A lime cupcake with coconut icing from Hello Cupcake. Photograph by Jennifer Smoose.

• In the mood for a cupcake? Apparently. Dupont Circle’s fanciful Hello Cupcake (1351 Connecticut Ave., NW; 202-861-2253) debuted Monday morning with long lines and hour waits for its $3 peanut-butter/chocolate and root-beer-float confections. But that wasn’t the only cupcake shop that came on the scene this week. Old Town’s Lavender Moon Cupcakery (116 S. Royal St., Alexandria; no phone number yet), made a quieter splash when it opened last Sunday, but we’re itching to try the farmers-market-inspired creations such as peach-and-basil. to try the farmers-market-inspired creations such as peach-and-basil.

Forget quail eggs, the beloved playthings of trendy restaurants and sushi bars; the egg of choice among the city’s top toques these days is duck.

Duck eggs have made appearances at Corduroy, where chef/owner Tom Power uses them in his duck-egg-and-duck- leg salad and in a lush crème brûlée on the dessert menu, and at Westend Bistro (1190 22nd St., NW; 202-974-4900), where chef/owner Eric Ripert and chef de cuisine Leonardo Marino are presenting a fried duck egg over green beans, walnuts, and bleu-cheese dressing.

We hung out in front of Clarendon’s Spider Kelly’s (3181 Wilson Blvd., Arlington; 703-312-8888), a laid-back neighborhood joint run by two Arlington residents, and flagged down the small handful of diners who tried the place out this past Tuesday night. They filled us in on the chicken flautas, rosemary fries, and choice of music.

I may have let go of Marlboro Lights a few years ago, but I still love the taste of smoke. For a long time, I kept my days going with cups of Lapsang Souchong, the Chinese black tea that’s so super-smoky my coworkers can smell it down the office hallway. A little while ago, while researching an article on the best cheeses for summertime-cookout burgers, Cheesetique owner Jill Erber turned me on to a different charred-tasting pleasure: Capri, a hickory-smoked goat cheese from Westfield Farm in Massachusetts (it also makes chocolate and wasabi varieties of chèvre). Erber likes it on her cheeseburgers with a slice of tomato, which I agree is delicious. But when I bought a log, I immediately started eating it in any way I could: folded into eggs, tossed into tomato salad, sprinkled over leftover pizza—but mostly I’ve been chipping away at the log and eating it all by itself. Yep, I’m hooked.

Chef Bryan Voltaggio, late of Capitol Hill’s swanky Charlie Palmer Steak, has decamped to his hometown of Frederick to open a restaurant that bears part of his name. Volt (228 N. Market St.; 301-696-8658) is set in a brownstone mansion in the city’s historic district. Will Voltaggio’s fans venture to the exurbs for his farm-to-table cuisine?

Also striking out on his own, ex–Restaurant Eve pastry chef Niel Piferoen has opened Locolat (1781 Florida Ave., NW, Suite A; 202-518-2570). The space is sunny and inviting, and the Belgian-born chocolatier’s confections look like works of art.

At the new outpost of Sushi-Ko in Chevy Chase, neither of the guys running the kitchen is Japanese, and neither of them had ever eaten sushi in his native country before coming to the United States. You’d never know it though. Indonesian head sushi chef Piter Tjan and Guatemalan chef de cuisine Edwin Navarro are upholding the same standards as the original Sushi-Ko in DC’s Glover Park, turning out high-quality rolls and inventive seafood dishes.

Photograph by Matthew Worden.

Crab feasts used to be a ritual for a lot of Washingtonians; these days, with a bushel costing upward of $200, it’s an indulgence. It doesn’t have to be, thanks to a superb new dish at Johnny’s Half Shell—barbecue crabs, on the menu every Friday through September. The preparation is simple if slightly heretical to native ears: Four large hard-shell crabs are cleaned and cut in half—then deep-fried and coated in a mixture of Gulf Coast spices. The dish pays homage to the original barbecue crabs concocted four decades ago by the legendary Sartin’s in East Texas. The meat, though twice cooked, is succulent and sweet. This is eat-with-your-hands-and-let-the-spices-
fall-where-they-may eating, and it’s worth every penny of the 25 bucks.

Johnny's Half Shell, 400 N. Capitol St., NW; 202-737-0400; johnnyshalfshell.net.