Take your taste buds on a visit to 16 immigrant-owned eateries.
photos via Darrow Montgomery
where would D.C.'s dining scene be devoid of the immigrant-owned restaurants that support Washingtonians style the world? From chewy Uighur noodles and crispy Indian dosas to Swiss fondue and torn paratha roti widespread in Trinidad as buss up shut, the region is an embarrassment of riches.
This 12 months's food problem is a image of immigrant-owned eateries within the D.C. place that span from food vans to upscale eating. one of the crucial cooks and restaurateurs who took an opportunity coming to the U.S. brought backgrounds working in kitchens; others found their method into eating places out of necessity, discovering the hospitality trade as a land of probability.
while metropolis Paper enthusiastically recommends diners are trying each and every of those eateries, the food situation isn't a foremost hits listing, neither is it consultant of every tempting cuisine available in the neighborhood. read on to discover a pass part of transportive places which have each the means to whisk our taste buds to some distance-off lands and remind us that the joy of gathering over a shared meal is one journey we all have in normal. —Laura Hayes
Peruvian Brothers
Giuseppe and Mario Lanzone
meals truck; (703)-625-6473; peruvianbrothers.com
Sandwich slinging siblings Mario and Giuseppe Lanzone have literal threads tethering them to their home nation of Peru. The bottles of hot sauce they promote come topped with chullos small satisfactory for Barbie to wear. The wool hats double as the Peruvian Brothers' logo. "each and every hat is handwoven via women artisans in the mountains of Peru," Giuseppe says. "as an alternative of marketing two or three a day, we purchase 1,000 at a time."
The Lanzone family unit came to the U.S. in 1997 from La Punta, following an aunt who lived within the D.C. area. "It turned into a tough patch in Peru with terrorism, the economic system plunging, and the executive changed into tremendous corrupt," Giuseppe explains. He was a freshman in excessive faculty and Mario changed into tackling eighth grade. Giuseppe observed he learned English promptly because his best friend become from Iran, in order that they may only communicate of their shared 2d language. Giuseppe went on to compete for crew us of a in rowing within the Beijing (2008) and London (2012) Olympics.
The year after the London video games, the first Peruvian Brothers food truck hit the road. Now they're up to a few vans, a catering company, and, quickly, their first brick-and-mortar restaurant inside drawing close Latin market La Cosecha. Their speciality is sandwiches, from choripán to braised red meat asado.
if you can handiest try one, spring for the pan con chicharrón with pleasingly salty pork loin, grilled candy potato, and criolla sauce on a French roll the Peruvian Brothers satisfied a native bakery to make following a family recipe. Potatoes are Peru's forte, and this lunch treat proves spuds belong on sandwiches. "There are 4,000 different sorts of potatoes," Giuseppe says. "Yellow, pink, orange, large, tremendous, curvy, fat."
Bolster a meal with a pork empanada. "We bake our empanadas and sprinkle them with powdered sugar on proper," Giuseppe says. "Take a chew after which squeeze the lime inside." —Laura Hayes
Dolan Uyghur
3518 Connecticut Ave. NW; (202) 686-3941; dolanuyghur.com
The Uighurs, a majority-Muslim Turkic community from northwest China, are one of the crucial smallest immigrant communities in the united states, and their meals—a distinct mix of flavors from China, Afghanistan, India, Russia, Turkey, and other countries—is difficult to come by. but Hamid Karim is attempting to trade that with his dream of opening a Uighur restaurant in all 50 states.
For now, he has Dolan Uyghur in Cleveland Park, an unassuming two-story restaurant serving hearty parts of Uighur fare from chewy handmade noodles and juicy meats to kebabs and sauce-coated veggies. Karim says his menu is exactly what Uighur households eat: "this is the food my mom makes at domestic."
Hamid Karim
Karim's domestic place is officially called Xinjiang, and it's where nearly all of Uighurs stay. but he and most diaspora Uighurs call their home East Turkestan in support of the circulation to set up independence from China, whose executive is persecuting Uighurs through huge surveillance campaigns, customary arrests devoid of trial, and placements in "re-schooling camps." These cases forced Karim, his wife, and their two kids to flee their domestic final year and searching for asylum in the U.S., he explains.
after they arrived in D.C. in can also 2018, Karim discovered Dolan Uyghur simply as its previous owners have been seeking to promote. He took over in September. given that then, Karim has made it a precedence to visitors not handiest on Uighur food and culture, however also on the current political situation. "I are looking to let each American learn about Uighur individuals's historical past and issues we've nowadays," he says.
youngsters many guests stroll into Dolan Uyghur with little expertise about Uighurs, Karim says that after indulging in a plate of hot fowl stew (chew-size pieces of bird and potatoes marinated in a spicy vegetable sauce with flat noodles) or tasting laghman noodles (chewy hand-pulled noodles smothered in red meat and greens) they go away wanting to be taught more. —Ella Feldman
Gisele's Creole cuisine2407 fee Ave., Wheaton, Md.; (301) 933-1340; giselescreolecuisine.com
When Jose Dugué moved to Maryland in 2007, he didn't see any restaurants with meals from his native land. Dugué's mother, Gisele, is a school-trained chef from Haiti and he dreamed of opening a restaurant that would appeal to americans the style his mother's distinctively professional cooking did again in Port-au-Prince.
but Dugué, now a Maryland state trooper, didn't understand that dream except 10 years later when he and his wife, Tamara, pooled their funds to purchase a former Italian and Salvadoran restaurant in Wheaton in 2017. They renamed it Gisele's Creole delicacies and employed Haitian-born Chef Ludyne Desir. The restaurant serves oxtail and other Haitian Creole dishes that draw from African, French, Spanish, and British cultures. Dugué's mother provided some recipes and a huge picture of her hangs on one wall.
