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Daily dispatches on the Washington, DC area's food, restaurant and dining scene.

Category: Eating in Other Cities

What Has Fabio Trabocchi's New York Welcome Been Like?

By Ann Limpert

Chef Fabio Trabocchi recently left Maestro in McLean for New York's SoHo. Photograph courtesy of Maestro.

Chef Fabio Trabocchi recently left Maestro in McLean for New York's SoHo. Photograph courtesy of Maestro.

Back in August, chef Fabio Trabocchi left the country-clubby elegance at Maestro in the Ritz-Carlton Tysons Corner for New York’s SoHo, where he presides over the kitchen at the more casually chic Fiamma. Now that Trabocchi—and the crew of 12 he brought from Maestro—have had some time to adjust, how are New Yorkers taking to his mod-Italian artistry?

New York magazine’s Insatiable Critic (a.k.a. Gael Greene) calls the “movie-star handsome” chef’s cooking a “complex dazzle.” There’s “voluptuous” burrata, “with tomato, three ways, arranged like jewels” and “taste-stirring” Dover sole layered with olives, red pepper, and lemon zest. And yet. “At times a too-intense sauce sabotages an otherwise brilliant notion. . . . Roasted turbot with cipollini and housemade pancetta showily draped in thin slices of raw mushroom would be splendid rescued from the nuggety swamp it sits in.”

Meanwhile, New York food blog Grub Street deconstructs Trabocchi’s porchetta, “the most intensely rural and down-market of dishes.” Not in Trabocchi’s sous-vide-happy, fennel-pollen-sprinkling hands it’s not.

At the New York Times, Florence Fabricant gives Trabocchi a longer, biography-heavy profile. She calls his arrival at Fiamma “big news” and a “coup” for restaurateur Stephen Hanson. (His B.R. Guest restaurant group also owns more pedestrian spots like Ruby Foo’s and Dos Caminos.) Trabocchi, who is now a partner in Fiamma, tells Fabricant he’d always had his sights set on Manhattan; it was just a matter of the right time.

 

 

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Category Tags: Food & Restaurant News, Eating in Other Cities

Eating in Other Cities: Atlanta

By Sara Levine

We found plenty of peaches in Georgia’s capital, but also marvelously buttery biscuits, artichoke-topped burgers, and greaseless fried chicken.

You can get cornmeal pancakes and buttery biscuits all-day, everyday at this crowded Candler Park diner.

You can get cornmeal pancakes and buttery biscuits all-day, everyday at this crowded Candler Park diner.

Atlanta doesn’t have the reputation for deliciously sinful Southern cooking that New Orleans boasts. Its cuisine is best known for...well, Georgia peaches. Sure, they’re wonderful (especially in summer) but a recent weekend trip revealed a dining destination where both upscale and low-key places serve up memorable meals with comforting Southern flair.

After a late Friday-night arrival, my ideal Saturday morning in Atlanta meant sleeping in and brunching at the Flying Biscuit. The colorful diner now has three locations within the city limits, but the slightly cramped Candler Park original is still everyone’s favorite (show up just about anytime and you’ll encounter lines). The tables turn fast, though, and the all-day breakfast options are worth the wait. There are inspired omelets, tofu scrambles, and oatmeal pancakes; all come with a light-as-air yet extremely buttery biscuits. Look beyond breakfast to try such tasty house specialties as the Love Cakes, savory pancakes made from black beans and cornmeal and topped with tangy tomatillo salsa. And no worries—they still come with a biscuit.

The Flying Biscuit, 1655 McLendon Ave., Atlanta; 404-687-8888; flyingbiscuit.com.

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Category Tags: Eating in Other Cities

The Best Bagels in the World? Oui! Oui!

By Todd Kliman , Ann Limpert , Cynthia Hacinli

Bagels from Montreal's St-Viateur, made by hand and finished in a wood-burning oven, are worth the mail costs.

Photograph by Matthew Worden

Bagels from Montreal's St-Viateur, made by hand and finished in a wood-burning oven, are worth the mail costs.

Sorry, New Yorkers—the best bagels in the world are in Montreal. And now, thanks to a change in shipping laws, the legendary Montreal bakery St-Viateur Bagel (stviateurbagel.com) is again shipping its bagels to the States.

Smaller and lighter than their New York cousins and with a larger hole in the center, the bagels are artisanally handcrafted—no machine stamping—and baked in a wood-burning oven. Handmade bagels mostly vanished here in the 1960s, victims of the new bagel machines.

The St-Viateur bagels lose a little something in the three days it takes them to arrive by mail, but popping them into the toaster for a few minutes brings them back almost to their original, glorious state.

You can find cheaper bagels—including shipping, a minimum order of six dozen costs around $60—but not better bagels.



