Q&A: 'Top Chef's' Spike Talks Burger Joints and Hats

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SPIKE ISN'T SURE HOW he got his nickname (he's really Evangelos Mendelsohn), but it might have to do with being a "punk little kid." That's the part the 27-year-old is playing on Bravo's "Top Chef." But even though he's not making friends, he's making tasty food — and D.C. can sample it when his first restaurant, Good Stuff Eatery, opens on Capitol Hill this June.

» EXPRESS: What's up with you and hats?
» SPIKE: I probably have about a dozen hats. I grew up wearing hats. On the beach, I always had a fedora. And it escalated from there.

» EXPRESS: Do you have a favorite?
» SPIKE: It has to be the one I got from Erik, who was on the show. It's black and white with a skull on it.

» EXPRESS: We hear you're opening a restaurant in D.C. What's the concept?
» SPIKE: It's a burger joint, with all farm- fresh ingredients, organic, supporting local farmers. It's basically a contemporary farm house. Our competition is probably Five Guys, which is greasy.

» EXPRESS: But that doesn't sound so fancy.
» SPIKE: I'm not really ready to open a fine-dining restaurant yet — I'm so young. So, I just want to take a normal classic hamburger and do it perfectly. No gourmet stuff.

» EXPRESS: And it's a family affair, right?
» SPIKE: Right, my sister has been in D.C. for six years, and my parents just moved there. So, I've been visiting while we've been working out the concept. You have no idea how many burgers I've eaten in the past year.

» EXPRESS: How is D.C.'s dining scene?
» SPIKE: It's come a long way in the past five years. There's a demand for new trends, and you have all of these amazing chefs working in town. Eric Ripert just opened his place, and there's Michel Richard and Jose Andres. I have a couple of different restaurant concepts I'm looking at opening in D.C.

» EXPRESS: If everyone in your family is in the restaurant biz, what are your get-togethers like?
» SPIKE: Everything is a feast. My whole family is about food. Whenever my mom cooks, we have leftovers for two weeks. That's just her Greek heritage. I love when we go to Greece, and we get a table for 25 and the food just keeps coming out.

» EXPRESS: What's your entertaining style?
» SPIKE: If I have people over, I usually do a Mediterranean menu. I get lots of cheeses, some charcuterie, and I love to make a lot of small dishes — stuffed mushrooms, eggplant with tomato sauce. It's kind of a tapas thing.

» EXPRESS: What do you cook for yourself?
» SPIKE: I usually get home from the restaurant at 2 in the morning, so I just make myself a little sandwich.

» EXPRESS: How are you at throwing a dish together quickly?
» SPIKE: I like to pride myself on being a methodical chef. I'll come up with a concept, and I'm never happy for at least two weeks. I have to make it 100 times. But on the show, you have 15 minutes. So, now I can always walk to my fridge and come up with something.

» EXPRESS: Particularly soup, right?
» SPIKE: I finally got to make my butternut squash soup. It's the test of a good chef. It was in season, and we had to do it.

Photo courtesy of Bravo