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By Jordan Wright
Published – Local Kicks [dot] com – Nibbles & Sips
August 17th, 2009
In American Express’s new ad featuring American entrepreneurs, sexy savvy Warren Brown of CakeLove gets all the attention. In this sleek 60-second spot he tallies six individual shots while talking on the phone, overseeing the frosting of one of his yummy cakes and hanging with his staff.
I caught up with Brown this morning in the midst of a shoot for his website. When I congratulated him on the Amex ad he said it had brought in a lot of new business.
“We’re creating a “welcome” video for newcomers to our website. We want to spread the gospel of CakeLove,” he cheerily offered. But the gospel he had most on his mind was that he and wife, Pam, are expecting their first child in January.
Now that Restaurant Eve is serving Gadino Cellars wines we won’t have to drive all the way out to the Inn at Little Washington for a glass with our supper. And speaking of Eve, Chef Cathal Armstrong will be the American Horticultural Society’s Honorary Chair for their September gala at River Farm along the Potomac. That’s the kind of favor you can call up if one of the restaurant partner’s wives steers the gala event committee. So very helpful…
Today’s ballparks have become strike zones with batting and pitching cages, food destinations, Build-A-Bear Workshops, sports arenas, PlayStation pavilions and baseball venues all in one. Did I mention baseball? Yes, they have that too. If you haven’t been to a game lately I highly recommend it. Sports fan or not, you’ll be a convert by the time the game’s over. It’s great for a family (very unlike the rowdy and often R-rated crowds at a football game) or whiling away an evening with a date.
I had a chance to sample the food at Nationals Park last week and it was a real eye opener. Professional chefs are creating some wonderful and imaginative stadium food…so delicious that people are showing up at the ticket office and buying the cheap seats ($5.00), just to get into the park, for some of this mouth-wateringly smokin’ food.
If you’re accustomed to the greasy $7 slices of Domino’s pizza at FedEx Field you are in for a complete overhaul of your sports venue mind-set. Unlike FedEx Field, which has private high-end ticket holder restaurants within the stadium for their club seat and sky-box patrons only, Nationals Park has fabulous choices for food all over the stadium. Most of these spots even have a direct view of the game with outdoor awning-covered seating or indoor and air-conditioned with a sight line enjoyed through sliding glass panels. While FedEx offers in-seat service for their pricey club seat ticket holders, Nationals Park encourages all its guests to walk around and enjoy the game from a number of different viewing areas and to eat your way around the park. With so much to choose from it’s great fun to get there early and eat at your leisure.
Since it is necessary to have kid approval for ballpark food, my grandson, Jacob, a perpetually hungry 11 year-old, was recruited for the sake of this review.
Our first stop was Teddy’s Barbeque, where all the meats are hickory smoked. Pulled pork, pulled chicken and beef brisket sandwiches compete with “The Rough Rider Rib”, a monster beef short rib prepared in true Carolina style…brined for 12 hours and then slow-smoked for another 12 hours. I am challenging all readers to let me know if they have ever had better anywhere. Did I mention the smoked corn on the husk, baked beans, slaw and potato salad sides? We are just getting started here.
In earnest we approached the foot-long Crab Louie. At $18 a pop it may seem a little pricey until you realize that it’s all lump crabmeat (Try making this at home. I priced a pound of lump at $33 today!), and four people could share this for a lovely lunch. Comes with extra crispy Old Bay seasoned french fries too.
Next we tried a Cuban sandwich that fit right into my “foodcation” concept. Skip the flight to Miami and cab to Calle Ocho, you can enjoy a “medianoche” right here.
We continued our street fair approach to dining with a stop at a recent addition, The Kosher Grill. Along with kosher hot dogs it features falafel, knishes and Middle Eastern shwarma. Are you still with me?
If you’re wistful for the annual summer Feast of San Gennaro, now in its 90th year, in New York City’s Little Italy (the sentiment always floods over me at this time of year), you couldn’t do better than to have the Italian Sausage sandwich here. It is one of my all-time favorites and they hit it out of the park…fennel-infused sausage, sautéed red peppers and onions, soft Italian roll and all.
In case you thought ballpark food was all hotdogs and peanuts, at this hip stadium they have healthy snack alternatives like veggie burgers, shrimp burgers, boxes of carrot and celery sticks, fresh fruit bowls, fruit smoothies and more. Makes a parent feel almost nutritionally religious taking the little ones to see a game.
