Food

Peter Murray •

The Taste of Georgetown is back for its 21st year, Saturday, Sept. 13 at a new location on the Georgetown waterfront (K Street between Wisconsin Avenue and Thomas Jefferson Street).

Expect a plethora of food, fun and music all brought to you, courtesy of the Georgetown Business Improvement District and a handful of sponsors, including Long & Foster, Whole Foods, Bank of Georgetown and PNC.

The main attraction is, of course, the food. Dean & Deluca, Luke’s Lobster, I-Thai, Malmaison, Rialto, Filomena Ristorante, Tackle Box, Thunder Burger and many more will be there, offering two small signature dishes each. Dishes cost $5 for one or $20 for five.

The event menu is enough to get your mouth watering well in advance of the event. In addition, there will be a competition a la “Iron Chef” between some of Georgetown’s best chefs, challenging them to create a unique dish with specified ingredients. Baked & Wired, on the other hand, will be hosting a cupcake-eating competition. At the Pinstripes station, kids will be able to play bocce ball, hula hoop, get their faces painted and participate in balloon-animal-making. Meanwhile, adults can enjoy alcoholic beverages in the Craft Beer & Wine Tasting Pavilion, where single drink tickets go for $4 and packs of three for $10.

Parents and kids alike can enjoy live country and bluegrass music brought to you by Gypsy Sally’s. Bands playing include Human Jukebox Country, Letitia Van Sant & the Bonafides and Justin T Rawick and the Common Good.

All proceeds from the event go towards the Georgetown Ministry Center and its services to aid the area’s homeless. Don’t miss out on After Taste Happy Hour, where event-goers can keep the party going with deals on food and drinks at some of Georgetown’s best restaurants. For more information, visit the event’s website at tasteofgeorgetown.com.

Nick Massella • September 10, 2014

Tucked away on 19th Street between M and N streets is Ristorante i Ricchi (1220 19th St. NW), a Washington staple for fine Italian cuisine since 1989. The concept, which mimics a Tuscan garden with live plants filling Italian urns atop salmon-colored terra-cotta tile, was brought to Washington by Christianne Ricchi and Francesco Ricchi as the Washington cousin to their restaurant in Tuscany, Trattoria i Ricchi. Twenty-five years later, i Ricchi (pronounced ee ree-key) is still going strong in Dupont Circle.

For owner and chef Christianne, who has since parted with Francesco, serving authentic Tuscan cuisine is key. At i Ricchi, menu items, including the Pappardelle sul Coniglio (broad pasta ribbons tossed with savory Tuscan rabbit sauce) and the Le Salsicce con Fagioli all’ Uccelletto (grilled homemade sausage with cannellini beans and tomato) are brought to Washington from Italy, with a number of dishes coming directly from the Ricchi concept outside of Florence.

“Today, people are looking for authenticity. They’re looking for the real deal,” said Christianne. “A lot of thought goes into what we do – we’re almost cerebral in what we serve – and there has to be a true connection to Italy.”

For i Ricchi, Christianne’s dedication to remaining authentic has enabled the restaurant to survive a drastically different city than when it first opened. But just as Washington has changed, so must i Ricchi.
“I’ve taken this opportunity to go back to Florence and I’m looking forward to bringing a lot of the things I’ve discovered and rediscovered in Tuscany back to Washington,” said Christianne.

Moreover, Christianne recently signed a long-term lease in the restaurant’s current location and is planning significant renovations, including the addition of an early morning coffee and breakfast bar, which will also serve as a wine bar in the early evening and through the night.

Outside of the kitchen, Christianne is passionate about two women’s organizations she has established in recent years. Two years ago, with her daughter Olivia, Christianne wanted to celebrate and earmark International Women’s Day. That motivation led to the creation of the i Ricchi Women’s Club, a group that boasts 3,000 members and holds gatherings on topics ranging from health to politics to business to family.
Christianne also leads a group she refers to as “the DEWDs,” the Distinguished Executive Women’s Dinner. The group consists of 150 executive women who come together monthly at i Ricchi for cocktails, dinner and networking.

