Jack's in DC's Dupont Circle is morphing into Agora, according to the Washington Post's Tom Sietsema. Owner Latif Guler says he didn't like that his property had become "more of a bar than a restaurant." His new concept highlights food from his native Turkey, but it won't have run-of-the-mill dishes such as hummus and baba ghanouj. Chef Rasit Gulsen will oversee the menu, which includes such items as sauteed spinach with yogurt, and shrimp-stuffed calamari.
We can't say we saw this one coming: The next food truck to roll into Washington will serve . . . lobster rolls. Red Hook Lobster Pound, which imports the fresh crustaceans from Maine, has a storefront in Brooklyn and sells the rolls at the Brooklyn Flea. The truck's local debut comes April 30 at the Azalea Garden Festival in Bethesda. So why Washington? Apparently there's a lot less red tape here than in New York.
Lyon Hall, Clarendon's long-awaited French brasserie, opened Saturday just down the street from its sister property, Liberty Tavern. The menu includes house-made charcuterie, pickled mackerel, trout schnitzel, and pan-fried frog legs.
Equinox restaurant, which suffered a debilitating kitchen fire more than four months ago, received a building permit Wednesday, which means owners Todd and Ellen Gray can finally start to renovate their dining room. Ellen Gray told the Washington City Paper's Tim Carman that the earliest the restaurant would be open is May 12.
If blogging were a sport, we'd find this shenanigan worthy of a major penalty: On Monday, Eater, a New York-based food Web site, posted pictures and information about ten of the country's major restaurant critics, including the Washington Post's Tom Sietsema. We could go into all the reasons why this is cheating, unfair, and just plain not cool, but Tim Carman really said it best in his sarcastic letter to the Web site: "Politically, Eater.com is on the cutting-edge of modern thinking, standing arm-and-arm with country's best minds, like Sarah Palin and members of the Tea Bag Party, who believe the media cannot be trusted." Ouch.
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