amanda mcclements

The Washington Business Journal reports that McCormick and Schmick's is betting on the appeal of surf with turf, over just the surf. The restaurant group will "test a new high-end restaurant that will serve 50 percent seafood and 50 percent steak to D.C. power brokers." The new restaurant will be located at 1700 K St. The owner of Jimmy's Harborside Restaurant in Boston is also involved. The new restaurant does not have a name yet.

After Chef Roberto Donna's less-than-stellar performance on Iron Chef America back in March, D.C. chefs will have another chance to redeem the city's Iron Chef reputation when the show's production team visits Oct. 5 to select a new challenger. "The judges will visit three of DC's top chefs, Ris Lacoste of 1789 , Morou of Signatures and Cesare Lanfranconi of Ristorante Tosca . The three chefs were nominees for Washington's Chef of the Year Award at the 2005 RAMMY Restaurant Awards Gala," a press release explained. The chefs will each prepare one dish using a secret ingredient for a panel of judges, who will determine which chef gets to compete on the Food Network program. The winner will face one of the three Iron Chefs: Mario Batali, Bobby Flay or Masuhara Morimoto (pictured above). May the best man, or woman, win.

Taking over the former Julia's Empanadas location on U Street is next-door neighbor Simply Home Cuisine . It sounds like the space will be incorporated into the existing take-out spot, possibly with a few tables added into the mix. The expansion will also add more space to sell merchandise like that offered at the Simple Home furnishings store in Dupont, creating a space to "eat + drink + shop," as the sign states. The furnishings store, which offers Thai furniture and linens, silk pillows, wooden vases and more, was Thai native Sak Pollert's first shop in the District. He took his knack for style and followed that success with Rice on 14th Street. The increasing requests for take-out from Rice prompted the opening of Simply Home Cuisine on U Street, where a similar menu is available for delivery and carry-out. There was also a rumor that Pollert might open a sushi restaurant in the space adjacent to Rice, which is currently a giant construction pit. Could be a year...

When moving to a new city, it takes a while to find the local hangouts and learn about the hidden gems. (I thought Filomena was one of D.C.'s nicest restaurant when I moved here five years ago.) An NYC transplant and Metrocurean reader recently wrote with a list of things he's seeking in the District, and I thought Metrocurean and its readers could extend a warm D.C. welcome and help him out. Below are a few of his requests, followed by my suggestions. Feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments section. Green markets? Some of the city's best markets are run by FreshFarm Markets , whose mission is to build and strengthen the local food movement in the Chesapeake region. Their markets include the year-round Dupont market (Sundays, 9 a.m.-1 p.m.), the Penn Quarter market (Thursdays, 3-7 p.m., ending Nov. 17), and the new Foggy Bottom market (Wednesdays, 3-7 p.m., ending Oct. 26). The markets are producer-only, meaning the people who grew the food are the ones sellin...

Looking for a way to get out and enjoy the waning days of summer heat on this first day of fall? This afternoon at the Penn Quarter FreshFarm Market , the executive chef of Teaism, Arpad Lengyel, will be cooking apple pies like his grandmother used to make. The cooking demonstration starts at 5 p.m. The small, producer-only market regularly invites big name chefs to swing by for cooking demos. Besides the apple pie, which will be available for sampling, you'll find peaches, plums, beets, lettuces, tomatillas, eggplant, peppers, squash, fresh herbs, cheeses, yogurt, honey, breads and pasture-raised buffalo and pork. The market, which runs from 3 to 7 p.m., is located on Eighth St. NW between D and E streets.

The mysterious Lima Resto-Lounge, which I posted about back in July, recently added some sketches of what I can only assume is the planned interior. The computer graphics show an extremely modern two-story space with a mix of loungey couches and tables and chairs, thus the hybrid lounge/restaurant name. In today's Post dining chat , someone asked Tom Sietsema about the new lounge, and he said that a recent look through the open doors revealed a lot of unfinished space. With the time it takes in this city for restaurant permits and construction, I'm guessing we won't see Lima Lounge until sometime next spring. Maybe Tom can dig up some details soon, and of course if I am privy to any information, I'll post it here.