“I often ask myself why I’m in this business. And the thing I come back to, over and over, is the people factor,” said Christianne. “Being a restaurateur and chef gives you a very unique opportunity to interact with people on a different, very intimate level. A big part of the job is nurturing and taking care of people. People come to your restaurant and put themselves in your hands so to speak. So there’s a level of trust that’s established that you will take care of them and treat them well. And when you do that, there’s a special bond that’s created.”
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Robert Devaney •

Another Georgetown classic is about to vanish, and another Georgetown classic was about to vanish.

Chadwick’s on K Street — the friendly, classic hamburger joint where everyone knows your name — will close Aug. 31, according to former owner and Chadwick’s founder Michael Kirby, who has been assisting the Russo family with the business after the death of owner and restaurateur Tom Russo.

Kirby — who began Chadwick’s 47 years ago — also confirmed that Mr. Smith’s has purchased the business at 3205 K St., NW, which includes all licenses and leases. Kirby also said he believed that the Chadwick’s in Alexandria would continue.

As for Mr. Smith’s — “the friendliest saloon in town” at 3104 M St., NW, since 1965 — it will close within weeks, probably by Sept. 1, its general manager Juan Andino told several media outlets a few days ago.

Andino told ABC 7 News and others that the Boston-based landlord is raising the rent to levels his business cannot afford. He also said that he hoped to relocate the restaurant elsewhere in Georgetown, just as those who ran the closed Neyla have indicated.

Mr. Smith’s with its piano bar and sing-alongs along with its back patio and vintage furnishings is known to many Washingtonians as a spot where they had some of their first dates. On Sept. 1, expect to see Mr. Smith’s in its new location on K Street.

Ari Post •

There are very certain times within the evolution of culture—turning points in which the underground breaks into the mainstream, the underdog rises from obscurity and steps into the spotlight—that signals the dawn of a new era. It is a domino effect of events, which echoes that a seismic shift has occurred and nothing will ever be quite the same. It happened this year to Washington’s food culture.

The pot has been simmering for some time, and there is no one thing that can take all the credit for its boiling over. Since the recession hit in 2007, the influx of young urban professionals to the area, who flocked here for government job stability and seemed to surprise even themselves by settling in, resulted in the rapid development of city areas long since written off—and restaurants around town were always the first doors to open, fresh, funky and eager to impress. The revitalization of the H Street corridor, Southwest Waterfront and Shaw neighborhoods have brought noticeably bold new talent, energy and innovation to our restaurant community.

Meanwhile, old guard restaurateurs have continued to anchor the city’s reputation, from Jeffrey Buben to Robert Wiedmaier, Ris Lacoste, Michel Richard, and our incomparable culinary ambassador José Andrés. Patrick O’Connell of the Inn at Little Washington has long been one of our country’s most universally acclaimed chefs who has brought international attention to our area for more than 30 years.

But over the past few months this revolution seems to have galvanized. The city has exploded with national culinary acclaim, scoring high in countless national rankings, from the pages of Forbes, Food & Wine, Travel and Leisure and Livability, among others. Bon Appétit magazine just named the Capitol Hill restaurant Rose’s Luxury the best restaurant of 2014, lauding its innovative cuisine as a “game-changer.”

And big names are taking notice. New York chef and restaurateur David Chang is opening a branch of his freakishly popular Momofuku ramen bar later this year in D.C.’s developing CityCenter, crowning the local ramen boom that includes the cultish (and incomparably tasty) hotspots Toki Underground and Daikaya.

However, for those harboring a more intimate knowledge of restaurants over the past 30 years, there is another chef coming to Washington that signals its culinary heyday unequivocally and beyond all others. His name is Daniel Boulud.
To know why this is, it is important to know a little bit about who he is.

