First, two characters go on a date to  Wheaton for pho at a restaurant “in a commercial strip of Landromats and Kosher and Chinese grocers…diners sat communally at tables similar to those found in school cafeterias.”  This brief description obviously refers to the strip on University from Max’s Kosher Deli to Shalom Kosher grocery to (no longer there) Asian Foods grocery to a laundromat to Full Key Chinese restaurant (to liquore store) to, on the East end, Pho Hiep Hoa, which is indeed cafeteria-like and nearly ambience-free (which, in a way, is perfect cheap pho house ambience).  Despite (or maybe thanks to) the atmosphere, Pho Hiep Hoa serves pretty decent soup, though I prefer Song Phat — but the characters in The Way Home are absolutely the kind of folks who would visit Pho Hiep Hoa on a date.  Ring of truth, for sure.

About 25 pages later, a real estate agent holds court at “a Thai restaurant up in Wheaton, off University Boulevard, in an area heavy with Hispanics and Orthodox Jews…the restaurant itself had little ambience, holding eight four-tops and a half-dozen deuces, with the standard royal family portraits hung on plain blue walls.”  Again, a no-frills description that is totally accurate, and clearly the restaurant (“Thai Feast” in the book) is Ruan Thai, which was a little pastel-blue-walled dive before it was renovated last year (The Way Home was published in 2009). The passage continues, noting that “the food was clean, the service mostly efficient, and the specials went for four dollars and ninety-five cents” — not sure the specials are that cheap anymore, but the rest still holds true (and of course the food is better than clean, it is fantastic!).  I’m looking forward to reading more Pelecanos, both because he tells a good story, but also to see what other local spots pop up.  If anyone knows of any other instances of Wheaton restaurants showing up in works of fiction, please post in the comments.  I love this kind of thing.

The apple butter cinnamon donuts are the highlight, a solid value at 69 cents apiece (or a crumb or two for free from a glass jar at the counter), slight discount on a dozen, very tasty.  Pies looked okay but we did not partake.  Unfortunately, what we did order was not up to the standards of what I had hoped would be a fabulous country dive restaurant.  Grilled cheese was okay but small, thin, just white bread and maybe two slices of processed cheese, and it came with below-average (limp, underseasoned, from frozen) fries.  That’s what $3.99 gets you in Linden, evidently.  Pulled pork bbq was better but still below expectations, which were perhaps too high.  In the event I ever find myself hungry (likely) in Linden (unlikely), I might return to the Apple House but try the breakfast menu, or just order two dozen donuts — twelve to eat during the drive back to Wheaton, and the others for the coming week’s worth of breakfasts.

Also: some excellent t-shirts, high quality fabric and fun design.

While economic conditions remain difficult, both locally and nationally, Wheaton’s restaurants persevere. A few have gone, but still more have arrived.  Progress can be slow, but progress is indeed being made; platitudes can be irritating, but this is a state of the union parody so what can I do?  Ultimately, I am pleased to be able to say that, as we enter the year of the Dragon, the state of the eatin’ in Wheaton is strong — fire-breathin’, even (especially if you eat the curry soup at Song Phat).

In some ways 2011 was a difficult year to be a Wheaton restaurant, encompassing for example the entire life cycle of Gloria’s Island Hut, which arrived to great fanfare in the spring of 2011 only to jerk its spicy chicken back from our gluttonous fists, we hope temporarily, by December. We also lost one of Wheaton’s longest-running restaurants, The Royal Mile Pub, which, likewise, we hope to see back on the track in 2012, once more meeting local haggis-and-scotch needs.  Others are surely just scraping by — a tour of Wheaton any evening reveals too many empty seats in too many eateries.

And yet the year saw even more successes: it seems like more than a year ago — but it was early 2011 — that Limerick Pub and Ren’s Ramen opened their Wheaton doors.  Asi Es Mi Tierra, Jenny Chinese Express, and Little Caesars also arrived last year, and I am probably overlooking others.  Many local restaurants thrived, as Ruan Thai, Nava Thai, Hollywood East, and others continued to garner rave reviews from professional and amateur critics alike.  Nick’s Diner, Marchone’s Italian Deli, Elbe’s Beer and Wine — these restaurants (and beverage purveyors) have helped define Wheaton for decades, and they’re still here, still good eats (and drinks).

