2 days ago
2 D.C. restaurant openings we're excited about this June
While some folks are contemplating this season's beach reads or whether to wolf down an entire key lime pie while vacationing with in-laws, two seasoned hospitality vets are counting on fresh and dry-aged fish to snag local diners this summer.
Celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson, who operates restaurants across North America, the Caribbean and East Africa, is giving D.C. another go with a globally inspired spot in NoMa.
Though raised in Sweden, Samuelsson says he has a soft spot for the District because it's where he first tapped into his African roots. 'I really learned about Ethiopian culture in D.C.,' he tells The Washington Post, recalling visits in the 1990s to catch global soccer tournaments or eat his way around Adams Morgan. And he's determined to make this homecoming better than his uneven stint at MGM National Harbor.
'This is our team, our staff, our journey,' Samuelsson says of Marcus DC, stressing how excited he is about working with executive chef Anthony Jones (a Maryland native who helped open Red Rooster in Miami and has cooked locally at Alta Strada and Dirty Habit) and pastry chef Rachel Sherriffe (a New Jersey native who cut her teeth at Jean-Georges in New York and has honed her craft locally at Rooster & Owl and Ellie Bird).
While they've stocked rooftop bar Sly with more casual fare (shrimp cocktail, gourmet burger), the ground-floor restaurant will feature dry-aged proteins, a custom raw bar and seasonal offerings from the open kitchen. Debut dishes include roasted rockfish with seafood chili; spiced cauliflower with aji amarillo; whole roasted chicken with mumbo sauce; and blue crab rice studded with seasonal mushrooms and pickled okra that Samuelsson calls 'delicious, crave-able, relatable.' Sherriffe sweetens the deal with a flourless chocolate cake and plantain ice cream pairing, plum-almond teff cake with berbere-pistachio brittle, and praline-coconut rum cake with strawberry shrub sorbet.
Samuelsson says he is psyched to reintroduce himself to D.C. diners after folding at the casino. 'Maybe it was good for me that it didn't work out. So I had to come back in a much more focused way.'
222 M St. NE. Entrées, $26 to $68.
Having soothed our souls for over a decade with his distinctive spirits, Don Ciccio & Figli founder Francesco Amodeo aims to fill local bellies with Amalfi Coast staples at Union Market newcomer Tari Trattoria.
An alum of long-gone Georgetown seafood showcase Hook and downtown pasta den Bibiana, Amodeo says he plans to mimic the foodways he grew up with in Italy. That means processing seasonally available fish in-house and dry-aging choice selections — top contenders include John Dory, sailfish, gurnard, barracuda, assorted mullet fish (red, silver) and other lesser-known options — for four to six weeks to intensify their flavors. 'We want to give people a chance to try a new type of fish, which is as delicious as any other,' Amodeo says. The dry-aging will play into dishes like his oro rosso, which Amodeo describes as a feast of the seven fishes in every forkful. 'It kind of brings you Christmas in a plate,' he says of ring-shaped calamarata noodles bathed in a tomato sauce containing four types of fish, which staff then douse in a seafood stew featuring octopus, cuttlefish and langoustines.
He notes that his grandmother has been raising rabbits for as long as he can remember, and that folks on the nearby island of Ischia are renowned for their rabbit confit, which he hopes to honor his own way. 'That will definitely be one of the stars,' Amodeo says of two rabbit-backed dishes on the opening menu. He's also excited about sharing a rustic Genovese sauce — 'It's four pounds of onions and one pound of meat. And you basically slow-cook it for eight hours,' he says — seeded with 'bay leaves from my grandmother's garden, oregano and all the other herbs.'
Amodeo is also introducing a treasured sweet from neighboring Minori, an eggplant-based dessert bolstered by chocolate ganache, coffee-flavored liqueur, cinnamon, nutmeg, shaved almonds and candied fruits. 'I would beg my mom to make me that near the summertime because it's the most refreshing digestif ever.'
Chase it all with housemade spritzes, Negronis and Don Ciccio-spiked cocktails when Tari debuts in mid-June.
300 Morse St. NE. Entrées, $22 to $45.
