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City Cast DC

Food and Drink

Kaela Cote-Stemmermann

Moon Rabbit pastry chef Susan Bae took home the award for Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker at the annual James Beard Awards in Chicago Monday night, securing D.C.’s only medal of the evening.

Culinary stars from around the country descended on the city’s Lyric Opera House to witness what many call the “Oscars of the food world” — largely considered the industry's top acknowledgements. 

 lost the Best New Restaurant award — one of the evening’s top prizes — to New York’s Lei. 

 chef Suresh Sundas, who makes the best Indian street food in town, was outdone in the Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic by Jesse Ito of Royal Sushi & Izakaya in Philadelphia. And, Brent Kroll of the cozy wine bar 

 lost in Outstanding Professional in Beverage Service to Lee Campbell from New York.

Bae is a founding partner of D.C.’s Moon Rabbit, a high-end Vietnamese restaurant where she leads an all-female pastry team. She is particularly known for inventive desserts featuring ingredients typically reserved for savory cooking like curry, fish sauce, and seaweed.

I’ve long been a fan of Bae’s unusual but genius creations. Last year, I named her seaweed dessert (rong biển) at Moon Rabbit 

 in our annual City Cast DC roundup. The pandan panna cotta anchors coconut granite and salty seaweed — a refreshing palate cleanser that’s truly original.

Bae was tearful accepting her award. "As a Korean-American chef this recognition means something bigger than myself, it reflects the communities that shaped me,” said Bae. “Representation matters, being invited into the room matters. But what matters even more is knowing you'll be supported once you're there…I hope we continue moving towards a future where underrepresented chefs are not only welcomed and celebrated but supported."

Prior to this year’s victory, Bae was a finalist for the same award in both 2024 and 2025. She was also named North America's Best Pastry Chef by the 

James Beard also has a set of media awards

, which were announced last Saturday ahead of the main event. Local cookbook author and "Pati's Mexican Table" star 

 took home two wins in Instructional Visual Media and Broadcast Media Hall of Fame.

Winners are decided by a James Beard committee made up of industry professionals, food writers, and culinary experts. Nominees are chosen in March then narrowed down via a process of visits, discussions, and voting.

This is the second year in a row that D.C. has gotten only one of the coveted James Beard medals. Last year, Chef Carlos Delgado of Shaw's lauded Peruvian joint 

Find a complete list of 2026 James Beard award winners 

Susan Bae wins the Outstanding Pastry Chef category at the 2026 James Beard Awards, D.C.’s only win. 

Moon Rabbit’s Susan Bae Wins Washington, DC’s Only 2026 James Beard Award

Moon Rabbit’s Susan Bae Wins DC’s Only 2026 James Beard Award

D.C. food, culture, and everything worth your time. 

DC Food and Drink

 in Adams Morgan feels as if you’re walking into a dinner party at somebody’s home. The Parisian-inspired wine bar’s worn herringbone floors, candle-lit fireplaces, and comforting late-night menu create a sense of belonging that has made it an instant classic for residents and industry folk since it opened in September.

Now, the neo-bistro is up for the 2026 James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant — one of the nation's most coveted culinary awards. If Maison Bar à Vins wins, it will be the second time a D.C. restaurant has ever won that category

and the first since 2008, solidifying D.C.’s place at the forefront of the national culinary scene. Mita, plant-based Latin American restaurant in Shaw, was nominated last year but lost out to Bûcheron in Minneapolis.

 include Susan Bae of Moon Rabbit for Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker, Suresh Sundas of ⁠Tapori for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic, and Brent Kroll of Maxwell Park for Outstanding Professional in Beverage Service. 

 first through an open call for recommendations then judged by a James Beard committee made up of industry professionals, food writers, and culinary experts. The winners will be announced at a ceremony in Chicago on June 15.

Matt Conroy, Maison’s chef, is no stranger to awards. One of his other establishments, Pascual on Capitol Hill, was just featured on the 

 list. But he doesn’t seek them out either.

“We didn’t open the restaurant to win awards. I don't like to think that way,” said Conroy. “We just come in, we're gonna cook good food and open good bottles of wine.”

Conroy calls Maison “an Adams Morgan bar for grown-ups.”

