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City Cast DC

Kaela Cote-Stemmermann

Welcome to Hey DC Connections! It's a New York Times-style connections quiz. But of course, ours is all D.C.-related categories 😏

👉 Create groups of four. You get unlimited guesses, but the fewer the better! 

Emma Uber

Empower, the embattled ride-hailing service, will live another day. A judge ruled on Thursday that the company, which has been forbidden from vehicle-for-hire operations in the District, didn’t violate a court order by offering free rides in the city.

It’s the latest in a legal dispute between D.C. and the ride-share company that markets itself as a cheaper alternative to Uber and Lyft. The company has been operating in the District without registration since 2020. Empower and its CEO Joshua Sear have racked up $8.85 million in unpaid court fines – a total that increased $30,000 each day the company failed to comply with the 2024 order to stop operating as a private vehicle-for-hire company in D.C.

Last year, after it became clear fines weren’t an effective deterrent, Judge Shana Frost Matini told Sear he was heading to jail. Facing incarceration, he conceded – but the rides still didn’t stop.

Since then, Empower has tried a series of loopholes to remain in operation, from saying rides in D.C. are not subject to contracts between Empower and the driver to the latest strategy: offering rides for free.

Since no money is being exchanged for a service, Matini ruled that Empower has technically followed her previous order to stop doing business in D.C. until it registers with the city. But the D.C. Attorney General’s Office has said that this is another tactic for Empower to continue operating without regulation.

Is there really such thing as a free ride?

How do free rides actually work? Turns out – at least for me Thursday morning – they don’t.

As I headed from my D.C. apartment to court for the hearing, I tried to use the Empower app. Immediately, I was met with a message in bold: “If you want Empower to stay in DC, leave Kenyan McDuffie off your ballot!”

I entered my destination, D.C. Superior Court, and a message about a different D.C. politician appeared: “Mayor Bowser has banned Empower from facilitating drivers who work for themselves to provide for-hire transportation in DC. Your ride within the District cannot be for-hire if you wish for Empower to facilitate it. It must be free.”

Empower has taken its fight for survival in D.C. beyond the courtroom, organizing protests at the Wilson Building and waging public pressure campaigns on various D.C. politicians – the messages on its app being one prime example.

 last week, McDuffie said his daughter had received a death threat against him that referenced the ban on Empower. He said the company had warned him that if he did not agree to a meeting, they would tell customers not to rank him on their mayoral ballots.

D.C. police have arrested a 17-year-old boy in connection with the threat. In a statement Friday, Empower said the company had no association with the teen and called McDuffie’s suggestion that Empower targeted his family "absurd and defamatory.”

“[I]t's not surprising that Mr. McDuffie would view having to discuss his position on affordable transportation and the right of drivers to work for themselves, instead of for Uber, as a threat to his campaign,” the statement read.

On the app, I clicked past the message to a screen informing me that, for $0.00, a driver could pick me up in one minute. A free ride and hardly any wait? Sweet! But just seconds after I requested the ride it was cancelled. And yes, the cancellation was accompanied by another political message.

“Thanks to corrupt Uber-backed politicians like Kenyan McDuffie, Empower cannot facilitate the provision of for-hire rides within the District,” the message read. “Your ride within the District booked using Empower must be free, and there are no drivers currently available to provide you with a free ride.” (The D.C. Council – including McDuffie’s mayoral opponent Janeese Lewis George – has been unanimous in its votes on Empower).

After some more poking around on the app, I was offered three different ways to voice discontent with McDuffie but, alas, not a ride.

If I had been heading to court from Virginia or Maryland, things might have been different. As Sear explains it, it would have been considered two rides – one from my location to a point just outside the D.C. border, a second from this point to the courthouse. The first ride, conducted entirely outside of the District, would cost money. The second would be free.

Mia Bowden, an assistant chief at the D.C. Department of For-Hire Vehicles, testified that she tested the two-stop method on Wednesday by hailing six Empower rides that crossed between D.C. and Virginia or Maryland. Out of the six, she said only two drivers drove to the first stop. The rest went straight to the second, Bowden testified. And the fare for all six rides was calculated based on the total mileage of the trip, she said, including the portion of the trip inside the District.

