more good news and good eats for the dc/virginia area

wolfgang puck is set to open a new restaurant at the forthcoming newseum complex on pennsylvania avenue and 6th street, n.w., adjacent to the smithsonian museums. (via abc 7 news.)

the restaurant will be called "source by wolfgang puck" and it seems they are shooting for the opening to coincide with the new newseum's -- "fall 2007." the cuisine will feature the "flavors" of virginia and maryland (i smell fresh seafood!) but it will have the "spago" stamp all over it.

a personal note about the newseum--i revered the ny branch of the freedom forum/newseum. they hosted an exhibit called "replay! great moments from sports illustrated" many years ago that was marvelous. there were a few other events there that i happily "nerded out" at. i was disappointed when they left nyc...

if you're interested in journalism, history, current events, or if you loved good night, and good luck, you will love their cybernewseum . there are also traveling events and events hosted by newseum partners that are worth checking out until the new newseum's grand opening.

el bulli and the french room get top honors (the surveys are out!)

some interesting tidbits for all you world travelers:

bloomberg food critic richard vines reports that el bulli has been named the world's best restaurant in the restaurant magazine poll, ousting last year's surprise winner, fat duck.

sadly, the closest that i've come to el bulli is in print (see the nytimes and time magazine).

in fact, the closest i've come to dining at any of the fine establishments on the list is nougatine. (jean georges is ranked #16.) i'm sure i have pictures of the meal somewhere...the room itself is spectacular. and we dined there when abc happened to be having a big press thing for the upcoming tv season, so there were a few celeb sightings. it was quite a scene.


also, usa today released the results of a survey that it commissioned with the zagat folks to determine the top 100 hotel restaurants in the us.

a texas hotel won top honors. surprising result, at least to me. i would have guessed a san francisco hotel would get the honor (shows you what i know).

the top ten:
1. The French Room, The Adolphus Hotel. Dallas, Texas
2. Fountain Restaurant, Four Seasons Hotel. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
3. Dining Room at Little Palm Island Resort. Little Torch Key, Florida
4. Inn at Little Washington. Washington, Virginia
5. Maestro, Ritz-Carlton, Tysons Corner. McLean,Virginia
6. Hampton's, Harbor Court Hotel. Baltimore, Maryland
7. Aujourd'hui, Four Seasons Hotel. Boston, Massachusetts
8. La Mer, Halekulani Hotel. Honolulu, Hawaii
9. Buckhead Dining Room, Ritz-Carlton Buckhead. Atlanta,Georgia
10. Picasso, Bellagio Hotel. Las Vegas, Nevada.

but perhaps we should be surprised that the highest rated new york hotel restaurant appears much further down the list--not even in the top 25--at #27. and it's not even in new york city. kudos to the polo restaurant in garden city for besting the local competition.

as for the nyc heavy-hitters, alain ducasse and jean georges, are ranked 37th and 38th, respectively. atelier is #54. and cafe boulud at the surrey hotel just makes the cut at #91.

interestingly, and probably not surprisingly, a new york hotel restaurant is the most expensive of the 100 on the list.
here are the top 5 most expensive hotel dining experiences (again, this is according to the usa today-zagat top 100 survey. and the article says the price reflects the "estimated price for dinner with one drink and tip." i don't know if that means dinner for 1 person, 1 drink and tip or dinner for 2, i drink each, and tip. but here you go):
1. $179. Alain Ducasse. NY, NY. Overall rank: 37.
2. $152. The HerbFarm. Woodinville, WA. Overall rank: 32.
3. $129. Inn at Little Washington. Washington, VA. Overall rank: 4.
4. $114. Alex. Las Vegas, NV. Overall rank: 42.
5. $107. Michael Mina. San Francisco, CA. Overall Rank: 80.

finally, for the curious and intrepid, here's the full list of the top 100 hotel restaurants in the us.

enjoy!

fragole restaurant, brooklyn

last night, good friend bill and i decided to take advantage of dine in brooklyn week (april 3-11, 2006). i've soured on nyc restaurant week, which at $35, excluding drinks, tax, and tip, is hardly a bargain (though the real problem is that most of the top-tier nyc restaurants don't offer a dinner option, and often those that do, offer a "restaurant week" menu that's uninspiring).

but i love dine in brooklyn week! blue ribbon and blue ribbon sushi offer dinner options, and as late as monday night it was possible to get a reservation at maria's mexican bistro in park slope, and on tuesday afternoon it was possible to get a reservation at fragole, in carroll gardens.

that's where we decided to go.

fragole is a small restaurant. it won't be mistaken for intimate--it was surprisingly bright at 7pm, which is clearly a function of the natural lighting from outside (hooray for longer days, though), the bright light from the kitchen, and the candles on the very close set tables, all of which is acceptable. but midway through our meal, the server moved a table closer to us, and oddly enough, at an angle. so for example, where bill was sitting, the tables were about an inch apart, and on my side, they were about two. it was a little distracting.

but fragole has other charms.

on tuesday nights, you can order a bottle of wine for half the price! so we enjoyed a juicy, $38 chianti, for half that. nice.

we agreed that all of the salads sounded terrific: warm chick pea, shrimp, radicchio and rosemary salad; roasted beet salad with arucola and goat cheese; and arucola, endive salad tossed with apples, hazelnuts and gorgonzola in a balsamic vinaigrette.