Category Tags: Our Favorite Things, Eating in Other Cities, In the Magazine

Field Trip: Morandi in New York's West Village

By Sara Levine

Celeb restaurateur Keith McNally gives Balthazar and Schiller's an Italian sibling.

New York foodies are buzzing about Morandi, the new Italian place in the West Village and latest addition to restaurateur Keith McNally’s mini-empire (Balthazar, Pastis, Schiller’s). Not without some begging, a friend managed to score us a 6:30 reservation last weekend. After many memorable brunches at Balthazar, Soho’s perennially-packed French brasserie, we were intrigued to see McNally go Italian. Indeed, he evokes Italy with the same finesse that transports diners to Paris at Balthazar. There’s a blackboard listing several house wines served in wicker-based carafes, rustic wooden tables that are just a little too small (somehow it makes things cozy, not annoying), and even servers with seemingly-authentic Italian accents.

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Category Tags: Eating in Other Cities, New Restaurants

Washington, VA: A Nice Weekend Getaway, Even If You're Not Going For "The Inn"

By Sara Levine

The Inn at Little Washington is this tiny Rappahannock town's main attraction, but there's more to see and do.

Relaxing at the Linden Vineyard.

Relaxing at the Linden Vineyard.

Rappahannock County’s biggest claim-to-fame is the illustrious Inn at Little Washington--the ultra-luxurious restaurant and inn that anchors the tiny town of Washington, Virginia (population 160). But there's been plenty written about that. On a recent weekend trip to this idyllic setting just 65 miles from “big” Washington, I discovered some other great spots nearby for food, wine, and fun.

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Category Tags: Eating in Other Cities

Todd Kliman Talks about NYC's Dining Scene

By Todd Kliman

The chat is on hiatus this week, as Todd travels to New York City, but it will return next Tuesday at 11:00 am.

Good morning, chatters!

Just wanted to let you know that the chat is on hiatus this week, as I head up to New York City on this raw, blustery morning to do some food scouting.

Of course, I couldn't in good faith leave you without the prospect of something mouth-watering for the next hour or so, so I've put together some highlights of my last trip north, a couple of weeks ago.

From time to time, I hope to share more of these eating adventures with you - and welcome your feedback.

See you back here next week. Same time, same bat channel.

Until then, feast on this first installment of:

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Category Tags: Eating in Other Cities

Eating in Other Cities: San Francisco

By Sara Levine

All hail In-N-Out Burger and Gary Danko.

The Slanted Door

The Slanted Door

San Francisco is constantly touted as one of the nation’s leading food cities. So needless to say I was thrilled to be invited on a trip to the Golden Gate with my boyfriend’s food-loving family (they’re from New Orleans, after all). Although pretty much every bite of the trip was memorable, these were the major culinary highlights.

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Category Tags: Eating in Other Cities

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What to Do This Weekend: February 9 to 12

Woo at the Zoo, the opening of “Genesis Robot” at Synetic Theater, and the Washington DC International Wine & Food Festival. more

Music Picks: Jack’s Mannequin, All Things Gold, Steve Aoki

Our recommendations for the best in live music over the next seven days. more

Ann Limpert

Though Ann Limpert graduated from Connecticut College with a degree in art history and creative writing, she spent most of her time in New England debating the merits of warm, buttery lobster rolls vs. cold, mayo-y ones. She spent two years covering the internet for Entertainment Weekly magazine (highlights include interviewing the Beastie Boys and dancing to "Livin' la Vida Loca" with Penn Jillette), then left to hone her kitchen skills at the Institute of Culinary Education. She has worked as a cook at several New York restaurants, researched and edited cookbooks, and now writes about food and restaurants for the Washingtonian. more

Kate Nerenberg

Kate Nerenberg started as an editorial intern at The Washingtonian in January 2008 and became an assistant editor in September 2008. A native of West Hartford, Connecticut, she spent the first half of her writing life as a sports reporter, and was the editor of the athletics section for the newspaper and student-run magazine while at Middlebury College. A joint Spanish and Art History major, Kate graduated in 2005 and took off on a year-long journey around the world. After tasting everything from fried crickets to lavish Turkish breakfasts, she realized she wanted to devote herself to writing about food, a lifelong passion. She lives with three roommates just east of Logan Circle in a house that's often filled with the smell of sauteed garlic, warm banana bread, or fried bacon and eggs. more

Rina Rapuano

Rina Rapuano's English degree from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond put her on the path to becoming a managing editor of a weekly business magazine; a freelance copy editor; and assistant managing news editor—and later the lifestyles editor—at a weekly paper in Maryland. But she realized her true calling when her descriptions of meals to friends and colleagues always seemed to end with the same statement: “You're making me hungry.” Frankly, it was making Rina hungry, too. She chucked her day job in 2006 to become a full-time freelance writer focusing mainly on food, and now works as assistant food and wine editor at The Washingtonian. more

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