Here you’ll find so many different locations to pause, eat, drink and watch the game you needn’t sit in your seat at all and some fans never do. At the Red Porch, a restaurant open to all ticket holders, they carry beer on tap from around the country…like Dogfish from Delaware, Bell’s Kalamazoo Stout from Michigan and Flying Dog Old Scratch Amber from Maryland to mention a few. With different food from the rest of the park, this sit-down menu has everything from Bacon Blue Cheese Burgers and Quesadillas to Chinese Chicken Salad and Jerk Chicken Wings.
Not to miss dessert our adventure took us onward to two DC faves, Gifford’s Ice Cream and Edy’s Grand Ice Cream stands for a sweet treat. We both loved the park’s, made in Italy and shipped over fresh, Italian gelati. “One mocha chocolate chip, one strawberry, please.” Later we kept our cool with frozen lemonade. It just couldn’t get any better.
Kid verdict: a lot of lip-smacking, barbeque sauce finger licking, more than a few “Oh yeah, that’s what I’m talking about!” responses, juicy-cool refreshing fruit snack smiles and a big thumbs up for all the food. By the way, the Nats crushed their opponents that day…9-2.
A big gear change, later in the week, had me dining at Raw Silk, a new King Street Indian restaurant, which I have mentioned here before, but not with a review of the food. Although I wouldn’t describe this as cutting-edge Indian cuisine it has all the requisite dishes plus a few surprises done very nicely and I do recommend you try it.
We were off to a rousing start with the best Samosas I have ever had and a simple Paneer Pakora, a rennet-free cheese that is dipped in chickpea batter and fried. Perfect with cocktails. Papri Chat, a sort of bread salad made with chick peas, potatoes, tomatoes and Indian spices and laced with a homemade chutney was crunchy, lemony, spicy and very refreshing. You can get the starters in a threesome combination and that way you can try out a few different ones.
I asked for chutneys to be served with our dinner and they brought a lovely selection but reluctantly. I have never worked out why Indian restaurants don’t promote their chutneys more. They are the most intriguing and complex condiments whose ingredients and preparations vary greatly, in a nice way, from place to place. This evening featured a Cilantro Chutney, cool, tart and refreshing and a spicy Tamarind Chutney that was sweet, slightly smoky tasting and well balanced. A bit of refreshing cucumber, mint and cilantro Raita was offered too.
 Belly Dancer Mina at Raw Silk Curries arrived along with belly dancer, Mina, who performed her traditional gyrations intoxicatingly up and down the aisles while swathed in red silk and jingling seductively. We enjoyed a brilliant Lamb Korma (we nearly came to blows over sharing this one…so fabulous was it), Chicken Tikka Masala with its haunting garam masala, and Shahi Paneer, the smooth cheese in a cream and tomato curry sauce. All were served in charming copper pails with brass handles and with rice on the side.
Shrimp Biryani, however, was very disappointing. As my favorite Indian entrée I have had this dish prepared all over the Washington Metro area, yet never in this fashion. In a dish where the rice is traditionally cooked separately from the other ingredients, I was unprepared for what was an uninteresting and thoughtless mash of rice, cooked with tomato sauce or paste, with some vegetables thrown in and a few small un-spiced flavorless shrimp. Where were the cloves, cinnamon, bay leaves, saffron, black cardamom seeds and other bright, lively flavors this dish is noted for? Why was the rice stuck together, soft and mushy, instead of individual grains separated by what should have been a pre-saute with ghee and finished with a golden crackling crust of rice to top it off? I hope they better this dish soon.
I always order Onion Kulcha but here, this too, was a disappointment as it lacked the smoky flame-cooked finish of the fiery clay oven and seemed merely warmed, the onions tasting nearly raw.
The desserts are typical teeth-shattering Indian sweets. The Gulab Jamun is a shock to the system. Diabetics stay away. This is an ambulance call. Mango Kulfi, I was assured is made from fresh mangoes. Nonetheless it did not in any way taste as though it had met a fresh fruit and came off like a bad Creamsicle. The Rice Pudding, “kheer” as you may know it, was tasty enough, but with a soupy consistency, a new style of preparation for me, and I sorely missed the creamy version with a rosewater infusion and chopped pistachio nut topping I am more familiar with.
