Foodie & The Beast Brings a Wave of Good Food News

 Tuesday’s midterms brought the blue wave everyone was talking about: Democrats took back the House and the Senate, and DC elected Ward 4 Councilmember Janeese Lewis George as its first new mayor in more than a decade. DC voters also banned foie gras, with Initiative 86 passing with 73% of the vote and clearing 70% in every one of the city’s eight wards. The ban starts July 1, 2027, and a court fight is already brewing, so foie lovers have about eight months (and Maryland and Virginia are a short drive away).

Then we got down to business, and the table was full.

Katie Catalano and Eugene “EJ” Beckley poured for us all show long. They’re the co-founders of Charcuteria, opening soon at 2104 Vermont Avenue NW in the old Bottle Collection building around the corner from the 9:30 Club. It’s a Mediterranean market, wine bar and charcuterie cafe all under one roof, with an outdoor spritz garden, conservas and a serious vermouth and aperitivo program. The drinks came one after another: a Bourbon-Limoncello Spritz made with Don Ciccio & Figli limoncello, distilled right here in Northeast DC, then a Spanish vermouth from Reus, then a flight of four wines from grapes rescued from near extinction in Turkey, Spain and Greece, and finally a Recioto della Valpolicella, the sweet Veneto red that gave the world Amarone by accident.

From 14th Street, the Michelin-starred Bresca, a 2026 James Beard Award semifinalist for Outstanding Hospitality, brought Chef de Cuisine Garrett Brower and GM Chris Giamporcaro into the studio. Garrett spent nearly four years as a sous chef at The French Laundry and won the S.Pellegrino Young Chef Academy U.S. title with quail stuffed with Chesapeake oysters (and yes, you may have spotted him in The Bear). An albacore crudo with concord grape, toasted buckwheat and champagne graced our table. Book now for Bresca’s one-night-only Truffle Dinner on November 13 and its Thanksgiving Day Fete.

Chef, food writer and Jewish culinary historian Vered Guttman learned to cook at two grandmothers’ tables in Israel, one Iraqi and one Polish, and went on to cook President Obama’s 2014 Passover Seder at the White House. She joined us from FOODISH, the food initiative of ANU – Museum of the Jewish People (ANU is Hebrew for “we”), to talk ChallahFest. Don’t miss Beyond the Braid at Sixth & I this Sunday, with a challah photography exhibit and a panel with Pati Jinich, plus challah-pops from Baked by Yael and a Shabbat dinner at Sixth & I on November 13.

And from Georgetown, Domingo Luiz, sommelier at Koryouri Urara, came by to talk about Chef Urara Iwasaki’s first year. Urara was in the studio just as she was opening, and now her 22-seat dining room off Wisconsin Avenue is the spot where you step inside and you could be in a neighborhood restaurant in Japan. Every tasting menu opens with her egg-dashi custard and moves through dishes from her childhood in Yokosuka, and upstairs there’s a sushi omakase counter.

Pour yourself something good and listen in.