• Teddy Folkman, the chef at Granville Moore’s, made his Food Network debut in July when he beat Bobby Flay in a throwdown of steamed mussels. DCist tells us that he’ll appear again on the TV channel in June, when the 2009 season of The Next Food Network Star begins. For the last six weeks, Folkman has been filming the show, in which the winner earns his or her own show on the Food Network.
• Tim Carman of Washington City Paper reports that Michael Kosmides and Jose Garcia, owners of Teatro Goldoni in downtown DC, will be opening a Mediterranean restaurant at 19th and I streets, Northwest. Teatro’s chef, Enzo Fargione, who has resurrected the Italian restaurant from the dead, will help the owners with their new venture, which is slated to open in December.• On Monday, Metorcurean tweeted that Jean-Georges Vongerichten, the celebrity chef who will set up shop in Washington this summer, has decided that his operation will be a J&G Steakhouse. In a post on her blog on Wednesday, Metrocurean says “it just seems that celebrity chefs keep tossing us red meat like we’re caged lions.” That’s pretty kind, considering what Michael Landrum, owner of the Ray’s empire—which includes the affordable Ray’s the Steaks in Arlington—said on Don Rockwell’s forum.
• Yesterday, Tom Sietsema broke news on Washingtonpost.com’s Going Out Gurus blog: Crystal City’s Bebo Trattoria is the latest restaurant to fall victim to the deflated economy. We can’t say we didn’t see it coming. Chef/owner Roberto Donna had lots of trouble filling the place, which always felt empty with its soaring ceilings and vast dining room. When Sietsema asked Donna about plans for Galileo—his well-known Italian restaurant that’s supposed to reopen in the vacated Butterfield 9 space—the chef said there have been delays.
