Wolfgang Puck, the gnomish chef with the massive empire, finally launched a restaurant in D.C. last year with The Source, located next to the Newseum, which itself is taking its sweet time to open. Puck has been pretty busy, so it’s understandable that he has been slow to reach the nation’s capital. He first had to launch restaurants in Vegas, Hawaii and Atlantic City. He had to oversee his line of all-natural pizzas. He had to try to cut a deal with DIRECTV to include a can of his cooking spray with every satellite installation.

I guess it was only a matter of time before the celebrity-chef flock finally perched their toques in D.C. In just the past year or so, we’ve seen Laurent Tourondel open BLT Steak, Eric Ripert debut his WestEnd Bistro, and Puck spawn his Source. Puck is, by far, the most famous of the three. But is there any reason to visit his new place aside from the chance to kiss the ring of the godfather of California-style pizza? (Not that you’ll get much chance to do that, since chef Scott Drewno is the man in charge here.)

Well, that’s exactly what David Furst and I will be talking about tomorrow on Metro Connection. The conversation will look at The Source from a number of angles: from celebrity chef owners to the food on the plate to how the management doesn’t seem to understand that professional critics are not political fat cats (read: We don’t need our ears scratched or our asses kissed).

You can catch our conversation at 1 p.m. Friday, Jan. 18, on 88.5 FM.