We interrupt Y&H's Home Cooking Day to pass along this news: Yaku, the Latin Concept restaurant dedicated to chifa cuisine and other Peruvian specialties, will close in January and reopen as a rock 'n' roll/sushi establishment. Mauricio Fraga-Rosenfeld, founder of the Latin Concepts group of fashionable restaurant/lounges, tells [...]

Those with a good set of wheels and an iron stomach can hit not one, not two, but four food festivals this weekend. So why bother trying to sample them all? Well, because in one sweet weekend, you can get a fine overview of the area's eats. The Taste of Wheaton on Sunday is a [...]

Next week's Young & Hungry column takes a look at Peruvian chifa cuisine through the perspective of two different eateries: Yaku, the modern glass-house of a restaurant owned by Mauricio "Mr. Idea Man" Fraga-Rosenfeld of Latin Concepts, and Aroma, a strip-mall joint in Olney co-owned by Javier Angeles-Beron, Fraga-Rosenfeld's former executive chef. Their approaches are [...]

Yaku has changed addresses, but it hasn't moved. Allow me to explain. From the moment Maurico Fraga-Rosenfeld opened the sleek, Inca-chic restaurant—the eighth of his thumping, lounge-heavy establishments—Yaku was a hard place to find. Its address was officially listed as 2001 N. 15th St. in Arlington. But if you punched that address into your GPS [...]