There is, however, much else to commend in this exotic setting with its entertainment, cozy lounge area, late night service and pretty décor. If a few small changes could be made and a bit more confidence and creativity come out of the kitchen, this restaurant would be better rounded. But in its first few months of operation it is still a welcome addition to the King Street scene.
For question and comments contact [email protected].
By Jordan Wright
The Georgetowner/Downtowner
August 20, 2009
 Photo by Jordan Wright - Chef David Varley beside his herb garden at the Four Seasons Georgetown Witnessing the enthusiasm of Chef David Varley talking about his herb and vegetable garden at the Four Seasons is like hearing a proud father wax adoringly about his perfect child. Varley is the Executive Chef at Michael Mina’s Bourbon Steak, the recently launched stylish restaurant in the Four Seasons, Georgetown location. He grew up on a small farm in New Jersey, came to DC via Las Vegas, and is one of our true champions of local, organic and sustainably harvested foods.
Standing in the 500 square-foot garden he designed with Mina, Varley is most inspired. While perched above the canal’s towpath, with runners streaming by and strollers listening in to his demonstration, he plucks, twists and thumbpresses herbs under your nose as you imagine into what gastronomic wonder this plant will be incorporated. With a highly creative ingredient-driven menu that revolves with the seasons, Varley is establishing Bourbon Steak as much more than a steakhouse. In fact that’s a misnomer. His approach is more in line with Michelin-starred French chef, Edouard Loubet who sources all his food seasonally from the fields around his native Provence and who has come to represent the Slow Food movement’s praise of the local farmer.
JW – Recently plans have been approved for a large rooftop garden at the hotel.
What will you plant in it?
DV – All the things that are fragile like green and yellow wax filet beans, Romano beans, eggplants, tomatoes, fennel, peppers, beets, Swiss chard, tender lettuces and squashes. Maybe cardoons.
We’ll keep the small garden for annual herbs that we now grow like lemon basil and thyme, lemongrass, hyssop, lavender, dill, chervil, cilantro, lovage and five kinds of mint…pineapple mint, peppermint, spearmint, “Best” mint and orange mint.
JW – Explain the LEED certification the hotel received and how it applies to the kitchen.
DV – Mainly we have been really proactive with our recycling and composting. We work with a company called EnviRelation that picks up all our “wet waste” including bones from the stocks, coffee grinds and leftover rice, tissue and paper products and transforms it into top soil for our garden. Guests are really responsive to the program too. There are notes around the hotel asking them to turn lights off. They love it. They really like to pitch in.
JW – I have a theory that if your mother or grandmother gardened eventually you’ll come around to it. Who was your biggest influence in the garden?
DV – My mother! I call her the Alice Waters of the East Coast. We grew up in New Jersey. My mother was an old hippie and lived on farms all her life. We had three acres with chickens and a large herb garden and supplied all the local restaurants around Sussex with herbs. She grew everything from beets and Swiss chard, to beans and squash and had ten different kinds of fruit trees. She was big into food production. She taught me about where food comes from. Kids that don’t grow up with that don’t know what a beet’s supposed to taste like when it just comes out of the ground.
JW – Do you ask your growers to grow certain things for you?
DV – Well, when I was in Las Vegas there was a woman who was also a dealer at the casino and she supplied me with my herbs. I told her, Paula, this is fantastic can you grow this and that for me. And before you know it she had 50 different herbs and we set her up with a business license and by the time I left for the East Coast she was supplying all the restaurants and casinos on the strip. We became great friends and the whole experience was really rewarding.
JW – Some chefs are literally foraging in the woods for herbs to use in dishes like wood sorrel for salads, nasturtium for pesto, hyssop infused into syrups, and even catnip in sauces. Do you forage around here?
DV – We do harvest a lot of things like wood ear mushrooms and wild Buckler’s sorrel makes an appearance too. We made carrot pollen with Queen Anne’s lace flowers.
In California I used to harvest wild fennel flowers around Santa Monica. We’d pickle them or dry out the pollen for sauces.
JW – What is the philosophy of Bourbon Steak?
DV – Michael’s (Mina) vision was to create a restaurant that is accessible and interesting, but not so far out that it would alienate our guests. It wouldn’t be pretentious or fancy, but a place to do fun things, like our truffled French fries. I have always wanted to make the most interesting and intricate food possible.
