Going Out Gurus

The Thursday night Penn Quarter FreshFarm Market has been known to attract chefs from neighboring restaurants for years now, but this summer, you can count on seeing Cafe Atlantico's low-key chef Terri Cutrino and her cooks milling about and picking up produce. Last week, the restaurant kicked off a new Friday night special: Each week from now until late fall, Chef Cutrino will create a menu that's made up of ingredients from that week's market. Diners can choose between this $45 three-course prix-fixe or ordering from the a la carte menu. I strolled around the market with Cutrino last week and chatted with her about the new series and about how we regular folks should pick our market produce.

Use our interactive farmers market map to get your fresh produce fix this season.

-- Julia

The fish is good, but the pearls of roe make this dish fun. (Julia Beizer - The Washington Post)

The second the mercury rises above 70 in this town, we all begin taking happy hour outside. Adams Morgan's Perrys remains one of the best spots to do so. Sushi dishes seem to pair best with the vibe on the breezy white roof deck, and while I'll always order the sashimi assortment off the happy hour menu, I recently found a new dish to tickle my fancy. The salmon tataki is made up of seared strips of fish resting in a pool of jalapeño cream sauce. Beads of roe rest atop the dish and burst like Gushers (remember those?) when you pop them into your mouth. The dish is $5 from 5:30 until 7:30 every night -- just like the dozen other selections on the happy hour menu, which includes both offerings from the sushi bar and some Spanish-style tapas from new chef Jose Picazo, who studied under Jose Andres at Jaleo. A selection of cocktails, wines and beers go for $4.

This new occasional feature shines a spotlight on some of our favorite dishes and drinks across town. You know, the ones that are just so good you want to give your friends a taste. Got a tip for us? E-mail us at goingoutgurus [at] washingtonpost.com.

-- Julia

Yesterday's chat was the quintessential Got Plans? grab bag. We talked about mole. We talked about jazz clubs. We talked about Passport DC. We talked about "Star Trek" and Nissan Pavilion traffic. We even spent a bizarrely disproportionate amount of time talking about brunch on H Street (my bad).

Read the full transcript here. Got more to say on these topics? Leave your comments below or submit them to next week's discussion.

-- Julia

Chocolate dresses at last year's event were pure sweetness. (Adam Clark)

Chocolate dresses and sugar tiaras seem like the stuff of little girls' dreams, but at Sweet Charity, the fantasy becomes reality. As part of the annual soiree, fifteen local chefs create costumes out of confections for a runway fashion show. I caught up with three of the chefs -- 2941's Anthony Chavez, Co Co. Sala's Nisha Sidhu and the Bourbon Steak's Jerome Colin -- to ask them about their creations for this year's theme: literary classics.

Before we get into all that, we should mention that tickets for the event are still available. They cost $95 in advance ($115 at the door) and include samples from 40 participating restaurants. Of course, it's all for a good cause: Sweet Charity raises money for The Heart of America Foundation's Books from the Heart program, which provides reading material for underprivileged kids. Check out the Reliable Source's report from last year for more intel on the event.

Showing Mom you appreciate her can be free. And priceless. (Dominic Bracco II - For The Washington Post)

When Julia gave you ideas for Mother's Day brunches last week, she touched on event organizers' penchant for stereotyping what moms want. We'd hate to do the same, so we put the personal touch on this list of ideas for Mother's Day events: we're telling you the things we have in mind for spending time with our moms. Read on to see which of our plans match up with your mom's tastes, or check out more events where you can treat Mom like a queen.

Burgers? Check. Greek? Up next. Pizza? Maybe yet to come for Spike Mendelsohn. (James M. Thresher for The Washington Post)

Ever since Good Stuff Eatery opened to raves last summer, folks have been speculating about where and when the Mendelsohn clan -- and its most well-known member, "Top Chef" contestant Spike -- would be expanding. "Is Spike opening another Good Stuff in Dupont?" was a recurring (and unanswered) Got Plans? question just a couple of weeks ago.

Well, the Dupont thing isn't happening...at least for now. But, as of Monday, the family purchased Zack's Taverna, the Greek restaurant located just next door. Big changes will roll out slowly at the new space, says Micheline Mendelsohn (Spike's sister and director of communications for the business). This week, they're figuring out staffing, cleaning up the restaurant, getting in new food products and serving simple Greek dishes. Spike's new menu is set to roll out on May 18. Expect Greek fare, but instead of the 50-plus list of items on the Zack's menu, a more curated selection of 10 to 15. They may add pizza to the lineup over the course of the summer. (For a look at what the chef has been exploring, check out this New York magazine article about his pizza binge in New York City. Spike has been busy; he's also working on a series of Web cooking videos.)

The family holds the lease for a new Good Stuff in Union Station, but the ETA on that one is yet to be determined because construction at the site has stalled.

-- Julia

Chantal Tseng of the Tabard Inn has summery drinks on tap for Wednesday, May 13. (Michael Temchine for The Washington Post)

Today marks the beginning of World Cocktail Week, a worldwide celebration of mixed drinks. In D.C., there are nightly events organized by the members of the D.C. Craft Bartenders Guild, with all of them donating anywhere from 20 to 50 percent of the proceeds to the Museum of the American Cocktail in New Orleans.

"Last year, we raised more money than any city in the world," says Derek Brown, a founding member of the Guild who bartends at (and created the first cocktail menu for) the Gibson. "And this week we want to top that."

Here's a day-by-day guide to where you can find the best drinks in town. Except for the gala dinner on Monday, none of the events has a cover charge.

Wednesday
Gin Rickeys at Bar Pilar
Tonight, from 5 to 7, Adam Bernbach of Bar Pilar will be mixing up traditional Gin Rickeys - no fancy liqueurs, no extraneous ingredients - for $7 a piece. It's an homage, he says, to George Williamson, the bartender who poured the first Rickey years ago at a bar called Shoemaker's on Pennsylvania Avenue. If you're looking for the creative, outlandish cocktails that Bernbach is known for, check with him Tuesday during his next-to-last Cocktail Sessions at Pilar.

And if you're hooked on the Rickey, get ready for July when members of the D.C. Craft Bartenders Guild compete with each other to see who can craft the coolest and most inventive Rickey.

Thursday
'80s Cocktails at PS 7's
Many of the cocktails celebrated and consumed in D.C. bars come from the golden age of the 1920s and '30s, and we usual give short shift to the silly beverages of the '70s and '80s, like the Harvey Wallbanger or Tequila Sunrise. Not so tonight at PS 7's, where bartenders Rachel Sergi of Zaytinya and Jason Strich of Rasika join PS 7's bartender Gina Chersevani to mix up '80s-inspired drinks from 6 to 9.

"We're going to be making '80s drinks with a modern twist," explains Sergi, offering as examples "a Long Island Iced Tea made with all fresh ingredients, or a Fuzzy Navel with fresh peach juice instead of peach schnapps, and Hanger One mandarin blossom vodka instead of orange juice and vodka. Oh, and we'll have Jell-O shooters."

DJ Brian Billion will be spinning Hall & Oates, Cameo, Billy Ocean and Whodini, classic '80s movies have been lined up for the bar's large flatscreen TV, and the staff are digging '80s outfits out of their closets - dressing up is encouraged, for customers, too.