SOMETIMES THERE'S NOTHING quite like a jam-packed bar with music blasting to let the fun receptors in your brain know that it's party time.
If you're in that sort of mood, and you're looking for a beer, burger or wings, Adams Mill Bar and Grill is right up your alley. Combine the noise of a packed house with televised sporting events and a DJ on weekends, and you have something approaching a Metallica concert level of noise.
"We want to get it loud in here," said manager Paul Kerins. "We want to get the crowds into it during games and at night we crank up the music."
For the most part, 18th Street is an easy place to drown out your thoughts. Just walking past places like Asylum Bar and Lounge or the Brass Monkey can be an assault on the ears.
Continue Reading "Pump Up the Volume, or Don't: Tips for Finding the Perfect Atmosphere" »
IF YOUR VALENTINE is a foodie (and most likely a locavore, too), home-grown might really be where the heart is. Wooing your sweetie with gourmet delights created in the area — D.C.-roasted coffee, Virginia-born bonbons — wipes out the need for long-distance culinary romance. Besides, many of these treats taste better and seem more heartfelt than yet another box of Godiva chocolate-covered whatevers. Perhaps most surprising, "Sparkling wine made in Virginia stands up to pricier French champagne," says David Gwathmey of Grape + Bean (118 S. Royal St., Alexandria; 703-664-0214), which stocks bubbly by Charlottesville's Thibaut-Janisson. And who knows? Maybe such super-fresh goodies will help you get fresh with your latest crush.
» Thibaut-Janisson's Virginia Blanc de Chardonnay smells flowery, and tastes bubbly and crisp. Made in Charlottesville, this standout sparkler was poured at President Obama's first state dinner, so it's probably fancy enough for your private Valentine's Day gala. ($30, Grape + Bean, 118 S. Royal St., Alexandria; 703-664-0214)
» Exotic combos — dark chocolate with pink peppercorn; white chocolate with coconut and lime — belie the fact that Fleurir Chocolates bonbons are made in Reston, Va. Proceeds from sales of the Heart’s Delight box, shown, sold via the chocolatier’s site ($18), benefit the American Heart Association. You can also score the sweets by the pound at Biagio Fine Chocolates. (1904 18th St. NW; 202-328-1506)
Continue Reading "Love, Locally: Valentine's Treats from the Area" »
JOSH SHORT MANS the ovens at Buzz Bakery (901 Slaters Lane, Alexandria; 703-600-2899), but even a cupcake connoisseur such as he can handle only so much sweet stuff. "Pastry chefs sometimes tire of eating sugar all day," he admits. So, one day when he was at home watching a cooking show about healthier baked treats, he was inspired to toy around with online recipes. After some tweaking, he was chomping on his very own energy bar ($1.95, pictured above).
"I was trying to find something that's low in sugar and fat, and good for you," he says. "I wanted something to sustain you." The result is a rectangular slab of all-natural peanut butter, rolled oats, agave nectar, dark raisins, fiber-rich pepitas and dark chocolate (he uses Belcolade). If you're attempting to make similar treats at home — which Short says is simply a matter of binding the ingredients with the peanut butter, spreading in a pan and slicing — be careful the bars don't get too dry. His solution: extra chocolate. (Just think of it as more antioxidants.) The January resolution crowd couldn't get enough of the bars, and neither can Short, who grabs one for a daily snack. "It's nice to have something here to munch on that fills you up," he says. "When I eat one, I feel full and I'm not craving anything."
Written by Express contributor Amy Cavanaugh
IF YOU'VE EVER whipped up pancakes for dinner, then you'll get behind the latest trend at D.C. restaurants — breakfast items on the dessert menu. From French toast to bacon waffles, breakfast desserts give chefs a chance to play around, and diners have an opportunity to eat something beyond standard cheesecake and creme brulee.
"When you work at a fine dining restaurant, you don't have the outlet to do breakfast, and this gives you an outlet," Birch & Barley pastry chef Tiffany MacIsaac says. "If you think of breakfast breads, they're sweet, and they lend themselves to dessert."
Continue Reading "Save Room for Bacon: D.C. Restaurants Serve Breakfast for Dessert" »
ATTENTION, PARENTS OF picky eaters: There is hope. Nancy Piho, author of "My Two-Year-Old Eats Octopus: Raising Children Who Love to Eat Everything," and chef Michel Richard team up at Citronelle to show kids how delicious high-end food can be. On the menu are a variety of dishes with short-stack appeal: pearl pasta risotto (things made to look like something else), lobster burger (thing called a mudbug) and chocolate (chocolate). Parents get much-needed wine pairings with each course.
» Citronelle, 3000 M St. NW; Feb. 10, 6:30 p.m., $95 adults, $37 children under 12; 202-625-2150.
