The Uncaged Chefs Will Start Delivering Super Indulgent Soul Food

Door-to-door Flamin’ Hot Cheetos mac and cheese

No-rules soul food kitchen the Uncaged Chefs produces an all-day menu of over-the-top, Instagram-baiting brunch dishes at its months-old post inside food hall Savor at Studio 3807 in Brentwood, Maryland. On Friday, it will pivot to a delivery-only model, with daily service from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Chef Damian Brown, a Vidalia and Blue Duck Tavern alum, will be sending out rotating dishes like Cajun crab fries topped with crab cakes or fried lobster with Hennessy and Teddy Graham French toast.

The Uncaged Chefs won’t use a third-party app. An ordering link is expected to go live on its website. Brown is hiring 10 drivers to deliver orders to locations in the District, throughout Prince George’s County, Silver Spring, and Laurel.

Pom Pom owner: “We probably won’t reopen”

Carlie Steiner, the respected mixologist who owns shared plates place Pom Pom in Petworth, told NBC 4 yesterday that she doesn’t expect the restaurant to survive the coronavirus outbreak.

“We’ve lost everything,” she says on-air. “We’ve all lost everything and we probably won’t reopen — I think that is the reality that’s starting to settle in.”

In a Facebook post last night, she continues:

“If I have to start over, that’s what I will do. I worry more for those who can’t and who have less privileges and opportunity than I. I worry for my employees with families, and for my undocumented employees.”

Steiner has started a GoFundMe page for Pom Pom staff here.

Girl Scouts pitch in to help restaurant workers

Hook Hall — Park View’s event space-turned-relief center — keeps processing donations to fill out care packages for laid off restaurant workers. One of the latest is 500 boxes of Girl Scout cookies, which were supposed to be distributed at Leadership Greater Washington’s now-postponed gala. Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington has set up a Workers’ Relief Fund that’s raised more than $118,000 as of Friday. Almost all the donations are $100 or less.

Tangible donations over the past week include: 100 pounds of fresh pasta from Fabio Trabocchi’s restaurants; refrigeration space from chef Tim Ma to hold goods; dozens of pints of chicken noodle soup from Prescription Chicken at Sally’s Tavern; and 100 pounds of blue catfish from ProFish.

Hook Hall/official photo

Takeout, without a ticket

The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) threw a bone to D.C. restaurants offering carry-out and delivery services. On March 25 the public agency started approving clusters of temporary “Restaurant Pick Up Drop-Off (PUDO)” zones to allow residents and commercial drivers easy access to restaurants through the duration of the declared public health emergency in D.C. See an updated map of the 20-plus newly designated zones, many of which are in Shaw, here.