For instance, when she booked an Empower trip from a Northeast D.C. Whole Foods to Pentagon City Mall, her driver first drove her to Long Bridge Aquatics and Fitness Center in Arlington as the free leg of the trip. But the 1.4 remaining miles cost $15.37 – an amount D.C. attorneys said was calculated on the total trip, not just the second leg. In other rides, she said, the driver didn’t even mention the first stop and drove her directly to her final destination.

Sear responded that drivers who do not operate using two separate stops are violating both Empower’s terms of service and the law, and that he will work to enforce the two-stop system. He blamed the fare calculation issue on a bug, acknowledging it was an error and saying he had engineers fix the issue overnight so that fare will be calculated exclusively on miles outside D.C.

“Obviously this makes us look not very good, I realize,” Sear said of the bug.

“We’re not trying to be cute,” he said in court Thursday. “I am doing everything I can to comply with the court’s order without destroying the lives of thousands of drivers.”

Lawyers for D.C. called the two-stop strategy “legal fiction” and in court filings earlier this week argued that the free rides were a “bait-and-switch tactic.”

Empower launched in 2019 and arrived in the District in 2020. Unlike other popular ride-share services like Uber and Lyft, Empower considers its customers to be the drivers, who pay a subscription fee for access to the reservation software, then get to set their own rates and keep all of the fare.

D.C.’s Department of For-Hire Vehicles issued a cease-and-desist order soon after Empower began operating in D.C., court records show, citing the company’s failure to register as a private sedan business and digital dispatch service. Registering would mean Empower would give 6 percent of its revenue to the city, as required of all ride-hailing services, as well as be subject to safety regulations such as providing commercial insurance and driver background checks.

In 2024, Matini ordered Empower to cease business operations in D.C. until the company registered itself, and the city and Empower have been locked in a legal battle since. Sear testified Empower has repeatedly tried to register with the city, but has been denied. The District has said the company would need to pay the millions of dollars in outstanding fines to register.

“We’re not trying to avoid registration, the District is trying to prevent us from registering,” Sear said in court Thursday.

Thursday’s ruling marked a win for Empower, but the company’s woes are far from over. Empower drivers in the D.C. area made about $1 million less last week than normal, Sear testified. “We are going to suffer a meaningful decrease in revenue because there are going to be drivers who no longer pay for our services,” he said.

Meanwhile, millions of dollars in unpaid fines continue to loom over the company. D.C. lawyers wrapped up the hearing by saying they would begin tabulating the District’s legal fees to add to Empower’s outstanding fines.

Beyond D.C., Empower continues to expand. The company is available in seven other areas, including New York City, Atlanta, Baltimore and Miami. Sear said Empower is not registered with the equivalent of D.C.’s Department of For-Hire Vehicles in any of those markets.

The embattled ride-share service can continue to offer free rides, a judge ruled yesterday, but the company and its CEO still owe nearly $9 million in fines.

The loophole (barely) keeping Empower alive in D.C. 

D.C. Local News

Local News

Michael Brice-Saddler

Kenyan McDuffie is finally showing his teeth. Aside from a viral moment last month when he 

 in protest, the former council member has largely been seen as the race’s lower-energy, establishment-aligned mayoral candidate. But he’s now signaling a more aggressive path forward, vowing to “call out misinformation” and reclaim the narrative from his top opponent, Ward 4 Council member Janeese Lewis George.

At Monday’s mayoral candidate forum, led by The 51st and other local news organizations, that new gear was on full display. McDuffie arrived at the forum with a vocal contingent of supporters in campaign sweatshirts — a visible attempt to display the movement energy that has been a staple of the Lewis George camp since her December launch.

He didn’t stop at the branding. During his closing remarks, McDuffie took a direct swipe at what he claimed was Lewis George’s imported political model, asserting he would not run a campaign based on “dark money coming out of New York City.” It was a pointed reference to Lewis George’s ties to the Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America, a local chapter of a national organization that has been a key part of her ground game.

