Siips slips... into something more delicious

Okay, hungry reporters are obviously more susceptible to restauranteurs enticing us with free food and wine.

With that disclosure, here's what the Downtown Mall's wine and champagne bar's new chef Robin Wetherhorn is doing at Siips that will lure us back in when the tastings aren't free: Lamb burgers, tuna with sesame seaweed salad, and stuffed strawberries (photo left) to die for.

More alluring: The Siips Stimulus Lunch for $5.95 starting October 1. Owner George Benford promises eight different items on the menu, including a pasta and a burger, Monday through Thursday.

Siips has more ideas to get us though tough times with good food, as well as drum up a little business during the slower midweek. The wine lover's dinner October 12 serves up a Virginia-centric three-course meal with three Virginia wines for $24.95 per person. Tuesdays offer buy one entree, get the second one for $2, and Wednesdays a bottle of wine is 30 percent off. Could we have another strawberry?