/staff/articles/tom+sietsema/2009-11-11T16:00:00Z2009-11-11T16:00:00Ztag:www.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-11:/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2009/11/04/DI2009110403411.html?nav=rss_liveonline

2009-11-08T05:00:00Ztag:feeds.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-08:/click.phdo?i=d8f7dbcdf4998d6a6962184a94af4266

X.O. Taste Seafood Restaurant 6124 Arlington Blvd., Falls Church 703-536-1630

2009-11-05T15:10:28Ztag:www.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-05:/wp-srv/community/groups/announcement.html?wpBlogId=Blog:b309abfb-0298-41a9-b75b-cfb85b455d1e&plckController=Blog&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3ab309abfb-0298-41a9-b75b-cfb85b455d1ePost%3ab0a9c8d3-da2f-4e71-8df8-5025787615eb

Restaurateur Bruce Buschel's list of do's and don'ts for job-seekers at his seafood restaurant created major online buzz recently, first at the NYT, but also just about everywhere else, including my Wednesday food chat. One of my favorite rules for waiter-hopefuls: "Do not interrupt a conversation. For any reason. Especially not to recite specials. Wait for the right moment." To which this diner says: Amen, brother! Which bit of advice would you love your waiter to follow?

2009-11-04T21:05:44Ztag:voices.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-04:/goingoutgurus/2009/11/leftover_halloween_eye_candy.html?wprss=goingoutgurus

One of Washington's most popular restaurateurs did his best to channel Julia Child October 31. We have no idea if he nailed her voice, but the get-up is mighty convincing. Any idea who's behind the apron and pearls? Guess away. -- Tom Sietsema

2009-11-04T19:46:06Ztag:voices.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-04:/goingoutgurus/2009/11/coming_to_dupont_kababji_grill.html?wprss=goingoutgurus

Kebab alert: The Beirut-based Kababji Grill is poised to open its first U.S. restaurant in the the District later this month. In a phone conversation this morning -- Starbucks my time, lunchtime there -- founder Toufic Khoueiri, who owns "around 30" similar establishments abroad, told me his next project will be at 1351 Connecticut Ave. NW (in the same building as Hello Cupcake). At least two more area restaurants are expected to follow next year. The focal point of the--0-seat dining room in Dupont will be a charcoal grill and a brick oven (Kababji is making its own pita bread for table service). On the menu: skewered beef and chicken, of course, but also vegetable dips, meat pies, semolina cake and two kinds of kebbeh, or steak tartare. One, flavored with mint, basil and onion, reflects the northern style; the other, spiked with chili pepper sauce, is preferred in south Lebanon. To prepare for launch, seven cooks spent seven weeks training in Beirut, which has one of the largest Kababji Grill locations. Khoueiri says the Dupont Circle spot will include carry-out, catering and delivery. Khoueiri, who founded the company 16 years ago, hopes to distinguish his product from the pack with lean staples and food that tastes like a Lebanese mother made it. His chicken skewers will be skinless breast meat, for instance, while his beef (chunk) kebabs will feature tenderloin. Kababji Grill is expected to open the last week of this month. Georgetown and the area around the Verizon Center are prospects for branches No. 2 and 3 in the city, says Khoueiri. -- Tom Sietsema

2009-11-04T16:00:00Ztag:www.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-04:/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2009/10/28/DI2009102802420.html?nav=rss_liveonline

2009-11-04T05:00:00Ztag:www.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-04:/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/03/AR2009110300508.html?nav=rss_artsandliving/foodanddining

Anthony Burrell switched more than neighborhoods when he left the British-themed CommonWealth Gastropub in Columbia Heights for the Latin-Asian hybrid Masa-- in Logan Circle this fall. For starters, his pantry at the new restaurant couldn't be more different. "Lemon grass, ginger, chilies. . . . I brought them all back into my life," says the chef, 34. After a year of focusing on Scotch eggs, fish and chips and London broil, he says, "I'm getting to do the food I like to cook."