“Many people started their early 20s in Adams Morgan and have grown up a little bit,” he said, sipping a protein shake at Maison’s bar. “This is a little bit more of their space now.”

Conroy and co-owner Omar Popal started working on Maison Bar à Vins more than two years before it opened. But it was not their first D.C. hit. Conroy and the Popal Group are responsible for some of D.C.'s most acclaimed restaurants, including the French bistro Lutèce and Pascual, which Conroy leads with his wife Isabel Coss. They attribute their James Beard nomination to a more local approach.

“It's about doing something that's genuine,” said Conroy. “There's restaurants that open and it's just a cookie cutter from Pinterest and Instagram.”

That genuineness is apparent before you even open the door. The restaurant is in a converted D.C. rowhouse, and walking in feels like you’re entering a classy neighbor’s home. The space is filled with personal and artful touches without trying too hard. The food is picturesque, but there is flavor to back it up.

The front is dominated by a walk-in only bar space while the back has small marble tables for dining and reservations. In total the restaurant serves 160 guests a night, over half of which are walk-ins. They often get neighbors and industry folk coming in multiple nights a week.

”If you wanna be part of the neighborhood, you want people to be able to walk in,” said Conroy. “You're not gonna survive off one-time guests that don't come back. You want them to have an experience and then leave and tell five of their friends about it.”

The menu at Maison Bar à Vins is made for the snackers — small plates made for sharing or having alongside a glass of wine, or two. Think escargot with hazelnut, olives and octopus, and oysters with green apple. Prices range from $8 for small bites to $30+ for full plates.

The brioche-stuffed chicken and the Basque cheesecake battle it out nightly for the top selling item on the menu. The cheesecake, a barely solid, funky delight, has D.C. foodies in a chokehold. (“I’ll drop to my knees if the Basque cheesecake ever retires,” 

 Washington Post food critic Elazar Sontag.)

For this dish alone, the restaurant went through more than 65 pounds of cream cheese last week. Conroy told me he “might buy stock in Philadelphia Cream Cheese at this rate.” But his personal favorite is a seasonal dish of smoked trout with grilled strawberries, crème fraîche, and fresh dill.

”It’s of the moment and really speaks to the way we cook here,” said Conroy. Maison’s menu changes often, following what Conroy calls “micro-seasons,” or minute changes in local agriculture.

Suzanne Critchlow, who leads the Popal Restaurant Group’s bar program, keeps Maison’s basement wine cellar stocked with more than 1,000 bottles. The mostly natural wine menu is French-centered but includes bottles from around the world, from $60 “weeknight” rieslings to a $500 brut nature pinot noir from famed French winemaker Charles Dufour.

Paving the Way for a New Generation of DC Chefs

a notoriously brutal few years for D.C. restaurants

, with government-wide layoffs and the new tipped minimum wage law squeezing profits. Still, Conroy says he is excited about where the local restaurant scene is headed.

Conroy is part of a newer generation of D.C. chefs that includes Rob Rubba at Oyster Oyster, Michael Rafidi at Albi, 

 at Perry’s and many others that are pushing the boundaries of the D.C. food scene. Rafidi and Morishita each won their own national James Beard awards in 2024 in the outstanding chef and emerging chef categories respectively.

“We're all in the same mindset right now,” said Conroy. “We care about where we're sourcing ingredients from, care about our staff, about our guests… not just a paycheck at the end of the week.” 

He also admitted to being part of a secret D.C. chef group chat that works collaboratively with local farmers. My inquiry to join was immediately shot down. “We don’t talk about fight club,” he said.

The team plans to open the row home’s second floor with more sit-down tables later this year. Popal says this will give them more space for larger format dishes and snacks.

The restaurant group also plans to open a reincarnation of The Berliner, their German beer garden that closed in 2022, in Adams Morgan but have not announced an opening date yet.

James Beard nominee Maison Bar à Vins is an “Adams Morgan bar for grown-ups”

Adams Morgan’s Favorite Wine Bar Has a Shot at a James Beard Award

Samu Qureshi has dedicated 57 years, thousands of days, and hundreds of thousands of hours tracking items across the globe to amass the biggest collection of Washington Football memorabilia in existence. Things that others threw away long ago — team Coke bottle caps and Slim Jims boxes with players' portraits — Qureshi has devoutly kept.

