The pandemic has totally upended the hospitality industry, but the show went on for Washington’s big restaurant awards. The Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington’s hosted its annual RAMMY Awards gala Sunday night, after initially postponing the spring ceremony.
Read MoreWashingtonian: 5 Big Changes to Expect Now That Restaurants Are Reopening Their Dining Rooms →
As restaurants grapple with an uncertain number of diners and limited capacity, even casual spots are offering prepaid, prix-fixe menus. Take modern Korean restaurant Anju, which opens its Dupont Circle patio on Wednesday with four tables and 12 properly distanced seats. (Customers can sit inside only during inclement weather.) Chef/co-owner Danny Lee and his team created a four-course dinner menu for $60, served in two-hour time slots. (A la carte is still offered for takeout and delivery.)
Read MoreEater DC: Anju Teams Up With a Korean Bakery to Launch a Pastry-Intensive Brunch →
Washingtonians won’t need to drive into Annandale on the weekends for Korean baked goods: Adams Morgan’s acclaimed restaurant Anju just launched brunch with a selection of pastries like green tea soboro and milk cream bread.
Read MoreWashington City Paper: Anju Partners With Annandale Bakery to Bring Korean Pastries to the District →
D.C. has seen an influx of Asian cuisines in recent years with Lao, Filipino, Malaysian, and Burmese spots opening across the city. But somewhat paradoxically, one of the region’s largest Asian communities’ cuisines has yet to make major headway within city limits. Most of the area’s Korean cooking still requires a trip out to the suburbs, but Chef Danny Lee of Mandu, CHIKO, and Anju has been on a steady mission to introduce new aspects of Korean food to Washingtonians. He did that with bar snacks at his latest venture, Anju. Now he and his Anju team are turning their attention to Korean pastry by launching a collaboration with Annandale-based bakery O Bread.
The Washigton Post: How to safely reheat all those leftovers without ruining them →
Whether you’re at home and working to stretch your cooking into as many meals as possible or trying to make the most of your takeout dinners (me and me!), leftovers are a huge timesaver. They can also be tasty and possibly even more interesting than the original dish.
Read MoreWashingtonian: 4 Chefs Share Their Secrets for Upgrading Instant Ramen →
How do you turn instant ramen—which has long been the ultimate budget-food cliche (c’mon, did you really survive on it for all four years of college?)—into something more memorable than just a sodium bomb with some curly noodles? Not only is it possible, it’s pretty easy.
Read MoreWashington City Paper: Local Practitioners Demonstrate How Hospitality and Buddhism Go Hand-in-Hand →
Anju Executive Chef Angel Barreto started practicing Buddhism two years ago after he got out of a long relationship and was looking for greater balance in his life. “My parents were Christian and that worked for them,” he says. “Christianity never really worked for me. So, I went to a lot of local Buddhist temples in the area.”
Read MoreThe Washington Post: How to get into 5 of D.C.’s buzziest restaurants — and where to go if you strike out →
After heaps of critical acclaim — including a three-star rating from The Washington Post’s Tom Sietsema and the top spot in Washingtonian’s annual list of the 100 best restaurants— diners sometimes start lining up early on weekends to get into Anju in Adams Morgan.
“It’s a little crazy all the time now,” general manager Eric Chodkowski says. “The reservations have been filling up 30 days in advance.”
But to stay true to the casual, Korean pub-inspired theme, reservations are for the dining room upstairs while everything downstairs in the bar area is first come, first served. That includes a 10-seat bar, six window seats, four chef’s counter seats, and two communal tables.
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