• Local pastry chef David Guas, author of DamGoodSweet, tells Tom Sietsema of the Washington Post that he’s opening an all-day restaurant across the street from Arlington’s Court House Metro. Guas, a New Orleans native, hopes to start serving biscuits, shrimp bisque, and roast-beef po’ boys from Bayou Bakery, Coffee Bar & Eatery by early November. Passion Food Hospitality (DC Coast, Ceiba, Acadiana), where Guas his start, is a partner for the project, which started last year with the Liberty Tavern owners but quickly fell apart.
• Grub Street has the new lineup for the Food Network’s upcoming shows. On the schedule is an Iron Chef America match between José Andrés protégés Katsuya Fukushima and Ruben Garcia against Philadelphia-based chef Jose Garces on Sunday, September 26, at 10 PM. Fukushima, who worked with Andrés at Café Atlántico and Minibar, was most recently the head of José Andrés Catering With Ridgewells. Garcia is Andrés's right-hand man and helps him plan new concepts and menus.
• Prince of Petworth got a tip that H Mart—a national chain of Asian markets (that we love for its cheap, cheap produce)—is one of the businesses jockeying for the former “Secret Safeway” space at 1800 20th Street, Northwest.
• We learned via Twitter that Vice President Joe Biden ate at the new Pete’s New Haven Style Apizza in Friendship Heights Wednesday. NBC explains that he was there to talk about tax cuts with small-business owners. Biden apparently told Pete’s owner Joel Mehr that he eats pizza “just about” every day—then he ordered two pies, plain and pepperoni, to take back to the White House.
• For us, there aren’t many smells that top burgers cooking on a grill. But the law firm Steptoe & Johnson doesn’t agree. The organization sued its nearby neighbor, the burger joint Rogue States, for emitting greasy fumes that are being sucked up by Steptoe air vents. A partner from the firm said in a statement that its employees are “entitled to a work environment that is free of odor and smoke that many find offensive.” A judge’s ruling this week gave owner Raynold Mendizabal 30 days to fix the problem, and if his efforts aren’t sufficient, he’ll probably have to close down.
• Fabio Trabocchi, the former Maestro chef who went to New York to work at Fiamma (now closed), then briefly at the Four Seasons, is now consulting at Villa Pacri, a consortium of restaurants in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District. The New York Times reports that he’ll be working there until the end of the year—which is on schedule with the rumors we’ve heard that he’s scouting spaces to come back to Washington. Maybe he’s making a little extra money to build a new restaurant?
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