He organizes his collection in what he calls “the museum” — a 5,000-square-foot basement in Bethesda packed to the brim with burgundy and gold that, to Qureshi, still isn’t big enough to display everything.

Now, Qureshi wants to sell the collection to the new team and establish a museum and hall of fame. But it’s easier said than done and preserving the past isn’t cheap.

These tensions play out in “The Custodian,” a 25-minute documentary that follows Qureshi’s quest to build his collection and secure its future, all while reconciling with the team's controversial history. The film is 

premiering on June 12 at Regal Gallery Place

. The annual documentary festival runs June 11–14 and features 64 films and 49 shorts from 32 countries at venues across the city. 

As one of the few films focused on the DMV, “The Custodian” explores a common nostalgia that will resonate with DMV football fans of all eras – but also shows how the sheer size of Qureshi’s collection weighs on him financially and strains his relationships.

The very first line of the film is his wife calling to say, “You’re running out of time on the financial front…liquidate, liquidate, liquidate.” Qureshi painfully admits that, to live the life he wants, the collection needs to go. 

Yet we also witness his deep reverence and attachment. He giddily shows guests around, pointing out old seat cushions from the team’s most iconic games, ad campaigns from the 1990s, letters written by former owner George Preston Marshall, and yes, even jockstraps. Over 25 former Washington Football players have visited, each leaving their autograph for the collection.

“It’s not just a man cave, I’m not just some average fanboy, it's really historic memorabilia,” Qureshi says.

The film also doesn’t shy away from addressing the problematic history of the Washington Football team back when it was known as the Redskins. Qureshi says he loved the logo back then. When Lauren Cordova of the Shoshone-Bannock people visited the museum, he called the logo "dignified" and "noble."

“That looks like a white guy to me, painted red, with a wig and some fake chicken feathers on there,” she replies. We watch as her questioning forces Qureshi to reconcile his nostalgia and love for the team with its problematic past, leading to tense silences and unresolved differences between them.

The film’s director, Khaula Haider Malik, told me she found Qureshi’s story by accident while searching for an RV on Facebook Marketplace. When the RV owner pitched a film about Qureshi, Malik was hooked.

“When I saw the museum, and witnessed the care that he put into collecting all of this stuff and organizing it in a proper museum format, I was just immediately compelled,” said Malik.

Two months later they started filming “The Custodian” with the RV owner as their producer.

“I really hope watching the film sparks conversations among people,” said Malik. “Our nostalgia is our nostalgia, even if sometimes it can be associated with problematic things, it doesn't discount your feelings.”

The film was also personal for director Malik. She and Qureshi are both DMV-born Pakistani Americans and their fathers worked together before they were even born. She was a diehard Washington Football fan who daydreamed about being the team's head coach as a kid. But, like many DMV football fans, had become cynical of the team because of its racist past.

“I was a dedicated and heartbroken fan for decades until I finally put my love of the game to rest, disillusioned by the sport and ashamed of my support of a team whose name disrespected an entire community,” said Malik. “This film is a process of [Qureshi] trying to release the burden of this history into the hands of the team’s owners, who need to accept the responsibility.”

Now in his 60s, Qureshi wants to pass along his collection so he can travel and spend time with his wife and friends. His dream is to have it publicly displayed in a team museum. Throughout the past year, Qureshi has been in conversations with several high-level Commanders officials about selling his collection. And while several owners, including Mitch Rales, have made public comments about wanting a Washington Football Hall of Fame, the deal remains in limbo.

Earlier this year, Qureshi’s landlord increased rent and he gave up the museum space. For now, with the exception of some of Qureshi’s favorite pieces, the collection is sitting in an unmarked storage unit while it waits for a permanent home.

“I spent my whole life archiving the team's history,” Qureshi said. "I just really would love it to be shared.”

This documentary short premiering at DC/DOX Festival explores a Washington Football fan's 57-year quest to preserve the team's history while reckoning with its racist legacy.

'The Custodian' Explores the Life of Washington Football's Biggest Superfan

“This was a huge mistake,” I said to myself as I pulled into an empty residential lot in Beltsville, Maryland. It was the first of three stops where I planned to try food from Facebook Marketplace — an adventure I thrust upon myself despite my editors' warnings.