Lewis George met the jab with a practiced cool, and her campaign later dismissed the accusation as a misunderstanding of her local coalition of labor unions and the Sierra Club. On stage, she flipped the script and questioned McDuffie’s own establishment fundraising by claiming she is “not taking big Trump donor dollars like other candidates.”

With a little less than two months until the June primary, the forum marked a shift in what has otherwise been a sleepy mayoral race. While Lewis George’s campaign is projecting confidence, the path to winning the primary now depends on which version of District leadership voters choose to buy.

McDuffie’s counter-narrative relies heavily on his roots as a fourth-generation Washingtonian. His campaign website features a prominent "from mailman to mayor" pitch — a biographical anchor he has leaned on for years to illustrate a blue-collar connection to the city. However, in a primary defined by a looming fiscal crisis and the vacuum left by Mayor Muriel E. Bowser’s exit, there's growing skepticism among political operatives that legacy branding still carries the weight it once did.

The questioning isn't about McDuffie’s local bonafides — Lewis George is a native Washingtonian as well — but about whether his brand of leadership is a sufficient answer to the city’s major structural challenges. To counter that skepticism, he is leaning on his legislative record and what his campaign calls a history of delivering “actual results.” And to address criticisms that he has been less publicly visible, the campaign has argued that his focus has simply been concentrated elsewhere: in living rooms and at people’s front doors rather than on social media.

It is an investment in traditional retail politics, but increasingly looks like a campaign trying to protect its ground. Despite McDuffie’s 14 years of business, legislative and legal experience, the “native son” identity has not prevented a mass migration of major 

 to Lewis George’s camp. That has left McDuffie vulnerable to the portrayal of him as a well-connected insider, a narrative currently being amplified by a Sierra Club-funded “

” campaign that frames his legislative record as a series of missed opportunities for oversight in favor of corporate cozying.

For McDuffie, the forum was an attempt to prove he can still translate his institutional know-how into the kind of public passion required to win over a city in transition.

Lewis George, meanwhile, is operating on a different premise: that after a decade of the Bowser model, residents aren’t looking for a steady hand to manage a decline — they're looking for someone willing to challenge the system’s fundamental math.

The centerpiece of that challenge is a three-part budget framework intended to fund critical investments like childcare while stabilizing the District’s bottom line. It calls for a forensic review of the city’s $20 billion budget to find efficiencies and a more aggressive pursuit of federal funding to prevent local dollars from being returned to the treasury.

The final and most contentious pillar is her proposal to close business tax “loopholes” through a Business Activity Tax to potentially fund her universal childcare proposal. Lewis George estimates the shift to capture revenue from large corporations and lobbying firms with nonresident owners could raise $500 million to support local families. While organizations like the DC Fiscal Policy Institute have 

 for this tax as a tool for equity, McDuffie has argued it will make it harder for the city to both keep business and attract new ones. Fellow mayoral candidate Rini Sampath echoed that sentiment at Monday’s forum, arguing the District needs to “attract more businesses, not turn them away.”

The candidates are also divided on housing. Lewis George is championing a goal of 72,000 new units in five years — a figure she says is aggressive but necessary to “inspire real change.” McDuffie has countered with a more modest proposal to build 12,000 new housing units while preserving 20,000 affordable units by 2030, using the gap to pitch himself as the candidate who is “honest” about what the city can deliver without making “false promises.”

The race is also a clash of two very different campaign machines. Lewis George, leaning on the muscle of a broad coalition of labor unions, is betting that grassroots enthusiasm can overcome McDuffie’s name recognition. Her campaign has leaned heavily into portraying him as a corporate insider, calculating that her image as a mother juggling a toddler and the city’s budget will resonate more than his lengthy resume. McDuffie, however, positions that same resume as his primary weapon, framing his experience navigating the District’s machinery as the only thing that can actually turn the city’s gears.