The diversity of Wheaton’s eateries remains notable; how many population hubs our size have such a mix of cuisines all within about a three or four block radius?  The Thai places get most of the press, but we have a slew of Chinese restaurants both old (Paul Kee, Good Fortune) and newish (New Kam Fong, Wong Gee, Jenny Express); Japanese/Korean (Woomi Garden, Moby Dick ”Japanese sushi in the Korean Style”! plus Ren’s Ramen); Ethiopian (Dessie); West African (Global Cafe); Italian (Cristina, Lucia’s, the aforementioned Marchone’s); Kosher (Max’s and Shalom, Nut House Pizza);  Bolivian (Kantutas); Peruvian (Asi Es Mi Tierra, Cabanita, Chicken Plate, El Pulgarcito de Callao); and too many Salvadoran or Pan-Latin places to mention unless I want to turn this into a Clintonian hour-plus cavalcade of words (which I kind of do, but won’t). Bottom line: we have lots of different kinds of food, most of it quite affordable, and much of it at least pretty good, some truly excellent.

All these restaurants cannot continue to thrive, though, without our help.  So I ask you, my fellow Americans, my fellow Wheatonians, to join me in continuing to eat in Wheaton in 2012, spending as many of our family restaurant budget dollars locally as possible.  Not every restaurant will survive, but let’s do our part to ensure that the best survive, that our family favorites survive, and that Wheaton remains a nexus of locally-owned purveyors of affordable, diverse, delicious food.

Beyond restaurants, 2011 saw progress of another welcome kind: hell froze over, then quickly thawed, allowing ground finally to break on the Safeway remodel project (The Locally Big Dig?).  Nearly two years after Wheaton’s Safeway closed its doors, the structure was demolished, and 2012 will see the new development begin to rise.  The new Safeway will not open in 2012, but should in 2013. This is only the first step of a transformation of Wheaton’s core, a transformation that will at times not be easy, and may be slow, and frustrating, and not every outcome will be welcome to every person. I believe, though, that if we are patient, and continue to make our voices heard, and continue to keep ourselves informed, we can help guide the process and ensure that Wheaton’s inevitable development is a net positive for nearly everyone.

We in the Wheaton blogosphere will do our part: along with Wheaton Calling and Hungry Like the Bear, I will continue to highlight local restaurants, cafes, and food-related events; news organizations like (especially) Wheaton Patch and (occasionally) The Gazette also can be counted on for culinary Wheaton content.  I will continue to highlight MSM (e.g. WaPo, Washingtonian) mentions of Wheaton food when I notice them.  And be sure to keep an eye on Just Up the Pike, in particular, for detailed and thought-provoking Wheaton redevelopment discussions.

I love living, and eating, in Wheaton, and I am glad so many others do, too. This blog averaged nearly 100 unique hits per day in 2011, and while that’s a puny total compared to many blogs, it is about 90 or so more than I expected when I started the thing.  So, thank you, readers and commenters and lurkers alike: together, we can help keep Wheaton’s delicious feral culinary urbanism alive and well, in 2012 and beyond.

Now go forth and eat in Wheaton.  Thank you.

I suppose one could cheer oneself with some delicious Wheatonian Chinese food.  WaPo recommends Hollywood East (as they often do) as part of their Chinese New Year cuisine photo essay, and I agree those steamed dumpling swans are adorable.  Lots of options though: New Kam Fong, Wong Gee, Full Key, Paul Kee, Good Fortune, plus the more fast-foody Brother, Kenny’s, Ming Tree (in the mall), Jenny Express, the place over on Ennalls I can never remember its name…none serving dragon, but each has its fans. Boy do we have a lot of Chinese restaurants in Wheaton, per capita.  Couldn’t one of them transmogrify into an Indian curry joint?

Also, completely unrelated: Just Up The Pike published two informative articles on Wheaton redev last week, the first one followed by the results of an interview with developer Leonard Greenberg, who owns pretty much all of downtown Wheaton (actually about a third — that’s a lot!).

Beck roasts its Brussels sprouts with pears, garlic, and (importantly) bacon.  It took us a while to figure out the pears, which look like diced potato but clearly are not once you pop a piece in your mouth — I thought maybe apple, because who would think of pears and Brussels sprouts?  But it works, even Mrs. Me ate more than one.  Of course the bacon doesn’t hurt.  The sprouts are roasted about as far as possible without turning too bitter and burnt; the singed tips are the best part. The sprouts may be my favorite dish at Beck, even more than the stews or the mussels or the frites.  The beer is varied and excellent, of course, and goes splendidly with all the food — and if you go at happy hour, when certain beers are half-price, it doesn’t even feel too expensive (still not cheap though).

