About

Anju is a restaurant concept by The Fried Rice Collective (CHIKO, I Egg You, TFRC Catering) founded by Chefs Danny Lee and Scott Drewno. Led by Executive Chef Angel Barreto and General Manager Eric Chodkowski, Anju serves an array of Korean cuisine in a modern home-style setting.

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1805 18th St. NW, Washington D.C. 20009

Scott Drewno

Chef Scott Drewno was raised in the heart of New York’s Finger Lakes wine region, a rural area known for its vineyards and family-owned farms. Watching his mother turn fresh, seasonal produce from local farm stands into bubbling pies and cobblers first piqued his interest in cooking and planted the seed for Drewno’s culinary ambition.

Drewno joined the Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group in 1998. At Chinois, he learned to meld French cooking techniques with vibrant Asian flavors, and at Spago, he came to understand the importance of beginning with only the finest ingredients. Drewno then furthered his knowledge and solidified his passion for Asian cuisines at Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Vong and Stephen Hansen’s Ruby Foo’s.

In 2007, Wolfgang Puck tapped Drewno as the opening Executive Chef of The Source. The restaurant was honored with numerous accolades including three-star reviews from both The Washington Post and Washingtonian Magazine. The Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington (RAMW) awarded The Source “New Restaurant of the Year” in 2008 and “Fine Dining Restaurant of the Year” in 2011. Drewno himself received the coveted “Chef of the Year” prize in 2010 and again in 2016 and was twice nominated as a semifinalist for the “Best Chef Mid-Atlantic” James Beard Award.

Drewno has won many culinary competitions benefiting important causes, including the DC Crab Cake Competition, Pig Out for Diabetes, and DC Central Kitchen’s Capital Food Fight. He won the Washington, DC leg of Cochon 555 (twice), a traveling culinary competition promoting sustainable farming of heritage breed pigs, and won the Cochon 555 Heritage Fire barbecue competition.

He also serves on the Board of the RAMW and is an Honorary Board Member of the DC Food & Beverage Collective. Each year, Drewno hosts fundraising events for DCFBC and the George Washington Univer-sity Hospital Mobile Mammography Unit, two causes he holds near and dear to his heart.

In 2017, he formed The Fried Rice Collective with fellow chef Danny Lee, and they opened their first restaurant, CHIKO, in Capitol Hill. Hailed by Zagat as one of “DC’s Most Important Restaurant Openings of 2017,” CHIKO was nominated by the James Beard Foundation as a semifinalist for “Best New Restau-rant” and later awarded a Restaurant Association RAMMY for said category.

Tom Sietsema, from The Washington Post, gave CHIKO 3 stars (Excellent), stating “The latest definition of crack in Washington is the “orange-ish” chicken at CHIKO on Capitol Hill.” This was also the third consecutive year that Washingtonian Magazine named CHIKO one of DC’s top 50 best restaurants, awarding it a prestigious 3 star rating. Due to the restaurant’s overwhelming popularity, The Fried Rice Collective eventually opened three other locations in the United States: one in DuPont Circle in Wash-ington, DC, one in Shirlington Virginia, and the other in Encinitas, California.

Riding the wave of success, Drewno and The Fried Rice Collective decided to open a second concept in 2019. Anju, a sophisticated amalgam of traditional Korean flavors and modern cooking techniques, was recently named the number one best restaurant in DC by Washingtonian Magazine. Anju has been featured in several national and local publications, such as the Food and Wine, Travel and Leisure, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Men’s Health, Lucky Peach, Zagat, Washington Post, Washingtonian, and many more. Anju has also been nominated for 4 James Beard Foundation Awards.

Danny Lee

In 2006, Danny and his mother, Yesoon, decided to open their own restaurant, one that played to their strengths and represented their culinary traditions and culture. They opened Mandu, DC’s first full service Korean restaurant, near Dupont Circle. Five years later, the family opened a second location in DC’s Mount Vernon Triangle neighborhood.

In 2017, Lee started a new restaurant group with Chef Scott Drewno called The Fried Rice Collective. The group’s first restaurant, CHIKO, opened in July of 2017 on Barrack’s Row in Washington, DC. CHIKO serves modern Chinese and Korean cuisine in a fun and casual environment. CHIKO has since expanded with additional locations in DC, Virginia, Maryland, and Encinitas, CA.

CHIKO has been awarded three-star ratings from both the Washington Post and Washingtonian, and was also nominated as a James Beard Award semifinalist for Best New Restaurant in the country in 2018. The Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington awarded CHIKO Best New Restaurant at the 2018 RAMMY Awards as well as Best Casual Restaurant in 2020.

