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.

Lots of restaurants use the word “sustainable” on their menus, but what does it mean?

Wreckfish, which has shown up in many local eateries, is a textbook example. It’s under the jurisdiction of the federally appointed South Atlantic Council, says Jim Chambers, owner of Prime Seafood, one of the few Washington fish purveyors that sell wreckfish.

Here’s how to get restaurant-quality coffee at home: Drink the same kind the best restaurants use. We surveyed the top 30 of our 100 Very Best Restaurants to see where they got their coffee, then found out which roasters were local. Here are beans roasted in the Washington area and the places that serve them. There’s one ringer: Qualia doesn’t sell to restaurants, but we include it here for the sheer excellence of its coffee.

There’s no “app” for appetizers yet, but chefs are using iPhones for all sorts of kitchen aid.

Forget the silicone spatula and the stainless-steel stockpot. The hot new gadget in restaurant kitchens is the iPhone.

Rod Yotmanee of DC’s Asia Nine uses his as a high-tech cheat sheet. He relies on the McCormick Recipe Finder for guidance on dishes and the BigOven for help with cooking times.

Recipe-driven applications aren’t the only reason chefs can’t keep their hands off their phones. Several look to them for help with metric conversions—Tony Conte of the Oval Room likes Kitchen Calculator. Restaurant 3’s Brian Robinson and Oyamel’s Joe Raffa consult such programs as Locavore and Seafood Watch for help in choosing local produce and sustainable seafood.

Even applications that weren’t designed with the kitchen in mind are proving useful. Katsuya Fukushima—formerly chef at Café Atlántico, now head of culinary projects at José Andrés’s ThinkFood Group—uses the iHandy Level to make sure paella pans and gelées are even.

Equinox’s Todd Gray uses his iPhone to keep the mood loose with food games. His favorite: IQ Food Trivia. He also lets his phone sizzle with Pocket Bacon, an application that replicates the sound of bacon in the pan and keeps users informed about restaurants that make use of the meat.

Rigatoni with "Sunday gravy" at Potenza. Photograph by Scott Suchman.

In the ’80s, superchef Roberto Donna reigned over the culinary landscape. His spinoffs were everywhere, and Washington was in thrall to Italian cooking. Then came an explosion of Japanese, Thai, Indian, and other cuisines. Diners looked elsewhere for culinary thrills.

That may be changing. The area is suddenly awash in pasta, pizza, and Peroni.

DC’s Siroc, Potenza, and Posto, Alexandria’s Pizzaiolo Cafe & Bar, Rockville’s Baci, and Annapolis’s Carpaccio have all debuted in the last several months. On the horizon: Forno Italian Oven & Grill opens this month in Ashburn, Acqua al Due is coming to Capitol Hill, Ashok Bajaj (Oval Room, Bombay Club) has plans to open Bibiana Osteria–Enoteca at 11th Street and New York Avenue in the fall, and the people behind Teatro Goldoni are launching a casual spinoff later in the year.

Cuisines go in and out of fashion like hemlines, but insiders attribute the current trend to the downturn in the economy. Nothing soothes quite like a bowl of ravioli or a crisp-crust pizza, and Italian is less costly for both restaurateurs and diners than ambitious renditions of French or sushi.

Chili dogs are $1.50 at the Vienna Inn.

Vienna Inn (120 Maple Ave. E., Vienna; 703-938-9548). It may not get as much press as other hot-dog joints like Ben’s Chili Bowl, but regulars flock here for cheap dogs loaded with mustard, onion, and chili ($1.50 each). Where else can you get three chili dogs and a beer for less than $10?

Ben’s Chili Bowl (1213 U St., NW; 202-667-0909). Legendary for its celebrity clientele, Ben’s doesn’t disappoint when it comes to chili dogs and half-smokes ($3.60 to $4.95), the hot dog’s larger, spicier cousin. Each grilled dog comes with chips, but the best accompaniments are the perfectly crisp fries and a milkshake.

Johnny’s Half Shell (400 N. Capitol St., NW; 202-737-0400). Johnny’s can be both upscale and down-home. During lunch, diners can satisfy cravings for caviar and blinis but also for a hot dog, split and grilled, with fries ($8.75). Johnny’s does give it a twist with some highfalutin toppings, though: The more traditional sauerkraut can be replaced with garden vegetables or bleu cheese.

Every few years an obscure fish is plucked from the deep, rechristened, and anointed a star. Consider Chilean sea bass (a.k.a. Patagonian toothfish), black cod (sablefish), and skate (stingray). Now it’s branzino—formerly known as Mediterranean sea bass.