Georgetown Wing Co. had its soft opening this Sunday on the second level of 3291 M Street above Crêpe Amour, and it looks like all are welcome. Commence the great wing wars of Georgetown!

But not really. Glancing at Wing Co.’s menu, they offer pretty different fare from Wingo’s—like ‘mango caliente’ or chili lime sauce on your wings. (Sorry, I only know ‘mild,’ ‘abusive,’ and ‘nuclear.’ Can we get a conversion chart?) To celebrate their opening week, they’re having several beer specials, with $1.50 Miller Lite & Yuengling bottles and $3 Sam Adams Seasonal and Sierra Nevada bottles. This Friday, they’re even kicking off a brunch menu when the World Cup starts. Mimosas and crêpes! At a wing joint!

Still, Vox prays that this leads to an epic face-off between Wing Co. and Wingo’s, with escalating deals and specials for students à la Qdoba and Chipotle. We’re just salivating at the thought of half price Wing Wednesdays and we have lots of clever lines at the ready, like “All’s fair in love and wings.”

Earlier today, FoBoBlo reported that News Café on M St. will close this Saturday, only to be reopen as Thunder Burger & Bar.

Big changes are coming to the soon-to-be-former Italian restaurant—News Café General Manager Ryan Clarke told Vox that the ownership is just about the only thing that isn’t going to change at the restaurant.

When it reopens “on Thursday night or Friday night next week,” Thunder Burger & Bar will depart from News Café’s cozy, date-friendly atmosphere with a completely new interior, customized bar, and kitchen.

“We like innovating. We’ve been an Italian restaurant for 12 years. There are six different Italian restaurants in [the immediate area]; we decided that it’s gotten a bit stale,” Clarke said. “We decided to do something different.”

Thunder Burger & Bar plans to specialize in 10-ounce, grass-fed beef burgers, but will also offer venison, bison, Kobe beef, salmon, and portobello mushroom burgers. Clarke added that the restaurant hopes to make tuna burgers and veggie burgers soon after opening.

(And fret not, of-age denizens of Georgetown. The restaurant’s bar will be stocked with 23 beers on tap, with a focus on American craft beers.)

“We’re going to have a fully rounded-out menu, but 95% of the focus will be on the burger,” he said.

Clarke claims that Thunder Burger & Bar is unlike DC’s established burger joints—Good Stuff, Five Guys, and BGR, to name a few—because it’s aim is not to become a fast-food restaurant.

“We want to bring quality burgers back to a sit-down restaurant with a sit-down experience,” he said.

Photo taken from News Café’s website.

Morso, Georgetown’s newest Mediterranean restaurant, is finally set to open tomorrow at 5 p.m. Located at 3277 M St., Morso will specialize in small Turkish plates, such as flatbreads, wraps, and mezes.

Last April, the Voice reviewed Morso, highlighting the restaurant’s quirky head chef, Ed Witt, and his devotion to local, sustainable food sources.

“We’re focused on quality and affordable food,” Witt said to the Voice. “It won’t be the cheapest, but it’ll certainly be the highest quality around.”

Morso’s sister restaurant, Morso Express, has been up and running since late March. Vox visited Morso Express when it opened, only to be underwhelmed by its offerings.

But, we have a confession to make: we’ve popped into Morso Express from time-to-time and the food’s gotten better. These days, the toppings nicely complement each dish, while the meat rarely tends to be overcooked. (Which is a far cry from when we first visited.)

Interested in eating at Morso? Make your reservations online at Open Table.

Image from Morso Express’s Facebook page.

Does Herman Melville have anything to do with kabob and hummus? Vox doesn’t recognize the relationship but that hasn’t stopped Moby Dick House of Kabob.

Moby Dicks Georgetown location—1070 31st Street NW—will be expanding in the coming week. The restaurant will add approximately thirty seats by expanding in to the space next door that formerly was occupied by a dry cleaning store.

The rumor about Moby Dick expansion was first floated by We Love DC earlier this month and confirmed yesterday by the Georgetown Dish. An employee told the Dish that Moby Dick is just waiting for the delivery of tables and chairs, and should be open sometime next week.

The Georgetown location is one of the fifteen locations in the metro area, and there are plans to build three new locations in Maryland, DC, and Virginia.

With this expansion there should be plenty of room to get a full dine-in experience at this budget kabob eatery. Just make sure you don’t tell the person taking your order to call you Ishmael.

Ristorante Piccolo, a cozy Italian restaurant in Georgetown that a fire shut down in 2008, has finally announced that it will reopen in the last week of April, Georgetown Metropolitan reports. This is welcome news, since the restaurant’s grand re-opening had been pushed back several times.

Ristorante Piccolo has been renovating ever since a fire in early October of 2008 caused $1 million worth of damage and drew over 110 fire fighters and 50 pieces of fire-fighting equipment.

“Before the fire, the upscale Italian restaurant, which was established in 1986, featured a second-floor balcony overlooking the C & O Canal, hardwood floors, three fireplaces, and a strolling violinist to lend a romantic atmosphere to the dining experience,” the Voice’s Alisha Crovetto wrote.