But I also wanted to put the best food on the plate no matter what the critics say. There’s nothing wrong with putting green beans on a plate if they’re the best green beans. I felt that I would have the freedom to do what I wanted to do here.  Photo by Jordan Wright - Passion fruit Panna Cotta at Bourbon Steak In New Jersey I grew up next door to Polish immigrants who also had a great garden. They used to make pierogi for everyone in the neighborhood. Now I can do them here too.
JW – Can you tell me what ingredients excite you now?
DV – I just got in 80 pounds worth of Balaton cherries from Michigan and jarred some in bourbon to use in our manhattans. And last night I did a Cherry in Foie Gras dish for a VIP guest who was drinking a beautiful Gevrey-Chambertin wine that is a perfect pairing with cherries.
And now, here comes my esteemed mixologist, Dwayne, dropping off his experiment of Bourbon and Cherry Cola. Okay, this is a virtual tasting. High five, Dwayne! We’ve got a winner!
JW – Who would you most like to cook for?
DV – My mom, and I wish Julia Childs were around so I could cook for her too. I like to cook for anyone who gets it. Every day I try to hit it out of the park for the real foodies who come in that might be drinking a special bottle of wine or who are having an anniversary or birthday. I’ll send over something special and I feel like Santa Claus whenever I can do that!
JW – What is the sauce that is poured over the top of the magnificent Passion Fruit Panna Cotta you serve at the restaurant?
DV – That was Chef Lincoln Carson’s signature dessert [Mina Group’s Corporate Pastry Chef]. He is one of the great, unsung heroes in the pastry world. He uses a lemongrass consommé. It’s a distilled essence of lemongrass.
This interview was conducted, condensed and edited by Jordan Wright.
For questions or comments contact [email protected]
By Jordan Wright
Published – LocalKicks.com
September 1, 2009
 Heath Hall, Mike Anderson, Bill Blackburn and Brett Thompson at the site of the new Pork Barrel BBQ Restaurant in Del Ray.
Pork Barrel BBQ is planting its flag in Del Ray.
Local Kicks learned on Monday that Pork Barrel BBQ is teaming up with Mike Anderson and Bill Blackburn, two of the area’s top restaurateurs, to bring a Pork Barrel BBQ Restaurant to Alexandria’s Del Ray neighborhood.
The restaurant, which is currently under construction, will be in the heart of Del Ray on Mt. Vernon Avenue near St. Elmo’s Coffee Pub and The Dairy Godmother.
“We are honored to team with Mike Anderson and Bill Blackburn who have decades of success running restaurants and are leaders in the Alexandriacommunity,” said Brett Thompson, a Del Ray resident and CEO of Pork Barrel BBQ.
 Photo by Jordan Wright/Local Kicks Heath Hall and Brett Thompson of Del Ray's Pork Barrel BBQ “Heath and Brett know award winning BBQ, and Bill and I know how to run great restaurants…this is a perfect combination and we can’t wait for our Pork Barrel BBQ restaurant to open its doors next spring,” said Mike Anderson, founder of Mango Mike’s, which has been operating in Alexandria since 1996.
“Del Ray has been waiting a long time for great BBQ, and we are excited to team with the Del Ray BBQ Boys in bringing Pork Barrel BBQ to the neighborhood,” said Bill Blackburn.
In addition, a super-secret reality show scheduled for a major network’s fall line-up has approached Pork Barrel BBQ.
Partners Heath Hall and Brett Thompson, currently waiting for the ink to dry on their contract, swore me to secrecy…at least for the time being. The show, featuring five multi-millionaire venture capitalists looking for investment opportunities will showcase these and other entrepreneurs and fly them out to the West Coast next month for the filming.
Longtime friends from Kansas City, smack dab in America’s Heartland, they were hired by former Missouri Sen. Jim Talent and assigned to tackle the tough issues…banking, child welfare and the national budget. Dry stuff indeed, but they were well acquainted with the give and take, the tit for tat that goes on in each session. They had done their homework and knew the drill, and they were in it for the long haul.
One evening, after too many cold pizzas and as the Senate Appropriations Committee was debating the budget into the wee hours, the boys had the inkling of an idea.
They missed home and talk of “pork barrel” spending was snapping their synapses into fond memories of cookouts with family and friends. They began reminiscing about pork shoulder and beef brisket smoked for hours over oak and hickory wood, Kansas City style, with a tomato base and a rich, smoky barbeque sauce, the meat seasoned with secret recipe rubs to seal in the fat and bring out the intensity and cold beers to wash it all down.
In Kansas City it is said that within a radius of 30 miles a fellow could eat in a different barbeque restaurant every night with no repeats.
