I have to imagine being the first restaurant to land in a neighborhood you’re trying to beef up is no easy task. Will the locals end up coming back? If you’re off the beaten path, can you still draw a crowd? How do you bring any foot traffic off the sidewalk and into a seat at the bar? When I visited Trademark Drink + Eat a little more than a week after their opening in November, their boisterous, mostly full bar and high-top tables on a week night seems to indicate they’ve figured it out.

Named after the neighboring U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Trademark the pub is located just beyond Old Town in the Carlyle District. Google maps says it’s an eight minute walk from the King Street metro, which isn’t far if you’re looking to head somewhere different for drinks and a bite to eat in Alexandria.

Trademark has both casual bar fare like warm pretzel bites or deep-fried pickles, and more sophisticated, hearty dishes such as the Chesapeake pot pie with piping hot crab, rockfish, shrimp, roasted corn, peas and potatoes wrapped in a buttery dough. Sit at the bar for a short while and you’ll find yourself devouring the restaurant’s version of corn nuts, a pleasant reminder that the little bowls of bar snacks do not have to be stale or overly salty. While you’re at it, don’t pass up the bacon candy, which is a thick slice of bacon on a stick with a sweet yet light, sugary coating. I should have had you at bacon. On a stick.


Courtesy of Three Lockharts PR

Courtesy of Three Lockharts PR

Other dishes that left an impression were the “pork ‘n’ beans,” a large grilled pork chop with smoky, baked beans which is nothing like the canned version it’s playfully named after. The theme of comfort food plays on in the rotating menu of mac and cheeses. The Cuban mac and cheese with ham, bacon and a mustard crust will definitely stick to your ribs.

In addition to the solid, hearty pub fare, Trademark is putting an emphasis on its house cocktails. And they are strong. Mixologist Christopher Bassett, who previously worked with Todd Thrasher as one of his managers at PX Cocktail Lounge, is in charge of crafting the drinks at Trademark. The old-fashioned with Jefferson’s Reserve Whiskey, pomegranate juice and Bitterman’s grapefruit bitters isn’t for the faint of heart. For something a little lighter with less punch, go with the the Headless Horseman with Boyd and Blair vodka, Angostura bitters, ginger beer and lime.

So for that next time you find yourself wanting to go a little beyond the standard places in Old Town for a bite or a quick drink to ease the pain of a long work day, check out Trademark.

Trademark is located at 2080 Jamieson Avenue in Alexandria, VA. For more information, follow @trademarkva or call 703-253-8640.

Get ready, DC—Bryan Voltaggio is coming to town. And he’s making a bold entrance with a 14,000 square foot, 300 seat, multi-station restaurant complete with tatted up, Converse-sporting staff in Friendship Heights. RANGE is set to open to the public on December 18th.

The open and airy RANGE (yep, in all caps) is built around the concept of an open kitchen with individual stations dedicated to specific foods–a charcuterie station, raw bar, rotisserie, wood fired hearth, baker, dessert and candy and coffee bar. However, the entire menus is available wherever you decide to sit.

Much like the restaurant space itself, the menu is expansive, ranging in dishes such as a smoked trout roe with potato-shallot tots, to headcheese with a sunchoke relish, to roasted pork cheeks with celeriac and moustarda. If our taste of kimchi linguini with briny uni and bay scallops was any indication, there’s going to be a very long wait for a table here. Other highlights included a refreshing kampachi (similar to a yellowtail tuna) tartare with pine nuts, lemon and coriander, and a creamy ricotta ravioli with braised meat ragu. The added bonus was extremely thin crust pizza topped with bacon and charred onions.

Prices don’t appear to put you over the edge. Entrees hover around the $15-$30 range, though there are the obvious ones that are more pricey, such as the 36-day-aged new york strip, wagyu beef tenderloin or rotisserie lamb neck. Sides and smaller plates go from $3 for dishes like cornbread with bacon marmalade up to $13 for specific charcuterie.

Cocktails on the menu run the gamut from simple, “the name says it all” drink is just a vodka with soda, to more complex punches like the “serpentine overtone” with tequila, cranberry, hum liqueur, lime and black pepper. Draft beers and wine are also available by the glass. If you’re going for non-alcoholic drinks, there are some house sodas that we can’t wait to get our hands on, like grapefuit and ginger beer.

After the jump, you’ll find a photo slideshow of RANGE that We Love DC caught a sneak peek at. Make sure you check out the retail space on the side of the restaurant, where you’ll find kitchen tools that Voltaggio has worked with Williams Sonoma to pick out, a rotating selection of goodies from the chef’s purveyors and more.

