Punk's Backyard Grill To Replace Yin Yankee

Ever wonder what it takes to open a restaurant? Or what goes on behind the scenes from cocktail napkin conception to reality?

The team behind Bethesda's forthcoming Punk's Backyard Grill is blogging all about the process of getting their new restaurant off the ground. They're chronicling it all, from signing a purchase agreement at 4936 Fairmont Ave. — a space ever so briefly occupied by Yin Yankee — to sizing up which bottled sodas to offer.

The idea for Punk's was hatched by three students in a restaurant entrepreneurship class at Cornell. The trio hope to create a chain of restaurants that channel the classic American backyard cookout in a casual and contemporary setting.

The planned menu offers a range of, well, stuff you might throw on your backyard grill, like skewers, ribs and chicken marinated in mojito sauce. A "leftover" sandwich will offer pulled pork and slow-smoked beef brisket topped with a choice of two sides; "Nothin Fancy" grilled hot links and sausages are paired with grilled onions and peppers; and sides include the usual cookout suspects: baked beans, cole slaw, potato salad and skillet cornbread. Desserts are given down-home names like "State Fair Award-Winning Pies" (banana cream, key lime, pecan and so on) and "Mama's Bake-Sale Brownies."

The Bethesda location, scheduled to open in spring 2008, will be the first.