Image: Ginger Rogers
Trends are emerging in the D.C. dining scene. One trend is that nearly every establishment is looking for talent. Landing pages have pop-ups showing starting salaries. Social media and signs in windows announce vacancies for all positions. This seems to be the limitation on coming back to full occupancy more than health concerns at this point. We keep our fingers crossed and take some satisfaction that the tighter market will lead to better wages. With that throat-clearing out of the way, it’s on to the recap of the activity on our site this week and other news.
Changes to the Recommended Restaurant List:
Added:
Rice – This mainstay on 14th Street converted to a market doing take-out in the last few months. Now it is adding back tables for dine-in. We added it to the list.
Tiki on 18th – From 14th to 18th we go. An offshoot of the sports bar The Game, Tiki on 18th took over the 1st floor space in the building doing Filipino cuisine.
Other Updates:
We continue to work our way through our entire list to check on status, dead links, and other updates. The alphabetical clues below indicate about how far we are in that project.
Bombay Club – Dine-in open, possibly for awhile, but we finally caught it.
Cane – Dine-in opens this weekend.
Chaia – Seating is now open at both locations.
Chiko– It looks like the Dupont and Bethesda locations are open for sit-down.
China Chilcano – Appears to have added take-out and delivery when they opened for dine-in.
Colada Shop – They opened a spot at the Wharf last summer and we failed to add it. Added now.
Dabney – This is one of several places that stopped take-out. The Cellar remains closed.
DC Noodles – Now open for dine-in, though we thought they already were.
Ellē – Take-out during the days. Dinner service on weekends; outdoor seating only.
Etto – They added back limited patio seating. Reservations available on site. They are looking for a server!
Federalist Pig – has seating in Adams Morgan, and pop-ups/food truck in Hyattsville and Bethesda.
Hank’s – Dupont, Wharf and Old Town are all open for sit-down. Capitol Hill remains closed.
Kaz – for those of you working again downtown, Kaz is open and doing take-out!
Kinship – Dropped take-out, but added a home goods line for purchase.
Red Hen – Opened the dining room and Shane Harris ran toward it like it was in slow motion across an open meadow.
Noted:
Speaking of trends, the balkanization of the reservation website options continue. Fabio’s spots (who are desperate for new employees, FYI) switched to Tock. Several places moved to Resy. A while back we argued that starting with Opentable to find a place was doing it wrong. Instead of starting with what is available, start with what you are looking for and then check availability. Now that there is not just one, or two, or three sites that will cover it all, all the more reason to start with a list of places and narrow to what you’d prefer. What list? Well, we have an idea.
DBGB remains boarded up the last time we walked past. Brasserie Beck’s site says, “temporarily closed until early Fall, 2021.” It appears they switched to Tock in the meantime.
Other News:
One of the great success stories of the last couple years was Maxwell Park. The original team of three that opened the place now bid farewell to one of the musketeers, Daniel Runnerstrom. Best wishes to all.
From the bittersweet to the sad: Anxo announced that it failed to come to terms with its landlord, who is demanding full rent. It is hard to see this as anything other than short-sighted. It was a tale foretold by Laura Hayes. It will be out in July and will still serve out of the distillery in Brightwood.
Stephen Starr is bringing the thunder, by which we mean Nancy Silverton, to Georgetown. With Le Diplomate and St. Anselm, Starr was riding a wave of gentrification in an area. Taking over the old Dean & Deluca he is gambling that he can reverse a downward trend in the area. Many in that neighborhood are rooting for him.
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