New (Tasty) Details on H &Pizza

25 Apr

We’ve known for several months that a new gourmet pizza place was coming to H Street (1118 H Street to be precise) and would add an important missing ingredient to the H Street dining scene.  The new place will be called H &Pizza, and co-owners Steve Salis and Michael Lastoria have been slowly revealing the details of the restaurant in anticipation of the opening.  Last week, Washington City Paper filled in some details by reporting (among other details) that H &Pizza plans to open June 1st, will allow customers to completely customize their pizzas by featuring an assembly line style format (and choosing from a variety of toppings, sauces, and crusts), and will be open late on the weekends.

This week we caught up with co-owner Steve Salis and were able to learn some exciting (and tasty) details.  Most importantly, H &Pizza will not be any average pizza joint.  Check out some of these sauces that diners will be able to choose from: Basil Pesto, Mushroom Tartufo (Mushroom Truffle spread) Ricotta, Red Chickpea spread, Classic Marinara, and Spicy Marinara.  And how about these toppings: Smoked Bacon, Sopressata, Proscuitto, Hot Sausage, Caramelized Onions, Roasted Broccolli Rabe, Kalamata Olives, Artichokes, Arugula, Soy Cheese (lactose free) and mozzarella cheese they will make in house.  If you don’t feel like designing your own pizza, H &Pizza will offer special pizzas that you can order right off the menu and they will make for you.  In addition to pizza, H &Pizza will have several salads and deserts as well as a beverage menu featuring wine, beer, and specialty drinks.

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Zuppa Fresca Holding Special “Hoppy Hour” on April 26th

18 Apr

Zuppa Fresca (see our review here) is holding a special “Hoppy Hour” on April 26th that will feature several different Goose Island beers as well as new dishes from Chef Alfio Celia for $22.  It is the first in a series of beer and food events that Zuppa Fresca will hold every few weeks.  There are only a few seats left for the inaugural Hoppy Hour, and you can learn more here.

Le Grenier Hopes to Open in July on H Street

3 Apr

Le Grenier (502 H Street) applied for a liquor license back in March 2011 but has been largely silent since then.  However, we noticed construction occurring inside recently, and Le Grenier’s parent restaurant confirms that they hope to open sometime in July.  The construction seems to have a ways to go but hopefully they will be able to open this summer.

Le Grenier is a French style bistro from the owners of Le Chat Noir (located in Friendship Heights).  Le Chat Noir has quite an extensive menu of French dishes for lunch, brunch, and dinner.  The liquor license application for Le Grenier says that they will have indoor seating and a small sidewalk cafe to seat a few people and will be open late.  Le Grenier will add to the newly revitalized west end of H Street which has recently seen the opening of Big Board and Boundary Road.

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Is Lunch from a Food Truck Ever Worth $15? (What about $20?)

28 Mar

Mention lunch from a truck and many people think of the many hot dog stands and trucks around D.C. that have questionable sanitation and much more questionable food.  The idea of paying $10, $15, or even $20 for a meal from a truck seems crazy.  Standing in line for significant amounts of time sounds even more ridiculous.  Should a sane person ever pay that much for lunch from a truck?  Simply put: yes (but only on rare occasions…).  Some of the best lunch time meals can be bought at food trucks around D.C. and are worth the investment of time and money.  Let’s examine our two favorites: Jose Andres’ Pepe and Red Hook Lobster Pound. Continue reading →

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Chinito’s Burritos: Asian Influenced Tex-Mex

26 Mar

Exterior of Chinito’s Burritos

Asian influenced burritos with fried rice sounds weird.  So do Mexican egg rolls.  But if you are scared away simply because it sounds unusual, you will really miss out on what first time owner Jin Chong has to offer at the new Chinito’s Burritos (635 Florida Avenue, NE).  While eclectic, the food at Chinito’s Burritos is exciting and a nice change from the more typical tex-mex offered by so many restaurants and chains (and quite tasty too).

Chinito’s Burritos takes the typical burrito and puts an Asian spin on it.  You fill out what you want on a card (the restaurant is welcoming to its neighbors at Gallaudet University), choosing from either a burrito, tacos, or a box.  The burritos start at a very reasonable $3 base and then go up as you add more ingredients (but still stay reasonably priced as you add ingredients).  The restaurant always has three types of salsa and guacamole for you to add as well as grilled vegetables, beans, rice, cheese, lettuce, and sour cream.  Be sure to add the rice to your burrito; it is the delicious fried rice that adds the Asian flavor to the meal.  The meats you can add to your meal vary by day–some include carne asada, ground beef, chicken, and shrimp.  Chinito’s Burritos also has several side items from the typical chips and salsa to the more adventurous Mexican egg rolls.  The Mexican egg rolls are deep fried and look like a typical egg roll, but when you bite into them they explode with cheese, pieces of tenderly cooked chicken and corn all with a strong tex-mex spicy flavor. Continue reading →

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Washington Post’s Sietsema Really Likes Boundary Road

14 Mar

Boundary Road, the newest addition to H Street, continues to make news this week (President Obama visited the practically brand new restaurant last week).  The Washington Post‘s Tom Sietsema wrote a very positive review of Boundary Road for this week’s “First Bite” column.  Sietsema loves the atmosphere and the food:

So the chef and his team are slicing potatoes by hand for their french fries, which they double-fry in peanut oil and send out with a gentle curry dip. Their minestrone shows off a perfect dice of vegetables, pleasantly crisp, and it avoids the blahs with garlic, vinegar and Parmesan in its seasoning. An entree of ropy hanger steak takes my tongue on a ride, thanks to the spicy kale and choron sauce sharing the plate. The most comforting dish on the menu may be pierogi. Walker got the idea from his mother-in-law in Pennsylvania, lightening her tradition by using quark (curd cheese) instead of sour cream inside the boiled dumplings, which are served over heat-softened onions and are easy to polish off.

