• Thelistareyouonit.com’s Nycci Nellis dropped some news on her Twitter page yesterday: Le Paradou is closing later this month. Not that we didn’t see it coming: Luxe dishes such as the $29 foie-gras terrine and $48 lobster, lovely as they are, can’t exactly be flying out of Yannick Cam’s kitchen right now. It’s too bad, though—the once-inconsistent place had regained its footing in recent months—and it does have one of the best lunch specials around ($29 for two courses or $39 for three—and that lobster’s on the menu). The Washington Post’s Tom Sietsema reports that Cam is scouting spaces in McLean and DC’s Palisades.
• Is Bob’s Shabu-Shabu—the Taiwanese hot-pot restaurant in Rockville—closed for good? That’s what the folks at Don Rockwell.com are speculating. One bad sign: The phone line has been disconnected.
• Tom Sietsema brings word of changes at Cafe Mozu, the Asian-themed hotel dining room in the Mandarin Oriental, which is also home to CityZen. CityZen chef Eric Ziebold came up with the idea for the new concept—the name will change to South by Southwest—which centers around lower prices and a mix of locally tuned (blue-crab soup) and Southern dishes (grasshopper pie; HUSH PUPPIES!). CityZen sous chef Rachel Harriman will be in charge of the kitchen. It’s expected to open this summer.
• New York chef Michael Psilakis recently cooked at the White House in honor of Greek Independence Day. He spilled to Grub Street about the experience, asking: “Is this what heroin feels like?” (Dunno—ask Tony Bourdain.) He calls President Obama “charismatic . . . He’s much larger than I expected him to be, physically” and notes that in addition to the new White House garden there will be beehives.
• The Examiner breaks the news of a recent rash of credit-card thefts at local restaurants. Servers sold diners’ credit-card numbers to one of three men, who then spent away at the Collection at Chevy Chase (Gucci, Barneys) and Target. Six servers were implicated in the federal crime. Restaurants affected were M&S Grill, 701, and Clyde’s of Gallery Place in Penn Quarter; Carrabba’s Italian Restaurant in Bowie; and the Gaylord National Hotel at National Harbor.
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Ann Limpert joined Washingtonian in late 2003. She was previously an editorial assistant at Entertainment Weekly and a cook in New York restaurant kitchens, and she is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education. She lives in Petworth.