Boulud was born in Lyon, France, the Mesopotamia of European cuisine. He was raised in the land of Beaujolais and Côtes du Rhône, the birthplace of charcuterie, quenelle, andouillette and coq au vin. Frankly, it is an unfair advantage for a chef. When asked if he was genetically predisposed with a heightened sense of taste and flavor, he admits, “I did grab a few genes.” (Though “not all positive,” he laughs.)

He started cooking early in life, and at the age of 15 he had already achieved recognition as a finalist in a competition for France’s best culinary apprentice. After working with legendary French chefs Roger Vergé, Georges Blanc and Michel Guérard and a brief stint in Copenhagen, Boulud moved to Washington in 1980 to be the private chef to the European Commission.
“The first thing I did when I got here was drop my suitcase and go see Jean-Louis Palladin at the Watergate,” Boulud says.
Palladin, who died in 2001, was one of the true torchbearers of French cuisine in mid-to-late century America, whose namesake 40-seat restaurant in the Watergate Hotel will go down in history as a gastronomic Camelot in its own right.

“He was the avant-garde chef,” says Boulud. “Unconventional, but a national figure. It was very important for me to meet him.”
But Boulud’s stint as a private chef did not satisfy his ambition. “I found the cooks here exciting and interesting,” he says, “but the restaurants were old fashioned French, where I didn’t have much interest.”

He chocks this fad off on none other than Jacqueline Kennedy—with a wink and a smile, of course—who famously brought French cuisine to the White House and into vogue on a national scale. Not that Boulud has a problem with it. In fact, he is proud to have once called her a regular dinner guest. It was simply not his calling.

So, after two restless years in Washington, Boulud was directed by Palladin to the Westbury Hotel in New York City. Once he arrived in New York, his mastery of French cuisine and desire to push the boundaries of unconventionality quickly rocketed him to the top of the food chain. He landed the job as chef de cuisine at Polo Lounge at Westbury Manor then moved onto Le Regencé at the Hotel Plaza Athenée, finally taking over as executive chef at Le Cirque, an old restaurant in Manhattan’s Upper East Side known for its elite, remarkable clientele—and unremarkable food.

From 1986 to 1992, Boulud turned Le Cirque into one of the most highly rated restaurants in the country. In his last year there, he received his first James Beard Award for Best Chef in New York City.

“When I came to Le Cirque,” he says, “the clientele was mature but powerful, very old fashioned. Always royalty, politicians, entertainment people. But the food was never any good. And I came in there and made them talk about the food. It helped the restaurant, but it also helped me—it gave me the confidence and knowledge to open my own place.”

“The ’80s were pivotal for me,” he goes on. “It was like the Olympics. It’s where I got on stage for the first time. But in order to jump the podium, I had to open my own place.”

Boulud found an investor and took the plunge, opening his namesake restaurant, Daniel, in 1993.

Shortly thereafter, Daniel was rated one of the top ten restaurants in the world by the International Herald Tribune, received a four-star rating from the New York Times, and collected top honors from Zagat, Gourmet magazine and Wine Spectator. He was recognized again by the James Beard Foundation as Outstanding Chef of the Year in 1994.

Since then, Boulud has not had the chance to look back. His food is now legendary and his name is an industry. He has six restaurants in New York, as well as locations in Paris, Montreal, Vancouver, Miami, Palm Beach, Las Vegas, London, Singapore, Beijing and probably a few others. He has been a guest on Letterman half a dozen times and appeared on television alongside Anthony Bourdain more than a few times. His awards are innumerable and include a 2007 Culinary Humanitarian Award from the United Nations and a 2006 Legion of Honour distinction from the President of France for his contributions to the advancement of French culture.

When confronted with this boggling list of accolades, he smiles. “So, I passed my exam.”

Now, after 30 years, Boulud returns to Washington. DBGB Kitchen and Bar, a companion to his bistro of the same name in New York’s East Village (in honor of the Bowery’s now-departed CBGB), is opening in D.C.’s newly developed CityCenter at the corner of 9th and H Streets, NW (just around the block from Chang’s Momofuku).

