The prosciutto sandwich at Seventh Hill If my 50 faves were based on style points alone, Seventh Hill Pizza would top the list. Pizzaiolo Anthony Pilla puts on a show every time he preps a pie for the wood-burning oven at the Capitol Hill pizzeria, owned by the same team responsible for the neighboring bistro [...]
Chef Ris Lacoste’s mentor, the Beard-winning Bob Kinkead, always pushed his prize pupil to open a diner. Kinkead wasn’t trying to suggest that Lacoste lacks the skills to lead her own fine-dining establishment. He was acknowledging something true about the woman who kept his restaurants humming for years: Lacoste always wanted her own diner—or, more [...]
Editor's note: Ren's Ramen's closing date has been pushed back to Sept. 3. Love it or hate it, David Chang’s ramen has to be the most fussed-over bowl of soup in the entire goddamn U.S. of A. The chef devoted more than 15 pages to building the perfect ramen in his debut cookbook, Momofuku, right [...]
One of the most satisfying things to watch this year has been chef Peter Smith’s evolution at PS 7’s. The Chinatown haunt was once committed to a concept so complex that the average diner couldn’t even grasp it. These days, Smith’s menus are as playful as they are creative and technical. His lunch/bar menus, for [...]
Unlike Four Sisters, Fall Church’s other perennial favorite for Vietnamese cooking, Present enjoyed a meteoric rise almost from the day it opened. Yours truly contributed to the hype last year, when I called it, without much hesitation, the “area’s best Vietnamese restaurant.” Like others who’ve visited Present since its initial rush of positive press, I’ve [...]
From Wheaton to Falls Church, I’ve tried countless bowls of pho looking for one with the depth and pure heady aroma of Pho 75’s. I have yet to find one, which is why when I need a fix of this Vietnamese noodle soup, I continue to roll right into Hyattsville. I can’t vouch for the [...]
After conducting an intense, two-day tour of New Haven pizzerias earlier this year, stuffing more slices down my throat than the average freshman class at Yale, I came to a surprising conclusion: Pete’s New Haven Style Apizza out-performs many of the famous joints found in the Connecticut town from which the D.C. place drew its [...]
No one needs to tell you to visit Frank Ruta’s precision-cooking operation in Cleveland Park, whether his cafe or the more formal dining room in back, and I hesitated to include it on my list. The obviousness of the choice pains me to a degree. But making room for Palena gave me another chance to [...]
It wouldn’t have been hard to include every one of Ashok Bajaj’s seven restaurants on this list. Not that I would ever do that. I mean, I’ve never been very fond of ball hogs, if you’ll allow me to use such a crude metaphor in reference to one of the most refined restaurateurs in town. [...]
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from talking to Peter Pastan, it’s that he doesn’t give a rat’s ass what I (or anyone else) think about his restaurants. I’m not even sure he follows the food media. His singular attention is on his two establishments, 2Amys and this little rustic Italian eatery off Dupont Circle, [...]