Dugué recommends the entire red snapper, despite the fact that it isn't all the time obtainable, along with the goat imported from Australia. each main dishes can be found stewed in sauce or fried. The stewed version of goat is delicate and, like the crimson snapper, comes with a small serving of spicy pickled cabbage known as pikliz (or piklis), plus rice, salad, and fried plantains. Dugué notes that the pumpkin soup known as joumou, available on Sundays most effective, is whatever thing that enslaved Haitians once made for their masters however weren't allowed to consume themselves. these days it serves as an emblem of revolution, freedom, and independence. —Steve Kiviat
DC DosaUnion Market; 1309 5th St. NE; (202) 804-5556; dcdosa.com
together with her dosa stall, Bombay native Priya Ammu wants to bring Washingtonians a style of what South Indians serve of their buildings. She found loads of rice and lentil-based mostly crepes after marrying right into a South Indian family. and then, like many others, found thought in america's fashioned build-a-bowl company.
"When Chipotle first opened, i used to be just bowled over," she says. "all and sundry gives them a foul rap. however on a great day, it's actually good. On a nasty day it's horrific. i spotted what they had been doing with tortillas and idea, 'Why can't we do that with dosa?'"
The concept simmered on Ammu's back burner unless she become itching for an encore career after quitting a catering job to raise three daughters and, at last, getting a divorce. She begun small, selling chutneys at farmers markets. Then she entered a StartUp Kitchen contest in 2012 and gained, giving her the self belief to strategy entire meals and installation a station at the Foggy backside region in 2013.
speedy ahead and you'll now discover Ammu in Union Market promoting dosas and uttapams. An uttapam is a thicker, spongier pancake crafted from fermented rice and white lentils that's reminiscent of Ethiopian injera when it comes to tang and texture. are trying one, or Ammu's favourite, the mung lentil dosa made from lentils that are soaked with their skins intact, making it extra nutritious.
consumers have to choose a filling for every dosa or uttapam order. There's the traditional curry potatoes and two more experimental options: eggplant and sweet potatoes with tamarind, and a medley of roasted greens brightened by means of ginger and onion.
"Overbearing Indians come in saying, 'That's now not a dosa filling,' and that i'm like, 'we have the potatoes!'" Ammu explains. "Then they'll go off and write anything nasty. I get really indignant and then my daughters ought to calm me down." The eggplant filling would more commonly be served with rice. "food is extraordinarily effective and it draws out the premiere and worst in people… The ideal is when americans say, 'This jogs my memory of what I had transforming into up.' It connects you back to where you had been." —Laura Hayes
Moby Dick apartment of Kabob
assorted areas; (202) 544-1500; mobyskabob.com
Moby Dick has turn into so ingrained in D.C. subculture over 30 years, going returned always seems like a style of home. There become a time, notwithstanding, when its Iranian founder wasn't grilling kabobs and placing out buttery rice. the first Moby Dick, determined in Bethesda, was firstly an American diner. It later advanced to serve Persian food after Mike Daryoush built a pita bread oven.
For Daryoush, originally from Shiraz in Iran, launching the business covered late nights and emergency loans from pals to fulfill appoint. He changed into "snoozing within the restaurant a number of hours—simply to get slumber," says Alex Momeni, chief construction officer for the restaurant.
Daryoush died on may additionally 9 at age 66, leaving in the back of an ever-turning out to be empire that now has 24 outposts from Springfield, Virginia, to Baltimore, and two within the District (Dupont Circle and Georgetown).
Grilled chicken and floor pork kabobs are diners' favorites, Momeni says, together with the garlicky hummus. Pita bread in hand, additionally try their kashk bademjan—a creamy mix of eggplant topped with caramelized onions.
In a metropolis witnessing a dizzying torrent of latest quick casual restaurants, Moby Dick remains a no-frills refuge, where no longer a whole lot has changed, and for decent cause. Kabobs and rice—with a dab of butter for respectable measure—nevertheless come alongside a well-known cup of yogurt and a tasty broiled tomato.