“Through the years, I’ve done charities and events in D.C., seen friends, but the opportunity just never really came along to open a restaurant until now,” he says. “And I am suddenly remembering things from when I was here. Like Patrick O’Connell, who was a pioneer in reaching out and making relationships with local farmers to source local ingredients. I remember Jean-Louis had a farmer raising squab, and he would go around Maryland and Virginia searching for game and seafood all the time.”
“I think what the 1980s brought to restaurants, especially around Washington, is an entire generation of chefs who cared about the ingredients,” he says. “Cooks who cared about how their food is being grown and raised, with an interest in local product.”
DBGB, to hear Boulud tell it, is the wild sibling of his more traditional fine dining outfits. “It’s certainly the most casual of my restaurants,” he says, “and sort of rustic—a kind of French-American brasserie. It’s about having a restaurant where I can be Daniel Boulud but make myself affordable in the style of the bistros and bouchons of Lyon. It’s seasonal, market-driven, and inspired by the talent of an individual chef to make it special and personalized.”

The heart of the restaurant is burgers, bangers and really good beer. Sausage is a particular inspiration, “because not only in France, but if you go around Europe and the rest of the world, every culture and cuisine has beautiful and interesting sausage. It can be street food or fine dining. It is a way to really extend our charcuterie program.”

A deep sense of pride and enjoyment comes from Boulud as he discusses his white-cloth table restaurants, but at this point in his career, he is curious to tackle what he calls the “problem” of casual dining. “It has no identity,” he says. “It means a diner on the corner, it means a bistro, it means fun, but it is somehow considered less than fine dining. I want to think of it as fine fun dining (FFD). And it’s an important point for D.C. right now, because there are a lot of fantastic restaurants here getting so much recognition for being casual. And with that sense of casual, you can achieve the most unstructured, earnest and delicious food of all. There is no fear to cook something gutsy, to try anything and never put a label on whether it’s a four-star dish or a no-star dish. That’s what I love about the restaurants here.”

“As a chef, I have always worked in the finest restaurants,” says Boulud. “I think I’ve proven that I am a great chef. But I enjoy making rustic dishes just as much, with the real history and DNA of where I come from. To me, casual dining is a little bit the inner you, which is sometimes more important in your life than the professional you. That idea alone is something that I am excited to bring here, an idea that is important to bring to Washington.”

Long live Boulud, and all welcome the new era of the Washington restaurant dynasty.

Georgetowner •

Internationally renowned Inn at Little Washington chef-owner Patrick O’Connell is working on a new book called “Magnificent Obsession.” It’s about décor and design – with a few recipes because, as they say, “we can’t help ourselves.” It’s slated to be published in April 2015, just in time for Mother’s Day.

Chef Peter Chang has legions of fans in Virginia. Now he plans to increase the size of his fan club in the Maryland suburbs. Chang plans to open his latest restaurant at Rockville Town Center in Q1 2015. The former Chinese embassy chef has five successful Peter Chang restaurants in Virginia, with a Fairfax location in the works for 2015.

Just Opened: Brookland Pint opened in the Monroe Street Market project, brought to you by the owners of Meridian Pint (Columbia Heights) and Smoke & Barrel (Adams Morgan). With 24 beers on tap, it serves upscale bar food and seats 118 inside and 48 on the outdoor patio. Chef duties go to Rebecca Hassell, who is well known in the ‘hood.’ TaKorean at The Yards in Capitol Riverfront has just opened, serving Mexican-Korean cuisine. This fast casual restaurant at 1309 Fifth St. SE is its first brick-and-mortar location. Takorean started as a food truck before moving to a stall in Union Market. Alphonse Italian Market & Osteria on U Street, NW is open at 6 a.m. for breakfast, as well as Italian food throughout the day. Brought to you by the folks who operate the Russia House and Biergarten Haus. Shake Shack recently opened its first Virginia location at the new Plaza at Tysons Corner Center. Jersey Mike’s recently opened in Gainesville at 8136 Stonewall Shops Square. It is the fifth location for franchisees Pat and Kathy White, who also own Jersey Mike’s restaurants in Fairfax, Manassas, Culpeper and Chantilly. Penn Commons opened its doors at 6th & H Streets, NW in Penn Quarter, from Passion Food Hospitality group.