2009-11-03T16:04:47Ztag:www.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-03:/wp-srv/community/groups/announcement.html?wpBlogId=Blog:b309abfb-0298-41a9-b75b-cfb85b455d1e&plckController=Blog&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3ab309abfb-0298-41a9-b75b-cfb85b455d1ePost%3a42110638-4e15-43f6-8df3-bba2f51fb169

Back in the mid-90s, I was a food critic working for Microsoft Corp. on a short-lived project that eventually came to be known as sidewalk.com. It was basically a one-stop-shop for viewer's entertainment and recreation needs, including restaurant reviews, in 10 U.S. cities. All the content producers were asked to dream big, and we did. We stocked every database with at least 1,000 original food reviews before launch, and put cameras on some of the top tables to give audiences the sense they were right there in the dining room. I loved that no one laughed when, in a meeting with the company's best and brightest techies, I asked if we could come up with a variation on scratch and sniff. The idea never came to pass, but given the company's vast resources, who knows if it might have succeeded had sidewalk.com lived past 1999? All of which is a long way to throw out a question I've been meaning to ask: What's your idea of the perfect restaurant review?

2009-11-02T23:00:14Ztag:voices.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-02:/goingoutgurus/2009/11/fresh_start_chef_hitzig_pops_u.html?wprss=goingoutgurus

Let go from Columbia Firehouse in September, just a month after he started, Orlando Hitzig tells me he's finally returned from "a long vacation I didn't want to take." Tonight marks the chef's kitchen debut at Crame Cafe in Washington. Unlike "the huge beast" he left in September, Crame Cafe, with fewer than 50 seats, is "a small restaurant," he says, so it's "more like coming home." He sees his job as making the U Street dining room more competitive and breathing fresh life into a restaurant that hasn't changed its menu since its launch in 2005. The owners have given him "wide berth to play," says Hitzig, who initially will be testing diners' interest in his food via nightly specials. Crame's signature shrimp and grits and pork and beans will stay on the American menu, however. When I asked this afternoon what he was whipping up for tonight, he laughed. "I have no clue," he said. " I just started 10 minutes ago." -- Tom Sietsema

2009-11-01T04:00:00Ztag:feeds.washingtonpost.com,2009-11-01:/click.phdo?i=0ff45490d2dbf2cdd43a590ebdfb9eb8

Roscoe's Neapolitan Pizzeria 7040 Carroll Ave., Takoma Park 301-920-0804 www.roscoespizzeria.com

2009-10-28T16:55:50Ztag:voices.washingtonpost.com,2009-10-28:/goingoutgurus/2009/10/washingtons_rock_creek_goes_private.html?wprss=goingoutgurus

Judy Hammerschmidt wants to make something clear: She's not shuttering Rock Creek at Mazza Gallerie. Over the weekend, however, she and her business partner quietly rebranded the health-minded Washington restaurant and turned it into a space for private functions only. The replacement, Events by Rock Creek, will continue the mission of its 2--year-old predecessor. Chef Corey Alexander is staying on, the restaurateur tells me, as is his food that's prepared without butter or sugar. The original Rock Creek restaurant, which opened in Bethesda in 2005, is "thriving," reports Hammerschmidt. As for the Washington venue, "we were making all our money on events. The economy being what it is, we ended up" going dark except for private parties. Hammerschmidt walks the talk. Earlier this month, she held her daughter's wedding reception at Rock Creek, located on the top floor of Mazza Gallerie. It's a delicious location. The space can seat up to 175 guests; the lounge area can double as a dance floor. And yes, the signature 5,000-pound replica of an English oak tree still rises from the center of the light-filled dining room. -- Tom Sietsema

2009-10-28T15:00:00Ztag:www.washingtonpost.com,2009-10-28:/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2009/10/21/DI2009102102054.html?nav=rss_liveonline

2009-10-28T04:00:00Ztag:www.washingtonpost.com,2009-10-28:/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/27/AR2009102700577.html?nav=rss_artsandliving/foodanddining

January was the anticipated launch date for the health-food store and carryout that Uzay Turker hoped to open in the Van Ness area of Washington this year. Had everything gone according to plan, 4340 Connecticut Ave. NW would now house a Wellness Cafe, similar to the one he and his wife, Alana, have owned for almost 10 years on Capitol Hill.

