Red Light Gets Green Light

Red Light is a call back to the days when the Logan Circle neighborhood buzzed with illegal activity. Partners Aaron Gordon and Robert Underwood (who's also executive chef) devised a menu with 10 rotating desserts, and brought on Ari and Micah Wilder to launch an inspired bar program. The 44-seat deck may just be the patio to be seen on this summer. Red Light is in soft-open mode until April 27.

Red Hen just celebrated its one-year anniversary. While Chef Michael Friedman's lovingly crafted pasta draws diners to Bloomingdale, it's often the wine program people leave talking about because of the unique offering of orange wine. Sommelier Sebastian Zutant (above) says they've sold about 100 cases since opening. “Somms are finally starting to push the envelope and it's paying off,” he says. Orange wine is a throw back to how wine used to be made; it's organic and biodynamic. Many of his orange picks hail from Eastern Europe or Spain.

There's a new tasting menu in town, and the fact that there are only four seats on Thursdays at 7pm makes it exclusive. Zentan's executive chef Jennifer Nguyen demonstrates her background in “omakase” cuisine, which she learned from Iron Chef Morimoto. For $65, guests will experience five to eight courses showcasing up-to-the minute seasonality, rare ingredients, and fish from Tokyo's Tsukiji Market. Omakase translates to “I'll leave it to you” in Japanese.

A new initiative to entice diners to the West End is working. It's called West End Wednesdays and tickets for May sold out in six minutes. Lucky reservation holders travel in an intimate pack of 12 diners making stops at Blue Duck Tavern, Westend Bistro, Marcel's and Ris, enjoying a course and generous pours of wine at each place. Most dishes are off-menu, and diners may be privy to meet-and-greets with chefs. June tickets ($100 per person) go on sale May 7 at 10am here.

If you want to work at the District's first restaurant with an onsite creamery, you'll have to sign a non-disclosure agreement. “Cheese makers are very secretive, even getting the equipment requires knowing a guy who knows a guy,” says Conan O'Sullivan. He's one half of the married duo behind the Capitol Hill cheese spot.

The O'Sullivans built two aging caves, where cheese hangs out in 95 percent humidity. (Aging cave is also what we call the sauna where the old men at the Y hang out.) “Keeping wheels moist means cheese can continue living, rather than dying behind plastic wrap,” says Genevieve. A creamy Chevre will be the first cheese they produce.

Recent personnel changes at Ashok Bajaj's 701 Restaurant in Penn Quarter are breathing new energy into a neighborhood stalwart that's been around 23 years. Bajaj is giving new chef, Benjamin Lambert (above), the ultimate freedom to be creative. Just this month, Lambert launched Sunday Suppers—a three-course tasting menu for $35, or $55 per person with a bottle of wine. He's joined by Christopher McNeal, a bright and shiny new sommelier and beverage director who whips up cocktail recipes that he brought with him from Colorado and Hawaii.