Folks there take their barbeque dead dog serious and often smoke 50 pounds of meat at a time.
In his words, Heath’s dad was a ”post office BBQer…out there in rain, snow, sleet and hail.”
The family had six grills, not at all unusual for that part of the country where the stockyards were hailed as the largest in America and the meat went out on railroad cars from Kansas City to Chicago and New York and on across the country.
Some grills were for the smoking, the meat cooking long and slow till it falls off the bone, marrow oozing out, tender and mellow, and creating the most satisfying ancient flavor known to mankind.
Heath and Brett like Weber’s Smokey Mountain Cookers for the slow cooking and grills for chicken giving a fast sear for the charbroiling.
 Pork Barrel BBQ is teaming up with Mango Mike’s, Mike Anderson and Bill Blackburn to bring award winning BBQ to the D.C. Region Eight-foot-long smokers get fired up early in the morning and stoked for hours and hours while smoke fills the yard…neighbors and friends rolling in all day to gather, catch up and sit down with a plate of whatever was coming off the heat…beef, pork, sausages, lamb, mutton and chicken.
The boys know barbeque, born and raised on it, and figured they could make their own spice rub and try to sell it. Friends liked it and encouraged them… and in December of 2008 Pork Barrel BBQ All-American Spice Rub, with its all-natural, smoky, and slightly spicy flavor, was born.
They got it in a few local stores, Let’s Meat on the Avenue in Del Ray and the Organic Butcher in McLean and started to sell it online to immediate success.
They revved up their product line when they entered Safeway’s National Capitol Barbeque Battle last month, creating and presenting a brand new barbeque sauce that hadn’t even been on the market yet.
“They told us our sauce was one of the final three out of forty four,” Heath declared. “We were stunned!”
After the votes were tallied they wound up with Second Place, beating out longtime barbeque champs. In another category, “Memphis in May”, their Pork Shoulder prepared with their All-American Spice Rub, nailed Fourth Place, forever establishing their reputation in the competitive field of American BBQ.
Their label features a wholesome pig holding a fork twice his size with the iconic capitol landscape in the background echoing the days of their time on The Hill…the words “Monumental Flavor” the motto.
Heath who Twitters and blogs through their website www.porkbarrelbbq.com keeps his followers apprised of their latest endeavors gaining them the number one BBQ blogger spot with over 13,000 hits so far and the number one post in Alexandria.
With over 600 grocery stores in 10 states signing on to carry their products they will be rolling out three new products in addition to the original Spice Rub…their crunch-time success BBQ sauce and a Steak Rub and Chesapeake Bay Rub. Their distributor told them, “You guys must have leprechauns on your shoulders.”
“Brett and I are excited about the opportunity to bring Pork Barrel BBQ to Del Ray and we can’t imagine better partners to do it with than Mike and Bill,” said Heath Hall, the president of Pork Barrel BBQ.
For comments and questions contact [email protected]
By Jordan Wright
July 31, 2009
 The Restaurant 3 Bar and Grill is located at 2950 Clarendon Blvd. in Arlington. Photo courtesy of ThreeLockharts First there was the recession-busting “staycation” concept of staying at home for a week to re-energize and renew, with all the richness of offerings the DC area has to offer.
Now a new word has entered the stay-at-home lexicon: the foodcation; Southern-fried oysters and free-range burgers roasting on the grille, hush puppies as secretagogues and cold wheat ales on ice.
Last week, the Blue Points were roasting on the grill and the “wheaties” were on ice at this surprising outpost, Clarendon’s 3 Bar and Grill, owned by the local Williams and Cahill families and run by son, Jonathan Williams.
The number “3” after its name because the family also owns Whitlow’s On Wilson and the now-shuttered Whitlow’s Downtown.
 Photo courtesy of ThreeLockharts Bleu cheese chips at Restaurant 3.
On a recent glorious summer’s evening, in this casual and down-home roadhouse-in-an-upscale-setting, I began my “foodcation” with the tantalizing offer of a Southern cookout on the restaurant’s Boulevard-facing patio. The aroma of wood smoke and oysters, redolent with garlic, butter and fresh herbs (did I detect the subtle licorice scent of tarragon?), heralded my arrival.
