Dish

An edited excerpt from the Going Out Gurus blog (voices.washingtonpost.com/goingoutgurus):

Scarpetta Scratched

Forget about Scott Conant taking over the vacant Olives space at 1600 K St. NW. The New York chef has shelved plans to open another of his popular Scarpetta restaurants in what he calls "a world-class location."

"It's such a shame," the 39-year-old chef told me. "I was so looking forward to moving into the market down there."

So were D.C. foodies. For his lusty Italian cooking at the original Scarpetta in Manhattan's Meatpacking District, Conant received a three-star rave from the New York Times last year.

Conant had architectural designs in hand and a management team lined up for the project. So what happened?

The timing is awful, says the chef, who has a second Scarpetta in Miami. In addition to taking on some new restaurant and TV projects, he has a pregnant wife. She's due in February, around the same time he'd hoped to open his third Scarpetta here.

Conant says any plans to try again in Washington would be on the "back, back burner."

-- Tom Sietsema

Crime Report

Several restaurants and bars in Cleveland Park reported vandalism or break-ins early Thursday morning. The glass window in the front door at Palena was broken, but according to chef-owner Frank Ruta, no valuables were taken and nothing was out of place. It was the first such incident in his nearly nine years at the location.

"We were one of the lucky ones," Ruta says. Investigators told him three other nearby restaurants along Connecticut Avenue had been broken into.

Zoo Bar's day manager, Diane Danielek, says video recordings show two men breaking open the glass door around 3:15 a.m. and heading for the cash register, which was empty. Nothing was stolen.

A man who answered the phone at Byblos Deli confirmed there had been a break-in there but didn't want to talk further. The person who answered the phone at Nam Viet also confirmed a break-in but declined to describe it.

-- Julia Beizer