Quick Hits: Famed CityZen executive chef, Eric Ziebold, plans to open his own restaurant in Penn Quarter at 1015 7th Street, NW in 2015. NYC chef David Chang says the Momofuku he plans to open at CityCenterDC will be different from his NYC Momofuku restaurant. The Virginia native has something to prove upon his return to his roots. James Ringel and brother Arthur, who worked at Hank’s Oyster Bar, plan to open DC Harvest on H St NE. Mr. Smith’s will still remain a Georgetown institution, as it plans to relocate to Chadwick’s spot on K St. NW under the Whitehurst Freeway, not far from the waterfront. New York-based The Melt Shop plans to open at 1901 L St. NW, serving breakfast, lunch and maybe dinner, for those who crave grilled cheese comfort food at all hours of the day and night. Look for Capriotti at 34th & M in Georgetown where The Cellar Door used to be. Yes there have been other places that opened there since but the most memorable is The Cellar Door. Capriotti’s also recently opened in Rosslyn. Cafe Mayo opened at 3147 Dumbarton St. NW, serving a variety of sandwiches including Cuban and banh mi as well as American favorites. Chipotle’s Southeast Asian concept, ShopHouse, will open next at Union Station, adding to the stores open in Dupont Circle, Chinatown and Georgetown.

You can now snack while you paddle the Potomac. Nauti Foods, D.C’s first floating food boat, has partnered with local food vendors, such as Dolcezza Gelato, Bullfrog Bagels and Sticky Fingers, to offer light fare to those who are floating on the Potomac River. The Nauti Foods boat is stationed north of Key Bridge on Friday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons and evenings. The business hours are flexible, as weather and daylight will determine hours.

New York-based Pizza Vinoteca is slated to open its first D.C. area store in Arlington’s Ballston area this month. This pizza parlor at 800 N. Glebe Road, is near Mussel Bar. Pizza Vinoteca features high-tech ordering as guests can order via iPad. For takeout, customers order at a kiosk and then monitor the progress of their order via LED stock ticker. The restaurant will seat 110 with a 26-seat bar.

Restaurateur Reese Gardner’s Georgetown restaurant, Orange Anchor at Washington Harbour, is slated to open next month. Another new restaurant, Union Social, is slated open at 100 Florida Ave. NE in NoMa in Q4 2014 or Q1 2015. Gardner also plans to change his Mighty Pint in Dupont Circle into a restaurant called Second State, an homage to the native of Pennsylvania, with a menu similar to Copperwood Tavern’s, but with more emphasis on Pennsylvania traditions than Virginia’s.

Richmond-based Sugar Shack Donuts (named one of the best doughnut shops in the country by USA Today) plans to open a location at the Belle Pre apartments at 804 N. Henry Street in Alexandria. It will open as a restaurant and “speakeasy,” as well as serve handmade doughnuts and doughnut-inspired food, mixed drinks and gourmet coffee and espresso
products. Sugar Shack will join Lost Dog Cafe in the apartment building.

Linda Roth is president of Linda Roth Associates, a public relations & marketing firm that specializes in the hospitality industry, providing creative connections through media relations, marketing initiatives, community outreach and special events. Reach her at: Linda@LindaRothPR.com or 703-417-2700. www.lindarothpr.com

Georgetowner • September 8, 2014

Restaurateur Richard McCooey — founder of 1789 Restaurant, the Tombs and F. Scott’s — who died Aug. 6 at the age of 83 was given a tearful but joyous send-off Sept. 5 during a Mass of Christian Burial at Holy Trinity Church, one block from the restaurants.