I keep wanting to abbreviate Brussels sprouts as BS, but that just seems wrong.  From a lesser kitchen it might work, but the Brasserie Beck version deserves better, so I have resisted the impulse.

UPDATE: Wheaton Calling has confirmed (intrepid reporting, indeed!) that Gloria’s Island Hut is officially out of business, at least for the time being.  Bad trend here.  Restaurants open and close, circle of life, blah blah blah, but I wish I got to pick which ones close — I can think of several places I would have picked long before Gloria’s or Royal Mile…

We’ve been dining at Ruan Thai (11407 Amherst) for years, and actual bonafide restaurant critics have been raving about Ruan’s Yum Watercress appetizer for even longer.  We tried to order it once, but it turned out we were doing it wrong: pad watercress (what we ordered) and yum watercress (what we should have ordered) are not the same thing.  Pad watercress, by the way, is stir-fried in a black bean sauce and is pretty good in its own right, but it isn’t quite yum.

We finally, successfully, ordered yum watercress last week, and I can see why it gets so much love.  Watercress, shrimp, squid, shallots, and cashews are deep-fried, almost like tempura but with less batter, just enough to coat each piece and make it crisp.  The seafood is tender, and it all has wonderful texture, but really it is the sauce that makes you go yum: tangy with fresh lime juice, fish sauce, just a hint of sugar, and peppery heat, it has that distinct Thai sweet-salty-sour-spicy balance, and is the kind of dish that makes me want to lick the plate once the food has been consumed.  I restrained myself, barely.

We also feasted on pad prik khing — we are incapable of eating at Ruan without the PPK — and tom  yum soup, which we rarely order, but we enjoyed the clear fiery broth, rife with chicken and shrooms, hinting of lime and galangal.  Great stuff.  I know I’ve been on the Nava bandwagon, but this visit puts Ruan right back on a par with Nava in my mind.  Wheaton is so lucky to have (at least) two great Thai restaurants.  I really should hit Dusit again one of these days, I’ve not been for more than a year (and, other than that, not since about 2007) and I’d like to remind myself how they compare.

The ramen is great too, of course. They make a big deal about importing their noodle from Sapporo, and the noodles are good, but it’s really all about the incredible broth. Our group ordered three different styles (miso, soy, and salt broths), all good.  I noticed too late the special, written on a dry-erase board with a skull-and-crossbones logo: spicy “Bukodan” ramen. Hope it’s available next time I visit. I continue to believe that, at $10 per reasonably large bowl, the ramen is a good value considering the very high quality (I know some disagree).

Ren’s was practically empty on Friday night, hope that’s not a sign; Ruan next door was about 2/3 full both when we arrived and when we left, and the window tables at least had turned over in the interim.  I’d be tempted to poke my head into Ren’s periodically just to breathe the soy-miso vapors, the place just smells great.  They should start a spa or something.

Other important Ren’s notes: they don’t serve alcohol, they only take cash, they are closed the second and third Tuesday of every month.

—

Apparently Mr. WC took matters into his own hands and demanded answers from the Royal Mile Pub owners — still unclear exactly when (or if) they will reopen, but information continues to trickle in thanks to Wheaton Calling.  Mysterious “repairs”…we were going to try and eat at RM this weekend, and we will still stroll by to survey the scene.  You never know.

Rumor has it (and I stress this is only a rumor, unsubstantiated, may not be true, etc.) that Gloria’s Island Hut may also be closed, at least temporarily.  I drove by a week or so ago and all the windows were shuttered, but it was before noon on a weekend so I drew no conclusions at that time, but now one of my moles is suggesting they may be at least on hiatus until spring.  I guess Caribbean food isn’t really winter cuisine, but then again, when the frost is on the pumpkin, a little jerk spice and goat curry can really hit the spot.

Sigh…now I want goat curry.

Does two make a trend?  According to Arlo Guthrie, three is an organization and fifty is a movement.  Two may not be a trend — I hope it doesn’t become a going-out-of-business organization, much less a movement! — and I hope both restaurants can come back by the spring; they both have unique ambience, and different food than all other Wheaton restaurants, and I will miss them if they’re really gone.