🏆 WINNER: Chef Michael Rafidi
D.C. is full of culinary visionaries. It even has the highest density of Michelin-star restaurants in the U.S. But, after months of research, interviews, and deliberations, we've selected Chef Michael Rafidi as the winner of the City Cast 6 Food & Drink category for 2024.
Rafidi is the mastermind behind the Michelin-starred, hearth-fired marvel Albi and the popular Levantine-inspired cafe Yellow. He also recently opened La’ Shukran in the Union Market neighborhood.
Before making his mark on D.C.'s restaurant industry, Rafidi spent six years working with Michael Mina as Executive Chef of the French restaurant RN74 in San Francisco. But, his cooking background can be traced back to Ramallah, Palestine, where his family still runs a bakery. He calls his food a tribute to his grandparents and the food he grew up with.
“The way he's elevating his Palestinian-American heritage and introducing Levantine food to D.C. is special. I don't think a lot of us would have known what that cuisine meant before he opened Albi,” said Washingtonian food editor Anna Spiegel, a member of the City Cast 6 panel.
Rafidi is renowned for his creative approach to traditional Arabic cuisine, blending contemporary techniques with Mid-Atlantic ingredients. While both Albi and Yellow are Levantine in soul, Rafidi’s latest venture, La’ Shukran, combines French and Middle Eastern flavors in a disco bistro setting.
The menu is updated daily but diners can expect dishes filled with za’atar, chiles, sumac, pickles, and herbs. Think smokey escargot, carob roast duck leg confit, and date BBQ mushrooms. The cocktail menu is artsy and heavy on the arak, an anise-flavored Middle Eastern alcohol.
Dinner spread at La' Shukran. (The Washington Post/Getty Images)
Rafidi also opened a second location of his hit cafe Yellow in Union Market this year, which transforms from a coffee shop during the day to a casual kebab restaurant at night with dishes like leg of lamb, harissa chicken wing, and swordfish skewers.
In 2024, Rafidi won the James Beard Award for outstanding chef in America. He dedicated the award on stage “to Palestine, and to all the Palestinian people out there, whether it’s here or in Palestine or all over the world,” he said.
Rafidi has been a strong voice against Israel’s military assaults on Palestine over the past year and hopes his cooking can bring more awareness to the tragedies against the Palestinian people. “We are seeing unspeakable horrors in my homeland … The very land that for generations provided my family and millions with the ingredients and recipes that sustained life and made it possible for someone like me to stand on that stage is in danger and we must all speak out against it,” wrote Rafidi in a recent Instagram post.
🥈 RUNNERS-UP:
Isabel Coss and Matt Conroy — Pascual
José Andrés — Zaytinya, Jaleo, minibar, and others
Solomon Johnson — The Bussdown DC
Jovana Urriola — Colada Shop and Cafe Unido
Our Selection Process:
To ensure the veracity of the awards, we chatted with dozens of field experts across D.C., conducted listener and reader polls, and did our own research to come up with nominations. Finally, we had a public vote to help our panel of experts — Washington Post's Michael Brice-Saddler, Axios' Anna Spiegel, and Greater Greater Washington’s Dan Reed — select the winners.
The City Cast 6 awards, sponsored by Christopher Nace and the trial lawyers at Paulson & Nace, honor D.C.’s standout visionaries across six distinct categories. Read about the other winners.