With the church filled, the Jesuit priests of the parish at the altar and the Georgetown Chimes singing, the mass reflected the life of the beloved businessman and Georgetowner.
Eulogists were Andrew Brophy, John McCooey, Jr., Joseph Califano, Jr., and Brendan Sullivan, Jr.

John McCooey recalled being a freshman on Georgetown campus and his uncle Richard taking him to the store to get a coat — “I thought Georgetown was a southern school.” He called his uncle “eccentric but resourceful” and told the story of how Richard McCooey got the Coast Guard to fly out one of his fellow travelers who had fallen ill during a Carribean sailboat cruise — and then how his uncle returned to his fellow travelers in triumph with a Coast Guard helicopter. Translating the Georgetown University cheer, “Hoya Saxa,” the younger McCooey said of his uncle, “What rocks — what amazing rocks.”

Having been at Brooklyn Prep with McCooey, Califano reminded all, as if we needed to be, that McCooey was a devotee of Carl Jung and often referred to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Califano recalled that McCooey had arranged a dinner for him — then the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare — with Catholic Church leaders to discuss abortion and other issues. The meeting did not resolve the different opinions at the table — to which the restaurateur replied, “You see, one is an extrovert and the other, an introvert.”

Another close friend was Sullivan, who said, “He needed us. We needed him. He taught us how to live.” The classic Washington lawyer at Williams & Connelly told a story from his second year as an attorney. He had gotten an urgent call from McCooey to come immediately to a townhouse near Georgetown University. Sullivan arrived to see an impatient McCooey, a stern Jesuit, an elderly woman standing next to her husband who appeared to be sleeping in a chair. To avoid foreclosure, the couple needed to sign a mortgage document that would save the home for them and later give it to the university. With Sullivan present as attorney, McCooey insisted that the paper be signed by the old man whom the young lawyer soon realized was dead.
What ethical questions? The church howled in laughter. “He was so purely motivated,” Sullivan said of McCooey. “He was the best of the good men … and is putting together a gathering place in heaven.”

After the mass, friends and family walked to a reception at the nearby 1789 Restaurant, the Tombs and F. Scott’s, courtesy of John and Ginger Laytham.

McCooey graduated from Georgetown University in 1952 and opened 1789 and the Tombs in 1962. A friend of John Laytham of Clyde’s, he sold his iconic restaurants — at the corner of 36th and Prospect Streets — to the Clyde’s Restaurant Group in 1985.

Born Oct. 14, 1930, in New York City, McCooey worked in the advertising world after college and then decided to open his restaurants. In 1990, he married Karen Magnier McCooey. The couple ran a restaurant design firm.

Visit RichardMcCooey.org for more tributes and information.

Gary Tischler • August 25, 2014

When Matt Haley, the white-bearded Delaware restaurateur, died Aug. 19 of injuries suffered from a motorcycle accident in India, he was doing something that was almost typical for the kind of person he had become. It might have been extraordinary for almost anybody else.

Haley was traveling in India as part of a six-week journey through the northwestern part of the country and Nepal to continue one of many of his humanitarian efforts, planning to deliver stoves to villages in Nepal.

He was traveling with several other riders and international motorcycle expert Guarav Jani, when his cycle collided with a truck. He died of his injuries, while being taken by a medical jet to New Delhi.

The news of Haley’s passing shocked the restaurant world in the region and just about anybody that knew Haley and his story, which was one of redemption and giving back to the community from the get-go. Haley went from being a man with a prison record and addiction problems to one of the most successful restaurant owners in the area and was considered a culinary ambassador and philanthropist. With 25 operations in four states, he traveled as a speaker preaching the gospel of giving back.

As a result of his many efforts and a successful business which became Matt Haley Companies, he was given the 2014 James Beard Humanitarian of the Year Award.

