The Restaurant Shuffle

Who said August was a slow month around here? The restaurant rumor mill is spinning out of control with competing stories and unofficial news: What's happening to Galileo? What about Andale? Oyamel? Palena?

With two competing dining chats going head-to-head to break news, readers are left to sort through the hints, clues and supposed facts for themselves.

Complicating matters is the fact that restaurant owners don't like talking about big decisions, especially when they involve leases, which could fall through at a moment's notice, turning a once likely rumor into a scrapped plan. So we get a bunch of people floating around with information, who may be unable to discuss it depending on how much they respect the wishes of said restaurant owners.

It's enough to make a restaurant lover/gastronaut/foodie/whatever's head spin. Here's what we know (or at least what we think we know, and then there are things we don't know we know, but that's getting into existential Donald Rumsfeld territory, so here goes ...):

* Galileo is closing its 21st Street location because the building is undergoing renovations.
* While Galileo is closed, Roberto Donna and crew will move across the river to Crystal City — location yet to be officially disclosed — to open Bebo Trattoria, according to the Post's Tom Sietsema. Read about the menu plans in today's chat.
* Andale has closed, and it sounds like several people are jockeying for the lease, one of which is Georgetown's Peacock Café, according to an owner.

Disclosed facts dry up there ... for now.

But there's plenty more speculation over on donrockwell.com here. And until those leases are signed, we'll leave it at that.