There’s the tireless advocate for the restaurant industry who has raised the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington – and area restaurants - to a sky-high profile. There’s the RAMW president who is passionate, effective and likeable as she works with the DC Council and Congress.

Then there’s the girl who feasted on her grandfather’s fish eggs and crawfish and still loves pigs in a blanket. The former model whose entree into the hospitality industry came through being noticed on a rooftop in a tiny bikini. The woman who posed in Playboy, albeit fully clothed. The woman who got married in Vegas.

Will the real Lynne Breaux please stand up?

When she speaks up, Bob Madigan and I realize that aside from the occasional drawn-out word, she’s the fastest talker of all our Players. She’s a clear blend – marrying the Louisiana love of fun, food and hospitality to an energy and political drive decidedly DC.

Now at Ris restaurant, she’s talking about the June 26 RAMMY award gala themed Carnevale da Cuisine.

 “It’s about the crazy colorful diversity of the industry now in all different price points, all different neighborhoods in the city and the region – the upper end, lower end, a mix of the above,” she pauses. “It’s just been this carnival.”

The RAMMY awards’ visibility has shot up as the DC restaurant scene exploded during a decade under her association leadership. Restaurants are in our face with the food network and focus on cooking. DC restaurants – and, by extension, the city – have thrived. It’s in no little part due to dining, says Breaux.

“I wrote a story once about the five Rs - restaurants beget retail beget residential beget resurgence beget revenue,” she says. “Look at U Street, Gallery Place, H Street right now - restaurants start it and then the rents go up and the buildings go down and the restaurants find another place, which is what happened with me.” Read the full article.