At a time when everybody’s looking for good dining deals, Karma Kitchen’s one-page menu is a big attraction. It changes almost every week, but the prices don’t: There aren’t any.
Instead of a bill, diners receive a note explaining that their meal is a gift from a previous patron. The only request: Leave what you will to cover the next person’s meal.
The hot dog has long occupied the same realm as the chicken nugget: Both are mystery meats that taste delicious as long as you don’t know where they come from or what’s in them. But there’s nothing to fear in Red Apron’s kitchen. Nathan Anda, the former chef at Tallula and EatBar, crafts dogs with a non-scary blend of local dry-aged beef and pork fat that’s encased in sheep intestines. Unlike many grocery-store varieties, the hot dogs contain no nitrates or preservatives, but smoked paprika, roasted garlic, and coriander all get added. Anda’s hot dogs are currently sold at Planet Wine (2004 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria; 703-549-3444), the Penn Quarter FreshFarm Market (Thursday 3 to 7 on Eighth St., NW, between D and E sts.), and the Ballston and Crystal City farmers markets (Fridays 11 to 3 in Welburn Square; Tuesdays 3 to 7 on Crystal Dr. between 18th and 20th sts.). Anda works his meat mastery out of the kitchen at Tallula, but he’s currently looking to find Red Apron its own location. A sign he means business: He says he won’t cut his hair until it happens. Watch the video below.
Every week, we wrap up what food news has been going on in Washington.
• President Barack Obama took his daughters, Malia and Sasha, to get a frosty treat on Saturday at the Dairy Godmother, a shop in Del Ray that specializes in frozen custard. The New York Timesreports that the family cut the line to get their serving of the Wisconsin-style dessert, which is lower in calories, fat, and sugar than conventional ice cream. So what did they eat? All of them got vanilla custard; Sasha had hers in a brownie sundae, Malia’s was in a waffle cone, and their dad had hot fudge and almonds on his. The President offered to leave a tip, but shop owner Liz Davis doesn’t allow them. Instead, she sent him home with some of her “puppy pops” for the First Dog, Bo.
• Breadline, the popular sandwich-and-salad lunch spot in downtown DC, was slapped with 19 health-code violations on Monday, which forced the place to close temporarily. The Washington City Paper’s Tim Carman secured a copy of the entire report, a startling piece of evidence that includes such problems as operating with a suspended license and a food slicer with “old food particles present.” The most offensive, though, is probably the health inspector’s discovery of “excessive live fruit fly activity throughout the establishment.” Eek. Carman also got a copy of Thursday’s inspection report, which shows that Breadline cleaned up its act quickly. The document has a list of “standard operating procedures” from the health department, including these two items: “Cold foods must be kept cold” and “Hot foods must be kept hot.”
Lunchtime diners were turned away today from the popular bakery/sandwich shop Breadline. Signs posted on the door say “We are making important improvements to our facility in order to ensure the safety of our employees and customers.” A manager said the restaurant was closed at the request of the health department while it makes ceiling and equipment repairs. They hope to reopen Thursday or Friday, and more extensive renovations are planned in the future.
Roberto Donna is coming back to town, Agraria is getting a new identity, and the owners of Marvin scout out Petworth.
• It’s official: Now that Roberto Donna has closed his Crystal City trattoria, Bebo, he’ll reopen his shuttered downtown dining room, Galileo . . . sort of. The new place, in the old Butterfield 9 space, will be called Galileo III and will have fewer tables than Donna’s old quarters. The Washington Post’s Tom Sietsema reports that Donna is also resurrecting Laboratorio del Galileo, a lavish, 12-plus course, open-kitchen dinner served to a small audience of diners. Now the big question is, will he bring back his late and lamented lunchtime sandwich grill? We want pork shoulder!
Tired of giving your kids chicken fingers and fries off the children’s menu? Check out Kids’ Restaurant Week, scheduled to hit DC June 13 through 21.
Modeled on the popular semiannual Restaurant Week, during which a long list of high-end dining rooms offer prix-fixe, three-course menus at prices based on the year ($20.09 for lunch, $35.09 for dinner), Kids’ Restaurant Week will serve up sophisticated but kid-friendly creations priced according to your child’s age. Eight-year-olds will eat for $8, nine-year-olds for $9, up to age 11. Parents can also score prix-fixe menus for a price still to be determined (don’t worry, your age won’t factor in).
• Last Saturday, Barack and Michelle Obama flew to New York to see the August Wilson play Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. Before the show, they stopped at Blue Hill, the West Village restaurant helmed by Dan Barber, an unofficial spokesman for the local-food movement (many of the ingredients used at his restaurant come from his upstate-New York farm). No word on what the First Couple ate—Barber’s keeping mum on that—although the New York Daily News reports that Barack sipped wine while Michelle had two martinis.
Tons of Fourth of July parties, fireworks, pool parties galore, a pig roast, the closing of the Folklife Festival and Artomatic, and lots more in this jam-packed weekend guide.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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