RANGE is located at 5335 Wisconsin Avenue NW (in the Chevy Chase Pavilion), Washington, DC, 20015. Reservations can be made online. You can follow the restaurant on Twitter, @VOLT_RANGE.

Good things come in threes at the new Matchbox on 14th street—three levels of seating, mini burgers in multiples of three—chances are you’ve been to one of their other locations before, so you get the idea. The newest addition to the matchboxfoodgroup’s restaurants is their location over on 14th and T streets, NW.

Housed in a building that was once a bowling alley and pool hall in 1907, an automobile showroom, the former Club Bali jazz club and rehearsal space for Arena Stage Theatre Company, the restaurant is giving the space new life while paying homage to some of its previous iterations. For example, you’ll notice the counter top at the bar is designed to look like a bowling lane, as it stretches out and morphs into a semi-open kitchen. Look up and you’ll notice the restaurant group kept the original ceiling and steel girders; look to the side and you’ll see the building’s original, exposed brick bring a warmth to the atmosphere.

While the 14th NW location isn’t the largest outpost from the group, the space is enormous. There are three levels that can hold more than 250 people as well as an outdoor patio for 60 (plus eight of you lucky few that get the table with a firepit). In other words, if you’re in need of a place for dinner that can accommodate larger parties of say six or eight, Matchbox has you covered. If you’re not dining in, they’ve got a separate entrance for online and phone-in to-go orders. The restaurant’s chef’s table (photo below) for eight next to the kitchen isn’t offering a different menu for now, though a publicist for the restaurant group says that could change based on the public’s demand.

As for the food, you’ll still be able to order tried and true favorites from their other locations, such as the 3.6.9 mini burgers and thin-crust pizzas. The 14th street location also has some unique entrees from chef Jeffrey Richardson such as braised beef short ribs with turmeric vegetables and fingerling potatoes in a coconut curry sauce, as well as seared sea scallops with spinach and a pork belly risotto.

The 14th street spot will also start serving weekend brunch on December 8th from 10 AM to 3 PM on Saturdays and Sundays, according to their website. Brunch will pretty much be the same menu that’s available at the Chinatown location, with dishes such as cast iron-baked cinnamon rolls, the bloody mary burger and brunch pizza with onion, sausage, smoked gouda, scrambled eggs and pico de gallo with chipotle sour cream. One noticeable difference is the New Orleans french toast available at the 14th street location which has strawberries, candied pecans and a caramel rum syrup.

Matchbox is located at 1901 14th Street, NW, Washington, DC, 20009. For reservations or to place to-go orders, call 202-328-0369. Follow the restaurant group on twitter @matchboxdc.

Feeling a little stuffed from Thanksgiving and all those leftovers? You can walk it off this Saturday with chef Ris Lacoste.

Back in January, Lacoste started walking an hour each day and encouraged others to do the same with her and contribute $1 per mile to donate to the GW Women’s Heart Center. In an effort to reach the final goal of donating $25,000 and raising awareness for heart disease among women, she’s hosting a walk this Saturday at noon. Head to RIS with your $4 donation and you can join the chef and others on a four-mile walk from the restaurant down to the National mall and around the World War II, Vietnam and Korean Wars memorials, and then loop back to RIS for light refreshments.

If you’re planning on joining the walk, you can RSVP by calling 202-730-2500 or emailing natalie (at) risDC.com. RIS is located at 2275 L Street NW, Washington, DC 20037.

Heads up, Foggy Bottom folks: PAUL is opening its fourth DC location today in your neighborhood. That means more baguettes, croissants and other French fare.

To celebrate their opening at 2000 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, the first 2,000 patrons at the new location will receive a free pumpkin tartlet with their purchase. So grab a coffee, maybe some baked goods to share with your coworkers and get an early taste of Thanksgiving with a free pumpkin tartlet.

I can’t say U street is the first neighborhood that comes to mind when I’m deciding where to eat dinner. Sure, there are a few choice spots and classic haunts; however, if you ask what word comes to mind first, it’s “drinks,” not “dinner.” But now, I’ve got the right place up my sleeve that delivers on both the drinks and the dinner fronts: Vinoteca.

