The Restaurant Shuffle
Who said August was a slow month around here? The restaurant rumor mill is spinning out of control with competing stories and unofficial news: What's happening to Galileo? What about Andale? Oyamel? Palena? With two competing dining chats going head-to-head to break news, readers are left to sort through the hints, clues and supposed facts for themselves.
Complicating matters is the fact that restaurant owners don't like talking about big decisions, especially when they involve leases, which could fall through at a moment's notice, turning a once likely rumor into a scrapped plan. So we get a bunch of people floating around with information, who may be unable to discuss it depending on how much they respect the wishes of said restaurant owners.
It's enough to make a restaurant lover/gastronaut/foodie/whatever's head spin. Here's what we know (or at least what we think we know, and then there are things we don't know we know, but that's getting into existential Donald Rumsfeld territory, so here goes ...):
* Galileo is closing its 21st Street location because the building is undergoing renovations.
* While Galileo is closed, Roberto Donna and crew will move across the river to Crystal City — location yet to be officially disclosed — to open Bebo Trattoria, according to the Post's Tom Sietsema. Read about the menu plans in today's chat.
* Andale has closed, and it sounds like several people are jockeying for the lease, one of which is Georgetown's Peacock Café, according to an owner.
Disclosed facts dry up there ... for now.
But there's plenty more speculation over on donrockwell.com here. And until those leases are signed, we'll leave it at that.
Comments
Hey which culinary school did you go to again??
what? what was that?..Dont hear anything....
really...
awesome. so to become you all have to do is read
tom's work at the washingtonpost?
Thanks!
From the Post:
"Donna came to Washington when he was 19 and opened Galileo four years later. He has since expanded the restaurant to include the casual Osteria bar, the formal Galileo dining room and the exclusive Laboratorio del Galileo with its exhibition kitchen and $98 set-price menu." (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/07/AR2006020700350.html)
From your blog:
"Donna came to Washington when he was 19 and opened Galileo four years later. He has since expanded the restaurant to include the casual Osteria bar, the formal Galileo dining room and the exclusive Laboratorio del Galileo with its exhibition kitchen and $98 set-price menu." (http://dcbrat.blogspot.com/2006/02/dc-gets-invited-to-olympicssort-of.html)
Wow, it's EXACTLY the same. And you don't even mention the Post. It's called plagiarism.
1. I thought you were boycotting this blog? Is the boycott over already?! What a shame!
2. What does culinary school have to do with reporting on the restaurant biz in DC? For that matter, since when does one have to go to culinary school to love food and cooking? Metrocurean/Amanda does not hold herself out as a culinary expert or a top chef but as one who loves food and dining. And I'm a reader, like many, who enjoys her take on all of the above.
3. I look to metrocurean, in part, to bring together all restaurant news in one place. I don't have time to read sietsema's chats and whatnot, and know that metrocurean will let me know the highlights. She, unlike some, gives credit to the source and properly accounts for words that aren't her own.
4. Don't attempt to start controversies to drum up hits on your blog--frankly, it's pathetic. Your comments make it so I could not care less who you are or what you write about.
5. DCBRAT--PLEASE BOYCOTT METROCUREAN AGAIN!!!!
Let me set the record straight for you since I was quite sure that Sietsema does not have a culinary school background. Being a food writer/restaurant critic does not require a culinary school background.
I found this info on Tom at egullet.com:
"Tom got his start with the Post's Food section in 1983. He was a recent graduate of the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University slinging pizza for a living when a friend who was an investigative reporter at the Washington Post called. Apparently, food critic Phyllis Richman was looking for an assistant. Tom had interned at ABC News and the Chicago Sun-Times, and jumped on the opportunity to get back into journalism. The idea was that being an assistant would lead to writing opportunities, and the Food section would lead to Metro, then to national and foreign news reporting. The sky was the limit." (http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=21587)
Ok so slinging pizza...sounds like a culinary school background to me.
I'd like to know if YOU have a culinary background since you seem to think you are such a hot shot.
I noticed your profile says you work in Fashion. Fashion, culinary arts, hmmm...sound like the same thing to me. Not so much.
But why the love lost? You seemed to like me just months ago:
At 2/11/2006 7:48 PM, dcbrat said...
I really love your blog. You are great. Please
check out my blog when u can: dcbrat.blogspot.com. I also confirmed the story about La colline. I have a great source. Not trying to compete, but tryin' to join la fete that you have stared. Salud!
amandamc.blogspot.com/2006/02/
friday-rumor-mill.html
In response to dcbrat (an apt alias), I like that you condense and pull out info from other sources. I don't have time to read every chat board, news item, and blog reporting on the restaurant scene. I depend on your postings to quickly bring me up to speed. And you cite your sources, so it's not as if you're passing anything off as your own. You've become my go-to source on the local scene. Thanks.
Also, I doubt many readers of metrocurean even know what she looks like. There is not one photo of her on metrocurean. People are not reading this blog because they are obsessed with the beauty of its author.
I am personally creeped out that you posted a picture of her on your blog. Why am I envisioning you following her around, taking pictures, maybe even dressing up like her or something in an effort to be her? Get a grip, weirdo.