Cool Beans
When Donna’s Coffee Bar opened in Mount Vernon’s elegant, old Park Plaza building in November 1992, it sent the neighborhood (and the city) crashing...
Heating Up: January and February
Here to Stay
For 32 years, Barry Fleischmann was the Innovative Gourmet behind the catering company of the same name. Now he’s shifted branding to...
Addicted to Lamb
Qayum Karzai came to the U.S. in 1969. In 1985, Karzai’s cousin Assad Akbari joined him. While Karzai’s brother, Hamid Karzai, took a different...
Wine School
If you’re going for snob appeal, nothing works better than dropping the “s word”: sommelier. Julie Dalton wants to change all that—she’s sommelier at Michael...
Not a Lemon
Charles Levine recently opened Citron at Quarry Lake, joining La Food Marketa in bringing some authenticity to a newly fabricated neighborhood on the shores...
Heating Up: December
Keep the Change
Greg Keating of 206 Restaurant Group wants to make one thing very clear: Five & Dime Ale House is not trendy. “We’re...
Forging Frontiers
Back in 1997, the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District was in the education system vanguard with salad bars in six of its 15 schools....
Southern Comfort
When Nina Compton was a fledgling N’Orleanian, a friend offered her crawfish bisque at Easter time. The idea underwhelmed Compton, who helms Compère Lapin...
Wet Your Whistle
The Sullivan brothers have been talking about opening a restaurant for years. P.J., 38, runs a graphic design company, Hardly Square, that creates training...
The Spice of Life
After receiving his bachelor’s in psychology and working as a substance abuse counselor, Parkville native John Bedingfield shifted gears and became a chef. He...