An article by Delaware Online quoted him as saying, “I’m a member of the most compassionate, caring industry in the world. There’s no other industry that would have been there for me. Everybody shut their doors on me when I got of prison 20 years ago.” Haley was a part of numerous charitable organizations, including La Esperanza, the Georgetown, Del., community service agency, that helps Spanish-speaking immigrant workers.

Haley’s restaurants in Rehoboth and all over the region employed approximately 1,000 people during the summer, grossing around $50 million in revenue. He was a well known figure in the Washington, D.C., restaurant and culinary community. The National Restaurant Association of Washington, D.C., recognized him this year for his humanitarian efforts.

Jody Kurash • August 20, 2014

As a cocktail writer, I am often asked what my favorite drink is. What an impossible question! A multitude of factors come into play… the weather, my mood, the food, the atmosphere, the country, the bar and even what I’m wearing. For example I have an adorable green sundress that I bought in Chiapas that just begs for margaritas every time I wear it.

While drinking a glass of Saki feels so right in in the land of the rising sun, I can’t understand the thrill the beach boys in Bali feel when their girlfriends bring them bottles from Japan so they can drink it on the steamy beach here.

Circumstance also has so much to do with it. While I have come to accept the fact that I’ll never find an imperial IPA or a small batch bourbon in Bali, I still smile when I remember finding bottles of an aged Saint James rhum agricole from Martinique in a dusty roadside shop in Burkina Faso. Or the time a bartender offered me an 18 year-old Scotch in Kathmandu.

If I had to list a go-to drink, it would have to be the Negroni. Firstly, as a person that abhors overly sweet cocktails, I just love the herbaceous unique flavor. After coming of age before the resurgence of craft cocktails, I never want to drink another premixed margarita, Slurpee-tasting frozen daiquiri or a cloying pucker-flavored tipple, like a neon-green appletini.

The Negroni (a mixture of Campari, gin and red vermouth) is the polar opposite of artificially-flavored sugary tipples. I just love its herbaceous bitter, tangy taste.
The principle ingredient, Campari, an Italian bitter aperitif, is an infusion of herbs, aromatic plants and fruit in alcohol and water. It is characterized by its dark red color.
Campari was invented in 1860 by Gaspare Campari in Novara, Italy. It was originally colored with carmine dye, derived from crushed cochineal insects, which gave the drink its distinctive red color.

While those with a sweet tooth sometimes complain about the medicinal taste of the bitters, there’s something about the way the sharp orange of the Campari melds with the botanicals of the gin and the vermouth, bringing the two together.

Secondly, despite it’s Italian origins, Campari is surpisingly available in far-flung corners if the globe. I’ve imbibed a sultry Pisco-forged Negroni in Peru and savored them in the Caribbean sun in St. Lucia. I sipped one in a country club in Nairobi and sought them out in Shanghai, Dubai and all over Europe.

It is believed that the Negroni evolved from an earlier Italian cocktail called the Milano-Torino. The name comes from the ingredients – a blend of Ciano Italian vermouth from Milan, and Campari from Turin. This tipple became popular with American tourists visiting Italy during prohibition, so it became known as the Americano.

The next part of the story, like many drinking stories, may be myth or fact. A widely reported account is that the Negroni was invented in Florence, Italy, in 1919. Count Camillo Negroni invented it by asking Fosco Scarselli, the bartender at the Hotel Baglioni in Florence, to strengthen his favorite cocktail, the Americano, by adding gin, according to a New York Times article. The bartender also added an orange garnish.

Aside from the Campari, the other key ingredients to a good Negroni are the gin and the vermouth. I prefer an American-style dry gin, one that has some citrus overtones, but one that is more complex and doesn’t have quite the juniper sharpness of a London-style dry gin. My favorite is Bluecoat gin from Philadelphia. When that is not available, Bombay sapphire will fit the bill.

Martini & Rossi sweet vermouth is probably the most well-known and widely available sweet vermouth. If I were sipping sweet vermouth alone with some club soda, I would prefer to go with the more upscale, Dolin Vermouth, with it’s jammy flavor. M&R will work in a pinch.

