NIBBLES AND SIPS/Healthy Snacks, a Mess of Mudbugs and a Social Safeway

Photo by Jordan Wright Ritz-Carlton Executive Chef Fredric Chartier with his vegetable tower.

ALEXANDRIA, VA. -  Under the guise of calling power bars and lemonade food reporting, I’ll relate last week’s triumph at Alexandria’s Del Ray Artisans Gallery’s gardens, which I have been curating with a small but dedicated group of gallery members for the past ten years or so.
 
The single-story clapboard gallery charted its renaissance on a dirt-and-trash-strewn lot where our all-volunteer gardeners have helped to transform the blighted property into an award-winning garden often featured on Del Ray’s House and Garden Tour.

Photo by Jordan Wright Under the crape myrtle at Del Ray Artisans.

Usually we have eight to ten folks during spring and fall to weed, plant, mulch and prune, keeping the grounds up to snuff for the Gallery’s monthly shows.

This year we got herculean help from a batttalion of volunteers. From SunTrust Bank: Steve Truitt, Brian MacDonnell, Bob Dail, Jill Fields, Chris Hartman, Lori Caumeil, Mark Leonard, Lauton Brown, and Jim McCormack. From King Street Wireless: Remy Kauffmann, Allison DiNardo, Robert DiNardo, Judy Harmatz and Bruce Kauffmann.

What an amazing, upbeat, cheerful and hard-working group they were. We thank them all for their participation. Drop by and see the results!

Though we are not on this year’s tour, make sure to stop by and visit the gallery and sit along the garden path on the benches beneath the crepe myrtles. And, if you’re of a notion, there might be a few weeds left for the plucking.

A Grocery Store for the 21st Century

Georgetown’s “Social” Safeway celebrated its grand opening with a gala celebration on May 4. The store, which has been sorely missed by its neighbors ever since it was shuttered for the rebuilding, has returned in breathtaking splendor. Now patrons can revel in its many new specialty departments.

Photo by Jay Palermino Mayor Bill Euille and volunteers.

Here are some cool things to know about this new 71,000 square-foot grocery store for the 21st Century...

It’s open 24 hours a day and has a 24-hour pharmacy. (Things could get a lot more “social” after the bars close.) It is the first LEED-certified grocery store in the District, and Safeway’s second LEED-certified store (the other is in Santa Cruz, Calif.). It features include a sit-down sushi bar, an Italian-style gelato bar; pizza oven and an open-flame hearth oven where European style Artisan breads are baked fresh daily.

There is a flower market to rival any high-end florist. I spotted dozens of orchids, stalks of exotic ginger, pink and yellow cymbidiums, white hydrangeas, brilliant red anthuriums, kangaroo paws and huge modernist palm fronds, elephant ears, and of course, the usual posies.

Many arrangements are gift-ready and echo the lavish displays seen in our poshest hotel lobbies.

A “Nut Bar,” reminiscent of an old-fashioned candy store, offers a large selection of warm, ready-to-eat nuts that can be flavored with chocolate or ground to make spreads and butters.

Photo by Jordan Wright The temperature-controlled wine room at the new Social Safeway.

A vast greengrocer section featuring some very exotic fruits and the city’s largest selection of fresh organic produce.

A deluxe Starbucks coffee bar serving until midnight.

An indoor/outdoor seating area with fireplace, HD televisions, complimentary WiFi, and open balcony overlooking Wisconsin Avenue.

Ongoing events, such as cooking demos by local chefs, and wine and cheese tastings are held every Thursday. And in a lavishly appointed wood-paneled and temperature-controlled wine room that rivals any purveyor in town, their wine (and beer) selection purports to be the largest of any retailer in the District.

Bonus: All parking is now underground, making for pleasant shopping come rain or shine!

Buddha Bar – Hot and Glamorous

Only world-class cities like Moscow, Paris, Tokyo, New York and Dubai have Buddha Bar…until this month, when DC’s newest, screeching hot, upscale haunt with the world-music vibe opened to the public.
 

Photo by Jordan Wright The sushi bar at the new Social Safeway.

Before the velvet ropes went up Washington Life held a swank reception for the well-heeled and well-known and believe me there were plenty of “nibbles and sips” to go around under the acquiescent gaze of the eighteen-foot Buddha. Buddha Bar is known for its eclectic music mixes.
 
They have a dozen CDs out of their signature in-house mixes, ranging from operatic arias and New Age to Samba and Bollywood, and everything in between. I have an enormous collection of two so far and they are among my very favorites.

That night House DJ, Parisian Allan Davis, was spinning to Raspberry Saketinis, champagne, sushi and crispy Vietnamese spring rolls. Yum yum!
Co-owner Michael Don, “I’m originally from Soviet Georgia,” told me, “It’s all about the food here. That’s number one to us!” On that note we’ll have to return for a proper meal and let you know.

www.BuddhaBarDC.com

The Ritz-Carlton’s 20th

When the Ritz-Carlton opened its elegant doors in Arlington 20 years ago, they were a pioneering luxury hotel in their Pentagon City neighborhood.

Since then they have become an important destination hotel for high level diplomatic and military visits, a home to Presidential Inauguration events and VIP guests from around the globe.

Photo by Jordan Wright ABC 7's Leon Harris and the stunning Holly Macke at the grand opening of Buddha Bar.

