Bisnow’s 12 Buzziest (Part 2)
We live in a time of novelty; why shouldn't the rage in restaurants change frequently just like for music groups, TV series, and iPhone apps? Yesterday's issue told you about the first eight, but there are still more everyone's talking about and crowding into. Read on:
9. Republic
A place that’s appealing not just for great seafood and seasonal dishes but so neighborhoody, its name is an inside joke based on the fact the area’s known as the People’s Republic of Takoma Park. Jeff Black, whom we snapped showing us around when it opened in December, may have a DC food empire, but he remains the master of making each place unique.
10. Blue Jacket
A cathedral not just to beer (20 different kinds brewed on the premises), but to the fact a whole new neighborhood can be created and energized largely by vibrant restaurants and bars. And the physical interior (a 100-year-old boilermaker shop) is as huge and captivating as the tastes.
11. Del Campo
This is chef Victor Albisu not at Del Campo but at a dinner Bisnow held for Martha’s Table, holding forth on something or other to the delight of his audience, which seems to us a metaphor for how he infuses big personality into the dining experience at Del Campo. You’ll find him on the scene there at the old PS 7 space in Penn Quarter making sure everything’s perfect and that you’re loving it, which crowds have been for a full year now.
12. Le Diplomate
Stephen Starr, whom we snapped in Philly where he perfected his Parc Restaurant, the model for his brilliant first foray into DC, is this age’s Warner LeRoy, except even grander in vision and far more successful in execution. Everything he dreams up seems to resonate with the new experiential diner who wants not just food but a “wow.” Now he’s practically a victim of his own success. Washingtonians so love Le Diplomate, they’re getting impatient to know, What’s Stephen’s next one?