Having previously thought of Vinoteca as the place where I could satisfy a craving to play bocce while having a good glass of wine (what? Sometimes those things coincide), I somehow forgot that the five-year-old wine bar also served dinner. There’s a mix of small plates for sharing, as well as larger entrees that could even be split if you’re not starving. There are the appetizers you might have seen before, such as pan con tomate topped with jamon Serrano and manchego cheese, or an Appalachian cheese paired with green apples and candied onions. But then there are more unusual bites like the petite, pickled kiwiberry with onion or more jamon layered over a housemade, salty fish cracker.

I know you might not think to opt for liquor over wine at a wine bar, but start off with a cocktail–the kind with interesting ingredients that you’re unlikely to stock in your own home bar but wish you could. For example, the light and refreshing “Bonal sparkling cocktail” combines aperol, grapefruit juice, St. Germain, Bonal Gentiane-Quina, Toso Blanc de Blancs and a dry sparkling wine. Or the “Spanish Spirit” that combines gin with two types of sherry, a French aperitif called quinquina and a housemade thyme syrup.

After the small tastes, the main entrees were what really won me over. A dish of warm and sweet creamed corn with luscious foie fras and fat chanterelle mushrooms is one of the richer and more decadent dishes I’ve had in a long time. With more slow-cooked or poached eggs nestled on top of bowls of pasta popping up on menus across the city, it can be a challenge to make them memorable. But the 63 degree egg on top of linguine with squid ink, hazelnuts and shaved bottarga (cured fish roe in layman’s terms) magically transformed the yolk and white to the same gooey consistency. Good luck trying to ever replicate that in your own kitchen.

Another nice touch from chef Lonnie Zoeller that you’ll see carried out throughout different dishes is how he incorporates the entire vegetable in the dish. Braised turnips come along with their tops, as do the baby maroon carrots that accompanied the thick, charred cuts of angus strip loin.

Dessert to round out the meal was another display of thoughtfulness and creativity from the chef—a crème fraiche ice cream with a white sweet potato and banana gelee topped with spindly, crunchy straws of fried sweet potato and a dusting of nutella powder (can I get that on waffles every morning, please?).

So next time you’re tasked with picking the place for a dinner date or where you and a small group of friends should dine before a night out on U street, step into the brick townhouse at Vinoteca and bring your best bocce game for afterwards.

Move over poultry, beef and pork. Lamb is taking over.

Following his victory at the Lamb Jam Finale this past September, chef John Critchley and Urbana are hosting a Lamb Feast. On Sunday, November 11th from 5 to 8 PM, you can get your fill of lamb dishes including Critchley’s 2012 winning dish, a lamb leg pupusa with queso blanco and lamb tongue curtido. Other dishes at the event include leg of lamb nachos with welsh rarebit sauce, slow roasted leg of lamb with white polenta and gypsy peppers, lamb pizzas and bruschettas, meatballs, tartare, as well as various sheep’s milk cheeses. Your ticket also gets you some sips of bourbon, beer and wine.

Tickets are $40 per person and can be purchased here.

As that chill in the air grows, there’s one thing I’m always up for baking: pie. It’s comforting, rarely complicated and the smell of spiced fillings permeates my apartment with a delightfully sweet scent.

And what better recipe to have as we near the holidays than a recipe for a gingerbread pie. Pastry chef Rebecca Albright of Ted’s Bulletin shares her recipe for Montgomery Pie. Check out the recipe after the jump.

Rebecca Albright’s Montgomery Pie (aka Gingerbread Pie)
Makes one 9-inch pie

Ingredients for the crust:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 orange, zested
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup butter, cut into small cubes and chilled
1 tbsp. molasses
3 tbsp. cold water

Instructions for the crust:
1. Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Use fingers to work in butter until a mealy dough forms.
2. Add molasses and cold water and kneed slightly until dough comes together. Form into a round disk and chill.
3. Roll out dough to about 1/4″ thick and cut an 11″ round. Chill on a baking sheet pan for 1 hour.
4. Take out the dough round and push down against a pie tin. Fold under edges to slightly create a lip. Crimp the edges using a fork or by pinching thumb and index finger working all the way around the pie.
5. Fork the bottom of the pie so that the crust does not puff up during baking.
6. Freeze until use.

Ingredients for pie filling:
1/3 unsulphured molasses
1/3 cup boiling water
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter

Instructions for pie filling:
1. Mix molasses, boiling water and baking soda and pour into crust.
2. In a small bowl, rub flour, sugar and butter between fingertips until a paste forms. Sprinkle over the molasses layer.
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes until edges start to turn dark and a skin forms on top of the pie.
4. Chill several hours before serving.
5. Optional: While pie is baing, roll out dough scraps and use cookie cutters to cut decorative shapes. Fork dough to prevent puffing. Brush cutouts with 1 tbsp. heavy cream and sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes on a baking sheet.

