Dinner at Tortino

If you are looking for some fabulous pasta in the city, Tortino on 11th St NW serves up some delicious dishes.  The spot is a bit inconspicuous, but you will be pleased with the choice.

Someone in your party must order the fetuccine alla Bolognese.  Tortino uses veal as the meat in the sauce and it is fabulous.

Also, if you’re like me and can’t decide which dish to try, they also offer half portions so you can try two options as well.  I like the half order of the gnocchi and a half order of something new.

Details: 
Tortino
1228 11th St NW, Washington, DC 20001
(202) 312-5570
Serve: Dinner
Price Range: $10.00 – $29.00

Be Back to DC Soon

Hi all!

I’m on a “sabbatical” in San Francisco for a few months, but no fear, I’ll be eating my way back to the East Coast soon 🙂  Until then…foodie on!

If you hit up some of my favs:

BTS – American: burger/shakes

Rasika – Indian: everything

Mandu – Korean: bibim bap

Pearl Dive/Black Jack – Seafood: mussels

La Colombe – coffee: latte

Have one for me!

Wine Tasting at The Winery at Bull Run

With the weather finally warming up, it’s a great opportunity to get out and explore the wines of Virginia.  New last year, the Winery at Bull Run is just west on i-66 and offers a chance to taste some great wines and relax on the grounds with a picnic lunch.

The building has a barn-like feel with exposed wood and a grand mural behind the tasting counter.  Peer down in to the barrel room through windows in the floor or read about the war artifacts they found as they built the winery.  Then once you are done with your tasting, choose your favorite and get a glass or a bottle and take it outside to enjoy their patio space(s).  Their vineyard is directly beside the tasting room, but since it was planted in 2012, it will be a few years before those vines produce any sort of wine.

Details:
The Winery at Bull Run
15950 Lee Hwy, Centreville, VA 20120
703.815.2233
Serve: Tastings, Boxed Lunches/Snacks
Price: $12.00 tasting fee (9 wines)

Best Chefs America Debuted

If you live in the DC/NoVA area, you have heard of Jose Andres and Mike Isabella, and probably even Toki Underground’s Erik Bruner-Yang, but have you heard of Joe Goetze or Michael Costa?  These are just five of the 78 chefs in DC that were selected by their peers (aka. other chefs) as being some of the best chefs in America.  On top of that, 68 chefs from Northern Virginia were selected too!

Many foodies or even just regular restaurant visitors have heard of awards such as the James Beard or Top Chef, but BestChefsAmerica decided to take a different approach and actually ask chefs which chefs they thought were the best in their region and in the country.  The result is a 386-page coffee table book, and soon to be a mobile website, that highlights nearly 4,700 chefs that are highly respected by others in their industry.

This peer review concept started when BestChefsAmerica’s Bill Blalock and Gabe Joseph were sitting around talking over cocktails with some of their friends in Charleston.  Blalock had just finished an exhausting search of trying to find a chef for his newest restaurant, Stars, and that led to a discussion of who this group thought were the best chefs in the area.  Also knowing that, especially when it comes to chefs, that no one can quite judge a chef like another chef, the idea to find out who would be recommended by their peers was created and the BestChefsAmerica project hit the ground running.  Ten months, 70,000 phone calls, and 5,114 telephone interviews later, the data from the chefs around the country was analyzed and the accolades were unveiled.

In the DMV, we are lucky to have 159 chefs that were included.  Out of those 159 chefs from the area, most ‘regular’ food goers might know a handful of the chefs named, but the great thing about this process is that it honors a lot of chefs who work outside of the spotlight to produce masterpieces, but are rarely honored.  Now foodies, and even visitors to the area, can reference BestChefsAmerica and find great hidden-food gems across the area.

Some names I was excited to see honored:

Claire Lamborne, Executive Chef & Owner of Claire’s at the Depot in Warrenton

Will Artley, Executive Chef at Pizzeria Orso in Falls Church

Joe Goetze, Corporate Chef for Founding Farmers in Downtown DC

Dimitri Moshovitis, Chef & Founder of Cava Mezze (multiple locations)