A week from today (Sept. 27), Share Our Strength, Windows of Hope and Opentable.com are joining forces to raise money for hurricane relief. More than 350 restaurants nationwide will donate a percent of their dinner sales to the Share Our Strength hurricane fund . All of the money donated will benefit local organizations directly assisting victims in the areas affected by this disaster, including food banks in New Orleans, Houston, and Mobile, Alabama. The list of participating restaurants in the area includes BlackSalt, Corduroy, Vidalia and the new Willow . Sounds like a good excuse to get out and splurge on a nice dinner.

Order up some lamb vindaloo or tandoori salmon tonight to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina. This evening, Indique will donate 10 percent of its sales to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund, which will funnel money to the special funds that the governors of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi have set up to help their states rebuild. Indique is located at 3512-14 Connecticut Ave. NW.

The marriage-turned-restaurant opening of chef Tracy O'Grady and Brian Wolken was featured (subscription required) in Sunday's New York Times Vows section. The couple, which is teaming up with Firehook Bakery co-founder Kate Jansen on Willow , decided to kill two birds with one stone by getting hitched and opening the restaurant on the same night. O'Grady, a former sous chef at Kinkead's, was given away by Bob Kinkead at the Sept. 2 ceremony, which took place just hours before her new restaurant opened to 350 guests who were invited for a preview. An excerpt from the NYT story: Precisely 70 minutes after saying I do, Ms. O'Grady headed into her new kitchen - still wearing her white satin-and-chiffon wedding dress - inspected her crew and emerged to open Willow. "I told her, 'You are not going to wear your chef coat to your wedding,' " said Dianne Kinkead, Mr. Kinkead's wife. Willow is located at 4301 North Fairfax Drive. Wolken, O'Grady...

If you've been watching the clock all afternoon, waiting to be released from your cubicle confines so you can go get your drink on, take note that this evening from 5-9 p.m., Neyla, J. Paul's, Paolo's and Old Glory will be donating 50 percent of bar revenue to the Red Cross.

The buzz over Iceland has finally reached fever pitch. It seems everywhere you look these days, someone's talking about Iceland and its pure and sustainable food, and in the D.C. area, Iceland's native Viking beer is popping up on bars all over, most recently as the featured brew at Acadiana's opening party . Café Saint-Ex and Bar Pilar, with local ties to the country, have even been running ads in the City Paper featuring "Viking beer drinkers." In Wednesday's New York Times, food reporter Kim Severson wrote about the Icelandic efforts to promote and sell the country's products to Americans. And DCist reports on this weekend's Whole Foods-sponsored Food and Fun event, which brings Icelandic chefs to Whole Foods stores for cooking demonstrations through Sunday. Area restaurants have also caught Viking fever and are hosting the visiting chefs and serving Icelandic products. Back in May, I was honored to be a guest at the home of the ambassador of Ic...

Joe Englert and his ambitious plans to open a series of bars and taverns along a run-down stretch of H Street Northeast have gotten most of the media attention, but Englert's not the only one banking on the corridor's potential. First-time bar owner Clifton Humphries plans to open the H Street Martini Lounge sometime this fall at 1236 H St. NE. According to the Web site, the lounge will feature live music on its second floor. Frozen Tropics blogged about it back in March, and ABC News reported that the martini lounge will participate in the upcoming H Street Festival on Oct. 1. An ad for the lounge in the City Paper indicates Oct. 1 will be the new spot's grand opening.

The Post Food Section today features local baker Leslie Goldman-Poyourow, whose cakes recently won the "Today Throws a Hometown Wedding" cake contest. Her four-tier chocolate fondant wedding cake with pink accents (top photo) and her playful bushel o' crabs groom's cake, complete with a fondant tin of Old Bay, (bottom photo) beat out three other entries for viewers' votes. According to the Post story, the crab creation "is a pumpkin-flavored cake with chocolate chips covered in fondant in a basket design, topped with handmade fondant crabs." Goldman-Poyourow's bakery, Fancy Cakes by Leslie , is located in Gaithersburg. With the Today Show's selected bride and groom being from Solomon's Islands, Md., the viewers' choice, especially the crab cake, seemed extremely appropriate. Fancy Cakes by Leslie opened in 1996 and has been voted “Best for Wedding Cakes” three times in Washingtonian Magazine (2005, 2004 and 2002).