The home stretch is shaping up to be a referendum on these two distinct theories of power. McDuffie’s camp hopes his opponent’s movement will hit its ceiling early, while the Lewis George campaign is banking on the idea that their aggressive ground campaign and social presence has created a base that would run through a wall for her.

McDuffie’s closing case rests on the belief that, as the primary approaches, voters will choose a more familiar face to manage the District’s precarious financial reality. Lewis George offers the inverse: that the electorate is finally ready for a clean break from the current establishment.

The fight between these two camps is intensifying, but neither has yet proven it can break through the city’s broader sense of apathy — a gap that may ultimately decide the race.

The two frontrunners traded jabs at a mayoral forum Monday, marking a shift in what has otherwise been a sleepy mayoral race. 

The D.C. mayor's race is actually heating up

The D.C. Mayor's Race is Actually Heating Up

Politics

DC Politics

Two Ward 1 candidates are teaming up in an unusual alliance — and urging voters to rank them both — in one of the clearest signs yet that ranked choice voting is reshaping D.C. campaigns.

Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners Rashida Brown and Miguel Trindade Deramo, who are both running in the crowded Ward 1 Democratic primary, are formally co-endorsing each other and encouraging supporters to rank them first and second. The partnership is a strategic effort to consolidate overlapping bases and boost their chances under the city’s new voting system. The two share similar policy platforms focused on tenant protections, neighborhood-level services and making the city more affordable.

“Miguel and I just have that synergy between the two of us, where both our campaigns are very positive and supportive of each other,” Brown, 48, said Wednesday. “Oftentimes we’re sharing the same ideas, and that’s what ranked choice voting is really about — if you’re grappling with one candidate or the other, you don’t have to.”

The partnership is an early test of how ranked choice voting could reshape campaign strategy in the District. Instead of attacking competitors in the same ideological lane, Brown and Trindade Deramo are betting that their coalition will help them gain an edge in the competitive, five-way contest to replace outgoing Council member Brianne K. Nadeau (D).

A recent Greater Greater Washington survey suggests that most voters in the ward 

. Brown has about $111,000 in campaign funds, while Trindade Deramo — who chairs ANC 1B, which includes the U Street corridor — reports roughly $50,000 as part of a grassroots campaign.

The two are navigating a field that includes frontrunner Aparna Raj, former chair of the Metro DC chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, who holds a commanding fundraising lead with more than $201,000 cash on hand, as well as former Bowser administration official Jackie Reyes Yanes and longtime civic activist Terry Lynch.

, voters can rank up to five candidates in order of preference, requiring the winner to secure more than 50 percent of the vote. As part of their cross-endorsement strategy, Brown, a five-term ANC who is endorsed by Nadeau, will ask her supporters to rank her first and Trindade Deramo second. Trindade Deramo will ask his base to do the opposite.

That way, if one of the two is eliminated in an early round of tabulations, their votes will automatically transfer to the other. By pooling their “second-choice” support, Brown and Trindade Deramo aim to outlast a frontrunner who may have a strong initial base of support but lacks a broad enough consensus to reach the 50 percent threshold. Whether that strategy can overcome a well-funded frontrunner like Raj remains an open question, particularly in a race where early first-choice support could prove decisive.

“When a politician wins with a 20 percent plurality, as very often happens in D.C., the incentive structure is for them to keep that 20 percent very, very happy all the time,” Trindade Deramo said. “They’re not always forced to build that bigger coalition.”

The mechanics of their alliance will be formalized in a video rollout in the coming days — an effort that was recently leaked by an 

 who spotted the candidates filming this week. Their approach appears to be heavily inspired by a similar cross-endorsement video used by Zohran Mamdani and Brad Lander in New York City. The candidates said they appreciated how the New York rollout didn’t coddle voters, but instead offered transparent instructions on the new system.

Brown, if elected, would be the first Black woman to represent Ward 1. Reyes Yanes and Trindade Deramo, the latter of whom served as the lead organizer for the successful initiative that brought RCV to the District, could both make history as the first Latino council member if elected.

