Curbside Cupcakes, a mobile cupcake business operating out of a bubblegum-pink truck, landed in front of our downtown DC office this morning; it's been making rounds since Tuesday. An intersection of Washington's latest food trends—social-media marketing (follow the truck's whereabouts at twitter.com/curbsidecupcake), street food, and cupcakes—the concept was the brainchild of two friends who wanted cupcakes one day but didn't feel like schlepping to Georgetown to get them. Samuel Whitfield III, a former attorney, and Kristi Cunningham, who worked in freight forwarding, gave up their careers to peddle their sweets, baked by a third partner in the business. The cupcakes, which sell for $3 apiece, come in five flavors: classic vanilla, classic chocolate, red velvet, chocolate mocha, and chocolate frosting with vanilla cake.

>> Check out more photos of Againn in our photo slideshow. 

For all their literary, musical, and theatrical achievements, Britons haven’t traditionally been known for their flair in the kitchen. Fish and chips can be synonymous with crude frying, and mushy peas taste like, well, mush. But thanks to Michelin-starred English chefs such as Heston Blumenthal and Gordon Ramsay—and locals such as Jamie Leeds of CommonWealth—UK cuisine has become de rigueur.

In keeping with this trend is Againn, a British-inspired gastropub that opened last week on the fringes of DC’s Penn Quarter. Contrary to spell check, the oddly named location isn’t a typo—it loosely translates as “are you going?,” “with us,” or “at us,” depending on your Gaelic dictionary.
 

>> To see more photos of the Reserve, visit our photo slideshow 

It’s easy to walk past the Reserve and not even realize it. Its two nine-foot-tall, unmarked castle doors are fringed by the scruffy Post Pub and a makeshift sign advertising “$5 palm readings by Ms. Alexis.”

Pushing past the doors and onto the lounge’s mahogany floor, patrons will find black leather love seats surrounding candlelit tables and an oak-paneled bar topped with marble. A carpeted staircase leads to the upstairs wine room, where some 250 bottles of reds are stacked in a floor-to-ceiling cantina and another 250 bottles of whites chill in a refrigerator.

J&G Steakhouse
Downtown DC

Lousy restaurant name and great food? Or intriguing name and lousy food? Definitely the former. This place gets four stars, without a doubt.

They started us off with a sample drink—on the house—which looked and tasted somewhat like pink grapefruit. Then we ordered our own choices from a really nice selection. Pimm’s Cup was excellent. We shared appetizers of corn ravioli and crabcakes, and then we ordered a round of oysters. Just writing the word and remembering those oysters, I’m actually salivating. We had to repeat the order; it was impossible not to. Even the sauces and vinaigrettes accompanying the oysters were special.

Our entrées were a fish dish, interestingly topped with diced celery, and an amazing cheeseburger (with fries, of course). But what a burger!

Desserts were excellent, too. And just like we started out with a freebie, we ended with gratis almonds, coated two different ways. The service was top-notch—attentive but not obsequious.
Whew! That’s an eating experience worth bragging about.

>> Check out more photos of the Birch & Barley and ChurchKey space in our photo slideshow 

Greg Engert leans across the table, using both hands to explain why Pilsners and lagers are meant to be served colder than barleys and stouts. His eyes widen as he talks about how he analyzes a beer’s crispness and aromatic content to determine the “purest representation of the brewer’s intention.” He interrupts his draft discourse to shout numbers up to several movers hauling kegs into what look like three oversize bank safes. “No one in the country has ever done this before,” he says.

Introducing Birch & Barley, a seasonally driven American dining room, and above it ChurchKey, a grazing-friendly upstairs bar/lounge. After a year-and-a-half delay, both beer-centric spots opened yesterday in the old Dakota Cowgirl/Ramrod space near DC’s Logan Circle. Though visitors first step into Birch & Barley’s slick dining room downstairs, the building’s focal point is found up the steps, where beer director Engert, who oversees the suds at the beer-obsessed Rustico in Alexandria, has stocked 555 beers from 30 countries. The bar offers 50 artisanal drafts and five hand-pumped, cask-conditioned beers. Beer geeks will admire the three temperature-controlled vaults—which rang in at $100,000—nestled overhead. Inside them, kegs cool at their optimal temperatures according to each brewer’s specifications. A roster of old-school cocktails—Aperol spritzes, Moscow mules—is available for those not in the mood for a pint.

>> To see more photos of Kellari, check out our slideshow here. 

Gregory Zapantis surveys the seafood atop a mound of crushed ice and selects a whole prawn, prettily mottled and nearly as long as my forearm. It weighs in at about half a pound. “This is a Madagascar wild shrimp,” he says, turning it over to show me. Because the flavorful roe is located along its back and not its underside, he says, the kitchen cleans and prepares this shrimp differently. “It’s very sweet, very good.”

This is how Zapantis, chef and partner of the new downtown DC restaurant Kellari, wants all his patrons to start their meal—by chatting with the staff, learning about the food, and understanding the preparation before selecting their dinner. And so the focal point of the restaurant—a DC outpost of the popular New York dining room—is this icy seafood display fringed with fennel and packed with 15 varieties of seafood. Diners can view that day’s selections and choose their meal straight off the ice—a tribute, Zapantis says, to traditional, menuless Greek dining.

Zapantis resists calling Kellari a Greek restaurant or the dishes Greek cuisine. “How can you put borders on food?” he asks. But the menu is unquestionably Mediterranean-inspired, with classics such as spanakopita, olive-oil-grilled lamb, and citrusy avgolemono soup. The seafood, the restaurant’s star, is sold by the pound—the chefs recommend a pound per person—and simply prepared with oregano, capers, lemon, and olive oil. “Our philosophy is that food in its purest form is the best food,” says executive chef Anthony Acinapura.