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City Cast DC

Kaela Cote-Stemmermann

How closely did you pay attention to local news this year? Take our end-of-year news quiz to find out! Oh, and no Googling!

Take the Quiz! 

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

Emma Uber

Marquis Clyburn Jr., a 14-year-old from Southeast D.C., summed up his thoughts on the youth curfew in two words: “It’s trash.”

He delivered his scathing opinion from the Kennedy Recreation Center in Shaw as younger children played on inflatable bounce houses and older teens filmed trending TikTok dances off to the side. As he spoke, another boy around his age entered the building sporting a hood and ski mask. A woman at the front desk asked him to remove the face coverings.

“It’s 90 degrees,” she said. “You not hot?”

Pump It Up Palace was one of more than a dozen youth events hosted by the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation last week. Clyburn attended Wednesday night with his mother, but said the event was “for babies.” He much preferred the teen jams – late-night parties the District has historically held in the summer, but began hosting earlier this year in an effort to curb large teen gatherings in neighborhoods such as Navy Yard and U Street. A nationwide phenomena, the chaotic meetups have at times erupted in violence.

The “teen takeovers” – and what to do with them – have become a fixation of Trump administration officials, D.C. leaders and local residents alike. Officials can't seem to decide whether to impose curfews on youth in designated zones or if such measures would lead to young people being overpoliced – a particular concern in D.C., where National Guard troops and federal agents patrol the streets. The council has twice this month postponed a vote on emergency curfews, with Mayor Muriel E. Bowser publicly castigating the group as “soft on crime” after the first delay.

But for Clyburn, things are quite simple: he just wants to hang out with friends at night. Clyburn

went to a teen takeover after he was bored one weekend and saw an Instagram post. He said he would have gone to a city teen jam if there had been one – the disorganized takeovers don’t have music, basketball courts or free slushies – but he went to Navy Yard because “there’s nothing to do” and he wanted to scooter with friends. He found the gathering too chaotic though, and said he doesn’t plan on attending another.

A basketball, football and track athlete enrolled in the Mayor Marion S. Barry Summer Youth Employment Program, Clyburn had a message for those who seemed to consider all D.C. youth delinquents: “Think of everybody, not just a certain group.”

DPR events during D.C. public schools' spring break last week. They disagreed on whether the curfew made sense and whether there was enough for teens to do in D.C. But all of them said teens in D.C. were being judged and stereotyped based on the bad behavior of a few.

“I feel like it’s the D.C. government against teenagers,” said Ty’shaunn Chase, 17, who disagreed with the curfew. “It’s not all of us that’s like that. It makes me uncomfortable because you don’t know me.”

But her friend La’Kendra Wheeler, 16, defended D.C. officials. “I feel like … we can’t be mad because the teenagers are the ones who put us through this. They doing dumb stuff.”

The stakes for D.C. are high, as President Donald Trump has used public safety in the District as justification for his unprecedented federal inventions, including his 30-day takeover of the D.C. police department and deployment of the National Guard. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, a Trump appointee, has pointed to teen takeovers as a reason she should be able to change D.C. law so that her office can prosecute “young punks” under 16.

Young people cannot be arrested for curfew violations, but are sometimes taken to the city’s youth detention facility until a parent picks them up. Police have arrested youth at teen takeovers for other offenses. D.C. police have at times devoted more than half of the department’s on-duty officers to dispelling teens from curfew zones, an official said, a resource strain on a department already facing historically low staffing levels.

Hosting events for youth also costs the city. The D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation hosted four late-night teen events for its Teen Spring Jam Series during the first two weekends of April, with each event costing an average of $148,000, according to DPR director Thennie Freeman.

Staffing accounted for the majority of the costs. But that figure does not include the cost of having D.C. police officers, janitors, traffic control officers or city personnel from other departments on site. Plus, last week DPR hosted life guard training, horseback riding, ice skating, talent shows and a financial seminar for teens.

D.C. officials have touted the events as a way to help teens stay safe and have fun. The Spring Jam events offered food, games, music and a safe environment for teens until 10 p.m. and nearly 6,000 teens attended – though 

 outside the recreation center during one of the jams earlier this month, leading to the arrests of eight youths ages 12 to 17.

“We will always prioritize programming that gives DC youth somewhere to be, something to do, and people who care about them. That is priceless,” Freeman told me.

So why do people continue to claim there’s nothing for D.C. teens to do?

“People probably just need to get involved in their local rec centers and not read headlines or watch social media clips because they don’t show the whole story,” said Marcus Coates, DPR’s deputy director of recreation services. “We are fully engaged and fully invested in our young people, keeping them safe and having fun while doing it.”

