Great question. I gave up my membership in the Clean Plate Club years ago, for several reasons: not everything is delicious (worth the calories), there's always another meal around the corner, and I'd be obese if I consumed everything on my table every single meal. Give or take a veal chop or saag paneer, leftovers typically go home with dining companions.

My general strategy is to take a few bites of a dish (you can't always evaluate a recipe in one forkful) and move on to another. But if something is exceptional, I've been known to finish it. Just depends on my appetite and my dining schedule. (If I'm doing two dinners, for instance which sometimes happens if I'm on a major deadline or going out of town.)

I'd love to see some of the places you mention winnow the number of courses and maybe charge less for a tasting menu, (or offer guests the choice between short or long). As you suggest, the pleasure you get from a meal tends to drop off as you reach satiation. If chefs were required to sit down and eat as their patrons are expected to do, I can imagine shorter tasting menus. No one wants to feel hostage to something that should be a treat, right?

COMING UP: Restaurant veteran Sebastian Zutant and his wife, architect Lauren Winter, are adding something special to the dining scene with a 50-seat, wine-themed bistro called Primrose, expected to open the week before Thanksgiving (knock on wood) at 3000 12th St. NE.

Zutant, formerly a partner in the popular All-Purpose Pizzeria in Shaw and Red Hen in Bloomingdale, plans to highlight natural wines from France, part of the new restaurant’s Gallic focus. “The French do everything better than anyone else: pinot blanc, cheese, fashion,” says Zutant. Primrose will focus on classic French comfort food — steak frites, coq au vin — prepared by chef Eric Schlemmer, previously with Sovereign in Georgetown; the setting, set off with floor-to-ceiling windows, will lean “feminine,” thanks to a palette of lavender and turquoise and light wood floors. And because Zutant says he has so many friends who don’t eat meat, the French onion soup at his new place will get its heft from porcini mushrooms and vegetable stock.

Zutant, who will round out his list with labels from Virginia, has also begun making his own wine at Early Mountain Vineyards in Madison, Virginia at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains. His wares include a dry riesling/syrah blend that offers “a white wine nose” but “drinks like a red wine.”

Primrose is the couple’s first collaboration. “We make a great team,” says Zutant, who adds that Winter, a principal at Streetsense, “taught me a lot.” Such as? “How to stay on top of contractors.”

SPEAKING OF GRAPES, my review for the Magazine this Sunday (online now) looks at the impressive new Ana at District Winery, yet another winning restaurant with a water view, this one in the Navy Yard.





FADE TO BLACK: After a 10-year run, Villa Mozart, the charming Italian restaurant watched over by chef Andrea Pace, is closing after dinner service Nov. 11. The chef, 51, tells me he’s sold the 55-seat business in Fairfax City to someone who plans to reopen it as a Taiwanese dining room with craft beers.

“It’s hard to find good people, especially out here,” says Pace, whose signature rye ravioli with fresh spinach and mountain cheese and flaky apple strudel reflect his background in a part of Italy where German is spoken.

The talented chef is not retiring, fortunately. After a bit of R & R, Pace hopes to open a place of his own closer to D.C., maybe even in the city. But first, he says he’s who is looking forward to not cooking on New Year’s Eve for the first time in 31 years.

Good morning, gang, and welcome to another 60 minutes of restaurant chat. What's on your mind this morning?