And The Winner Is ...

Nearly 150 of you threw your hats into the ring for a pair of free tickets to the second annual Repeal Day Ball. Thank to the powers of random.org, the lucky winner is ...

Congrats, KMR! Send your contact info to metrocurean AT gmail.com to claim your tickets. And dust off that vest!

Thanks for all of your comments (especially InfamousOreob, Dave Stroup, DAN and Lindsayc, who all made me laugh out loud).

And don't forget to buy tickets before they sell out.

Happy Thanksgiving

Metrocurean wishes you and yours a delectable Thanksgiving. Thanks for your emails, comments, support and, most of all, for reading. And please enjoy this glamour shot of the pumpkin whoopie pies I made.

Wednesday's Delicious Deal: Notti Bianche

The restaurant: Foggy Bottom's Notti Bianche

The deal: Score a panini and soup of the day for $12.

The deets: Chef Robert DeCoste's new lunch menu focuses on light salads, paninis and homemade pastas ranging from $9-$13, like the bucatini with clams, sausage, turnip greens and pecorino ($10).

Win Repeal Day Ball Tickets!

Metrocurean has two tickets to give away to one lucky person for the swankiest cocktail event of the year — the Repeal Day Ball! Leave a comment on this post for a chance to win (you can also play on Twitter), and I'll pick a winner Friday. Or play it safe and get tickets now before they sell out. Read on for info:


What: The DC Craft Bartender’s Guild toasts the 76th anniversary of the end of Prohibition with the Second Annual Repeal Day Ball. This black tie shin-dig will boast craft cocktails from DC's best mixologists, food from PS 7's chef Peter Smith, and dancing to the Red Hot Rhythm Chiefs.

When: Saturday Dec. 5, 9 p.m. to midnight; VIPs get started at 8 p.m.

Where: PS 7's, 777 I St. NW

Who: Mixing up all sorts of fab cocktails will be DC’s top bartenders, including Gina Chersevani, Derek Brown and Todd Thrasher, along with special guests: bartending legend Dale DeGroff, Tad Carducci and toastmaster Jeffrey Morgenthaler.

Cost: $100; $150 VIP admission. Tickets sold out last year so get 'em before they're gone! Buy tickets.

A portion of the proceeds will go to benefit the Museum of the American Cocktail.

New Sweet Spots

Chocolates from Artisan Confections.

Hold onto your sweet tooth, folks. The DC area has a host of new spots to get your sugar fix.

First up, one of my favorite chocolatiers, Artisan Confections, has moved into a handsome new spot (below) in the Zoso Flats building at 1025 N. Fillmore St. in Arlington.

The chocolate shop's neighbors will include the forthcoming Screwtop Wine Bar and, another spot to hit for a sugar rush, Bakeshop DC, serving cupcakes, cookies and other desserts.

Speaking of cupcakes, Georgetown Cupcake on Bethesda Row (4834 Bethesda Ave.) held its grand opening Sunday. Young & Hungry's Tim Carman ran into the massive line waiting for free cupcakes and snapped some photos. Meanwhile, the original location is moving from its pint-sized digs on Potomac Street to 3301 M St. NW next month.

Suffering from cupcake ennui? Perhaps pie is more your speed? If so, you'll want to keep an eye out for the upcoming opening of Baltimore transplant Dangerously Delicious Pies at 1339 H St. NE. That's owner Rodney Henry at right, who opened the original pie shop 10 years ago in Baltimore.

Daily Candy has the deets on securing one of their pies (pre-opening) for Thanksgiving.

Rick's Picks Smokra Prosciutto Rolls

Photo: Rick's Picks

I've already professed my love of Rick's Picks, and of all the email clogging my inbox, I always look forward to the occasional recipe ideas the pickle company sends out.

One of the latest suggestions is an hors d'oeuvre after my own heart. And just in time for Thanksgiving entertaining.

This Southern girl has a slight obsession with pickled okra, and Rick's Smokra with smoked Spanish paprika is a tasty twist on what I grew up with. But wrap those puppies in prosciutto, and wow, you've really upped the savory ante.

