Image: Constantine Manos (New York City, 1961)

Dearest Gentle Reader, spring is upon us and summer is creeping up. The market has fresh strawberries, and there is much dining news to discuss. Welcome to our monthly recap of activity on our site and other interesting food related news. Shall we proceed?

Updates to D.C. Recommended Restaurant List

Added:

Love, Makoto – The Japanese-themed food hall is audacious in scope, does well in execution. Especially the underappreciated bar in the back.

Sushi Nakazawa – We finally made it. Lived up to the hype.

San Matteo – A great neighborhood spot in Petworth that is worth a trip out of the way.

Almeda – The chef’s distinct voice carries the dishes mixing Americana with African diaspora cuisine.

Masala Story – Brookland’s great little Indian spot.

Revisted:

Makan – Carrying the banner for Malaysian in the District.

D.C. Dining News

Before moving to other food news, we must acknowledge a tremendous project now posted online by Austin Graff. He has created a guide to 132 neighborhoods in D.C. It does include dining and drink options.

Also, a hat tip to Barred in DC who committed an act of actual journalism. He traces the history of how bars came to be in their current state in D.C. because of one “restaurant” on Georgia Ave. “In 1989 or 1990, DC issued its first tavern and nightclub liquor licenses, which meant for the first time in over seven decades, bars could legally exist in DC without pretending they were restaurants that served food.”

Comings & Goings:

José Andrés steps down as CEO of José Andrés Group. He still have lots to keep him busy.

Philotimo closes. It is not a surprise, but it is a reminder that the impacts of the pandemic are still working themselves out. Also, when push comes to shove, it is almost always about rent.

Danny Chavez made Art & Soul something to pay attention to even after it lost its celebrity chef sponsor. Now he is opening up a spot in Silver Spring, Lime & Cilantro.

Also, Sharbat Bakery, which previously announced they were closing, keeps going.

Flight wine bar looks to touch down again in Virginia.

Lives:

The Eastern’s guiding spirit passed away. They have reopened with a tribute on the website to Bobby Morin.

DC Beer also noted the passing of Dave Coleman, noting “He put The Big Hunt on the map as a beer destination and was co-founder of the late 3 Stars Brewing.”

Transitions:

Emma’s Torch, the non-profit group from NYC that opened a spot in NE to train immigrants, is graduating its first classes. “They leave having the experience of talking to customers, being able to push out food for paying guests, doing catering around the DC area. The transformation in 11 weeks is incredible.”

“Catania has been baking continuously since 1932. But this year has been one of transition for  little Italian-American institution.”

The GM of a fancy D.C. restaurant had a secret from his past. It caught up with him. Now he is the subject of a true crime thing on Netflix.

Drink

Wine:

Ukrainian wine has a wine-making tradition for centuries. It is surviving Russian brutality yet again. “It may seem hard to imagine that anybody would care about making wine amid the constant threat of war, much less shipping it halfway around the world. Yet small pleasures like coffee and wine continue to be desirable parts of daily Ukrainian life. Just as valuable is the symbolic cultural importance of wine to Ukrainians, and for the rest of the world.”

Eunice Fried wrote ‘What Every Woman Should Know About Wine’ fifty years ago and opened a door that many are still trying to fully crack open. “This breaking down of the snobbery so pervasive among wine connoisseurs is a common theme throughout Fried’s 1974 book. On one page, she writes blithely about everything from a trockenbeerenauslese to a beaujolais, implying that any woman can learn this language just as easily as a man. ‘There really were hardly any women writing about wine at that time,” says Fried, ‘so when you start out as one of the few, you feel like you have to be very, very careful. It was a little frightening because I knew I couldn’t afford to make a mistake.’”

Brewing:

Passing along brewing traditions. “Ms. Gojela, 65, learned to make suwe, as the beerlike drink is called in the Tigrinya language, from her mother while growing up in Asmara, the capital of Eritrea. (Today, she lives in Fort Worth, where she works as a housekeeper for hospitals.)”

Anchor Steam lives to fight another day. The billionaire owner of the yogurt company Chobani acquired the the company that went out of business last year after 127 years. Reminder that Anchor Steam rose to greatness because of another rich benefactor, Fritz Maytag, who bought it in 1965 and then led craft beer phenomenon in the late 70s.

Coffee:

A shop in Florida with a mission beyond a simple cup. “CUP is an acronym for Coffee Uniting People, and its mission is to employ people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.”

A note of appreciation for the connection of direct contact, and the power of coffee. “As he ages past 100, I try not to dwell on what my grandfather has lost and instead focus on the memories we’ve made together, which are often triggered by the wafting aroma of coffee.”

Other News

The Emerging Economy:

Downtowns learning how to move on. “D.C. is one of the places still languishing during the workweek, but it’s surging after hours with an influx of tourists, new residents and suburbanites looking for a special night out. Weekend bus and Metro rail ridership is now above 2019 levels.”