Soulful Chef Brian Robinson has returned of late to his N’awlins roots to create a menu that reflects the dishes of his heritage. Along with the ambrosial oysters we sampled sweet, soft-centered, cast-iron-crusted hush puppies with honey butter, perfectly fried delicate green tomatoes, at the peak of their season, with melted goat cheese crumbles and tomato relish.
 Photo courtesy of ThreeLockharts Grilled brie at Restaurant 3. His Grandpa Dickey’s secret seasonings’ fried boneless chicken sat atop crispy waffles, dripping with bourbon maple syrup. It was followed by seared sea scallops balanced on stone-ground grits that had absorbed the sweet smokiness of morsels of Cajun-country tasso ham.
As a former chef at the beloved Georgia Brown’s, Robinson has captured the best of Southern cuisine. His fried dishes were light and refined…his fish prepared with a skilled wrist, each evocative of the deeply seasoned flavors reminiscent of Southern home cooking. This is the sort of menu you’d expect at a low-country gathering, where folks start the oyster roast fires early in the cool of the day and “visit” past sunset.
I caught up with Brian in his chaotic kitchen, just before dinner service, where he rekindled memories of his Grandpa Dickey, one of the renowned Tuskegee Airmen, while he prepared the dishes of his youth.
“These are the dishes he would prepare, always with the freshest ingredients around, “ Robinson recalls.  Photo courtesy of ThreeLockharts The farm to glass cocktail at Restaurant 3. For beer lovers there was an amazing selection that was carefully chosen for pairing with each course. Craft beers like Piraat Triple from Belgium, a “living beer” that continues to ferment in the bottle and is called an “adventure” because it’s flavors shapeshift in the bottle; Steamworks Kolscha, a crisp ale, with a hint of sweetness from Colorado; Dale’s Pale Ale, “hoppy and malty;” and Bell’s Oberon, an American wheat ale considered both spicy and fruity, sequenced the food.
On the cheese board was Cypress Grove’s Humboldt Fog a creamy, dreamy, surface-ripened blue with its iconic ribbon of ash and Point Reyes Bleu a firmer, yet mild mannered blue made with the raw milk from this Northern California farm’s own grass-fed cows.
They were paired with Abita Purple Haze, which features the after-brew addition of raspberry puree and Brooklyn Brown Ale that evokes raisins, apples, brown sugar and molasses and rounded out the offerings.
Restaurant 3 Bar and Grill features over 70 different beers a long list of wines and hand-crafted specialty cocktails made with farmer’s market fresh herbs and infusions.
Contact the writer at [email protected]
If You’re Going…
3 Bar and Grill
2950 Clarendon Blvd.
Arlington, VA 22201
(703) 524-4440
http://www.restaurantthree.com/
By Jordan Wright – Wright on Food
The Georgetowner/Downtowner
July 19, 2009
 Splashdown Miami Style at Skyline Hotel. Photo by Roy Wright While the world was celebrating NASA’s 40th anniversary of the first lunar landing, the hot and hip were splashing down at the Capitol Skyline Hotel.  Jennifer Rubell family member of Capital Skyline Hotel Owners. Photo by Roy Wright It was South Beach in Southwest in this stylishly eclectic hotel. The Rubell family’s latest enterprise is the redesign of American architect, Morris Lapidus’s mid-century modern property located in the newly revitalized waterfront neighborhood. “We bought the hotel six years ago,” according to his daughter Jennifer, “and waited until the neighborhood was more developed before redoing the hotel.”
Mera Rubell and her husband, Don, who own the Rubell Family Collection, have amassed one of the country’s finest collections of contemporary art. The 45,000 sq. ft. “gallery,” open to the public, is housed in a converted warehouse in Miami and is chock-a-block with Keith Haring, Robert Colescott and Lorna Simpson, to mention a few of the art world’s luminaries in this entirely private collection. Committed to the D.C. art scene, they have developed a relationship with the Washington Project for the Arts and Conner Contemporary Art.
It was Lisa Gold, WPA executive director, who clued me in to “SynchroSwim,” an artists-as-synchronized-swimmers team competition, held on the hotel’s chic pool deck last Sunday afternoon as part of a series of video lounge/poolside art projects.  Real World MTV crew Photo by Roy Wright Proof positive that there’s still a cool summer scene in town. Not everyone is in Dewey or Rehoboth! This “staycation” worked it full throttle.