 We’ve only gone to Boundary Road for drinks so far, but we hope to go very soon (if we can still get in!).

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Zuppa Fresca Premiers Dinner and Bar on Saturday

17 Feb

Zuppa Fresca in NoMa will be premiering dinner service and full bar service starting on Saturday night.  They have been open for breakfast and lunch for almost two months now and so far have been very impressive.  Check out our updated review and their dinner menu.

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A Chili Showdown Coming to H Street?

15 Feb

D.C. institution Ben’s Chili Bowl had announced several months ago that it was opening a location on H Street, which was very exciting news.  Now WTOP reports that an ex-Ben’s Chili Bowl employee who thinks he can improve the Ben’s Chili Bowl model is opening his own place, D.C. Chili Bowl, on H Street as direct competition.

From WTOP:

A former employee of the U Street greasy spoon stalwart plans to open up a competing restaurant on H Street in Northeast, the same neighborhood where the tight-knit clan of Ben’s Chili Bowl founder Ben Ali plans to open a new franchise.

Holmon’s alternative, D.C. Chili Bowl, plans to serve fried onions, sauerkraut and cornbread — all ingredients unavailable at the purist U Street hub. They are already catering to downtown businesses while they settle on a permanent location. Along with partner and former colleague Menyana Williams, they will also serve turkey chili and turkey sauce, contrasted against the beef versions at Ben’s. Continue reading →

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Zuppa Fresca: A Young Chef Brings an Exciting Vision to NoMa

19 Jan

Open Kitchen and Bar at Zuppa Fresca

Even if you know D.C. well, you may not know anything about NoMa.  Technically defined as the area immediately north of Massachusetts Avenue, NoMa is the area to the north of Union Station up to and around the New York Avenue Metro stop that has seen incredible growth in high rise (for D.C.) office buildings and apartment buildings over the past few years.  While NoMa is not currently known for its cuisine or nightlife (with the possible exception of Todd Gray’s Watershed restaurant), a new restaurant has an exciting opportunity to elevate the dining scene in the area and begin to place it on the culinary map.  That restaurant is Zuppa Fresca, located on the ground floor of the Loree Grand apartment building (250 K Street NE).  When the Loree Grand building first opened, it was going to have a restaurant by Gillian Clark (of The General Store and others).  However, Clark’s restaurant never opened, and Zuppa Fresca quickly took its place.  Zuppa Fresca is already open serving breakfast and lunch Tuesday-Sunday; however, the restaurant has much more planned in the weeks and months ahead.

Zuppa Fresca is headed by new chef Alfio Celia, a graduate of L’ Academie de Cuisine in

Window Tables at Zuppa Fresca

Maryland.  Celia started his culinary career when he was 13 cooking in his father’s restaurant.  After his early start, he went on to master his skills at L’Academie de Cuisine so that he could become a part of the D.C. dining scene.  He believes that it isn’t enough simply to make great food.  For him, “a chef has to be able to tell a story with his food and it has to be an interesting story.”  He thinks that NoMa is the place to develop his vision.  In our interview he had warm thoughts about NoMa saying that it will “have explosive growth in the upcoming years and the food scene will need to grow.”  He also believes that other chefs will follow the lead and begin making NoMa a dining and going out destination.

Onion Rings with Aioli

Zuppa Fresca (as you could probably guess from the name) is Italian cuisine but don’t be thinking boring chicken alfredo.  Celia tells us that his dinner menu will buck the usual Italian restaurant theme and not serve many pastas.  Instead, his menu will feature a combination of traditional Italian flavors and modern dishes that have a “Sicilian flair.”   He says that he wants to showcase Sicilian and Italian food “that is overlooked by other Italian cuisine.” Rather than excessive amounts of pasta, expect different kinds of seafood and veal.  He expects that the menu will change daily and that he will be in the kitchen personally preparing many of the dishes. Continue reading →

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Washingtonian’s 100 Best Restaurants 2012: Winners and Losers

26 Dec

The Washingtonian is out with its annual review of top 100 restaurants in Washington, arguably one of, if not the, most important dining reviews in the area.  The list is in the January print edition and will be online soon.  This year, the format of the review continues to change.  In the past the Washingtonian ranked restaurants 1-100; however, over the past few years, the magazine has listed fewer restaurants numerically and instead grouped the majority of restaurants in one alphabetical list.

This year’s list only ranks the top ten restaurants numerically.  The magazine then lists ten restaurants that are “on the rise,” ten that are new and exciting, ten that are “tried and true” establishments, and then the remaining restaurants alphabetically (in the “More Great Dining” category).  This format clearly hurts the restaurants that do not make it into any of the top categories and instead fall into the last category of the remaining restaurants in alphabetical order (some of which were in the top ten last year).  This new format may in fact disadvantage some of the best restaurants in D.C. as it implies that they are not as good as they used to be, even though they may simply have been victims of the new format.

Here’s our quick take on some of the winners and losers in this year’s list (we encourage you to read the entire list in either the magazine or online, it’s well worth the read):

Winners

Ashok Bajaj Named restauranteur of the year by Washingtonian, his restaurants did very well on this year’s list with Rasika placing in the top ten, Bibiana and Ardeo & Bardeo landing in the “on the rise” list, and Oval Room and 701 also appearing on the list.

Johnny Monis Chef Monis’s Komi again is named the top restaurant in D.C. and his Little Serow receives three stars and is on the new list of exciting restaurants.

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