On the macro level, inflation is teasing its target. “Food prices posted a 0.2% decline on the month.” Rate cuts remain a possibility for the year, but not a certainty. And employment is holding steady, though showing signs of weakening, which might be good news if it prompts the Fed to move to head off a labor downturn.

Food & Community:

Sarah Wildman on Joan Nathan and the power of being there for people, often with food in hand.

Labor & Compensation:

A NYC restaurant was found to engage in improper union-busting. Under a new rule the union could now be recognized, even if the original vote failed. “The ruling, known as the Cemex decision for the construction-materials corporation it was first used against last August, allows the N.L.R.B. to order a company to recognize and bargain with a union — even when workers have voted a union down, as they narrowly did last year at Lodi — if the board’s general counsel can prove to an administrative law judge that management used unlawful union-busting methods that affected the election’s outcome.”

The Post talked to staff and owners about service fees. Peter Pastan speaks the basic truth. “The meal costs what the meal costs. I think sneaking [a service charge] in at the end is a silly way to do things,” he said. “If you’re going to come and spend $200, it doesn’t matter if everything costs a buck and they have a 9,000 percent service charge. I mean, it’s all the same at the end, so why pretend otherwise?” Some people talk as if the service fee is an extra charge and its elimination would decrease the cost of the meal. Meals don’t work the same as concert tickets.

Soleil Ho tells a good news story about all-included menu pricing.

“A Tennessee-based sanitation company has been fined more than $649,000 after an investigation revealed that it had illegally employed at least two dozen children at slaughterhouses and meatpacking facilities, the Labor Department said this week. The company, Fayette Janitorial Service L.L.C., was found to have hired the children, some as young as 13, during overnight shifts that involved using corrosive materials to clean “dangerous kill floor equipment” at facilities in Sioux City, Iowa, and Accomac, Va., the department said in a news release.”

Food & Culture:

A welcome school project. “My Mexican American family doesn’t usually do anything to mark the day. But this Sunday, we will also be reaching for Mexican food — not because it’s Cinco de Mayo — but because of that school assignment my son received months ago from his social studies teacher. Since then, he and I have spent many weekends in the kitchen, side-by-side, making his great-grandma’s homemade tortillas.”

Jenny Lau pierces the gesture politics that undermines true work. “We love the sound of those topics and I’m sure our staff would find a storytelling workshop super enlightening. Would you still be open to keeping it food-focused? We find our employees are more likely to turn up if food is involved ;). Are there any traditional family dishes you could demo? Perhaps some recipes that your mother or grandmother taught you?” The word “performative” is often used to describe some of these activities, but in the philosophical sense a performative act is one in which performing the act accomplishes something, like taking an oath. But performance without intention of accomplishment is a mere gesture.

Queer culture x food. “It’s not about specific recipes or dishes. It’s everything around those dishes, how they got to the table, who’s eating them, who’s serving them.”

Deb Freeman on the respect due to Virginia’s barbecue history after a cable show missed it. “Although the show’s host Pat Martin and Stone correctly comment that barbecue begins in Virginia and traveled through the South and beyond to create many of the barbecue regions that still exist today, a major component was missing. It was never mentioned who perfected the cuisine that is practically synonymous with America: the enslaved pitmasters who were forced to create feasts for political gatherings, weddings, and any number of celebrations went completely ignored.”

The Times on the end of an era in Coney Island. “Genetic mutations are not happening at the same frequency they are in Manhattan. That’s a pizza that’s probably in the style Antonio Pero was making on Spring Street in 1903.” The family is looking to sell.

Morgan Spurlock died at the age of 53. Tim Carman wrote about the impact Super Size Me had on society…and McDonald’s.

Food Sources:

Deb Freeman on Virginia peanuts, and the preservation of traditional methods. “The shocking method stacks the peanut harvests on poles to cure in the sun. Since the 1960s, most farmers use a more modern method in order to dry the peanuts quickly, versus how Barnes’ chooses to dry them, which takes six weeks. ‘Shocking produces a quality of peanut that you can’t find anywhere else,’ he says. ‘This was the way that everything was done on every farm at the turn of the century. There were no mechanized ways to do it. It is history.'”

Fish are getting smaller. “Overfishing and human-caused climate change are decreasing the size of adult fish, threatening the food supply of more than 3 billion people who rely on seafood as a significant source of protein. As fish get smaller, there is less meat to cook per catch. So scientists are working to piece together why exactly fish respond to rising ocean temperatures by getting smaller.”

California asparagus is dying out (paywall). “Once considered the king of vegetables in California agriculture and a seasonal delicacy exported worldwide, asparagus is on the decline here — the industry succumbing to the pressures of the global market, largely because of labor costs.”

“Where, what and how American dignitaries eat when they visit China is a serious matter. Choices of restaurants and dishes are rife with opportunities for geopolitical symbolism, as well as controversy and mockery. Chopstick skills — or a lack thereof — can be a sign of cultural competence or illiteracy.”

“Farmworkers have been exposed to milk infected with the bird flu virus. But there has been virtually no testing on farms, and health officials know little about who may be infected.”

