Hi VOLT friends. It’s been a while. With the year ending and since everyone loves top 10 lists I thought it a good time to bring you my top 10 VOLT events of the year.

Here goes:

10. The recognitions continue thanks to the love from all of our guests and the superb staff on the floor and in the kitchen - to name a few we received the AAA 4-Diamond Award, named top 100 restaurants in the country by Open Table Diners and rated Best Special Occasion and Best Service by Washingtonian Magazine readers.

9. Backyard Ale - Bryan’s partnership with Flying Dog for the release of a summer beer. The backyard party was actually really fun so I’m hoping for a new beer for the new year. Or maybe we’ll just have a backyard BBQ every night for the summer of 2012. You know, we actually started building a backyard kitchen until we got distracted by other events.

8. We opened Graffiato with Mike Isabella in July. If you haven’t been, what are you waiting for? Its really one of the best casual, small plates restaurants in the Metro area.

7. North Market KitchenGo/No GO drama continued - the $200k in city tap fees for construction in an old abandoned building was just too excessive for us to move on this project this year. We got some traction from our Mayor and Aldermen after fighting the good fight for six months but not before we got restless and moved on to other projects.

6. SOS event this past September was off the hook- my personal highlight was having Charlie Palmer in the house.

Here is a video of the evening.

Share Our Strength - 2011 “A Tasteful Pursuit” Dinner at VOLT from Clubhill Media on Vimeo.

Filmed by our good friends at ClubHill Media

5. We changed our hours of operation beginning in January - Tues - Fri 3:00 to CL, Sun Brunch 11:30 - CL, Sat 12:00 - CL

4. Table 21 is booked solid but…. beginning in December, we started taking reservations for only one month in advance so everyone has an equal chance to get on 21 at the beginning of each month. So get our phone number on your speed dial for the 1st of the month to try one of the most exquisite dining experiences anywhere.

3. Yes, the Diner on East Street is a GO. Tap fees are still outrageous but we are soldering on with construction. I can smell the fried chicken already. Stay tuned for details on opening.

2. VOLTInk released to great reviews. Buy the book on our website and have it personally signed by Chef. And of course seeing the Voltaggio’s promote the book on the Jimmy Fallon show was way cool. But not to be outdone by our own kick off party at the Keys Stadium at home.
From the crowds, it seemed that most of you were with us to celebrate Bryan’s first book. If you missed the party, or if you want to relive the good times, check out the video of the event.

VOLT ink. Release Party at Harry Grove Stadium from Clubhill Media on Vimeo.

Again, filmed by Clubhill Media.

And the biggest highlight of the year - drumroll

1. We opened Lunchbox on December 3rd and fast food will never be the same again.

Happy holidays and I hope to see you in the new year. Cheers

Hilda.

P.S. and don’t forget to vote for all of our favorite chef on the James Beard nominations. Live now until Dec 31. Vote here now