Image: Edinburgh Zoo Penguins Walk by Werner Bischof (1950).
It was a big week in D.C. with the Nationals making the World Series, which we celebrated with our Saturday art post about the last Washington world series team – the 1948 Washington Homestead Grays of the Negro Leagues. In dining news, we take note of chef moves and a spate of fires. First, though, we review the action on our site.
Updates to the Recommended Restaurant List:
Added:
Archipelago – The fun Tiki bar on U Street serves surprisingly good Chinese food along with Daiquiris and Mai Tais. It is worth going out of the way for.
Reviews:
Chez Billy Sud – We checked in on the jewelbox of a French spot in Georgetown. We have always thought highly of it, and still do. We think it is worth paying the cab fare to get there.
News:
There have been a disturbing number of fires recently at D.C. restaurants. CUT barely opened before it had to such down temporarily for a fire. It is expected to re-open in December. This week, St. Arnold’s in Cleveland Park was hit. The Dupont and Bethesda locations are open and now might be a good time to throw them some business. Tim Carman also relayed news that Yuan Chen, one of the chef/owners at Great Wall on 14th, suffered massive burns earlier in the year from an oil fire in the kitchen. Luckily, he survived, but is still recovering. This is in addition to the fires that knocked out Osteria Morini for a few weeks and closed Grady’s. Let’s be careful out there.
In good news, Hamilton Johnson has been named Chef de Cuisine at American Son. Hopefully it will not mess with his workout schedule.
A topic that we have hammered on received an uptick of attention again when Michelle Singletary interviewed Tim Carman in the Post about tipping. Not surprisingly, Carman follows the Gold Rule of tipping 20% always. The interesting thing is that it got picked up on Twitter and got some television coverage. It turned into an interesting Rorschach test that revealed which people are jerks (language edited for family reading).
Del Frisco Grille’s two locations in the D.C.area are closing. Consistent with our steakhouse skepticism, neither were listed. That said, if someone could recreate Les Halles in that spot (over Bourdain’s objections) it would be appreciated.
If you are coming into the city for the World Series and looking for a place to eat, we can give you a few suggestions. You can sort dining establishments by cuisine, neighborhood, and/or rating. In both MAP or LIST format.
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