My first order, a Dominican stewed pork dish, was waiting for me but my trepidation about buying food from a stranger on the internet was hard to shake. I unearthed a stray bottle of Tums from my back seat. If I was going to do this, the least I could do was be prepared.

Facebook Marketplace is known as a platform where you can get anything, including food. Since the pandemic, it’s become a sort of 

. A quick local search shows dozens of postings for everything from Dominican breakfast plates and homemade Libyan food to bowls of sago sago and tamales sold by the dozen. The prices are surprisingly cheap (I’m talking $2 a tamale) and the sellers range from weekend hobbyists to full-time home chefs trying to break into the restaurant industry.

Recently, videos of people trying food from Facebook have gone viral. I first saw the trend when Florida-based food influencer Gabriel Rivera came across my feed. I watched in disbelief (along with 33 million other people) as he picked up a $160 

Rivera said he’s gained more than 700,000 followers across Instagram and TikTok since starting his Facebook food haul videos. And he’s not the only one: food reviewers like 

 are getting in on it. Personally, it’s been blowing up my feed for months.

Rivera thinks people love his videos because they like seeing him support small businesses. But personally, I watch them to satisfy a sense of sick curiosity. So, I decided to spend a whole weekend buying and trying food on Facebook Marketplace to answer what had become a burning question: Was the best food in D.C. coming out of home kitchens rather than restaurants?

This was my dream now. I couldn’t be talked out of it.

I exit my car and stand on Eva’s patio, shifting awkwardly as I wait for her to fry my guava empanadas. Her eight-year-old daughter circles around me in a pair of bright pink roller skates. I only just met her but now we’re best friends.

Eva Peguero has been selling Dominican food on Facebook Marketplace as 

 for eight years. She first became known for her empanadas at her daughter's school where parents and neighbors insisted she start selling them.

Over the last year, Peguero has turned selling food into her full-time job. She takes up to 60 orders a week, waking up at 4:30 a.m. to prep Wednesday through Sunday.

Most of Peguero’s orders come from Facebook, like myself, or through word of mouth. She also often takes on catering gigs around the neighborhood and at her daughter’s school, where she is the head of the Parent Teacher Association. Long term, she hopes to open her own restaurant.

When Peguero brings out my food, she also brings out an extra plate for the geese roaming the patio.

“Everything started because I'm that friend where everybody comes to my house to eat. If you tell me you're having a bad day, I will show up with food.”

Selling food on Facebook Marketplace has also helped Peguero build a relationship with her daughter, Daniella. The menu, which she posts in the morning, is determined by whatever Daniella feels like eating that day. Today, that is Carne de Cerdo Guisada — stewed pork and rice — with a side of freshly fried plantains. Other dishes in the rotation include empanadas, oxtail, and Dominican breakfast plates.

Like many of the Facebook listings I came across, Peguero specializes in ethnic dishes that can be hard to find in the DMV outside of a home kitchen. Many postings are in Spanish, Tagalog, or Amharic, advertising home-made cultural dishes I had never seen on a restaurant menu.

“I try to keep the authentic Dominican flavor,” she said, explaining that she was never satisfied with the nearby Dominican restaurants which she says have a more “Americanized” flavor.

I ask how much I owe and Eva looks to Daniella, who I have quickly come to realize is both her business accountant and social media manager.

“That will be $25,” says Daniella, thinking for a second before adding, “and 4 cents.”

“4 cents?” I inquire. Something tells me she made that last part up.

Of course, tax, how could I be so foolish. I Cash-app her the full $25.04.

The thing I have come to understand about Facebook Marketplace food is that it’s essentially a game of roulette. For every good food posting, there are a dozen old, unappetizing, or straight-up outlandish ones.

I avoided the vendors selling old meat out of their freezer and one hawking an abhorrently red “secret ramen” that I can only assume involved Cheetos. (“Delish

” was the description.) But, even more frustrating was that many of the people I contacted were already sold out for the week. One, offering viral Ilocos empanadas, was sold out until 

So, despite my best intentions, not every purchase I made was a winner. As was the case with my next stop. I had ordered a dozen tamales earlier in the week for pickup, but hadn’t heard from the seller that day. Could the tamale lady be…ghosting me?