MTV’s not-so-secret-anymore “Real World:DC” actors  Real World - MTV - actor and their documentarians were hanging out in a special roped-off rubber duckies’ lounge by the pool (the orange beaks matching the sleek contempo leather sofas). The cast mingled with the hoi polloi but couldn’t discuss the show. “We’re under signed contract not to talk about it,” one bikini-clad reality girl told me.
This hip crowd, who could have been called as stand-ins should the cast have needed help drinking the yummy Spike Mendelsohn-designed cocktails, were having their own reality show.
Did I forget to mention that “Top Chef” runner-up chef Spike Mendelsohn  Chef Spike Mendelsohn attracting hotties... Photo by Roy Wright was flipping his Michelle Obama-approved juicy burgers for the guests? Oh, yeah. This place was smokin’ — and not just the grill.
I asked Spike how this crazy fabulous scene had come together. “Mera Rubell came into my restaurant (Good Stuff Eatery on Capitol Hill) and asked me to check out the family’s new hotel,” he recalled, “I went over and the place was trashed but we sat down together and had a vision of what it could be. It took a month of redesign before we could open this June.”
“I love this area,” he waxed. “Obama has revived this town. There’s a new dedication…a new philosophy. D.C. is on its way to becoming the “new” New York.”  Chef Spike serving up burgers. Photo by Roy Wright With a been-there-done-that twinkle in his eye, he added, “It takes dedication and passion. You gotta dream.” And then he turned and went back to stoking the grill and hamming it up for the hotties, totally in his element, looking like a cuter version of Johnny Drama from “Entourage.”
 Eskimoo Roller - Lady Clown Team Member By early evening the performers were getting introduced along with judges. Won Kee Moon, Director of the International Gay and Lesbian Aquatics, Phillipa Hughes, Pink Line Project founder, and Spike himself, sprung at last from burger duty. Fellini-esque contestants lined up by team and entered the pool. They swim-danced, kayak-rolled, dove and play-acted their somewhat-synchronized show. It was all a big hoot for the crowd, as more than 1400 guests cheered, jeered and rooted for their picks.
 Water Dancers and Skullers. Photo by Roy Wright After the show, we squeezed into the video lounge to watch the Brandon Morse-curated Experimental Video Project that featured swim-themed videos of groovy wriggling amoebas. Okay, that’s all I had time to watch, though it was dark, cool and comfy in there.
Every Sunday through the summer, there’s swimming and hanging out at the pool from noon to 6 p.m. Ten dollars gets you in, plus one of Spike’s now-legendary burgers. Name brand cocktails are $5. The party is free. Look for a different art project each week and say “hey” to Spike for me.
www.wpadc.org
www.capitolskyline.com
www.goodstuffeatery.com
www.connercontemporary.com
For questions or comments contact me at [email protected].
In a sign that things are not slowing down in the Food Network’s reality show world, Grub Street reports a casting call for the 2010 season of The Next Food Network Star.
The announcement states, “We are looking for any chef, line cook, home cook, caterer or culinary enthusiast who is interested in becoming the host of his-or-her own cooking show on Food Network!” Auditions are tomorrow at the CBS building at 530 West 57th Street between 10am and 4pm. Just bring two recent photos, a copy of your resume and an application. Go to http://www.foodnetwork.com/nfns-6-casting-call-upload/package/index.html for further instructions.
Morou Ouattara, newly sprung from Farrah Olivia, has made a savvy decision for the Executive Chef position at his new outpost, Kora. His choice? Brother Amadou Ouattara, who spent years at I Ricchi and knows his way around la cucina Italiana will be at the helm of this latest endeavor in Crystal City.
Housed in Roberto Donna’s former Bebo Trattoria location (my tour revealed a fabulously designed kitchen with all the bells and whistles left in place), they plan to use the wood-fired hearth to crisp up pizzas, roast vegetables, bake breads and cruise the Amalfi Coast. Okay, I’m just daydreaming on that last one.
An extensive catering menu is planned for those who prefer their antipasti, seared halibut, saffron-hued risottos and pappardelle with porcini served to their guests at home or office. The choices seem endless and ambitious. To satisfy my palate I’m looking forward to the linguine alla vongole. But can they get it right? I’ll keep you posted. Kora plans to serve their first guest sometime in August. Looks promising. Viva Italia!
Let the Thai battles begin! A permit has gone up for a new restaurant at 100 King Street in Old Town to be named Red Curry. That’s around 100 feet from Mai Tai and a few blocks from Thai Old Town, Red Mei, Asian Bistro, Siam 815 and Chintana Thai. That’s some pretty stiff competition for this newcomer? Could this be the same restaurant on Lexington Avenue in New York City that had 23 violation points against them back in January of last year? Say it isn’t so!
