Image: Hedy Lamarr and James Stewart in Come Live With Me (1941)

Here is a recap of the week that was on the site.

Added to the Recommended Restaurant list:

Seven Reasons – Three of the most interesting restaurants in Washington right now are about a block apart.  Maydan’s giant hearth has been pulling in the crowds since it debuted.  Earlier this year, Rooster & Owl opened with its creative New American prix fixe menu and impressed a lot of people.  Now, it is Seven Reasons, cooking imaginative and deeply-flavored, pan-Latin cuisine.  All of them are worth making a trip above 14th and U.

Review:

Bibiana – We still think highly of this downtown Italian mainstay.  Chef Loris Navone, brought in as part of a refresh at the beginning of last year, is doing good work.  Like several places we have checked in on recently, we think it is worth making a trip to revisit.  And certainly worth dropping in on if you are downtown.

Wine:

As we assemble a list of great neighborhood wine shops, there are occasional surprises.  This week it was the great work being done by Magruder’s in Chevy Chase.  A large, varied selection of wine and spirits (and fortifieds) that is doing well by its neighbors.

Other News:

No restaurants were removed from the recommended list this week.  Hopefully we can keep that streak going.

We did downgrade Rare Tavern after a recent visit.  The original concept was a fancy steakhouse upstairs and a more casual “Tavern” downstairs.  The Tavern menu stood on its own and was very good.  Now the “Tavern” has been cordoned off to just the bar area and its menu pared down.  The steakhouse menu is now served in both the upstairs and downstairs dining room.  It is not a bad steakhouse.  In fact, we enjoyed the meal.  But we root for non-steakhouse restaurants here.  The Tavern is still worth trying out, but it is not as special an experience.

Nicoletta Italian Kitchen – Tom Sietsema  published a tepid review of Nicoletta in the Post this week.  When we checked out this place, we were impressed by the cooking.  Tom agreed that what we tasted was good, but what we didn’t taste is less impressive.  It is still probably worth trying out, but set expectations accordingly.  It also sounds like they are still working out some kinks with service and kitchen consistency.  Hopefully, Tom’s review will get them to focus.