Last week they invited their loyal clientele to join them in celebrating two decades of success, with a sumptuous reception in the ballroom that featured signature cocktails and the glories of the kitchen prepared by recently appointed Executive Chef, Frederic Chartier.

The baby-faced Chartier, who has staged at The Four Seasons and George V in Paris, brings Modern French cuisine to the hotel’s fyve Restaurant Lounge. The evening capped off with Pastry Chef Dallas Marsteller’s divine desserts, including scrumptious mini-strawberry shortcakes.

www.RitzCarlton.com/PentagonCity

Poste Moderne Brasserie at the Hotel Monaco

A recent lunch at Poste Moderne Brasserie in the Hotel Monaco’s garden took advantage of a temperate but breezy afternoon. Sous Chef Jenn Flynn was at the helm at the lunch hour and I sampled many a wonderful dish from the open kitchen.
 
In particular, a knockout Asparagus Carbonara made with tesa (an in-house two-week cured pork belly) ramps (get’em while you can!), spring onions and morels (see my story on Morels recently posted).
 
Another unimpeachable dish is the Pineland’s Farm Steak Tartare on house-made brioche, and a curious but playful Tasting of Salted Caramel with caramel ice cream, coffee-caramel crème brulee and caramel popcorn. Crunch, slurp, lick. A crisp 2007 Tavel Rose from Ferraton Pere et Fils sealed the deal.

By now those of you who know the restaurant are well aware of Executive Chef Rob Weland and his total commitment to local farm sourcing.

Photo by Jordan Wright Ritz-Carlton's Anniversary Celebration cake

But it doesn’t get more close-in than his patio gardens with their vast assortment of organic vegetables, lettuces, fruit trees (pawpaw!) and herbs used in both the dishes and cocktail flavorings.

www.PosteBrasserie.com
 
Cherimoya and Chontaduro at Café Atlantico

The past month has been a whirlwind of events. A sumptuous dinner at Café Atlantico (I was peeking over my shoulder to see what exotica was being concocted in the Minibar laboratory) prepared by the stunning 29 year-old, Chef Catalina Velez, flown in from Columbia, to join Atlantico’s Chef Terri Cutrino. Velez, whose two restaurants, Luna Lounge and Kiva in Cali, Columbia, cooks in the style of Nuevo Latino.
 
She promotes ingredients from her native country and had more than a few unique delicacies from Columbia’s Pacific Coast woven into her menu.
 
Here’s what she prepared: Velvety avocado soup topped with shrimp and bonito with sweet “cherimoya” fruit, aka custard apple; crab ravioli with “chontaduro”, a delectable palm fruit, indigenous to South America; grilled squid salad; seared duck breast with duck confit tamale and lentils; beef tenderloin with tamarind sauce and plantain puree; dessert was a delicate corn cake with banana mousse.
 
All perfectly paired with wines from Chile and Argentina. Tonya Fitzpatrick, creator of World Footprints and www.Traveln-on.com, the ecologically-correct travel site, was my ever-delightful dinner partner.

www.Jaleo.com/CrystalCity
www.CafeAtlantico.com

Jaleo’s Paella Festival

José Andrés and his culinary team at Jaleo will celebrate this year’s Paella Festival from June 7 through the 20th.

The paellas will be based on the recipes of guest chef María José San Román of Alicante, Spain.

Photo by Jordan Wright Lifting spirits at the Poste Moderne Brasserie.

One of the leading female chefs in Spain, she is self-taught and expert in traditional Catalan and Valencian cooking, choosing a career in restaurants after studying law and languages. Today she and her family preside over a number of highly rated restaurants in the Alicante area including La Taberna del Gourmet and the critically acclaimed Restaurante Monastrell.

San Román has presented at a number of culinary conferences around the world including the Culinary Institute of America’s “Worlds of Flavor” conference in Saint Helena, California and the prestigious Madrid Fusion conference. An internationally recognized expert in “crocus sativus,” she works closely with the Universidad de Castilla La Mancha and the Spanish saffron industry and travels the world lecturing on saffron. Her book on the subject “El libro del azafran” will be published by Montagud in October of this year in Spanish and in English.

Chef San Román’s paellas combine interesting ingredients with various types of rice, resulting in exceptional taste and texture. Featured dishes will include Arroz con pluma ibérica y verduras de Alicante, Iberico pork paella with green garlic and seasonal vegetables; Arroz caldoso con cigalas, soupy rice with Norway lobster, Fideos finos tostados con bogavante, vermicelli paella with lobster; Arroz con verduras y setas de temporada, paella of seasonal vegetables and mushrooms and Caldero de pescados con arroz finito a banda, fish stew with rice. The specials will be rotated throughout the two weeks and will be available for lunch and dinner.

Photo by Jordan Wright Poste Moderne's sous chef Jenn Flynn in the organic garden.

Jaleo has locations in DC, Bethesda and Crystal City.

www.Jaleo.com

Photo by Jordan Wright Asparagus carbonara at Poste Moderne Brasserie.

Photo by Jordan Wright A mess of mudbugs.

Photo by Jordan Wright Ready for action.

Photo by Jordan Wright Wayne Jackson and his son at the Crawfish Boil.

Photo by Jordan Wright Crab ravioli with chontaduro fruit at Cafe Atlantico.

Photo by Jordan Wright Stunning chef Velez.