My suspicions were confirmed when I showed up to a house in Shaw with blacked-out windows and not a soul in sight. The self-doubt flooded in. I had turned what should have been a fun fact into a multi-day saga without even a tamale to show for it.

I send a rare Sunday Slack message. “Tamales a bust.”

The only thing getting me to my last stop was that it was just blocks away from my bed in Mt. Pleasant. 

 invites me in and I’m immediately in awe of her operation. She is pumping out dozens of empanadas and alfajores in a rowhouse kitchen she shares with four roommates. The day’s orders are neatly organized on a large dining table in the living area. And, judging by the toasty scent, quite fresh.

As someone who barely remembers to run their dishwasher, it’s a feat I can only begin to imagine.

Luz has been selling food on Facebook Marketplace since January. Unlike Eva, she has a full-time job and only prepares orders every other weekend. She can often have up to 20 orders each time.

I ask if she had thought about selling at the farmer’s market around the corner.

“I thought about it, but I would need a bunch of registrations, and I would need to do it 

weekend,” Luz said. “I do this for fun.”

She started partly because she loves cooking, and partly because she saw a gap in the market for good Argentinian food in D.C.

“I'm from Argentina,” Luz said. “Whenever I want to buy something like this, nobody sells it …  I think there is like one Argentinian restaurant, but it’s in Rockville.”

She hands me my order. A mixed dozen alfajores, which come with six traditional and six chocolate and pistachio flavors of her own creation. “Make sure you keep them in the fridge,” she says, an order I quickly forget and then regret.

By the time I'm eating them, the chocolate is but a puddle of mud. It’s still ridiculously good. “Made with love & lots of dulce de leche!” I read on her card. Despite the melting chocolate I think both those things still stand. I feel like I’ve gotten my money’s worth.

These home cooks exist in a regulatory grey area in D.C. The city’s cottage food law allows cooks to sell non-perishable food products, like baked goods, from residential kitchens. However, cooks still can’t sell anything perishable, like meat or cut fruit. Other home kitchen licenses, such as a catering license, can cost up to $5,000 a year, often taking several weeks or months to obtain.

“We don’t have a license that technically fits, there are ways to get around it, but I know you should not be operating,” said Kelechi Ukwuoma, a program manager at D.C.’s Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection, which handles food permits and business activity in D.C. Buying food online, he said, is "at your own risk."

For now, the Facebook Marketplace food scene is alive and well here in the DMV, and I, for one, am happy about it. Forty-eight hours after my purchases, I haven’t taken a single Tum, I’ve eaten incredible homemade food, and I have a new eight-year-old best friend. I can confidently say my quest has been a success.

In fact, I already have an order for those Ilocos empanadas set for next month.

From tamales to seafood boils, the viral Facebook Marketplace food trend is hitting the DMV. 

Eating Facebook Marketplace Food for An Entire Weekend in DC

Welcome to our rolling list of all the best new restaurants opening in the District!

As D.C.’s restaurant scene mourns the imminent loss of Chinatown’s wafu standby Tonari (closing May 3), I'm looking ahead to the city's restaurant openings. From a reincarnation of Tail Up Goat to a neighborhood favorite reopening, what’s old is new again this April.

Chef Masaaki “Uchi” Uchino just reopened his hit sushi counter 

 food hall. Hailing from Fukuoka, Japan, Chef Uchi started in D.C. at Sushi Nakazawa and more recently has led the

 (now Katsumi). So, needless to say, he knows what he’s doing. For now, Kiyomi is only open for lunch with a $40 sushi or handroll omakase menu, plus a la carte offerings. It’s the deal of the century if you ask me.

Tail Up Goat’s owners are back in the same space with a new, more casual concept. 

—named after their two dogs—is a counter service restaurant dishing up fancy-ish comfort food. Think fried chicken with chilli jam and black garlic, anchovy toast, and wild greens ravioli.

Unless you’re off the grid, you’ve doubtless seen this viral 

 come across your feed. The bagels have a crusty exterior and steamy fluffy inside that makes them perfect for pulling apart. D.C. has long fought accusations of being a bagel desert, and I must admit these do scratch that New England artisan bagel itch.

 is reopening in Dupont after a four-month, $1.5 million renovation with a new look and new menu. Dishes include kousayyah with zucchini, labneh, urfa spice and walnut, kufta bil batata with minced ribeye meatballs and aged basturma with thinly-sliced beef tenderloin and basturma spice.