The system is designed to help voters choose the candidate whose platform resonates with them the most, rather than choosing who might win based on a majority. But there's still a learning curve, Brown said. Some longtime voters are still struggling with the concept, but she added that recent education efforts by the city’s Board of Elections have noticeably helped.

In the meantime, the candidates say their partnership offers a timely message of solidarity in Ward 1, particularly in neighborhoods affected by federal immigration operations.

“That fear is still palpable and ongoing,” particularly among the Latino community, Trindade Deramo said. “So to say, ‘We are one community, we can pull together,’ is a source of inspiration.”

The alliance may signal a shift in how candidates compete under ranked choice voting — but its success will depend on whether voters embrace the strategy as readily as the campaigns have.

The partnership shows how ranked choice voting is reshaping traditional campaign strategy. 

Two D.C. Council candidates form alliance in historic first

Two D.C. Council Candidates Form Alliance in Historic First

 to housing and President Trump’s campaign to rebuild the East Wing and 

, D.C.’s architectural “look” has been in the headlines a lot lately. But in reality, D.C.’s neighborhoods are a patchwork of distinct architectural styles, each tied to a specific historical moment.

We chatted with architecture expert Joe Himali

 about why our houses look the way they do and how you can differentiate a “Wardman” from a “Lindy” once and for all.

The oldest style you'll encounter in D.C. is Georgian. Dating back to the 1700s, its red brick, perfect symmetry, and minimal ornamentation made it all the rage in colonial times. After the Revolution, it evolved into Federal style, which was similar but more refined with a fan-shaped window above the door.

Georgetown is the motherload for both Georgian and Federal styles. Look for the telltale austere red brick symmetry and federal fanlights. Capitol Hill also has a decent mix of both styles. The White House and 

"Victorian" is technically a time period that ended with the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, but it’s often used to describe the more ornamental style of home that dominated the mid-to-late 19th century. This looked like tall, narrow row houses with bay windows and lots of ornate details — aka my dream house. The Romanesque Revival sub-style was particularly popular in D.C., with lots of heavy masonry, rounded half-circle arches, and a more monumental feeling.

Logan Circle and Adams Morgan have the highest concentration but Dupont Circle is known specifically for Romanesque Revivals, Heurich House being a prime example.

Suddenly, at the turn of the 20th century, the complex and moody Victorian look was out and Beaux Arts was all the rage. Bright symmetrical limestone facades, classical columns, and exuberant, almost gaudy, decorative details. Turns out, a lot of D.C.'s “Beaux Arts” buildings are actually just fashionable details grafted onto existing styles, but I think it makes it all the more charming.

 Embassy Row! Many of the Embassy Row’s grand limestone mansions were originally built for Gilded Age tycoons. Some other classic examples are the old 

 (now the Apple Store/DC History Center) and The National Museum of Natural History.

Finally, we get two distinctly D.C. housing styles, both tied to specific developers. Harry Wardman popularized the porch front row house (all hail the Porchfest godfather). The simple style was created cheaply to accommodate D.C.’s rapidly growing population of middle-income government employees. 

 to have housed 10% of D.C.’s population by 1925.

Then there's the Lindy, a sneaky Federal-style townhouse made popular by developer Barry Lindy that actually has two separate apartments, helping solve a big affordability problem in D.C. at the time.

Petworth is the mecca of Wardman homes but they are generally scattered throughout Northwest D.C. Lindy houses can be found in Capitol Hill and throughout Adams Morgan.

 to pull up the original building permits, architect, and developer for almost any property in the city.

🎧 Learn More About DC-Specific Architecture

D.C.’s neighborhoods are a patchwork of distinct architectural styles, each tied to a specific historical moment.

Get To Know the Architecture of DC Homes

People, places, and scenes from DC's past.

DC History

Welcome to our rolling list of all the best new restaurants opening in the District!

As D.C.’s restaurant scene mourns the imminent loss of Chinatown’s wafu standby Tonari (closing May 3), I'm looking ahead to the city's restaurant openings. From a reincarnation of Tail Up Goat to a neighborhood favorite reopening, what’s old is new again this April.