The original Mandu location suffered a fire in the summer of 2017. Due to his family’s history in the building, Lee wanted to stay and rebuild, but open as a new concept. In the summer of 2019, Anju opened, with The Fried Rice Collective partnering with the Lee family. Anju serves eclectic Korean cuisine in a vibrant atmosphere, paying homage to both traditional and modern aspects of Korean culture.

Anju immediately garnered a three-star review in the Washington Post, and the Washingtonian awarded Anju with a 3.5-star rating along with naming Anju the #1 restaurant in their 2020 100 Very Best Restaurants issue.

Danny was nominated as a James Beard Award semifinalist for Best Chef Mid-Atlantic in the Spring of 2020. In the fall of 2021, Danny was listed on the Washington Business Journal’s Power 100, being recognized for the anti-racism initiatives he had taken part of or started. In 2022, Danny and his partner were awarded “Restaurateurs of the Year” by the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington.

Lee has been featured in several national and local publications and media outlets, such as the Wall Street Journal, Food and Wine, Bon Appetit, Food Network, Men’s Health, Washington Post,  Washingtonian, and many more. Most notably, Danny and his mother are featured in the HBO. Max series Take Out With Lisa Ling, exploring the history of Korean cuisine in the Washington, DC area.

Angel Barreto

Chef Angel Barreto is the executive chef and partner of Anju, a contemporary Korean restaurant located in Washington, DC's Dupont Circle neighborhood. Barreto has had a culinary career that spans over a decade, with experience in both French and Korean cuisine.

When he graduated in 2012, Barreto cut his teeth at Vermilion under Rising Stars alum Anthony Chittum before moving on to Wolfgang Puck’s The Source. He spent six years at the Pan-Asian restaurant where he worked his way up to executive sous chef under Chef Scott Drewno. Barreto’s insatiable desire to learn more about Korean cooking led Drewno and his business partner, Chef Danny Lee, to recruit Barreto for a new project: a Korean restaurant named Anju. 

After studying Korean food and history and a trip to Korea (sponsored by the Korean embassy), Barreto helped to design the Anju menu to act as an introduction to the cuisine. In 2019, the restaurant received three stars from The Washington Post and in 2021, Barreto was named one of Food & Wine’s “Best New Chefs”. One of Chef Barreto's most notable achievements was being named a James Beard Foundation Award semifinalist for "Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic" in both 2018 and 2019. Additionally, he was a finalist for the RAMMY Award for "Rising Culinary Star of the Year" in 2019.

Barreto's commitment to his craft and his ability to create dishes that are both delicious and thought-provoking make him a rising star in the culinary world. He continues to push the boundaries of Korean cuisine while honoring its rich traditions, and his innovative approach to Korean cuisine has earned him a dedicated following of foodies and critics alike, making him one of the most celebrated chefs in the Mid-Atlantic region and beyond.

Phil Anova

Phil Anova has worn many hats over the years, but none as heavy as the hat that bears his title of star bartender and beverage director. While securing a B.S. in Computer Science, Mr. Anova found his calling in mixology and pursued opportunities with fine dining restaurants, such as Poste Moderne Brasserie, Mandu, and Oceanaire. Building a passion around Asian spirits, bartending, and the service industry, Phil Anova has received accolades from DC Modern Luxury, Washington City Post, On Tap Magazine, guest-starred on News Channel 8’s “Lets Talk Live”, and been nominated for Eater DC’s Bartender of the Year. Through his Filipino background, Mr. Anova has conquered the art of finding and executing new Asian-inspired cocktails, and with his persistence and drive, has paved the way for more mixologists to experience and execute creating diverse and delicious Asian cocktails.

Eric Chodkowski

Hailing from New Jersey/Delaware, Eric Chodkowski has been involved in the restaurant industry for 27 years, with his experience ranging from managing family establishments and corporate restaurants to college hangouts. Eric moved to DC in 2000 and immediately jumped into the bartending scene at Angelo & Maxie's. Later he transitioned to Oceanaire, where he would spend the next ten years perfecting his bartending skills, all while holding down a second position at Adam's Mill Bar & Grill. The diversity between the clientele of the two eateries, suits, and expense accounts to intoxicated college students, truly were invaluable in shaping his understanding of the customer experience. In 2011, Eric was afforded the opportunity to help open up, manage, and bartend at the second Mandu location in DC, a Korean restaurant owned by a close friend of his. In 2012, Eric was promoted to General Manager, and in 2015 took over as GM for both Mandu locations. Recently he joined the TFRC team to assist in opening Anju, a new Korean restaurant created by Danny Lee, Scott Drewno, and Drew Kim. Eric will take on the role of GM at the new location, which happens to be the old Mandu spot located on 18th St NW. Chodkowski has always had a passion for the hospitality industry and cherishes the opportunity to interact with guests every day. If he's not at work, you can assume he is on a golf course somewhere or spending time with family and friends.