We like to think “former Young & Hungry columnist” remains the fanciest entry on alum Tim Carman‘s CV.

But as of last night, when the winners of the James Beard Foundation’s prestigious annual food-writing awards were announced, there’s a distinction that may be even shinier: Carman won the foodie organization’s award for best columnist, based on his work for Washington City Paper.

Carman’s award was based on a trio of columns: A January column on a pair of dueling Maryland bagel joints; a July item on regulatory efforts to define the precise meaning of Neapolitan pizza; and another July column reviewing an unexpectedly ambitious steak house located inside a D.C. strip club. An excerpt from that piece:

The truth is, the Stadium Club’s prices are comparable to those at D.C.’s loftiest steakhouses, places where the only jiggling involves the flesh around one’s own waistline. Perhaps this fact alone isn’t enough to entice you to step foot into a gentlemen’s club, especially if you find the idea of slicing into dead animals while objectifying dancing ones rather distasteful. Morality, however, is relative. Strip club food isn’t: Most of it isn’t good enough for a second-rate diner still working through last week’s Sysco orders.

The Stadium Club wants to redefine strip club eating.

Carman left City Paper last fall to join the food section of the Washington Post, where he’s continued his prolific output and steady supply of culinary wisdom (albeit without any further professional visits to strip clubs, at least as far as we know). But even though we wish he were still here to hang his big new award alongside the spice rack he left behind in his old cubicle, we couldn’t be more please for him today. Congratulations!