Chef Masaaki “Uchi” Uchino just reopened his hit sushi counter 

 food hall. Hailing from Fukuoka, Japan, Chef Uchi started in D.C. at Sushi Nakazawa and more recently has led the

 (now Katsumi). So, needless to say, he knows what he’s doing. For now, Kiyomi is only open for lunch with a $40 sushi or handroll omakase menu, plus a la carte offerings. It’s the deal of the century if you ask me.

Tail Up Goat’s owners are back in the same space with a new, more casual concept. 

—named after their two dogs—is a counter service restaurant dishing up fancy-ish comfort food. Think fried chicken with chilli jam and black garlic, anchovy toast, and wild greens ravioli.

Unless you’re off the grid, you’ve doubtless seen this viral 

 come across your feed. The bagels have a crusty exterior and steamy fluffy inside that makes them perfect for pulling apart. D.C. has long fought accusations of being a bagel desert, and I must admit these do scratch that New England artisan bagel itch.

 is reopening in Dupont after a four-month, $1.5 million renovation with a new look and new menu. Dishes include kousayyah with zucchini, labneh, urfa spice and walnut, kufta bil batata with minced ribeye meatballs and aged basturma with thinly-sliced beef tenderloin and basturma spice.

Bar Japonais rebranded itself with a totally new look and menu. But the best part — its lead chef Masaaki “Uchi” Uchino, also of Kiyomi— is staying the same. 

 neon street art aesthetic makes way for a surprisingly well-crafted new Japanese menu with everything from nigiri to banging sour-cream-and-onion chips and an excellent cocktail program to top it off. Weekend and late-night DJs solidify it as the new what’s what of 14th Street.

Boulangerie Saint Georges (Eastern Market)

 finally opened last weekend on 7th St. Everything is made daily in-house, from viennoiserie and pastries to breads, macarons, salads and seasonal sweets. The kitchen is adding a bistro menu with more sandwiches, hot meals, and wine in the coming weeks. The lines have been excessively long — you’ve been warned!

 chain is opening its second D.C. location on April 17th in the restored 1950s Little Tavern building in the Union Market neighborhood (previously a 24-hour Subway). I’m obsessed with their Earl Grey cloud cake, so you will be seeing me there on the regular.

 is expanding its footprint inside La Cosecha at the Union Market District with a new all-day breakfast menu, plus lunch and dinner.

 is opening their first stand-alone location in the East End on April 20 with empanadas, sandwiches, and pisco sour slushies.

, from the owner of Bollywood Bistro and Commonwealth Indian, opened in NoMa.

Is that *sniff* Parmesan? Two new homestyle Italian spots are opening on opposite sides of D.C. this month along with a Korean-American cafe and a meaty revamp of José Andrés’ Waldorf Astoria restaurant.

 inside the Canopy Hotel at The Wharf. Housemade pastas, Neapolitan pizzas, fresh grilled fish, and sunny spritzes are all served in a bright open dining room meant to resemble a quaint Italian piazza. And the floor to ceiling windows and views of the water do

 like Venice. I’m begging you, don’t skip the tiramisu for dessert.

 Bazaar Meat is replacing his other restaurant, The Bazaar, in the Waldorf Astoria. The menu is centered around premium cuts and theatrical dining. Think bone-in New York strip, Japanese Wagyu, and even a whole suckling pig for those looking to dine communally. Signature Bazaar dishes — like the cotton candy foie gras and caviar cone — will remain on the menu alongside a jamón bar, raw bar, and cocktail program.

Downtown office workers everywhere cried when Poppabox closed last year. But now from the ashes comes this all-day 

 with bibimbap, cup noodles, katsu, and cream donuts. They are soft-launching until March 10 before opening officially.

 that opened late last month serves Chinese-style breakfast sandwiches and congee in the morning and transforms into a disco parlor with full plates at night. Get the roast duck or the honey char siu along with $12 specialty cocktails under the spinning disco ball.