IndeBleu recently unveiled a new lunch menu, joining the roster of upscale lunch choices in Penn Quarter that already includes Oya, Zola, Le Paradou and of course the brand new Acadiana . Although the lunch menu is still pricey (main courses range from $18-$27), it might give diners who cringe at the thought of spending upwards of $30 on IndeBleu's dinner entrées a chance to try chef Vikram Garg's French and Indian inspired cuisine. New appetizers ($8-$18) on the lunch menu include basil ajwain rubbed tandoori shrimp on cauliflower risotto and grape tomatoes; behl puri and romaine salad cone with tamarind mustard dressing; crispy "pomme" dosa with curry leaf cilantro pesto; and lobster-foie gras tortellini in green pea velouté and mint chutney. Many of the appetizers can be ordered as entrée portions as well. Main course offerings include gunpowder basted monkfish on pickled cabbage; ginger studded snapper fillet in fenugreek tomato sauce with spinach and straw potat...

• Cleveland Park newcomer Dino is donating 25 percent of sales tonight to the Red Cross. • Local 16 is hosting the Dropbombers for a night of Mississippi and Louisiana music. The event starts at 9 p.m. and is free, but donations are welcome and will benefit the Red Cross and the Humane Society of New Orleans. • The Front Page is hosting another happy hour for hurricane relief tonight at 5:30. Drink specials and discounted appetizers are available for those donating $5 to the Red Cross.

You can now get all your DC-centric restaurant news at metrocurean.com in addition to the original Blogger URL. So in case you've been typing in amandamc dot blah blah blah, I hope this will make life easier. If you've been kind enough to bookmark Metrocurean, no need to update—the sites are one and the same. Thanks for reading...

If you missed today's po'boy fundraiser at Acadiana (see below), put in your good deed for the day during tonight's nationwide Save New Orleans Cocktail Hour, sponsored by the Museum of the American Cocktail, DC Style and Southern Comfort's Tales of the Cocktail. From 5 to 7 p.m. this evening, the following bars and restaurants will be shaking up classic New Orleans cocktails for $10 to benefit New Orleans' food and beverage industry workers: Andale, Bangkok Joe's, Cabanas, Ceviche, Chief Ike’s Mambo Room, Chi-Cha Lounge, Cloud Dining Lounge, Firefly, Gazuza, Gua-Rapo, IndeBleu, Maté, Melting Pot, Mie N Yu, Nick’s Riverside Grille, Poste, Riedel's Modern American Barbeque and Tony and Joe’s Seafood. IndeBleu's Big Easy (Southern Comfort and Cointreau mixed with freshly squeezed OJ and ginger ale) and Firefly's Peach Sazerac sound particularly enticing. To be your own bar chef, check out the Museum of the American Cocktail's list of recipes for N...

The Po'Boy Power fundraiser has already been such a success, they've sold out of shrimp po'boys and only have roast beef left. And those might not last until 3 p.m., so hurry if you were planning to go. Publicist Simone Rathlé told me that they had gone through about 1,200 sandwiches in the first hour or so—and at $25 apiece, that's an incredible $30,000 for the hurricane relief effort. The line outside Acadiana Chefs Robert Wiedmaier of Marcel's and Cesare Lanfranconi of Tosca, after making a few thousand po'boys My roast beef po'boy, dressed with mayo, Tabasco, lettuce and tomato, and a side of sweet potato chips (Photos by Metrocurean.)

Don't forget that some of the city's best chefs will be hawking po'boys today from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. during Acadiana's po'boy fundraiser . Head to 901 New York Ave. (just off Mount Vernon Square) and look for the crowds. Acadiana made its debut at a lively party Saturday night in true Louisiana style with mint juleps, Pimm's cups and a rockin' zydeco band. Guests dined on boudin sausage balls, crawfish pies, Natchitoches meat pies with buttermilk dipping sauce, soft shell crabs, fried oysters, mini muffulettas and deviled eggs topped with caviar. For dessert, the big hits were mini beignets dusted with powdered sugar, spoonfuls of white chocolate bread pudding, and pecan pies that were devoured before I could grab one. The attractive interior is sleek and contemporary with small touches, like dark wooden shutters and aged white statues, revaling the restaurant's Louisiana influence. The main room is subtly tiered, with an impressive glowing bar overlooki...

