Milk Bar Now Open in CityCenterDC

Milk Bar, sister bakery to David Chang’s Momofuku, opened in CityCenterDC Friday morning at 1090 I St. NW ending Washintonians’ yearlong wait. It is open from 7 a.m.-midnight seven days a week. Momofuku will also open soon next door.

Some of the offerings at the new Milk Bar in CityCenterDC, which opened Friday. (Photo: Tim Ebner)

Lines stretched around the building on opening day with customers waiting for tasted of the chef and partner Christina Tosi’s famous “compost” cookies with chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, oats, coffee, potato chips and pretzels; crack pie, a butter cake meets chess pie with a toasted oat crust; birthday cake, vanilla with rainbow sprinkles baked in it layered with vanilla frosting; and cereal milk, milk flavored with corn flakes. The restaurant is also serving the Springfield, Va., native’s klossies, truffles, soft serve and shakes.

Tosi is debuting a new line of parfaits in D.C. The $5 parfaits include yuzu jam with Thai tea granola, passionfruit jam with compost cookie granola and strawberry jam with super seedy granola with hemp seeds, chia seeds, cashews, hazelnuts and toasted almonds. D.C. also is the first to have the chocolate-chocolate cookie made with chocolate cookie dough, cocoa powder, 55 percent chocolate, chocolate crumbs and a hint of salt; a pumpkin-pie layer cake; and a Thanksgiving-themed croissant, a stuffing-flavored compound butter layered into laminated dough then stuffed with roasted, shredded turkey, cranberry sauce and gravy.

Tosi, who served customers at the store on opening day, will speak at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Metropolitan Cooking & Entertaining Show at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. She will also be signing her book, Milk Bar Life from 11-12:15 p.m. Saturday.

Pizzeria Paradiso hosts Dinosaur Takeover

Pizzeria Paradiso, 3282 M St. NW in Georgetown, will host Dinosaur Takeover with Suns Cinema, which will open in Mount Pleasant, today from noon-midnight.

The movie marathon will show the Jurassic Park films all afternoon and evening in the downstairs bar. Dinosaur themed beers will be on draft, including: Brooklyn Quadraceratops, Oersoep Brettanosaurus Rex, Off Color Dino’Smores, Monocacy Humulus Lupus Rex, Ninkasi Tricerahops and Off Color Apex and Predator.

Centrolina hosts fall harvest dinner

On Oct. 27, Centrolina, 974 Palmer Alley NW, will host a fall harvest dinner featuring seasonal ingredients from the market along with wines from Virginia’s RdV Vineyards and Thibaut-Janison Winery.

Centrolina will host a fall harvest dinner on Tuesday. (Photo: Mark Heckathorn/DC on Heels)

The fixed-price meal will showcase fall market products like squash, sweet potato, apple, kale and figs, along with recipe cards from chef/owner Amy Brandwein so guests can recreate their favorite dishes at home. Cost of the mail is $65 and an optional wine pairing can be added for $30.

Following the dinner, the Centrolina market will be open with specials on select seasonal and specialty items featured on the dinner menu.

Fuego throws third annual Day of the Dead celebration

Fuego’s featured Ashes-to-Ashes cocktail. (Photo: Fuego)

Fuego Cocina y Tequileria, 2800 Clarendon Blvd., Arlington, will host its annual Day of the Dead celebration from Oct. 31-Nov. 2.

Diners will enter past a candle-covered altar. The restaurant will be decorated with skulls, skeletons, colorful strings of paper banners and marigolds.

As a time to commemorate and honor the lives of the departed Fuego will offer dink and food specials, such as pan de los muertos (bread of the dead) and house chocolate abuelita (Mexican hot chocolate). Drink alcoholic drink specials include Ofrendas para Amigos with Juarez Gold tequila, Terra d’Oro zinfandel port, house-made orange bitters and hibiscus syrup served with dry ice for a steaming caldron effect as well as the Ashes-to-Ashes with Patron XO, dark cocoa liqueur, Mexican arbol syrup and a shot of espresso-strength double brewed coffee served in a rocks glass with a powdered sugar rim.