Opened by a former banker, nothing costs more than $30 at this 

 — including the steak. Nick Perkins, formerly of Petite Cerise, leads the kitchen and the concise menu is full of comforting classics like Caesar salad, rigatoni, and bread pudding. The drink menu is mostly different takes on negronis and spritzes, because what else do you need?

A love letter to the streets of Bombay, steel plates clink and chai simmers endlessly at 

this new Indian street food spot in Alexandria

. The menu features bhel puri, vada pav, and layered chaats, alongside classics like butter chicken and biryani. The interior screams 90s with Bollywood posters lining the walls and fried dishes served in newspaper.

While some people have a “TBR" (to be read) list , I have a “TBE” (to be eaten) list , and this month it is absolutely stacked. From Nikkei-style hand rolls to celeb cocktail bars to pour-over coffee, these are D.C. best new spots to try.

This moody, 25-seat counter restaurant by Chef Carlos Delgado of Causa specializes in Nikkei-style hand rolls — a Japanese immigrant-inspired cuisine from Peru. Think cigar-sized handrolls with fillings like ceviche, fatty tuna, and scallops with parmesan sauce. It opens on Feb. 20 and is primarily walk-in only.

Opening Feb. 8 at La Cosecha, this cocktail bar is the brainchild of actor Wilmer Valderrama (from “That '70s Show”) and Colada Shop co-founder Daniella Senior. It draws inspo from Latin American traditions and communal hospitality and will serve complimentary hangover soup at last call.

This new cafe refers to itself as a “neighborhood salon.” By day it is a sun-lit cafe serving Swing’s coffee and pastries from Souk. Then after 4 p.m. it turns into a cocktail bar. Currently only the cafe is open, with bar operations coming soon.

Inspired by Cranes’ sold-out taco omakase collab, Chef Pepe Moncayo is transforming Cranes into a high-energy taqueria by day. The casual lunch menu combines Spanish and Japanese flavors into tacos like chicken karaage with napa cabbage and togarashi crema, garlic shrimp a la plancha with chili oil, and koji-marinated skirt steak with salsa macha and lime. If you go between 11-11:45 a.m. you get a free taco!

Real D.C. coffee snobs know Black Crown has been pumping out the best espresso on Capitol Hill for a while, but their gorgeous new cafe space on the 2nd floor of the Cannon House Office Building has brought it to a new level. You 

have to pass security to get in. But, it’s worth it.

Located above Sushi Sato, this cocktail and karaoke lounge has $1 dumplings after midnight to keep the party going. Cocktails include a matcha martini, a miso whiskey sour, and a deadly long Thailand iced tea.

Aka the Bitcoin bar (don’t worry, they also take card), this part dive bar, part tech hub is one of the oddest establishments we’ve been to. The massive space hosts two bars, a huge stage, a podcast studio, and bitcoin think tank offices. The drinks are strong and everything is fried in beef tallow.

January is a notoriously slow month for D.C.’s restaurant scene, but there are still a few great new places to check out, including showy steakhouses, a bitcoin bar, and several additional locations of D.C. favorites.

This massive new Gaúcho-style restaurant features traditional flavors from southern Brazil. Choose from different fire-roasted cuts of beef, lamb, or pork carved tableside as part of the price-fixed experience. They also have more untraditional options like bacon-wrapped chicken breasts, beer marinated chicken drumsticks, or grilled shrimp finished with a passionfruit and mango glaze.

Have you ever eaten at a Japanese-Brazilian steakhouse? Me neither, but I’m excited to try. One of the first of its kind in the country, Churasuko combines Japanese and Brazilian dishes with options like tableside shaved wagyu and sashimi, Brazilian cheese bread with gochujang, seafood towers, and fusion cocktails.

This will be the fourth and largest location of this female-founded, Mexican street food joint. Besides their classic cemitas, tlayudas, and tacos, this location will also have new items like a steak trompo and a lineup of house-made paletas. The bar includes a Mexican-inspired espresso martini and the “Mai Horcha-Tai,” a tiki cocktail with Mexican spirits and house-made horchata orgeat. Yum.