the kitchen made the decision for us--they were out of the warm chick pea, shrimp salad. a little surprising, since it was only 7pm. but the beet salad was quite nice--i loved the generous hunk of firm, sharp goat cheese.

the arucola endive salad was the winner, though. (gorgonzola trumps goat cheese, in my book.)

i erred in my entree choice. i ordered the spinach and ricotta gnocchi with fava bean, tomato and guanciale--i don't love gnocchi, but i really wanted to try the guanciale (cured jowls of pig). but the gnocchi was too soft and too mild, and the fava beans and guanciale were not discernable, save a couple of bites. i honestly only tasted about 2 bites of guanciale in the whole dish. i wished i had ordered the rainbow trout filet with red wine reduction, pancetta, radicchio and almonds. bill enjoyed his choice--spaghetti with wild boar sausage, white mushrooms and butternut squash.

the desserts were the highlight of the meal--buttermilk panna cotta was like a dream! i've had panna cotta a few times recently, once at lupa, a couple of times in italy last month, and all left me nonplussed. what is panna cotta really? what is it supposed to taste like? each one i've had has been completely different. they all sort of reminded me of a cross between knox gelatin and really anemic flan. but the panna cotta at fragole, well, i'm not sure if it's a "proper" panna cotta but it was without question the best one i've had to date.

it had a bit of the firmness of a gelatin, but melted into a sweet cream, reminiscent of a creme brulee, with a very strong smell and taste of fresh vanilla bean.

i thought the pear sorbet was refreshing on its own--the heavy chocolate sauce was overwhelming. a more balanced alternative might be to combine a creamier pear gelato, with the chocolate topping.

still, i would happily go back. i figure, if the kitchen can create such a memorable panna cotta, surely there are more winning dishes to be had.

fragole
394 court street, brooklyn (take the f/g to carroll street)
718 522-7133

i have a serious sports hangover

wow, for the first time in a long time, the teams i rooted for went 3 for 3 (mets, florida gators, yankees). i thought last night's florida game was really entertaining, though no one else seems to agree. even though it was a relatively low scoring affair, and florida dominated ucla, i thought florida's aggressiveness was completely riveting. they never let up. and i love that a player, like noah, didn't have to score 30-40 points to be considered "player of the game." his blocks and steals will create as great a highlight reel as the team's sweet treys and dunks.

si has some great photos from the game...check them out here.

in other news, randy moss has purchased a stake in the inta juice franchise. (i've never heard of inta juice. there aren't any inta juice outlets in ny or nj, but it sounds very similar to jamba juice, and elixir.) moss will serve as vp of marketing and a board member, and will open the first west virginia inta juice franchise in his hometown of charleston in may 2006. (no jamba juice locations, as of this date, in west virginia. so it seems moss and inta get to test the market.) moss reportedly became enamored of inta juice back in his minnesota vikings days, and inquired about the franchise as an investment opportunity. moss was reportedly sold not just on the business model, but also the notion of promoting healthy eating habits, especially among children. with moss's investment, inta juice, a privately held company, looks to pursue an aggressive growth strategy that doubles its size by 2008 (there are currently 30 locations, but the company has deals in place that will increase that number to 100 by the end of 2006).

oh happy day...

baseball season is finally here!

today is a monster TV day. i've got the mets home opener on right now (glavine just pitched a 123 1st inning against the nationals), the ncaa championship game on at 9pm, and the yankees inaugural at 10pm.

i was lucky enough to have time to check out a pretty entertaining mets pre-game show on the new sportsnet ny network. it was an hour-long affair--i doubt they will be producing a daily pre-game show of this length--but it was a good introduction to this highly regarded new 2006 team. (until today, i hadn't heard of xavier nady.) the cute "meet the met" features are likely aimed at the youngest fans (what was position did you play as a kid? favorite team growing up? favorite baseball movie? any superstitions?), but i love'em too.

the show also had a few interesting foodie moments that caught my attention.

the met tailgaiter's don't mess around. they interviewed one guy who was grilling lamb chops, turkey sausage, and chicken wings outside shea. amazing. and they filmed a "ride-along" through queens with gm omar minaya--the crew made a stop at mama's of corona (also known as leo's latticini) for a sub with fresh, "real deal" mozzarella. mama's/leo's has quite a reputation (see the nytimes, food and wine.com, roadfood.com) and i'm hoping to confirm everyone's glowing reviews for myself this spring.

you can too. pick up one of mama's specials, or the apparently to-die-for roast pork sub, the next time you're at shea (they sell them at the stadium, but get them early, lest they run out) or just take the 7 train to the 103rd street/corona plaza stop.

mama's/leo's latticini storefront is located at 46-02 104th street, corona, ny 11368.

baseball's best burger

i love sweet and savory or sweet and salty combinations--pancakes with a side o' bacon, garlicky grilled pork, black beans and rice, with a side of sweet plantains, a hot tub of hot buttered popcorn with a bag of peanut m&ms thrown in...

still, there are some combinations that i question, like the mcgriddle.

and some that i'm positively afraid of, like this new concoction known as "baseball's best burger." it's a bacon cheese burger, on a krispy kreme "bun"--seriously, it's a krispy kreme doughnut, sliced in half...

anyone else scared?

that said, if it ever came to yankee stadium--or shea--i'd HAVE to try it.

(and since it packs about 1000 calories and 45 grams of fat, i'll need either a couple of lipitor, or a week's worth of personal training sessions shortly thereafter.)