Russell Smith IN as Executive Chef at The Source, Plus More Intel

The Source by Wolfgang Puck is promoting from within, tapping chef Russell Smith to lead the award-winning kitchen once current executive chef Scott Drewno steps down at the end of April.

According to a release, Smith has made his mark at various establishments throughout the area, spending several years working for the Black Restaurant Group before joining the Puck family of restaurants in 2009. He started at The Source as a sous chef, moved over to the Sunset Room at National Harbor to serve as executive chef, and then rejoined The Source in 2014 as executive sous chef. He’ll take the final step into the role as executive chef AFTER jetting around the globe for some exploratory eating.

“I’ll be traveling to Singapore and Hong Kong in the coming weeks, and I’m looking forward to bringing new inspiration to the menu,” Smith said in the release.

Drewno last month mapped out plans to launch a new initiative The Fried Rice Collective, with Mandu co-founder Danny Ledd and Matchbox Food Group co-founder Drew Kim.

Coming Attractions

The Nationals (Happy #OpeningDay, everyone!) just spent their first Grapefruit League spring training season in a new Floridian location, The Palms. And Whaley’s, which is unveiling an anticipated new rose garden, will bring a taste of the tropics to Navy Yard with palm trees, banana trees, and other native plants making their way up I-95. But due to their temperature-sensitive nature, the Floridian fauna — and rose garden — won’t arrive until spring is in full swing.

RIP

Petula Dvorak of the Washington Post pays tribute to late Capt. James Forward, the Marine most recently embedded on a bar stool at the Tune Inn on Capitol Hill. “Captain James was more than that guy at the bar. He was valuable. He was a Rogue Saint,” she writes. [WaPo]