Fast-casual NYC chain Springbone Kitchen opened its first D.C. location in Georgetown in December. The menu includes grain bowls with housemade hot sauce, but the highlight is definitely the plethora of cozy bone broths that come in potable coffee cups. My favorite thing I got there was the bone broth hot chocolate. Don’t knock it til you try it.

This unassuming tavern — dubbed D.C.’s crypto bar — is 50% dive bar, 50% crypto think tank, and 100% nightmare first date spot. The tallow-fried bar menu includes burgers, half-smokes, and chopped cheese sandwiches, crab cakes and a $100 tiki drink only purchasable through bitcoin. But the cocktails are admittedly good, and it does open at 11 a.m.

JINYA is opening yet another D.C. location next week, but it’s okay because we can’t get enough. Rich ramen broths, dumplings, creative cocktails, and affordable prices make it a welcome addition to the Georgetown food scene.

Welcome to our rolling list of all the best new restaurants opening in Washington, DC!

Washington, DC's Best New Restaurants and Bars

DC's Best New Restaurants and Bars

The latest on the best and newest restaurants and bars in DC. We'll help you find where to eat, drink, and socialize.

DC Food & Drink

Food & Drink

Madeline Weinfield

Cherry blossom peak bloom may be behind us, but D.C.’s most colorful season is just getting started. The city is filled with flowering trees and bushes that get overlooked thanks to the spotlight-stealing cherries. Here are the other best blooms to look out for.

Marjorie Merriweather Post – cereal heiress and mid-century D.C. hostess extraordinaire – is known today for her palatial Forest Hills home and her lifelong love affair with orchids. The vast grounds contain over 1,200 different species of orchids. March was “Orchid Month” but you can find varieties blooming year-round, including in Post’s greenhouse. Staff at the visitors center will even loan you a picnic blanket and map if you ask nicely.

, it’s well worth a trip to these gardens at the far edges of the D.C. diamond. Go in late July when the blooms are at their peak, but don’t wear your best shoes, since it 

a marsh after all. Besides the blooms, don’t miss the marsh boardwalk at the far back corner of the park. The natural wetland is home to over 250 species of birds.

 are an instant serotonin boost and essential part of D.C. spring. The estate was once owned by Mildred Dumbarton (a laxative heiress) but is now open for all. The grounds feature incredible flowering plum trees, an orangery, and voluminous forsythia bushes. For me, the highlight is the hanging Wisteria that blooms in April at the pebble garden. Get tickets ahead of time as service there is spotty. Food and drinks aren’t allowed, so finish your coffee beforehand.

The Arboretum’s 446 acres are full of flowering trees. Come for the magnolias (mid-March to June), dogwoods (mid April to early June), and the crab apple trees (early April to May). But the most magical time (IMHO) is when the azaleas bloom in April, covering the hills with swaths of red and pink. The Arboretum’s 

Situated between the Smithsonian Castle and Independence Avenue, this garden is flanked by rows of old magnolia trees, especially around the Moongate Garden. It's the perfect spot to get away from the National Mall crowds and steal some photo ops away from tourists. For something more local, try Oak Hill Cemetery in Georgetown, which has rows and rows of magnolias lining its paths.

DC Blooms Better Than the Cherry Blossoms

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The Holocaust Museum has been quietly changing its content since President Trump returned to office to avoid drawing the administration’s ire. 

 — to break down what happened and what it means for D.C.’s cultural institutions.

The museum preemptively pulled a web page on “Teaching Materials on Nazism and Jim Crow,” and cancelled a one-day civic education workshop called "Fragility of Democracy and the Rise of the Nazis,” citing funding pressures and concerns about the current political climate.

The Holocaust Museum is a federal museum whose board is mostly appointed by the president. At the beginning of his second term, President Trump removed about a dozen of President Biden's appointees just months into their five-year terms and replaced them with loyalists.

Why the Holocaust Museum Self-Censored Before Trump Even Asked

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