The Georgetown Cupcake sisters will debut their NYC location next weekend.

It’s always nice when a DC eatery expands to NYC—so often it’s the other way around. The grand opening of the Georgetown Cupcake location at 111 Mercer in SoHo is slated for the second weekend in February, according to Sophie LaMontagne, who owns the cupcakery with sister Katherine Kallinis.

“The new shop is modeled after our flagship in Georgetown with a SoHo twist,” says LaMontagne. “Some of our core staff have already moved to New York City. Katherine and I will be splitting our time between DC and New York. We will be debuting some new flavors, which we’ll offer at our Georgetown/Bethesda shops, as well.” Among those new flavors is cheesecake, naturally enough. 

LaMontagne says the process of building the SoHo shop will be documented on a future episode of DC Cupcakes, the TLC television show featuring the sisters. “Viewers will get to see the entire process of what it’s like to open a bakery from scratch, from signing the lease to the construction to training the staff, and the mad rush leading up to the grand opening.”

Mike Isabella will debut Bandolero dishes at a pop-up in February. Photograph by Scott Suchman.

“This is not classic food,” says Mike Isabella, pointing to a draft of the Bandolero menu. “The tradition is there, but then it’s the Mike Isabella touch.”

A few days before Living Social announced a new pop-up project that will preview the menu at Isabella’s forthcoming Mexican restaurant in Georgetown, the Graffiato chef had just returned from an eating trip to San Francisco—the final leg of a three-city tour designed to familiarize himself with the offerings at the best Mexican eateries around the country. In between these jaunts, he’s been poring over the Mexican cookbook canon, “from Diana Kennedy, the classic, to Rick Bayless and some of the modern stuff.” The Bandolero menu has yet to be finalized—Isabella says he’ll likely make tweaks up until two weeks from the opening—but the chef seems to have nailed down the lion’s share of the dishes.

Here’s the scoop on what to expect:

Staff gather at Toki Underground to school themselves on dishes in advance of the restaurant's recent Chinese New Year pop-up. Photographs by Erik Uecke.

“We want people to know we’re a real restaurant,” says Toki Underground chef-owner Erik Bruner-Yang, perched on one of the ramen shop’s signature stools. Given the eatery’s tendencies towards hour-plus-long waits and a menu packed with foodie bait—pork cheeks, goat-centric specials, sparkling sake on tap—it’s clear that Toki is, indeed, a very real restaurant. But once in a while it’s good to pull out all the stops and flex different culinary muscles, and that’s where the Toki pop-ups come in.

Jose Alvarez's modernist amoebae paintings decorate the new 2941 and its menus. Photographs by Jeff Martin.

So here’s the thing you hear again and again from restaurant-industry experts, eatery owners, and everyone else in the biz: Generally speaking, people are still eating out—a lot—but they want to do so in a more ad hoc and flexible way. Chef’s tables? Not so much. Small plates? Bring them on. At the same time, diners care more than ever about what they’re eating and where the food came from. The upshot: a larger market for mid-price to sorta-expensive places making carefully sourced food in a more affordable way.

District Taco's Arlington restaurant. The chain is expanding into DC with two brick and mortars and a second El Torito truck. Photograph courtesy of District Taco via Facebook.

Good news, taco lovers, (bad news, people who love to hate on District Taco for invoking the DOC without actually operating with in its parameters): The popular Arlington taqueria hopes to open not one, but two new locations inside the District this year, according to owner Marc Wallace. And that’s just the start.

“The plan is to expand in DC a little bit more, and then [open] more restaurants around the area,” says Wallace.

The first DC location is a 50-seat spot set to open in the former Funxion space at 1309 F Street, Northwest, potentially in late March. Wallace says the menu of customizable tacos, burritos, and quesadillas will be the same, as will the early morning, later-evening hours (7 AM to 10 PM daily). As always, tweaks may be made based on neighborhood demands, and the goal is to get a liquor license sometime after opening. Design by Core (Pearl Dive, Founding Farmers, Brasserie Beck, and many more) will also mean a more streamlined interior than at the original spot, which Wallace describes as “very much bootstraps.” The second DC location has yet to be secured, but spaces are being scoped around Capitol Hill, Dupont, and the Palisades.

Fans of El Torito, the Arlington food truck that started the whole District Taco venture, also have something to look forward to: A second truck is set to begin roving the streets of DC come spring. In the words of the taco cart itself, Orale!

Where will he pop up next? For his new Pepe project, José Andrés is hiring locally. Photograph by Pablo de Loy.

Eater National broke the (very exciting!) news last week that José Andrés is testing a food truck—working name “Pepe”—in Washington that may or may not be bound for Miami. That last bit remains unsure, but it looks like Andrés is at least hiring in DC. According to a Craigslist ad posted Wednesday, “Pepe is seeking a motivated cook to join the culinary team.”

What will it take to please Pepe? Well, a lot, actually. According to the ad, the job requires “writing, standing, sitting, walking, repetitive motions, bending, climbing, listening, hearing ability, and visual acuity.” Just like second grade! And that’s only one bullet point. You also have to speak English, know how to handle knives, have a passion for cooking, and be able to interact with the general public and law enforcement, potentially at the same time (thank you, DC regulators).

There’s no word on the menu, but the CL post notes that “the little plate movement that José has been credited with seems to be taking the country by storm, and we need to find the right people to support this growth.” So keep your eyes peeled for little Pepe plates on wheels sometime soon.

This man wants to make you brunch. Evening Star Cafe chef Jim Jeffords shows off his new mid-morning menu this weekend. Photograph by Jeff Martin.

A new brunch is always good news, and never more so than when it’s within stumbling distance of the spot where you sleep. So Del Ray denizens should be pretty happy about the news that Southern-leaning (and pretty darn adorable) Evening Star Cafe will debut a new brunch this Sunday. Saturday service starts on February 4.