Ingredients for maple whipped cream:
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup maple syrup

Instructions for whipped cream:
1. Whip heavy cream on medium high until it starts to thicken and drizzle in maple syrup. Whip until heavy peaks form. Top pie with whipped cream, dusted ground cinnamon and decorative shapes.

Pastry chef Rebecca Albright is swiftly, and perfectly, crimping a pie crust while people pack into Ted’s Bulletin for a post-brunch wave of service on a busy Saturday. While waiting for a table, the pastry station serves as a source of entertainment for patrons who get to peer over the short glass wall at the assembly line of pop tarts, pie crusts being rolled out, and more desserts taking form. For Albright, the bakery window is one of her favorite parts of the job. “You get to interact with guests and get feedback, see their reactions,” she says.

Before she became a pastry whiz, Albright had studied broadcast journalism, though she found herself jumping at the chance to do different catering events and baking wedding cakes for friends during and after college. Towards the end of undergrad, she picked up a minor in food science, knowing that’s where her real passion was. Combine all of that with a natural affinity for baking and memories of growing up baking with her grandmother, it’s no surprise that a career in pastry was on the horizon. For a while, Albright entertained the idea of being a wedding cake designer before ultimately deciding to enroll at L’Academie de Cuisine.

Following an externship at the Willard Hotel, the bubbly California native decided to stay in Washington. “DC stood out to me. I’ve really fallen in love with the city,” she says. “I want to bake here.” Although some of us might complain about the workaholic attitude in DC, Albright has an appreciation for DC’s “passionate and career-focused” population. “People here devote themselves to what they do,” she said.

In addition to DC’s dedication and passion, Albright says she appreciates the sense of community within Ted’s, the restaurant scene and the city at large. She puts a lot of trust in her pastry cooks and likes that the team plays off one another well. It’s fitting that at a family-oriented restaurant, Albright describes the kitchen team as a kind of family itself. And then there’s the community within DC. There are the neighborhood regulars who rely on Ted’s to get their mornings going and who appreciate having their orders memorized and easily matched to their faces when they walk in. “You don’t get that in other cities,” says Albright.

She’s enjoyed seeing the city through the eyes of visitors when family and friends come in from out of town and she’s gotten to play tourist. And even though it might be hard for the east coast to compare to the constant abundance of all-year-round produce out of California, Albright says she’s loved the seasonal and fresh produce at local markets. Like a lot of other chefs, she looks around at what others are doing in their restaurants. “I like to see how someone puts two flavors you would never think of pairing together or how they use an ingredient and think of how to translate it to pastry,” she says, citing an example of eating huckleberry jam and then turning it into a pop-tart flavor at Ted’s.

“Baking is kind of like being a mad scientist,” she says with a little laughter. She takes me along for a quick flashback to undergrad where her food science minor required lab sessions making up and testing recipes. “Baking and cooking are so different. Pastry is such a science,” she says. Recently, Albright has been recreating the lab setting in her own home. After moving and discovering a box of old recipe cards left behind by the previous owner, Albright started playing around with and using the recipes for inspiration in new desserts at Ted’s.

For all of her enthusiasm for baking though, Albright points out that chefs “aren’t all food all the time.” “When people ask me what I think of a dish, I like to turn it back on them,” she says, adding that there’s a lot to glean from a non-chef’s reaction to a dish. Though it’s nice to take a step back from food at times, Albright jokes that she finds herself inadvertently baking on her days off.

With the opening of another Ted’s Bulletin on 14th street coming up for January 2013, Albright says she’s excited for more space. That means more pastries for you, dear readers. While working between two locations is sure to be a challenge, you’ll have lots of treats to look forward to from Rebecca and her team. The new spot will allow for Ted’s to churn out gourmet doughnuts, as well as more pop-tart flavors, giant cinnamon rolls, nostalgic and seasonal desserts and even some more savory items in addition to scones and quiches the Eastern Market location is already making.

Speaking of pastries, check back at 1 PM for Rebecca’s recipe for Montgomery Pie–it’s got a gingerbread crust and it’s perfect for the holidays.

Kick off your weekend at a food truck today. See where they’re roaming.

See which food trucks are out today and where they’re hanging out.