Cartels are shaking down the tortilla industry in Mexico. “Small businesses stamping out warm tortillas have long been a fixture of Mexican neighborhoods. Now, thousands are being threatened by armed groups, part of a transformation in organized crime that’s rippling through Latin America. Cartels are playing a growing role in the region’s economies, from infiltrating seaports to extorting small businesses — and gaining increasing political power.”

Health & Nutrition:

The Times tries to give guidance on ultra-processed foods. “While research continues, expert opinions differ on how people should approach UPFs. Dr. Monteiro said that the safest course is to avoid them altogether — to swap flavored yogurt for plain yogurt with fruit, for example, or to buy a fresh loaf from a local bakery instead of packaged bread, if you can afford to do so. Dr. Vadiveloo suggested a more moderate strategy, focusing on limiting UPFs that don’t provide valuable nutrients, like soda and cookies. She also recommended eating more fruits, vegetables, whole grains (ultraprocessed or not), legumes, nuts and seeds. Cook at home as much as you can, using minimally processed foods, Dr. Davy said. ‘We can’t really say a whole lot beyond that at this point.'” This seems like one of those cases where truly bad things are muddling the waters with the category to forestall having the finger pointed clearly at them. Flavored yogurt is not the same as a pop tart, but it helps the pop tart industry to pretend that it is, because it means the fact that pop tarts are clearly bad is obscured. Hard to believe researchers can’t say that clearly. But as Deep Throat said…

On the other hand, olive oil continues to be magical.

Gas stoves, especially in smaller homes, are bad news. “Based on the model, researchers estimate that long-term exposure to nitrogen dioxide from gas and propane stoves could be responsible for up to 19,000 adult deaths annually across the country — although combinations of nitrogen dioxide and other outdoor pollution could impact the estimate.”

This piece in The Atlantic seems to have its finger on something, but also seems really wrong. The idea that tastemakers are losing traction is an obvious concern to us, but the theory is off. “But the internet’s sprawling databases, real-time social-media networks, and globe-spanning e-commerce platforms have made almost everything immediately searchable, knowable, or purchasable—curbing the social value of sharing new things. Cultural arbitrage now happens so frequently and rapidly as to be nearly undetectable, usually with no extraordinary profits going to those responsible for relaying the information. Moreover, the sheer speed of modern communication reduces how long any one piece of knowledge is valuable. This, in turn, devalues the acquisition and hoarding of knowledge as a whole, and fewer individuals can easily construct entire identities built on doing so.” Perhaps because it overlooks value. We hope there is still a market for informed ideas. Social media, cable and everything else does not destroy good taste because of speed but because of stupidity.

Speaking of Spurlock, Adam Reiner did a Sweetgreen immersion diet, and it kinda worked. But Sweetgreen then stepped on the narrative.

Media:

Michelin was paid by the Mexican restaurant association to do a guide for the country, and it got stingy about handing out a Three-Star nod on the first go-around. More evidence that it is a corrupt, unreliable, and lazy outfit cashing in on its former reputation.

Judith Jones biography is out.

Civil Eats on the Walton money backing journalism highlights a big shift. “Journalism is welcoming the new infusion of philanthropy. Since the decline of the industry’s ad-driven business model was hastened by the Great Recession, more than half of newspapers have shuttered across America and the industry has shed more than 20,000 jobs. Thirteen years ago, fewer than a dozen digital news nonprofits led the charge to shift news to a nonprofit model. Now, there are more than 400 digital news nonprofits nationwide, supported by an ever-growing coalition of philanthropies that include the Walton charities.”

Food & Environment:

Downstream impact: “All that detritus, the tons upon tons of soil with phosphorous mixed in, float downstream past St. Louis, Baton Rouge and New Orleans, suffocating the Gulf of Mexico for the sake of corn, wheat, cotton and rice. They call it the Dead Zone, where almost nothing can live.” Meanwhile, the proposed farm bill weakens pesticide enforcement. More.

Odds & Ends:

A great temperature. “17°C with pleasant sunshine and cloud.”

Restriction on a strip mall lease said only sandwiches could be served. So a judge has ruled tacos and burritos are sandwiches. “The original Written Commitment would also permit a restaurant that serves made-to-order Greek gyros, Indian naan wraps, or Vietnamese Banh mi if these restaurants complied with the other enumerated conditions.” Warning, it is in The Hill so there are a thousand pop-ups.

Connecticut Member of Congress declares New Haven the pizza capital. Hue and cries.

The silly social media-generated story of the month is Chipotle portions.

###

That’s all folks! Thanks for checking in. Until the next update, please be sure to check out or D.C. dining guide. We have 300+ recommended restaurants, sortable by cuisine or neighborhood in either LIST or MAP format.

Please give us a follow, if you don’t already. We are on FB, Insta, and Twitter.  Click on the icons at the top or bottom of this page to stay up to date.

Stay cool. Be kind. Tip big.