Rick also has a great leftover turkey panini recipe, using the green tomato condiment. (Get the pickle products at Whole Foods.)

Chef Five Bites: Antonio Burrell

Antonio Burrell was named chef de cuisine of 14th Street's new Masa 14, a joint venture of chefs Kaz Okochi and Richard Sandoval, this summer. Burrell was most recently chef de cuisine of CommonWealth gastropub. He also headed the kitchens at the now-shuttered Viridian and Eleventh Street Lounge in Arlington, and worked for six years at Vidalia and Bistro Bis. These are his Five Bites.

1. Shrimp toast from Four Sisters

2. Bird nest (thinly sliced calamari with uni, quail egg and truffle soy sauce) at Kaz Sushi Bistro

3. Suppli a telefono (fired risotto balls) at 2 Amys

4. Dogcatcher burger at Ray's Hell Burger

5. Any consommé at Palena

Previous Chef Five Bites: Cathal Armstrong, Dani Arana, David Guas, Josh Short, Michel Richard, Haidar Karoum, Ryan Morgan, Shannon Overmiller, Anthony Chittum, Jonathan Krinn & Jon Mathieson, Victor Albisu, Vatche Benguian, John Snedden, Nicholas Stefanelli, Travis Olson, Brian Robinson, Cliff Wharton, Alex Bollinger, Massimo Fabbri, Daniel Bortnick, Rob Weland, Olivier Perret, Dennis Marron, Dean Gold, Mike Isabella, Bryan Voltaggio, Geoff Tracy, Bart Vandaele, Rodney Scruggs, Clayton Miller, Alex McCoy, Steve Mannino, Will Artley, Kyle Bailey & Tiffany MacIsaac, Santosh Tiptur, Barton Seaver, Glenn Babcock

Five Bites On Friday

Metrocurean reader Robert Mandel offers today's bites.

1. Eggs Benedict (the best in the city) at Montmartre

2. Bacon cheeseburger at Central

3. Chicken and waffles at Marvin

4. Shrimp pad Thai at Thai Pilin

5. Oyster po' boy at Hank's Oyster Bar

Five Bites is a place for Metrocurean readers — and DC's top chefs — to share all the delicious things they've been eating and drinking. E-mail five of your favorites and whether you'd like your name and a picture included to metrocurean AT gmail.com.

Tasty Tweets

What area restaurants are tweeting about today ...









Follow Metrocurean's DC chefs and restaurant list on Twitter.

The Passenger Opens Tonight

Though the place hasn't been spit-polished, brothers Derek and Tom Brown are throwing open the doors to The Passenger (1021 Seventh St. NW), their first solo venture, this evening at 5 p.m.

The new joint is kind of a neo-speakeasy version 2.0. It subtly nods to the Prohibition era (Derek was donning a vest at last night's preview) but it's a less contrived, more relaxed take on the trendy genre.

Sure, you can snag a well-balanced craft cocktail the Brown brothers are known for. But there's also Miller High Life, plenty of canned beer, beef jerky (albeit artisanal) by the stick, and a delicious kimchi hot dog (left).

Oh, and there's isn't a cocktail menu. "I appreciate cocktail lists for what they are, but they don't really tell you what a drink's going to taste like," Tom explained. Instead, he prefers to get to know guests preferences and create cocktails to suit them.

Derek will take that philosophy a step further when he opens the Columbia Room, a reservation-only bar within a bar, probably early next year. Plans are still taking shape, but the cocktail "lab" will most likely seat about 18, and Derek will make custom cocktails with a limited line-up of five or so spirits and housemade ingredients.

Claiming that "99 percent of people will hate this experience," he speculates the Columbia Room will appeal mainly to those die-hard cocktail lovers who like to dork out over ice cube shapes. The Columbia Room "is our world, just let us be geeks in it," he joked.

Launching with a few rough edges, like the unfinished room dubbed the dining car, hammers home that the new drinking destination doesn't take itself too seriously.

For a peek at last night's preview, ReadySet DC has some nice photos (cause Vincent had a way cooler camera than me).