HEADS UP, FELLAS
Dude, you can't throw a steak on the grill, hand over a drugstore box of chocolates and and call it Valentine's Day. And your love bird doesn't want you splattering the kitchen with squid ink or whatever in an attempt to go gourmet. Let Art Smith guide your manly hand. Art and Soul's executive chef, Travis Timberlake, will host V Day-inspired cooking demonstration for men. If you're a spaz with a spatula, on the big day itself (Feb. 14, guys), the restaurant offers a sharing menu by candlelight for two.
» Art and Soul, 415 New Jersey Ave. NW; cooking demonstration Sat., noon-2 p.m., $50; reserve online.
THERE'S NO SIGN outside Patty Boom Boom, U Street's hip new Jamaican-themed bar and snackery. But given the weekend waits to get into its largely sign-less sister spots around the corner, Marvin and the Gibson, it won't need a sign to attract patrons — just a fun concept, a little mystique, some juicy word of mouth, a thriving neighborhood, and the reputation of its ownership team, which includes Thievery Corporation's Eric Hilton.
"I think people will find it," says operations director Ian Hilton with a confident grin.
Continue Reading "No Red Velvet Ropes Allowed: Patty Boom Boom" »
Ingredients:
» 1 cup dry yellow mustard powder (preferably Coleman's)
» 1/2 cup light brown sugar
» 1 tbsp salt
» 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
» 6 oz. amber ale, flat (to flatten beer, whisk it quite vigorously for about a minute)
Makes 1 1/2 Cups
Add mustard, brown sugar, salt and turmeric to a small, non-reactive
bowl and whisk them together. The mustard will form a thick paste at first. Whisk this paste until it is completely smooth (this will break up any clumps in the mixture and allow you to thin the mustard to a proper consistency). Then, add the beer slowly, whisking mixture continuously.
Transfer to a clean jar with a tight-fitting lid. Let mustard mature for a week at room temperature (the amount of sugar in this preparation prevents any spoilage), then taste.
For a hotter mustard, allow blend to sit at room temperature for a shorter time.
To mellow a very hot mustard, let it sit at room temperature for more time. Refrigerate when it reaches a level you like. I prefer one week of mellowing time, but I like a fairly hot mustard. Use within three months of refrigeration.
» Get Yellow Fever Making Mustard at Home
Recipe courtesy Brock Kuhlman, Hill's Kitchen
ANYONE WHO'S EVER snarfed a French's-coated hot dog at Nationals Park or whipped up a Dijon vinaigrette knows that mustard enhances nearly everything it buddies up to. The condiment — a combo of crushed mustard seeds, a liquid (think vinegar or beer) and other flavorings — has been around since Roman times, when toga-clad diners made it fresh at the table. Still, the idea of whipping up mustard yourself sounds as improbable as discovering the origins of that ballpark frank.
But local foodies and chefs are dabbling in what you might call DIY Grey Poupon, drawn by how making mustard means they can amp up its spiciness and fool around with crazy combos.
"Make mustard yourself, and you control the heat and flavorings," says Brock Kuhlman, who teaches cooking classes at Hill's Kitchen (713 D St. SE, 202-543-1997). He thinks that the pasteurization most commercial mustards go through blunts their piquancy, meaning you'll get more heat if you stir up a batch in your kitchen.
Continue Reading "Get Yellow Fever: Making Mustard at Home" »
JUST HOW ECO-FRIENDLY is Mixt Greens, a salad shop import from the West Coast that opens its first D.C. location today? Manager Scott Myerson biked all the way here from San Francisco. That's probably the only appropriate way to travel to a place built entirely out of sustainably harvested and reclaimed materials, where nothing offgases and takeaway containers are completely biodegradable.
But as good as Mixt Greens is for the planet, it aims to be even better for your health, says co-owner Leslie Silverglide. "It's not just fat and calories, but the nutrients you get in your food," she explains of the seasonal, local focus on the menu, developed by her brother, chef Andrew Swallow.
Combos such as the Siam (green papaya, jicama, mango, cucumber, red pepper, spicy peanuts, thai lemongrass vinaigrette) and the Madison (herb-marinated grilled chicken, asparagus, roasted white-truffle potatoes, shaved parmesan, toasted pine nuts, whole-grain mustard vinaigrette) have proved to be a winning recipe for the chain, which has three locations in San Francisco and opened another branch in L.A. earlier this month. In D.C., it'll gradually be taking over the spots vacated by Organic To Go, meaning the downtown lunch crowd will have plenty of places to sample its salads.
TUESDAY: We're not going to sugarcoat this. Free wine. Free chocolate. This evening. The wine will be red, white and sparkling — not all at once. Different wines. The chocolate is from ACKC's housemade bars. Did you need to know anything else? Oh right, where it is. See below.
» ACKC DC, 1529C 14th St. NW; Tue., Jan. 26, 6:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m., free; 202-387-2626. (Dupont Circle)
Photo by James M. Thresher/The Washington Post
Addison Road