Image: Parrish Sisters, “Two priests walking down a lane in Amalfi, Italy” (1913)
Site News:
This week we finished our first pass of revising our dining guide to match the environment restaurants are operating in. Our dining guide previously allowed sorting by rating, cuisine, and neighborhood. No we have ditched ratings and added “Status” by which we mean is the restaurant offering dine-in service (either outdoor or indoor), take-out, delivery or market/grocery options. We also note restaurants that remain closed on our recommended list and the small but growing number of those that have closed permanently or at least for the foreseeable future. Search in either LIST or MAP format.
Updates:
One pattern we noticed is that if a restaurant opened for outdoor seating they were more likely add indoor seating, while those that only have indoor seating seem less likely to take advantage of Phase 2 lifting of restrictions.
Here are places adding dine-in service this week that are on our list:
Unconventional Diner – with added plexiglass partitions
Daikaya (Izakaya and Ramen), Bantam King, Hatoba, and Haikan are doing online ordering for sit-down dining.
Bistrot Lepic – One of two old-school French spots in Georgetown opening up.
La Chaumiere – The other one.
Corduroy – They also continue their take-out and market options
Room 11 – Taking advantage of its patio space
Closed for Good:
A Rake’s Progress – Even if the Line Hotel reopens, it will have lost one of its anchor restaurants.
Ghibellina/Sotto – It seems like those places that need a bar crowd to meet sales goals are in trouble. Also 14th Street landlords seem to be particularly inflexible.
Other News:
The biggest step this week was the expansion of eating space into the sidewalks and streets. There are two stretches in Dupont and a long stretch of 18th Street in Adams Morgan.
Emilie’s lost its chef and soul this week. Reading between the lines it seems Chef Tien was unwilling to open the dining room before there is a vaccine. Hamilton Johnson, who we are big fans of, is taking over, but that seems like a fool’s errand in the long run.
Sabrina Medora, writing in WCP, looks at the cost/benefit analysis chefs are going through as they make decisions about opening up or the decisions they made.
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We hope to add a few more places to our list this week. There are several places either coming back online or opening for sit-down service in advance of July 4th. We would also like to pat ourselves on the back that no other dining guide has taken the time to stay up to date. So to stay in the loop follow us on social media for updates. We are on FB, Insta, and Twitter. Click on the icons at the top or bottom of this page.
Don’t forget to tip big, wear a mask, be safe.