The Negroni idled on the backburner for many decades, but it has recently enjoyed resurgence, along with many other classic cocktails. For the past two years in June, Campari and Imbibe magazine have teamed up to present a nationwide Negroni Week. Numerous bars in D.C. can mix up a fantastic version of the cocktail. It’s always a safe bet to order at any of Washington’s cocktail-centric watering holes, like Bourbonsteak in Georgetown or the Columbia Room in Mount Vernon Square. A few other surprising places that serve a smoking Negroni are Murphy’s Irish Pub in Woodley Park and Smoke and Barrel in Adams Morgan.

The Negroni

Ingredients

1 oz Gin

1 oz Campari

1 oz sweet vermouth

Directions

Place ingredients into an ice-filled shaker. Stir well. Strain into chilled cocktail glass or an ice-filled tumbler. Garnish with an orange twist or flamed orange peel.

Robert Devaney • August 11, 2014

Renowned restaurateur Richard J. McCooey — founder of the 1789 Restaurant, the Tombs and F. Scott’s — died Aug. 6 at Greenwich Hospital in Connecticut. He was 83 years old and suffered from cancer.

McCooey and his wife Karen lived in Washington, D.C.

McCooey graduated from Georgetown University in 1952 and had the idea of a formal restaurant and student rathskeller for the school, while he was a college student. In 1962, that dream was realized when 1789 and the Tombs opened. “I always wanted to open a restaurant near Georgetown University since my freshman year there,” McCooey told the Georgetowner a few years ago.

At the corner of 36th and Prospect Streets, the iconic Georgetown restaurants are also next to F. Scott’s, which McCooey opened in 1976, after operating the 89 Market briefly in that space. F. Scott’s remains open for private parties only. McCooey sold his restaurants to Clyde’s Restaurant Group in 1985.

McCooey collected art since college and worked with Clyde’s John Laytham in art and collectibles for many of Clyde’s restaurants. Opening Persona Studios after selling 1789, Inc., McCooey and his wife Karen helped to design restaurants — including several Clyde’s around the area as well as Union Street Cafe in Alexandria, Va., the Polo Club at the Marriott Grand Aurora Hotel in Moscow, Russia, and others.

Born Oct. 14, 1930, in New York City, McCooey was the third of four brothers, the fourth being his twin. After his father died and his mother later remarried, the family moved from Brooklyn to Bronxville, N.Y. McCooey attended Brooklyn Prep and then Iona Prep. After Georgetown University, he was a lieutenant in the Air Force. After his service, McCooey worked in the advertising world. It was then that he decided to sink almost all his money into creating and maintaining 1789 and the Tombs, when he received support from the university which owns the land. In 1990, he married Karen Magnier McCooey at Holy Trinity Church, which stands one block from 1789 on 36th Street.

By the way, if anyone asks, why the name “1789”? That was the year the federal government was established, Georgetown University founded and Georgetown, Md., incorporated. And “The Tombs”? Inspired by T.S. Eliot’s “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats.” In it, “Bustopher Jones, The Cat About Town” likes to lunch at the tomb. (It is a reference to McCooey’s nickname in the Air Force: “Bustopher Cat.”) As for the now private club, F. Scott’s, it is named after author F. Scott Fitzgerald, a distant cousin of Francis Scott Key, a Georgetowner who authored the national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Before McCooey made his archetypes of a student pub and faculty club a reality, he had to convince Georgetown residents that his plan made sense for the community as well. At first, there was opposition to his proposals. When the Georgetowner’s founder and publisher Ami Stewart stood up at a citizen’s meeting to back McCooey, the tide turned. Two restaurants that epitomize Georgetown were born — one portrayed in film and the other visited by President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in June 2011. McCooey never forgot Stewart’s support and towards the end of her life would regularly send waiters to her home with meals from his restaurant.

A funeral mass for Richard McCooey will be held in September at Holy Trinity Church in Georgetown.