Image: Geoffrey James, In Front of the Gare Saint-Lazare (Paris, 1992).
Welcome to our weekly recap of dining news, including activity on our site. This week’s post is a bit light, which may be a relief after last week’s large serving. We have three little stories with California connections, two about leaning away from vegan, big national economic trends looking up, but local trends mixed. And the beginning of year-end awards. So, dearest gentle reader, shall we proceed?
Updates to D.C. Recommended Restaurant List
Revisited:
Ellē – The upstart is now a stalwart of some of the best cooking in D.C.
D.C. Dining News
Comings & Goings:
The Pursuit Wine Bar announces it will close. There was a moment when wine bars seemed to be on the comeback, but now we’ve lost Flight, Bottles, and Pursuit.
The Seven Reasons team keeps pushing even as it moves downtown. Case in point, the new tasting menu. “By the end of the meal, diners will have solved puzzles, been blindfolded, searched for menu items under their chairs and tables, received gifts to take home, and eaten their menus.”
The Singaporean spot in Tysons from the Cranes team has closed after only ten months, but it might have a second life in D.C.
The Emerging (Local) Economy:
How the federal government approaches telework will have a direct impact on the economy. “With a permanent, extremely flexible telework protocol that allowed employees to work remotely four or five days per week, systems that suffered during the pandemic would continue to degrade, the survey hinted. Public transportation lines could see a ‘drastic fall in daily ridership’ – and, consequently, revenue, requiring systems to potentially ‘reevaluate routes, frequencies, and overall operations to remain valuable,’ per the survey. And because housing costs in D.C. have risen 12% in recent years, federal employees would likely continue to move to the suburbs or even outside the region entirely, seeking more affordable and bigger housing options.”
Industry:
Anna Spiegel at Axios reports, “Independent D.C. businesses — many of them restaurants — are increasingly using pricey security details to defend against rising crime in the city. Yet with operational costs skyrocketing, many worry that the tab for safety is unsustainable.”
Kudos:
Eater gave out year-end awards. Congratulations to all winners.
Drink
Wine:
Scientist have broken down the chemical signatures of fine Bordeaux wines. It could lead to leaps in wine-making and detecting fraud. The story is being presented, misleadingly, as an AI thing for clickbait purposes, but the researchers highlight the practical implications. “The approach, Dr. Jeffery said, is ‘not only about what makes a great wine chemically.’ The models could also help producers adjust their growing and winemaking practices to preserve their product’s character in years of unexpected weather. ‘This is especially important in the face of a changing climate,’ he said.”
Beer:
The weird hold of Smith Brewery on its hometown. “For 40 years the brewery’s chairman, who turns 79 this month, has imposed his unique and extreme rules on employees and customers as well as tenants of his vast property empire, his home town of Tadcaster and the 6,300 people who live there.”
Other News
The Emerging Economy:
Jobs numbers came in strong for November. 199,000 jobs added, wages up, unemployment down. “Health care was the biggest growth industry, adding 77,000 jobs. Other big gainers included government (49,000), manufacturing (28,000), and leisure and hospitality (40,000).”
Industry:
A restaurant that went all vegan is going back to meat on the menu too. “Even in a city like Los Angeles, which has consistently been named one of the most vegan-friendly cities for its plethora of meat-free dining options, targeting the vegan market may prove to be too limiting. A Gallup poll in August of this year, for instance, found that only 1% of Americans identify as vegans, with 4% considering themselves vegetarian.” Nick Kokonas of Alinea offers his take: “But if you want to build a business, not just a restaurant, you need a broad section of the public to at least *want* to go there to eat.” There are restaurants that are vegetarian/vegan that do succeed, but they tend to aim for a broader audience.
Also in California, how the state capital became a foodie town. “The region’s decades-long farm-to-fork cooking movement has produced a handful of culinary stalwarts. But it took a cadre of young chefs returning or relocating to Sacramento, and a flock of new residents fleeing from punishing Bay Area housing prices, to fully flip the switch.” It is often overlooked just how large the agricultural sector is in the state.
Food & Culture:
The family connections of making tamales this time of year. And a shoutout to Northridge. “That’s part of the tradition, too, a reminder that the tamalada is as much about the centuries-old therapeutic practice of making something together as it is about the tamales themselves.”
A seasonal reflection: “Seeing mincemeat through the lens of my Black and Midwestern identity brought it close to home. Over the summer, my family and I planted and nurtured a vegetable garden that I fully engaged with — hand-pollinating globe eggplant, infusing and garnishing made-from-scratch layer cakes with lavender and other freshly picked botanicals. I made entire meals from our harvest. And as we dried herbs, turned cucumbers into garlicky turmeric pickles, and grated tomatoes to store in the freezer, I developed a deeper appreciation for preservation as a purposeful commemoration that holds gratitude for an ephemeral season. Mincemeat cookies were the natural next step.” This story and the one above are both part of a collection by Eater on holiday food traditions.
Food as a reflection of current events.
The great documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman made a film about the Troisros family and their restaurant. “By the time the film flickers to a close, you will have an almost visceral understanding of the knowledge, skill, discipline, grind, art, conflict and generosity that animate Le Bois Sans Feuilles, the Michelin three-star destination set among the hedges and vast green fields of Ouches in central France.”
Food Sources:
When the salmon stop running in Alaska. “Flowing from British Columbia through Alaska to the Bering Sea, the nearly 2,000-mile-long Yukon River used to teem with Chinook and chum salmon, sustaining a culture of harvesting fish to feed both Alaskans as well as sled dog teams vital for transportation during the winter. Now those salmon runs have turned into to a trickle, as climate change and other factors weigh against the fish. The result is a drastic cut to local food supplies in a region where store-bought food, shipped in from thousands of miles away, is expensive.”
Hanna Raskin on the vegan meat company that imploded. “After years of runaway growth, culminating in Whole Foods, Publix, and Walmart stocking No Evil’s animal-free interpretations of carnivorous icons such as Italian sausage and pulled pork, No Evil shut down its Buncombe County production facility without warning. Almost overnight, No Evil meatless meat disappeared, and seemingly, so did the couple behind it.” Subscribe for the full story.
Migrant labor and crops in the U.K.
Health & Nutrition:
What’s the deal with low-fat products? In the case of dairy, it may not be a bad thing. “What seems to be more important than the level of fat…is which dairy product you choose in the first place.” For example, “Yogurt and cheese, for instance, appear to be most associated with health benefits. This may be because both are fermented foods.” Though, it is not an excuse for a free-for-all: “Butter and cream do appear to raise blood cholesterol levels more than other sources of dairy fat, Dr. Krauss said, and he recommends limiting them if you have high cholesterol.”
Odds & Ends:
Krispy Kreme takes off in France.
Meanwhile, back in the States, McDonald’s looks to inject sugar directly into your system.
Woman Who Threw a Burrito Bowl at Chipotle Staffer Was Just Sentenced to Working at a Fast Food Restaurant.
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Be kind. Eat well. Tip big.