Council member Christina Henderson, who voted in favor of both the permanent and emergency curfew Tuesday, told City Cast DC that DPR excels at events for younger children but has historically struggled to engage teens who may think they are “too cool” for city-sanctioned events.

But it’s not on the city to entertain teens every night or every weekend, Henderson said. Some of this work falls on the shoulders of parents.

“Why do I have to incentivize you to ask where your children are at 10 p.m. at night?” she said.

Some teens – like 15-year-old Asja Wilson and 13-year-old Kamiyahray Nichols – agreed. Wilson said the curfew doesn’t “bother her at all.”

“To me, curfew doesn’t matter,” she said. “Because I have a curfew from my parents.”

Nichols said she would never attend a takeover because of the fighting she’s seen in social media videos. She said she thought there was plenty for teens to do in D.C., and said many of her classmates attended both DPR events and the takeovers. (Her mother, who was with her at a DPR event, calls the curfew “a wonderful thing.”)

Tamika Jackson, Clyburn’s mother, has signed her son up for many extracurricular programs to encourage a structured and safe social environment, and said she especially appreciates the DPR events. 

Jackson said she doesn’t want her son to depend exclusively on TV, social media and video games for socialization. She wants him to go outside and hang out with his friends, but she also fears that as a Black boy from Southeast D.C., her son will be criminalized.

“It’s kind of infuriating because I know I don’t have a bad kid,” she said. “I do have to worry about him because of the chaos outside with the older teens, but I also worry about police because he is a young Black male and some people think they are all the same. Every time he leaves the house, it gives me anxiety.”

Concerns around overpolicing surged this week after a social media video taken in Navy Yard showed a D.C. police officer grabbing two Black girls and pulling them off a moving bike this weekend. The teens appeared to be in a group of two, and therefore not in violation of the curfew.

The same officer is captured on video standing at the top of the Navy Yard Metro station, yelling down the escalator, “Come up and see what happens.”

D.C. Police Spokesperson Tom Lynch said the matter has been referred to the Office of Police Complaints.

On Tuesday, the D.C. Council voted 8-5 to preliminarily approve a permanent bill allowing the special curfew zones. The bill requires Congressional approval and wouldn’t go into effect until fall.

It passed after new at-large council member Doni Crawford negotiated an amendment with pro-curfew leaders such as council member Brooke Pinto and Bowser, limiting who could request a curfew zone and establishing a 30-minute warning period for teens before a curfew zone could take effect.

But the council voted 7-6 to again delay a decision on the emergency legislation it’s been using to extend the stricter curfew policy since July. Emergency legislation requires nine votes to pass and the council took a “five minute” recess (that lasted 34 minutes) before D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson moved to table the vote, seemingly signaling that efforts to secure enough council members’ support had failed.

Mendelson hinted at the watchful eye of the Trump administration as he urged his colleagues to delay the vote once more, telling them the last thing D.C. needs is a “self-inflicted wound” when the city is already fighting many battles for its autonomy.

“There are folks who are not friends to the District who are looking very closely at what we are doing and what we are not doing,” he said.

Others on the council, like Anita Bonds, fiercely opposed postponing the vote.

“Sometimes I feel like we kick the can and the can doesn’t move very far,” Bonds, who voted in favor of the permanent bill, said. “We continue to put off what we cannot put off.”

D.C. can’t stop talking about curfews. But what do teens have to say about them?

A missing part of the teen takeover conversation

What Washingtonians have been wondering. We break down why things in DC are the way they are and how they work.

DC, Explained

While people today consider Adams Morgan — belovedly nicknamed AdMo — a Northwest neighborhood stalwart, it actually didn’t get its full name all that long ago.

The area, which evolved from an upper-middle class neighborhood in the 18th and 19th centuries, 

 its cross streets, 18th and Columbia Street NW.

It wasn’t until the 1950s — in the wake of the Brown v. Board of education ruling — that people began using Adams Morgan to describe the area adjacent to the much older Dupont and Kalorama neighborhoods. This is because the area had two segregated elementary schools; the all-white John Quincy Adams School, and all-Black Thomas P. Morgan School.

In preparation for the school integration, Florence Cornell, the principal of Adams, and Bernice Brown, the principal of Morgan, partnered to create the Adams-Morgan Better Neighborhood Conference. The conference's work was crucial to making the schools’ desegregation quick and peaceful.

Other organizing groups in the area started using Adams-Morgan to describe their neighborhood groups and the name stuck. The hyphen was eventually dropped around 2000, making it the Adams Morgan we know and love today.

How community members gave Adams Morgan a uniting cause.

How Adams Morgan Got Its Name

 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.

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