Bar Japonais rebranded itself with a totally new look and menu. But the best part — its lead chef Masaaki “Uchi” Uchino, also of Kiyomi— is staying the same. 

 neon street art aesthetic makes way for a surprisingly well-crafted new Japanese menu with everything from nigiri to banging sour-cream-and-onion chips and an excellent cocktail program to top it off. Weekend and late-night DJs solidify it as the new what’s what of 14th Street.

Boulangerie Saint Georges (Eastern Market)

 finally opened last weekend on 7th St. Everything is made daily in-house, from viennoiserie and pastries to breads, macarons, salads and seasonal sweets. The kitchen is adding a bistro menu with more sandwiches, hot meals, and wine in the coming weeks. The lines have been excessively long — you’ve been warned!

 chain is opening its second D.C. location on April 17th in the restored 1950s Little Tavern building in the Union Market neighborhood (previously a 24-hour Subway). I’m obsessed with their Earl Grey cloud cake, so you will be seeing me there on the regular.

 is expanding its footprint inside La Cosecha at the Union Market District with a new all-day breakfast menu, plus lunch and dinner.

 is opening their first stand-alone location in the East End on April 20 with empanadas, sandwiches, and pisco sour slushies.

, from the owner of Bollywood Bistro and Commonwealth Indian, opened in NoMa.

Is that *sniff* Parmesan? Two new homestyle Italian spots are opening on opposite sides of D.C. this month along with a Korean-American cafe and a meaty revamp of José Andrés’ Waldorf Astoria restaurant.

 inside the Canopy Hotel at The Wharf. Housemade pastas, Neapolitan pizzas, fresh grilled fish, and sunny spritzes are all served in a bright open dining room meant to resemble a quaint Italian piazza. And the floor to ceiling windows and views of the water do

 like Venice. I’m begging you, don’t skip the tiramisu for dessert.

 Bazaar Meat is replacing his other restaurant, The Bazaar, in the Waldorf Astoria. The menu is centered around premium cuts and theatrical dining. Think bone-in New York strip, Japanese Wagyu, and even a whole suckling pig for those looking to dine communally. Signature Bazaar dishes — like the cotton candy foie gras and caviar cone — will remain on the menu alongside a jamón bar, raw bar, and cocktail program.

Downtown office workers everywhere cried when Poppabox closed last year. But now from the ashes comes this all-day 

 with bibimbap, cup noodles, katsu, and cream donuts. They are soft-launching until March 10 before opening officially.

 that opened late last month serves Chinese-style breakfast sandwiches and congee in the morning and transforms into a disco parlor with full plates at night. Get the roast duck or the honey char siu along with $12 specialty cocktails under the spinning disco ball.

Opened by a former banker, nothing costs more than $30 at this 

 — including the steak. Nick Perkins, formerly of Petite Cerise, leads the kitchen and the concise menu is full of comforting classics like Caesar salad, rigatoni, and bread pudding. The drink menu is mostly different takes on negronis and spritzes, because what else do you need?

A love letter to the streets of Bombay, steel plates clink and chai simmers endlessly at 

this new Indian street food spot in Alexandria

. The menu features bhel puri, vada pav, and layered chaats, alongside classics like butter chicken and biryani. The interior screams 90s with Bollywood posters lining the walls and fried dishes served in newspaper.

While some people have a “TBR" (to be read) list , I have a “TBE” (to be eaten) list , and this month it is absolutely stacked. From Nikkei-style hand rolls to celeb cocktail bars to pour-over coffee, these are D.C. best new spots to try.

This moody, 25-seat counter restaurant by Chef Carlos Delgado of Causa specializes in Nikkei-style hand rolls — a Japanese immigrant-inspired cuisine from Peru. Think cigar-sized handrolls with fillings like ceviche, fatty tuna, and scallops with parmesan sauce. It opens on Feb. 20 and is primarily walk-in only.

Opening Feb. 8 at La Cosecha, this cocktail bar is the brainchild of actor Wilmer Valderrama (from “That '70s Show”) and Colada Shop co-founder Daniella Senior. It draws inspo from Latin American traditions and communal hospitality and will serve complimentary hangover soup at last call.

