• In President Obama’s Wednesday speech about initiatives to help small businesses, he cited Pete’s New Haven Style Apizza in DC’s Columbia Heights. The Washington City Paper’s Tim Carman talked to Pete’s owner Joel Mehr, who explained that he got a call from the Treasury Department Tuesday night and found out that Obama might mention his pizza joint in the speech. Mehr made sure the Treasury representative knew to tell the President that apizza is pronounced “a-beets,” not “a-pizza” (Obama didn’t listen). DCist reports that Mehr is looking to open a second location on DC’s waterfront or in Clarendon.
• Restaurants continue to snatch up realty on DC’s 14th Street, Northwest. The Washington Post’s Tom Sietsema brings news that Mark Kuller, owner of the Penn Quarter wine bar Proof, has signed a deal at 14th and Church streets to open a 100-seat Spanish restaurant called Estadio. Kuller is pulling his current talent—head chef Haidar Karoum, sommelier Sebastian Zutant, and bartender Adam Bernbach—to head up the place, which is expected to open next spring or summer. Metrocurean got a few more details: Bernbach’s drinks list will include slushies; there’ll be bite-size pintxos for $1 to $2, tapas for $4 to $9, and raciones for $10 to $18; and, says Kuller, there’ll be an area devoted to Spanish meats and cheeses.
• We never thought we’d see the day, but Birch & Barley and ChurchKey, a two-part beer-centric bar/restaurant, has finally opened. Nearly two years after its expected debut, the former Dakota Cowgirl space has 555 beers on offer and Kyle Bailey from New York’s Allen & Delancey in the kitchen. We’ve got pictures and menus here.
• Tempted by Charlie Palmer’s “Pigs and Pinot” event highlighted last week on Top Chef? Vidalia chef R.J. Cooper is putting on a pig-and-Pinot show of his own. Every Friday night, he tells DonRockwell.com, he’ll come up with six porcine dishes. On last week’s menu: pig-tail croquette with apple butter and quail egg; shaved-pig Reuben sandwich; cornmeal-fried bacon; and bacon/chocolate-chip cookies (dishes ranged from $4.25 to $8). Tonight, the plan is to make ten dishes from a shoat.
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