But initially the owners of Piccolo had ahard  time getting some of their plans for renovation approved by various local government groups.

At a January Advisory Neighborhood Commission meeting, ANC Commissioners gave the owner and her mother a hard time about a streetside outdoor dining area. A few months ago, the Old Georgetown Board also rejected designs for the streetside balcony the restaurant had before the fire.

Via Georgetown Metropolitan.

Photo by GM.

Serving up hand-cut fries, mouth-watering burgers, and handspun milkshakes, which sound amazing even though we don’t even know what that means, Good Stuff Eatery, which Top Chef alum Spike Mendelsohn opened in 2008, indubitably lives up to its name.

Problem is, it’s a haul to get to, because Good Stuff’s only location is in Capitol Hill. But soon, that may change. Mendelsohn recently said that he was making plans to expand Good Stuff to other locations—and Georgetown is on the list of places he’s looking at.

Other potential second locations include Baltimore, Arlington, and Virginia, so Good Stuff isn’t guaranteed to open up in Georgetown. But hey, we’ve got the home court advantage, right?

In the meantime, Mendelsohn’s preparing to open We, The Pizza, right next door to the existing Good Stuff location. We, The Pizza will serve New-York style slices and whole pies. Toppings will range from tradition, Bloomberg news reports, like pepperoni, “to the more creative: with creamed spinach; potato and pancetta; or mushrooms with truffle shavings and Bechamel sauce.”

Despite its 2 a.m. closing time, if you’re looking for another late-night hotspot for drunken food binges and shouted conversations, the recently-opened Morso Express isn’t it. Nestled in a sliver of real estate along on M St. near Rhino Bar and Dean and Deluca, this place is classy.

Gawk at the mod-style lamps! And the awkwardly shaped bar stool-chair hybrids! But the decor—and the trendy vibe Morso seems to be after with its Facebook page and Twitter feed—is ultimately at odds with the restaurant’s authentic Turkish offerings.

Anybody unfamiliar with Turkish cuisine may feel a bit overwhelmed by Morso’s menu, replete with kabobs, mezes, and pide. Luckily, the employees seem eager to help. (And if you’re stubborn enough to order on your own, like I am, the recommended meat, topping, and sauce combinations printed onto a sheet of paper at the register are helpful guides.)

I tried two of the wraps yesterday when I visited: the lamb and pistachio kabob wrap, filled with ground lamb and topped with tangy sumac onions, grilled tomatoes, and tahini yogurt, and the grilled chicken wrap, topped with grilled onions, hummus, and a mayonnaise sauce.

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Vox always sensed that something was missing from Georgetown’s already ample smorgasbord of restaurant offerings, but we were never sure what it was.

Maybe it was a casual Mediterranean restaurant where you can make your own kebabs? In any event, this Friday, Morso Express, a dine-in and take-out Turkish-influenced restaurant, is opening its doors at 3277 M Street, across the street from Dean and Deluca and down the street from Rhino.

And the best part is, according to Jeanne Gumbleton, a promoter for Morso, Georgetown students can initially get a discount on food.

“During the months of March and April, Morso Express will offer Georgetown University students a 20% discount when they show their Hoya ID,” Gumbleton wrote in an e-mail.

The Washington Business Journal writes that in addition to DIY kebabs, Morso Express will offer mezze and flatbread-style pizzas. “A more upscale sister restaurant, Morso, will follow in April,” WBJ‘s Missy Frederick wrote.

Photo from Morso’s Facebook page.

After Nathan’s closed in July, the building at Wisconsin & M has remained empty, with plenty of rumors as to who would be moving in. Looks like we need wonder no longer!

According to local blogger K Street Kate, popular New York restaurant Serendipity 3 will be opening a branch in Georgetown as soon as this Spring. Local owners Rodrigo Garcia and Britt Swan have reportedly already signed a lease for the building.

Serendipity 3 is known and loved for its decadent desserts, but also has a wide selection of savory menu items, including macaroni and cheese pizza and footlong hotdogs.

Let’s hope it opens before the semester ends so we can try it out!

Photo from Carol Joynt’s Blog

Those of you who don’t live on the East Coast may be staying at Georgetown for Thanksgiving—but that doesn’t mean you have to settle for a Chicken Madness while everyone else enjoys stuffing and pumpkin pie. Voice Leisure editor Chris Heller has put together a list of D.C. restaurants that are open for business this Turkey Day, and offering Thanksgiving meals for a range of prices.

And since Leo’s is shutting its doors Wednesday evening through Sunday, Vox has also updated its restaurant guide. All of the restaurants we reviewed this semester are closed on Thanksgiving, but this weekend, we recommend you trek out to Sticky Rice or head to Dupont for Nando’s Peri-Peri.

The Guards

2915 M St NW (between N 29th St & N 30th St), Tel: (202) 965-2350

Believe it or not, The Guards isn’t just a bar at the far end of Georgetown for ‘bros and older women. During the day, they sell food, too! For $14.50 this Thanksgiving, customers can choose from turkey, baked Virginia ham, or grilled lamb chops to celebrate the Mayflower. Horray for colonialism!

Four more places to eat after the jump!

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