 Andres at Bethesda Home dressing Pork sampler. Photo by Roy Wright Jose Andres, chef/owner of ThinkFoodGroup and Jaleo, Oyamel, Jose Andres’ minibar and Zaytinya and DC’s premier butcher and caterer, Wagshal’s Market, have teamed up to promote one of Spain’s premier products, Iberico de Bellota. You know the highly prized cured ham that Andres spent years getting the license to bring into the States. This pig is of such high pedigree and heavenly flavor I’ll call it the “Chateaubriand of Pork”. These legendary pata negra pigs are lured to forage for acorns and wild herbs as they roam the mountains meadows of La Alberca, in Western Spain. The resulting meat becomes permeated with the nutty, herbose flavor. (n.b. I’m planning my next life as a Spanish pig.)
At a recent party at his Maryland home, the gracious Andres served us endless platters of this luscious pork, only available in the US at Wagshal’s.  Wagshal's chefs on the right / Jordan Wright on Left. Photo by Roy Wright Proud Wagshal’s owner/purveyor, Bill Fuchs was on hand to triumph Andres’s, hot-from-the-grill, melt-in-your-mouth slices of this unique meat. You will think you never ate pork before after trying this glorious specialty. For optimal flavor for at-home chefs, prepare to serve it medium rare with a nice rosy pink center. Not a cook, out of time, too hot to grill? Just bring your friends to Jaleo, the sole US restaurant where you can enjoy this sumptuous pork in dishes like Lomo Iberico de Bellota asado con manzanas (Apples. We sampled this divine dish too.), and a paella called Arroz con costillas de cerdo Iberico de Bellota, that uses the ribs of the pork.
For recipes and more information go to www.wagshals.com
 Spy Diner on location Stir Food Group (Zola, Potenza) has launched Spy Diner, a food cart on the corner of 9th and F Streets  Spy Diner Cart 9th & F Street Washington, DC in Penn Quarter. Working with DC Central Kitchen they have come up with a cool idea to help graduates with their culinary job training. DCCK’s program prepares the unemployed, underemployed, previously incarcerated and homeless adults for careers in the food service industry. What a brilliant concept! Let’s pepper the whole city with these carts that offer breakfast treats that include and fresh bagels, muffins and homemade coffee cake, egg sandwiches and Taylor pork roll (Jerseyites, your comfort food awaits!) served with ham or bacon. Lunch and dinner (for cheap pre-theatre fare or staying late-at-the-office workers, pay keen attention here) is a bit more sophisticated and features yummy sliders made with lamb meatballs with goat cheese aioli or roast beef melts with caramelized onions and Emmenthaler sauce on a horseradish bun. For the traditionalists there is real BBQ pork and coleslaw on a salt and pepper bun.
Feeling out of the loop? No bailout expected? No worries. If you’re dying to try the restaurant all your friends have been bragging on ad infinitum, or that perfect dish you had when you were feeling flush and bought lunch for the whole office, but now your wallet has been squished flatter than a Belgian crepe due to the downturn, then you’re in for a treat.
The long-awaited Washington DC Summer Restaurant Week has returned. From August 24th through August 30th some of the city’s top dining spots are offering true bargains. Aren’t you glad you passed on that 7-day Alaskan holiday?
With three-course fixed price lunches at $20.09 and three-course fixed price dinners at $35.09 at nearly 200 restaurants, you can dine in splendor at some of the area’s finest destinations. Go to www.washington.org/restaurantwk for a comprehensive list of all the participating restaurants. Here are just a few of the too-numerous-to-mention hot spots: Potenza, Coco Sala, 2941, Acadiana, The Prime Rib, Occidental Grill, The Jockey Club, Poste Brasserie in the Hotel Monaco, Indique and Georgia Brown’s. After this culinary junket you and your peeps can pen your own restaurant guide.
Pass the biscuits. Bookbinder’s Restaurant investors, who squandered the chance to get to know their neighbors in Old Town Alexandria, have changed gears and come up with a different restaurant concept. The new eatery will be located in the former beloved and sorely missed Olsen’s bookstore at 100 South Union Street. For this go-round they’ll be serving Southern fare and getting in the groove with rooftop jazz. No date on the opening yet.
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