We know D.C. Get our free newsletter to stay in the know.
In town for the Metropolitan Cooking and Entertainment Show over the weekend, comely kitchen vixen Giada De Laurentiis dished up some tantalizing D.C. restaurant gossip, telling Endless Simmer‘s Russell Warnick: “Georgetown needs some better food gosh darn it, and I hear that [Graffiato‘s] Mike [Isabella]’s gonna open up a place there, a Spanish/Mexican food place. It’s at a place called Hook…The ink isn’t signed yet — you can call it a rumor.”
She was referring to the Georgetown sustainable seafood spot that has remained closed since a fire over the summer. Contacted by ES, Isabella denied the rumor. Sort of: “No, no, that was misinterpreted. I don’t have anything signed. It was a miscommunication.” He more firmly rejected the rumored kind of restaurant: “I wouldn’t do a Spanish/Mexican concept.”
Earlier this fall, Isabella dished to Y&H contributor Stefanie Gans about his wish to open a new pizzeria different from Graffiato, possibly on H Street NE, then later downplayed the whole idea. His camp called it a “half-baked rumor“—-albeit one that he started himself.
Photo by Darrow Montgomery