President Obama romanced first lady Michelle Obama at Blue Duck Tavern in DC’s West End. The couple was celebrating their 17th wedding anniversary . . .

. . . Actress Natalie Portman invaded Westend Bistro at the downtown Ritz-Carlton in DC with a gang of more than 20 people. She was later spotted breakfasting at Commissary near Logan Circle.

. . . Who’s the man eating a cheeseburger and sipping Chardonnay at Trio in DC’s Dupont Circle? Shaft (a.k.a. Richard Roundtree)! You’re damn right . . .

. . . Los Angeles Dodgers legend Tommy Lasorda celebrated his 82nd birthday at the upscale Italian chain Il Mulino in downtown DC. Joining the party were Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig, Dodgers manager Joe Torre, and Nationals owner Mark Lerner . . .

Top Chef is down one Washingtonian. In a surprise twist, perennial bottom-three-er Robin escaped elimination on this week’s episode and Zaytinya chef Mike Isabella was asked to pack his knives and go. His offense? A poorly executed (and oddly protein-free) leek dish for vegetarian actress Natalie Portman. On a Washingtonpost.com chat yesterday, Isabella made clear he’s hasn’t gained any affection for Robin (a.k.a. Grandma). “That woman could not cook her way out of a paper bag,” noted a commenter. “That’s totally true,” replied Isabella. “She can’t cook.” He went on to tell E! Online that though they’ve talked since the show, “she’s crazy and she’s annoying.”

Jack Evans saves the day! After it looked like the 40-year-old downtown DC dive the Black Rooster was headed for extinction, it now seems it’ll stay open after all. Owner Jody Taylor credits the DC Council member with the rescue. What happened? “I don’t really know, to be honest with you,” Taylor tells the Washington City Paper. “Once I talked to the landlord, he was extremely gracious. Everybody came to terms. It’s good all around.”

Washington Post restaurant critic Tom Sietsema’s tenth annual dining guide is online—for real this time. Close watchers got a glimpse of the guide when it was inadvertently posted on the Post’s Web site at least four days early. “Since I never saw what went live, I’m not sure if that was my final FINAL list,” Sietsema told the Washington City Paper’s Tim Carman. Indeed, newcomer Eventide wound up with two and a half stars, not the early version’s three. The biggest surprise: Rasika, the Penn Quarter Indian hot spot, garnered four stars, putting it in the same ranks as CityZen, Komi, the Inn at Little Washington, and the tasting room at Restaurant Eve. Citronelle, which was downgraded to three and a half stars last year, was given the same rating this year.

Chef Sam Adkins is leaving Jackie’s after more than five years at the funky Silver Spring restaurant. And not by choice, he tells Tom Sietsema. Owner Jackie Greenbaum says that although Adkins is one of her “dearest” friends, “I think we reached the limitations of expression with one another.” No word yet on where Adkins will turn up next.

• The food-magazine world lost its queen on Monday, when Condé Nast announced it was closing Gourmet, which has been in print since 1940. For weeks, we’d heard rumors that the media giant was going to shut down a number of its titles, but the news about Gourmet was a shock to many. Its October issue was dedicated to restaurants, and editors asked Washington Post food critic Tom Sietsema where he’d spend $1,000. Among his picks were Jaleo, Et Voila!, and Obelisk. Gourmet will put out its final issue next month.

• Yesterday, 82-year-old Ben Ali, best known as the mastermind behind the iconic U Street, Northwest, landmark Ben’s Chili Bowl, passed away yesterday. The restaurant, famous for its chili dogs and cheese fries, opened in 1958. Ali’s sons, Kamal and Nizam, run the DC landmark.

• More wine on the way: Prince of Petworth reports that Justin Abad and John Manolatos, two of the three Cashion’s Eat Place owners, found a spot for a wine-and-gourmet-foods shop in DC’s Adams Morgan and hope to be open before the holidays. Then a Metrocurean reader wrote in about Twisted Vines Bottleshop & Bistro, a wine store and small-plates restaurant to open by November in Arlington.

DC’s posh Mandarin Oriental hotel might be an unlikely place to show off the sleepy, Southern side of Washington, but chef Eric Ziebold is seeking to do just that. His casual new restaurant, Sou’Wester, offers a Gone With the Wind vibe with gone-to-the-Eastern-Shore regional comfort food.

Occupying the former Café MoZU space, the restaurant invokes a distinctly different sense of time and place than Ziebold’s sleek destination dining room, CityZen. Diners catch their first whiff of Sou’Wester’s bucolic-chic seasoning in the lobby “sun porch,” where “country time” happy hour—with cocktails between $7 and $10—is served in wooden rocking chairs daily from 3 to 5. Inside, ceiling lamps covered in wicker resemble crab pots, sunflowers float in glass vases, and a spacious, breezy dining room looks out on houseboats bobbing on the Southwest waterfront.

“Sou’Wester is a moment back in time,” says Ziebold. “When creating it, we thought, ‘What is it that we’d like to eat in DC sitting on the waterfront? What represents the city?’ ”

• Chef Scott Conant won’t be opening a branch of his much-praised New York restaurant Scarpetta here after all. Conant tells the Washington Post’s Tom Sietsema it came down to timing—he’s got a baby on the way and another Scarpetta in Miami to focus on. Bummer. Let the rumor mill ramp up again.

• Does Barton Seaver deserve being anointed chef of the year by Esquire magazine? And could his restaurant Blue Ridge really be one of the best in the country? That’s what food writer John Mariani is said to proclaim in the November issue. It’s an eyebrow raiser for sure, because Blue Ridge has been knocked quite a bit by local critics. (Tom Sietsema gave it 1½ stars; you can read our take here.) But Mariani tells the Washington Post’s Jane Black that his meal was apparently much different than the ones other critics cited. (It may have helped that Seaver knew he and his guests were there.) “I liked very much what I ate. It seemed a reflection of what he was doing,” he tells Black. “There was a lot of emphasis on vegetables but not on being a vegetarian. The chicken and pork was cooked very well. That southern style of cooking is not easy to find, even in your neck of the woods. They were of supremely good ingredients.”