The turkey’s not cooked through, you’re scrambling to mash extra potatoes for the in-laws who RSVP’d last minute for dinner, and you could have sworn you had ground nutmeg in your cart when you checked out at the grocery store, but now it’s nowhere to be found. Does this Thanksgiving nightmare sound like a familiar scenario to you? Let Food & Friends cover dessert for you this year.

The DC nonprofit has a goal of delivering more than 3,500 turkeys this year to residents in DC and parts of Maryland and Virginia who are living with HIV/AIDS, cancer and other critical illnesses. To raise funds, Food & Friends is hosting their annual Thanksgiving Pie Day sale and is aiming to sell 7,600 pies total.

Pies start at $25 each and this year’s selection includes homemade apple pies, spiced pumpkin pies, pecan pies and US Airways Almond Maretto brownies. For those of you that opt for the brownies, you receive a chance to win a $1,200 US Airways gift card. Each pie purchase provides one full day of meals to a Food & Friends client.

Pie sales end on November 15th and pre-purchased pies can be picked up on Tuesday, November 20th at Food & Friends or at one of 28 CVS locations throughout the area.

For more information on buying or selling pies or to purchase one online, go to www.foodandfriends.org/pie.

Y’all good out there? Weathered the hurricane okay and have checked in on your neighbors? We’re guessing some of the food trucks might be re-emerging today so check out the map to see where they are.

The bespectacled and beloved Chris Kimball of America’s Test Kitchen, along with the show’s science editor, Guy Crosby, gave a little chat last week in conjunction with the Smithsonian’s preview of an upcoming exhibit, “FOOD: Transforming the American Table 1950-2000.”

Among the highlights, Kimball explained that unlike other cooking shows, he embraces showing failure on America’s Test Kitchen in order to remove any fears about cooking. “You never see food shows go, ‘This sucks!’” he said. The mission is often to find out why bad things happen to good recipes, he added. Throughout the presentation, Kimball made the case for why recipes should be tested scientifically and why he chooses to use his head rather than his heart when cooking. Additionally, the duo answered the audience’s cooking questions and dispelled various cooking myths such as searing the meat locks in juices and marinating meat makes it more tender.

After the presentation, we caught a sneak preview of the FOOD exhibit (see a few photos after the jump) that is currently being installed at the National Museum of American History and set to open to the public on November 20th. The 3,800-square-foot exhibit will examine major changes in food production, distribution, preparation and consumption in America from 1950 to 2000.

Four of the main sections of the exhibit will be “FOOD, ‘New and Improved!,’” “Resetting the Table,” the “Open Table,” and “Wine for the Table.”

“FOOD, ‘New and Improved!’” will explore the manufacturing of “convenient” foods has grown and changed, how supermarkets have expanded and utilized global distribution systems, the rise of fast foods and innovations in food preparation such as the invention of the microwave.

“Resetting the Table” will look at how changing gender roles and work schedules have changed the American table. If you’ve ever wanted to know how men manning the grills became popular in America, “Resetting the Table” should give you some insight. And you’ll also be able to learn about the “good food” movement in America and the rise of popularity in artisanal and local foods.

The “Open Table” portion of the exhibit will feature a large communal table where visitors can talk about a range of food-related issues. The table will open with a look at food pyramids in the U.S. and will change featured topics throughout the life of the exhibit. Lastly, Virginia vineyards get some attention in the “Wine for the Table” portion, along with California wine production and advancements in technology for fermentation and wine storage.

Making a full comeback in the FOOD Exhibit is Julia Child’s kitchen which has been on limited viewing in the museum. You’ll be able to peer into her full kitchen and learn more about the evolution of food television.

The FOOD: Transforming the American Table 1950-2000 is free and will open to the public starting November 20th, just in time for the food-centric American holiday, Thanksgiving.

It’s supposed to be downright balmy outside today. So get out there, enjoy some fresh air and lunch from a food truck before that autumn chill returns.

Grab the nearest co-worker and head out to a food truck for lunch. Do both of yourselves a favor though and don’t talk about work for the next hour. Just enjoy the empanada/sandwich/cupcake/taco/pho/insert-other-food-from-a-truck.

Need a little pick-me-up to help you get through the end of the week? How about lunch from a food truck?

Save and close that Word document right now, mister/miss! And then proceed to the nearest food truck.

What time is it? Lunch time! Which means you better run out there and get something to sink your teeth into!

Get a nice warm lunch from a food truck today. Check the map to see where they all are.