Image: Kay Francis and William Powell, One Way Passage (1932)
Dearest Gentle Reader, we bring this year’s effort to a close on this site. We will be back in January to celebrate our fifth year tilting at windmills. So, this is the last week in review of activity on our site and other dining news from near and far. We hope you have enjoyed it. Tell a friend about us if you did. And without further ado, let us proceed…
Updates to the D.C. Recommended Restaurant List
Revisited:
Taberna del Alabardero – The long time fancy Spanish spot downtown still does its thing well.
Rakuya – The Dupont Circle favorite for locals for good reason.
D.C. Dining News
Comings & Goings:
Destino gets a new chef, who comes from Pawtowmack Farms most recently. Looks like he is going to put his own stamp on the menu.
Right Proper is expanding its footprint with a new location in Eckington.
DC Harvest closes after a long struggle to keep the doors open and goes off brand down the home stretch.
The Emerging (Local) Economy:
The big news of the week has been obsessed over already. Caps/Wizards owner Ted Leonsis is moving the teams to a new location in Virginia. We have many thoughts, but would flag one relevant to this site. Penn Quarter will now have a chance to plan for the future. Leonsis said he intends to remodel and downsize the arena, but it is hard to imagine anyone sees him as a reliable partner. The FBI will eventually leave its location. Those are two big pieces of real estate the development of which will shape the whole area. Choose wisely.
David of Eat DC talks to City Cast about the impact of crime on the restaurant industry. If the restaurants are citing it, there is probably something there. Pursuit, which announced its closing last week has been robbed five times in the last year.
Jessica Sidman does a comparison of how much more popular dishes cost now compared to pre-pandemic. It’s generally about 25%. Which seems right in line with inflation, especially considering food costs outran other sectors. Washingtonian also handed out year-end readers awards. Congratulations to all winners.
Danny Lee called out the person who complained about the cost of in-house kimchi, made by hand, bottled and sold for $20. Which is a way to remind you that Mandu is great and you can get Mama Lee’s homemade kimchi for just $20.
Compensation:
Amanda Michelle Gomez takes a stab at summarizing the impact of Initiative 82. “We have an incomplete picture of Initiative 82’s effects, however, the worst-case scenario – mass closures or layoffs – has not come to pass, at least thus far. The total earnings of restaurant workers appear to have increased, though not necessarily their tips. The average hourly wages and total earnings for both front-of-house and kitchen staff increased, surpassing inflation, between January 2022 and October 2023, according to Square, a popular point-of-sale system used by restaurants. However, tips appear to have gone down over that same time period, with workers making $1 per hour less in tips and overtime.”
Kudos:
José Andrés and family won the Emmy for his series on Spain. Boom!
Drink
Wine:
One of the Napa legends that put it on the map, Mike Grgich, passed away. “In 1972, despairing of ever running his own place, Mr. Grgich was offered the winemaker’s job at Montelena, which Mr. Barrett was just starting. Mr. Barrett, a Los Angeles lawyer, envisioned making a world-class cabernet sauvignon but was discouraged when Mr. Grgich explained to him that in planting a new vineyard, waiting for it to yield fruit and then aging a red wine, five years would pass before he would have any to sell. To provide cash flow, Mr. Grgich suggested making a white. They would purchase grapes, make the wine and sell it after eight months’ aging or so. The heralded 1973 chardonnay was Montelena’s second vintage.”
Global trends lean against red wine. “Red wine lost a lot of ground in the 20th century and, between 2000-2004, on average, it made up 47.6% – just under half – of the global total. In 2013, nine years after the end of this period, white overtook red and has held its lead ever since. By 2017-2021, red’s share had fallen even further to 42.6%, compared to 49.3% for white. Similarly, rosé – once thought of as a ‘summer drink’ now represents the equivalent of nearly one bottle in every 9-litre case.”
Fraud: “In an elaborate Ponzi scheme that lasted nearly two years, two British men persuaded investors to put up nearly $100 million in loans to wealthy wine collectors, according to federal prosecutors. But those collectors never existed, prosecutors said, and neither did the extensive reserves of valuable wine that the men promised would secure the loans.”
Other News
The Emerging Economy:
Inflation numbers came in low, but not quite over the hump. Food inflation continues to slow. “Food prices, both at home and at restaurants, decelerated on the month. Food-at-home prices, including grocery stores and supermarkets, rose by 1.7% month-over-month (versus 2.1% in October) and 2.9% year-over-year and continued to trend down at a faster rate than restaurants.” The Fed is feeling better.
Food & Culture:
The rituals of Christmas lunch at Korean American churches. “’On a typical Sunday, services were basically segmented by age, and people were quick to leave right after,’ Rachel Kim, 30, said. Her father is the senior pastor at Open Door Presbyterian Church in Herndon, Va. ‘Christmas lunch, however, compelled people to linger and mingle.’ It was, she said, one of the few times she saw English and Korean spoken in the same room.”
The connection between food and home at the holidays for Venezuelans. “For Venezuelans at home and living in the United States, hallacas are a Christmas staple. Families spend several days making and assembling them, stuffing the guiso — the stewlike filling made from chicken, pork and beef and stained deep red from annatto — into corn masa. The hallacas look like presents when they’re wrapped in banana leaves and tied with cotton twine.”
Another reason to love Juliette Binoche. Does anyone do food movies better?
Food Sources:
A few weeks back we noted that these kinds of notices seemed less frequent, but now it looks like we are getting back on track: “Quaker Oats has announced a recall for dozens of popular granola bars and cereals over concerns that the products could be contaminated with salmonella.”
Industry:
The food sector as a way back. “But while living in a court-mandated halfway house in 2011, he had trouble finding a job in a professional kitchen. A cousin who owned a stall at a meat market in Bell offered him a job cooking at a small grill — reminiscent of Elreda’s prison cooking setup. Eventually, the cousin moved abroad and struck a deal with Elreda: $80,000 for ownership of the stall. Once in charge, Elreda experimented with mashing together the cuisines of his youth, making Mediterranean food and tacos on the small grill.”
Odds & Ends:
A giant Ikea meatball for the holiday feast.
In-N-Out is pretty good, but this is a little overboard.
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That’s it! Have a great rest of the year and happy holidays however you celebrate. If you are around D.C. and looking for a place to eat, keep our humble little dining guide in mind.
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Tip big. Be patient. Eat well.