Image: Clark Gable

This week was the first time I was optimistic, the full seats at expanded sidewalk/street seating gave me hope that many places might be able to gut this out.  There is still a reckoning coming, and the health restrictions continue to be necessary because too many people refuse to take the risk to themselves and others seriously. If you want to save the bars – Wear a Damn Mask!  But maybe the losses will be sad instead of devastating.

Additions to the Recommended Restaurant List:

We added the two Ben’s Chili Bowl locations.  These are some of the historic/classic spaces that may not have met the threshold on food in the before times, but include now.  More are coming.

We also added I’m Eddie Cano.  A place we visited before the shutdown and looped back to add.

Status Updates to the List:

We did a scrub to update the fact that many places have added dine-in service over the last couple weeks, some of which we missed.  Some notable recent changes:

Sushi Taro is back and doing take-out.

The Dabney and Maydan have added outdoor seating.

Bar Pilar and Bresca have opened on 14th Street for service.  Bresca’s using its new chef’s counter format.

There are about a dozen other places that have added dine-in on our list.  Some like Pappe have added outdoor seating.  So even if you are not ready for indoor dining, there might be places that you aren’t thinking of.  Here is a list of some more recently added outdoor spaces.

The one big loss this week was Bistro Bohem.

Other News:

Tortilla Coast has survived to fight another day – or at least a couple weeks according to Barred in DC.

Be sure to check out the WCP Food Issue with a roll of honor of those doing some good work in the food industry.

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Finally, if you would like to take Mr. Gable’s advice be sure to check out the whole dining guide.  We have 300 restaurants in D.C. listed and are the only ones doing real-time updates to status – not the Post, not Washingtonian, not Infatuation, Thrillist, Michelin or Zagats. You can search by LIST or MAP.  And you can sort by status, neighborhood, and/or cuisine.

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.

Stay home if you can.  Wear a mask.  Tip Big!