Image: Marcello!

Some interesting developments this week in the D.C. dining world that have yet to be fully explained. Some awards handed out and we added two new places to our dining guide. Also, in the broader world events are having interesting knock-on effects. So shall we read on? Let’s.

Updates to D.C. Recommended Restaurant List

Added:

London Curry House – From the Bombay Street Food team, this vibrant spot satisfies on U Street.

Mariscos 1133 – The Solis siblings have a hit on their hands. Reservations now available and recommended.

Updates:

Estuary – The Voltaggio brothers left prior to re-opening. Ria Montes, who cooked at another Mid-Atlantic focused spot A Rake’s Progress takes over.

Brasserie Beck – Not only is the Belgian spot re-opened finally, they announced that Cathal Armstrong (who still has his own restaurants) is heading the kitchen with a new menu. There is a story there that has yet to be told.

Zenebech – Speaking of stories not told, this spot in Adams Morgan changed its name without any further announcement. It is still Ethiopian.

D.C. Dining News

The James Beard media awards were last night. The great podcast Dish City won in its category (audio programming) for it work last season on the history of take-outs. Season 3 is out now, with the most current episode a deep dive into why Chinatown doesn’t feel like a Chinatown. It is notable that so much of the work lauded is expanding beyond the traditional bounds of “food” journalism. It is something we applaud and would like to see more of in D.C.

Drink

Will Mexican Lager displace IPAs as the next beer of choice. It would be ironic if a sub-category that is largely indistinguishable from the general category of lagers bumps off a specific category of beer that became a marketing label spilling beyond its category.

There is a shortage of beer bottles in Germany.

Kings College Cambridge had a lot of vintage Burgundy laying around as a liquid asset.

Other News

Yia Vang is opening a ground breaking Hmong restaurant in Minneapolis. He is now a Beard nominee and profiled by Kate Nelson in Esquire.

Food security issues caused by Russia are having a knock-on effect.

Political donations in Pennsylvania may have a knock-on effect.

Severe drought trashed recent chili pepper crops, having a knock-on effect of a possible shortage of Sriracha until the fall.

Farmed caviar and wealth concentration are having a knock-on effect that allows us mere mortals to feel superior to anyone who would be near a graf like this: Josh Blum, a private chef in Miami, who regularly hosts dinner parties for celebrities, said that caviar bumps offer a fun way to break the ice. “At Formula One this year I gave one to Diplo,” he said. “It was pretty funny. I think it was his first time doing it, and he loved it.”

We would flag that if you want to be decadent in how you dine, why mess around with caviar bumps when the bread chariot exists!

Yelp being a bad site is having a direct effect on itself. We came across this piece from March that noted while internal changes salvaged revenue, its basic business is crumbling. 100 million out of the 244 million reviews claimed by Yelp on its site are from 2015 or older and new review growth has tumbled. Not to be petty but we continue to believe there is a gap in the market for a reliable dining guide in D.C. We will keep chipping away with an amateur’s dedication until something bigger and better steals our idea. There are literally dozens of readers ready for something better if our traffic is any indication!

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Speaking of which, if you are looking for a place to dine in the District, our D.C. dining guide has 300+ recommended restaurants. You can sort by cuisine, neighborhood, and current operating status (dine-in and/or take-out, etc. – though things are in flux currently so check before you go!) in either LIST or MAP format.

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