This new cafe refers to itself as a “neighborhood salon.” By day it is a sun-lit cafe serving Swing’s coffee and pastries from Souk. Then after 4 p.m. it turns into a cocktail bar. Currently only the cafe is open, with bar operations coming soon.

Inspired by Cranes’ sold-out taco omakase collab, Chef Pepe Moncayo is transforming Cranes into a high-energy taqueria by day. The casual lunch menu combines Spanish and Japanese flavors into tacos like chicken karaage with napa cabbage and togarashi crema, garlic shrimp a la plancha with chili oil, and koji-marinated skirt steak with salsa macha and lime. If you go between 11-11:45 a.m. you get a free taco!

Real D.C. coffee snobs know Black Crown has been pumping out the best espresso on Capitol Hill for a while, but their gorgeous new cafe space on the 2nd floor of the Cannon House Office Building has brought it to a new level. You 

have to pass security to get in. But, it’s worth it.

Located above Sushi Sato, this cocktail and karaoke lounge has $1 dumplings after midnight to keep the party going. Cocktails include a matcha martini, a miso whiskey sour, and a deadly long Thailand iced tea.

Aka the Bitcoin bar (don’t worry, they also take card), this part dive bar, part tech hub is one of the oddest establishments we’ve been to. The massive space hosts two bars, a huge stage, a podcast studio, and bitcoin think tank offices. The drinks are strong and everything is fried in beef tallow.

January is a notoriously slow month for D.C.’s restaurant scene, but there are still a few great new places to check out, including showy steakhouses, a bitcoin bar, and several additional locations of D.C. favorites.

This massive new Gaúcho-style restaurant features traditional flavors from southern Brazil. Choose from different fire-roasted cuts of beef, lamb, or pork carved tableside as part of the price-fixed experience. They also have more untraditional options like bacon-wrapped chicken breasts, beer marinated chicken drumsticks, or grilled shrimp finished with a passionfruit and mango glaze.

Have you ever eaten at a Japanese-Brazilian steakhouse? Me neither, but I’m excited to try. One of the first of its kind in the country, Churasuko combines Japanese and Brazilian dishes with options like tableside shaved wagyu and sashimi, Brazilian cheese bread with gochujang, seafood towers, and fusion cocktails.

This will be the fourth and largest location of this female-founded, Mexican street food joint. Besides their classic cemitas, tlayudas, and tacos, this location will also have new items like a steak trompo and a lineup of house-made paletas. The bar includes a Mexican-inspired espresso martini and the “Mai Horcha-Tai,” a tiki cocktail with Mexican spirits and house-made horchata orgeat. Yum.

Fast-casual NYC chain Springbone Kitchen opened its first D.C. location in Georgetown in December. The menu includes grain bowls with housemade hot sauce, but the highlight is definitely the plethora of cozy bone broths that come in potable coffee cups. My favorite thing I got there was the bone broth hot chocolate. Don’t knock it til you try it.

This unassuming tavern — dubbed D.C.’s crypto bar — is 50% dive bar, 50% crypto think tank, and 100% nightmare first date spot. The tallow-fried bar menu includes burgers, half-smokes, and chopped cheese sandwiches, crab cakes and a $100 tiki drink only purchasable through bitcoin. But the cocktails are admittedly good, and it does open at 11 a.m.

JINYA is opening yet another D.C. location next week, but it’s okay because we can’t get enough. Rich ramen broths, dumplings, creative cocktails, and affordable prices make it a welcome addition to the Georgetown food scene.

Welcome to our rolling list of all the best new restaurants opening in Washington, DC!

Washington, DC's Best New Restaurants and Bars

DC's Best New Restaurants and Bars

The food critic at the Washington Post has long been seen as an all-powerful — and totally anonymous — figure in the local restaurant industry. But the paper’s new critic, Elazar Sontag, is rejecting that anonymity for a more transparent approach. The first thing he did after replacing long-timer 

 was bring back the star review system and introduce himself 

”The work of being anonymous has largely become kind of a theater act,” explained Sontag. “ Sometimes I do get [special] treatment, but I want to be able to talk about it openly and transparently because critics have gotten that treatment for a very long time.”

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