The Washington Business Journal reports that Fin at 19th and M streets has been purchased by the owner of Dupont's Thaiphoon, who plans to spend $1 million on rennovations to reopen the space as Mai Thai early next year. Mai Thai will be the third restaurant in the space in as many years. The owner already runs a Mai Thai in Old Town Alexandria. According to the journal story, Paul Cohn, senior executive officer and co-founder of Capital Restaurant Concepts, which owns Fin, said the modern seafood concept "wasn't going anywhere." He added that a Thai restaurant probably has a good chance at success in the seemingly cursed space. I like Thaiphoon (get a load of its wacky Web site ) for its super cheap frivolous drinks and cheap entrées, though the food won't knock your socks off. Digressing, as D.C.'s getting yet another Thai restaurant with a pun name, what's your favorite Thai pun? Thai Tanic is mine... And back on topic, has anyone tried the Old Town ...

Through Sept. 16, Chef Geoff's is donating $10 to the Red Cross from every order of jambalaya sold. In other Chef Geoff's news, Geoff Tracy will open Lia's , an Italian bistro, near the start of the new year. The restaurant's rough draft Web site includes some artist renderings of the space, which is located at 4445 Willard Ave. in Chevy Chase.

I noticed a sign a few weeks back for Bobby Van's at 12th Street and New York Avenue and wondered if the steakhouse was either moving or expanding. Publicist Linda Roth reports that it's the latter—the steakhouse group is expected to open Bobby Van's Grill in November. The name makes it sounds like the new spot may be a more casual offspring of the Bobby Van's at 809 15th St. NW. Roth reports that Bobby Van's Grill will be three times the size of that location.

Vida is hosting a fundraiser for the Red Cross this evening starting at 6 p.m. A representative from the Red Cross will be on hand to collect $20 donations at the door. Also, 15 percent of bar proceeds go to the Red Cross. Drink specials include $2 domestic bottles and $3 imports from 6 to 7 p.m., and $3 domestic and $4 imports the rest of the night. Stoli and Stoli flavored drinks are $4 all night. Vida is located at 1120 20th St. NW.

Despite opening earlier this summer, Riedel's Restaurant in Van Ness is finally done putting on the finishing touches and tweaking the menu, and it's celebrating its official grand opening this month with a generous offer of a free entrée with the purchase of another entrée, after 5 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday. That means you could enjoy a rack of baby back pork ribs ($24) and get a plate of Texas style beef ribs (regularly $22) for free. Check out this pdf of the dinner menu to see Riedel's complete offerings, which also include pan roasted rockfish, grilled lamb kabob and seafood gumbo. Memphis, South Carolina, Kansas City and Texas-style homemade sauces are available to dress your 'cue. (Metrocurean notes the absence of her native North Carolina sauces—both vinegar-based and tomato-based—but I won't hold it against them.) The restaurant considers itself "a sophisticated alternative to the stereotypical barbecue 'joint,'" meaning there aren...

On tap for Wednesday are four notable hurricane benefits at a handful of popular bars and restaurants. First up, Tallula , Vermilion (pictured) and Evening Star Cafe in Northern Virginia will donate a percentage of sales tomorrow night to the Red Cross and Catholic Relief Services. The restaurants are also donating half of dessert sales through Sept. 11. Popular Glover Park newcomer Town Hall will host a benefit tomorrow night from 6 to 10 p.m. A $10 door charge will benefit the Red Cross and the Salvation Army, and $3 per entree and $1 per other menu item will also be donated. Capitol Hill hangout the Hawk 'n' Dove is asking for a $25 donation for its Katrina relief fundraiser tomorrow from 6 to 9 p.m. The money, and tips, go directly to the Red Cross. In return, you'll get free wings and beer. Also, at the Front Page Wednesday from 5 to 9 p.m., a $5 requested donation will go to the Red Cross. The happy hour party will offer half-priced rail drinks and wine, as well ...

Thanks to a tip from culocho of a capitol life , Metrocurean learned of a new Irish pub planned for 2106 Vermont Ave. NW, just across that crazy intersection from the 9:30 Club. Duffy's Irish Pub and Restaurant will provide another pre- and post-show hangout for 9:30 Club goers. While there are plenty of options south of the club (DC9, the Velvet Lounge and so on down U Street), the block immediately surrounding the music venue is fairly deserted. Owner Andy Duffy is therefore breaking new ground, where many a luxury condo will follow, and is asking for support in his quest for a liquor license. Duffy's menu reads like a typical Americanized Irish pub— there are Irish classics like fish and chips, lamb stew, shepherd's pie and corned beef and cabbage, along with buffalo wings, chicken tenders, potato skins and burgers. Entrée prices range from $8.95 to $14.95. There are also plans for a patio and valet parking at night.