Save Room for Bacon: D.C. Restaurants Serve Breakfast for Dessert

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."

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Get Yellow Fever: Making Mustard at Home

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.

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Higher Grounds: Products to Help You Make Coffee at Home

FOR MOST SANE people, slogging a cup (or three) of joe remains as essential to their a.m. routine as putting on pants or using deodorant. But with Starbucks ventis running more than $2 a pop these days, brewing your own coffee smells like a sound financial choice. "People are buying tools and good beans so they can embrace good coffee at home," says Ryan Jensen, owner of Capitol Hill's Peregrine Espresso (660 Pennsylvania Ave. SE; 202-629-4381). "There's no huge secret to making it, either. It's pretty cheap to get a French press or a burr grinder, which pulverizes more gently and preserves the flavor of the beans." Here are a few products to jolt your java routine.

» Give a latte love with a mini frother that'll put the whip into home-brewed cups ($10 each).

» What's better than living at Caribou Coffee? Owning Breville's programmable espresso machine with a built-in grinder and frother ($600).

» A cheery ceramic exterior means Four Life's French press pot retains heat after you've squashed yourself some java ($38, Tabletop, 1608 20th St. NW; 202-387-7117).

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Steal This Job: Owner of Stitch DC, Marie Connolly

» Name: Marie Connolly, 39

» Job: Owner of Stitch DC

» Salary: About $30,000

» Education: Bachelor's in international studies, American University

» What She Does: Owning the only knitting-supply shop in the District, Connolly has created a haven for all kinds of needle and thread types who walk through the door of her Eastern Market store. Whether you're a sewing, knitting or crocheting apprentice or ace, she can help. "The one thing we really push is support," she says. "We sell the dream. I write patterns for people by calculating the number of stitches. I'm the person you can come in and ask any question." She's fostered her community with extended store hours every Wednesday night for customers to hang out. "People come in with their projects, and we chat about everything from politics to the latest gossip on TMZ." She also handpicks all of the fabric and yarn the store sells; teaches and manages the roster of classes; and supervises the shop's handful of part-time employees/enthusiastic stitchers. Connolly also reaches out to charities — Stitch DC recently hosted the "Knit Your Bit" event, at which customers made quilts and scarves for veterans.

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Tricks of the Spice Trade: Uncle Brutha's Hot Sauce

THE DAY SOMEONE introduced Brennan Proctor as "the pepper-sauce guy," he started to see his culinary tinkering in a different light.

Proctor, a fourth-generation D.C. native, was working in Los Angeles in late 2001 as a sound technician on music videos. He had always been drawn to music — growing up, he became proficient in the violin, trombone, tuba and electric bass — and in L.A., he was working with some of the industry's biggest names, such as Jay-Z and Janet Jackson.

But on the back burner, his home-brewed hot sauce had also begun to bubble. What started as an initial flirtation with flavors to dress a batch of potluck wings in the late 1980s had sparked years of playing with fire: tasting chiles and spices and various combinations of them, striving for a sauce that carefully calibrated the balance of heat and flavor.

By the time he was living in L.A., the responses were only encouraging. After he brought the wings to a co-worker's baby shower, Proctor's boss had the sauce bottled and given to clients for Christmas. A batch of the stuff, he says, became almost a prerequisite for showing up at parties — and work.

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Tossing on the Hilltop: SeventhHill Pizza

IT MAY HAVE only opened a few weeks ago, but SeventhHill Pizza is already garnering buzz on the D.C. dining scene.

The menu is simple — 11 pizzas with a range of toppings, a daily panino and daily soup. Pizzas are named after Capitol Hill neighborhoods, such as the Navy Yard, with tomato, Toulouse sausage, oregano and pecorino, while a daily soup might include a rich and multi-layered chestnut and bacon.

SeventhHill is the brainchild of Stephane Lezla and Christopher Raynal, co-owners of French bistro Montmartre, which is next door, so it's not surprising to see French influences on the pizzas. On a recent visit, I chatted with Anthony Pilla, a pizzaiolo (male pizza chef), who came to SeventhHill via Cleveland and Chicago.

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Grrrls Will Be Boys: Taffety Punk's 'Measure for Measure'

THE SPECTACLE OF a woman portraying a man writhing in shameful arousal could have been ineffectual, or worse, a mere sight gag. But Taffety Punk's all-female production of "Measure for Measure" has Kimberly Gilbert, and it's hard to imagine a man playing the scene with more fervor.

It's a standout role in an oft-times amusing production of Shakespeare's dark comedy. The plot: In sin-addled Vienna, the Duke (Michelle Shupe) can't enforce the city's laws against depravity, so he hands control to the moralistic Lord Angelo. When Angelo sentences Claudio (Rachel Lee Poole) to death for impregnating his fiancee, the condemned's virtuous sister, Isabella (Esther Williamson), comes to Vienna to plead for her brother's life.

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Straight From the Fridge: 'Memento Mori'

THIS WEEKEND: Hey there, art lover. Do the standard sterile, hushed art galleries get you down? Then head over to Eastern Market's The Fridge. It's a new 1,000 square foot gallery space featuring edgy works in a graffiti-ed and skylit cinder block building for the energetic creative connoisseur.

Check out street artist DECOY's show, "Memento Mori," exploring religious iconography, and take part in a Q&A with the artist on Saturday at 5 p.m.

» The Fridge, 516 8th St. SE, Rear Alley; through Oct. 10, free; 202-664-4151. (Eastern Market)

Written by Express' Anne Polsky
Photo from Thefridgedc.com