Pete’s Apizza’s hosts pumpkin parties in Clarendon, Silver Spring

Pete’s New Haven Style Apizza will host pumpkin decorating pizza parties at two of its location, 2017 Clarendon Blvd., Arlington, and 962 Wayne Ave., Silver Spring, from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. on Oct. 31. The afternoon will feature pumpkins for decorating, along with pumpkin-topped pizzas, pumpkin pasta and pumpkin spice latté gelato.

Pete’s Apizza will have pumpkin specials and activities on Oct. 31 in Clarendon and Silver Spring. (Photo: autostraddle.com)

Mini pumpkins will be available for decorating for $5, complete with supplies for kids to get creative. Limited-edition pumpkin-inspired dishes and sweets include a special pumpkin and kale pizza topped with rosemary and red onion priced from $9-$25 depending on the size.

The restaurants will also serve fresh pumpkin ravioli with blue cheese cream sauce, toasted walnuts, crispy kale and sage for $13, and pumpkin spice latté gelato priced from $3.50-5.

R&D Supper Club to pop up Nov. 8 at DGS Delicatessen

Quentin Frye will host pop-up dinners with his R&D Supper Club. (Photo: Salt Kitchen and Tasting Bar)

James Beard semifinalist and former Big Bear Café chef Quinten Frye left the Bloomingdale restaurant Friday to launch his new monthly pop-up with partner Robert Elias, the former beverage director and general manager at Big Bear, RD upper Club. The first meal will be held at DGS Delicatessen, 1317 Connecticut Ave. NW, on Nov. 8 and 9.

Frye, a Texas native who moved to D.C. from Honolulu about a year ago to take the helm at Big Bear, was a James Beard Award semifinalist for Rising Star Chef in 2013, and has worked at restaurants in California and Hawaii.

The supper club, Frye’s version of a family meal with great food, perfect wine and libation pairings and camaraderie for 25 diners, will be hosted a different locations around the DMV for $125 per person. The price includes the five-course meal, tax, tip and alcoholic beverage pairings.

The menu for the first pop-up pulls from Frye’s experience cooking Mexican food. It includes fresh oysters, sopes, empanadas, stone crab aqua chile, pheasant, cabrito and dessert. The ingredients will be sourced locally from local farms including Earth and Eats, Reids Orchard, Le Bocage Farms, Trickling Springs, Grassy Meadow Farm and Happy Valley Meat Co.

The meals will be served on custom-made plates and glassware by Ryan McDonnell and JJ Vanlandingham.

Tickets to R & D Supper Club – short or “research and development — are available online.

Austin Ginsberg is new chef de cuisine at Pearl Dive Oyster Palace

Austing Ginsberg is the new chef de cuisine at Pearl Dive Oyster Palace. (Photo: Pearl Dive Oyster Bar)

Austin Ginsberg has been named the new chef de cuisine at Pearl Dive Oyster Bar, 1612 14th St. NW.

He joins the restaurant from its sister establishment, Black’s Bar and Kitchen in Bethesda, where he was sous chef. Ginsberg previously worked at Woodberry Kitchen in Baltimore, under James Beard award-winning chef and owner Spike Gjerde, and at 1789 Restaurant under former executive chef Daniel Giusti, where he ran the fish and meat stations, and was eventually promoted to sous chef.

Since joining Pearl Dive, Ginsberg has added his touch to the menu and recently debuted several new dishes on the dinner menu, including marinated beet salad made with pickled local peaches, herb goat cheese, locally grown pea shoots and herbs, red onion, citrus espelette vinaigrette and toasted macadamia nuts ($14); pan-roasted Arctic char with curried fruit relish, house-made lardons, Jerusalem artichoke puree, local greens, celery heart salad and pomegranate vinaigrette ($27); and whole Pipe Dreams pig that’s been slow roasted and pressed back into the crispy skin, sliced and served porchetta style with house-made apple butter, sautéed shaved Brussels sprouts with house bacon and a pickled serrano and Granny Smith apple salad ($27). He will also add dishes to the menu upstairs at Black Jack.