2009-10-28T04:00:00Ztag:www.washingtonpost.com,2009-10-28:/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/27/AR2009102702060.html?nav=rss_artsandliving/foodanddining

Edited excerpts from the Going Out Gurus blog, http://voices.washingtonpost.com/goingoutgurus:

2009-10-26T21:55:58Ztag:www.washingtonpost.com,2009-10-26:/wp-srv/community/groups/announcement.html?wpBlogId=Blog:b309abfb-0298-41a9-b75b-cfb85b455d1e&plckController=Blog&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3ab309abfb-0298-41a9-b75b-cfb85b455d1ePost%3ad2f03f61-b881-4513-a1e9-8dcb2380bb83

Following publication of my 10th Annual Dining Guide last month, a follower of my online chat asked if there was any restaurant I missed, either because it closed or the chef had changed. “And of those that you miss,” the reader added, “who today is doing the nearest facsimile?” Some shuttered favorites proved irreplaceable: There’s no Australian restaurant to bring back memories of the charming Inn at Easton nor a pre-theater venue quite as special as the intimate Nectar near the Kennedy Center. Yanyu in Cleveland Park made a Peking duck that to this day is unsurpassed. On the other hand, Eventide in Arlington evokes the modern American flair of Bob Kinkead’s Colvin Run Tavern in Tysons Corner; the new Plume downtown captures the haute Frenchness (hold the attitude) of the late Le Paradou in Penn Quarter and when I’m in the mood for a burger and a dive, the underground Quarry Tavern in Silver Spring is a suitably scruffy reminder of the original Stoney’s on L St. NW. Tell me about which restaurants you miss, and if you think they have replacements.

2009-10-25T04:00:00Ztag:feeds.washingtonpost.com,2009-10-25:/click.phdo?i=a044f9369e09e281a053a81f95a9e0fe

Zentan 1155--th St. NW 202-379-4366

2009-10-23T13:21:32Ztag:www.washingtonpost.com,2009-10-23:/wp-srv/community/groups/announcement.html?wpBlogId=Blog:b309abfb-0298-41a9-b75b-cfb85b455d1e&plckController=Blog&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3ab309abfb-0298-41a9-b75b-cfb85b455d1ePost%3a814afcc3-2eee-48f0-a204-8c4005ed0161

Talk about a blast from the past! Friends of mine treated me to a home-cooked dinner starring Chicken Marbella this week. As any food lover of a certain vintage might tell you, the dish brings chicken together with garlic, red wine vinegar, prunes, olives, capers, bay leaves and brown sugar (for a distinctive "crust").  The recipe for the entree first appeared in "The Silver Palate Cookbook," the yuppie source for culinary inspiration in the early '80s written by Julee Rosso and the late Sheila Lukins.  Chicken Marbella was the first main-course dish offered for sale in their tiny Silver Palate gourmet carry-out in New York.  The entree -- juicy, tangy, a little sweet -- is a crowd-pleaser: Everyone at my friend's dinner asked for the recipe. Eating Chicken Marbella sent me back at least 25 years.  What dish takes you down memory lane? I'd like to hear about it.

2009-10-21T15:00:00Ztag:www.washingtonpost.com,2009-10-21:/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2009/10/14/DI2009101402824.html?nav=rss_liveonline

2009-10-21T04:00:00Ztag:www.washingtonpost.com,2009-10-21:/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/20/AR2009102000768.html?nav=rss_artsandliving/foodanddining

A customer doesn't even need to see a menu to know what Capitol Hill's new hot spot is all about. The metal platters doubling as sconces and the wooden paddles dressing up the pale blue walls all point to one thing at Seventh Hill Pizza: pie.

2009-10-21T04:00:00Ztag:www.washingtonpost.com,2009-10-21:/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/20/AR2009102000712.html?nav=rss_artsandliving/foodanddining

An edited excerpt from the Going Out Gurus blog (voices.washingtonpost.com