Momeni says the restaurant is because all alternate options for enlargement, together with the expertise for making buyer packaged gadgets. He says that Daryoush all started the restaurant to inform a story about his place of birth. "That story wasn't told yet in the [U.S.]," he says. "Even nowadays, the sky's the restrict for Persian delicacies." —Cuneyt Dil
Kuya Ja's Lechon stomach
5268-H, Nicholson Lane, Rockville, Md.; (240) 669-4383; kuyajas.com
There's whatever thing to be spoke of for focusing on one element and perfecting it. That's what Javier Fernandez did with lechon, a uniqueness of his domestic island of Cebu in the Philippines. He roasts pork stomach wrapped around lemongrass, eco-friendly onions, garlic, and pineapple low and gradual unless the skin is a easy mahogany brown. The glassy exterior crackles if you happen to chew into it, revealing stomach fats that melts away and soft meat.
The style suggests Fernandez spent a lifetime fitting an authority. no longer so. Fernandez moved to the U.S. in 1991 at age 7. He eventually landed in the D.C. area, enrolled at L'Academie de cuisine, and embarked on a culinary profession that protected stints at Michel Richard's Michel, La Chaumiere, and MET Bethesda. He all the time cooked the meals of alternative cultures, under no circumstances his personal. however round 2013, he grew to be drawn to his culinary roots.
He spent a yr obsessing over his lechon recipe, making a choice on the ultimate timing and temperature. Then he begun posting photos on Instagram, which lead to catering gigs and weekend pop-usa his sister's Rockville wholesale bakery, Gwenie's Pastries. Feeling confident, Fernandez opened Kuya Ja's Lechon belly ultimate spring.
No talk over with is finished devoid of the namesake dish, which fits most effective with garlic rice and atsara, a sweet and tangy pickled ginger and papaya salad. greater adventurous diners should still additionally sample the sisig, a tip-to-tail stir fry with head cheese, ears, snout, and chicharrones.
through October, Washingtonians can additionally are trying Fernandez's meals in Navy Yard, the place he'll have a stall at Smorgasburg selling chook inasal on Saturdays. The Filipino dish analogous to Jamaican jerk chicken is made by way of marinating legs and thighs in coconut vinegar, lemongrass, and garlic, after which smoking them. —Nevin Martell
Mikko1636 R St. NW; (202) 525-3919; chefmikko.com
Born in 1969 within the Finnish municipality of Pyhtää, Mikko Kosonen credit his mom with encouraging his activity in cooking, beginning with baked goods such as the cardamom buns and rye bread that he still makes fresh everyday at his Dupont Circle café. After a childhood summer working at a restaurant owned by means of his household, Mikko knew he desired a profession within the industry. but military service took him overseas, and he worked as a prepare dinner for the Finnish army within the middle East.
Following his carrier, Kosonen found employment at eating places throughout Europe before kicking off his profession as a chef for diplomats. In 1996 he moved to D.C. to cook for the Swedish ambassador, and three hundred and sixty five days later grew to be the Finnish ambassador's chef. Three subsequent ambassadors retained him unless Kosonen sought to open his personal enterprise. He begun with a catering business in 2013, however ultimately desired his personal café.
When Mikko opened in may 2018, the chef was desperate to demonstrate diners that there's extra to Nordic meals than just herring, with many wonderful dishes to find. "i am hoping they see we now have very tasty meals in our home nation," he says, describing the meals as clear and in shape. "individuals are trying issues like our gravlax [cured raw salmon] for the first time, and say they would in no way have tried it anywhere else however they arrive lower back for it."
The featured items on Mikko's menu rotate, so oggle the chalkboard exhibiting day by day specials. Kosonen recommends two dishes for clients looking to spoil into Nordic food. the first is matjes herring—pickled herring served with potatoes or rye bread, or from time to time reduce into small cubes and served with bitter cream and onion. The second is a hot dog topped with shrimp skagen. "In Sweden there's a sausage area on every corner," he says. "it's the same component in Finland. It's regular nighttime meals. adding the shrimp salad makes it a bad man's surf and turf." —Anthony Lacey
Thanh Son TofuEden middle, 6793 Wilson Blvd., Falls Church, Va.; (703) 534-1202
Eden center has been a cultural hub for the area's Vietnamese-American neighborhood for the reason that 1984, however the clientele is as diverse because the searching core's choices. "The simplest change? Foreigners don't order the dessert," observes Thanh Son Tofu proprietor Hanh Trinh. She's relating to non-Vietnamese individuals. akin to D.C.'s embassies, once you're at Eden core, it seems like you're on foreign soil.
while her non-Vietnamese customers may not be tempted by three-bean pudding, Trinh feels the restaurant has anything for everybody. "We're wide-spread for our tofu, truffles, and smoothies," she says. "The Vietnamese people, they love the sticky rice. however the overseas americans, they should are attempting the fried tofu and the eggrolls, or tofu pudding," she says. "I need individuals to understand that Vietnamese food is fit."
Trinh and her household moved to the States from southeast Vietnam in 1991 and opened Thanh Son Tofu in Eden center in 2004. "loved ones let us borrow the cash to beginning the company," she explains. "We didn't have credit yet, when we came to the U.S. It took a few years. Banks didn't know who we're. We knew if we lose, we lose every little thing. however we notion might be we'd live on."
Will Thanh Son Tofu be around for a different era? "We're doing very neatly at the moment, however the hire is up in 5 years, the appoint is expensive, and my mom and pop are getting old," she says, when you consider that the longer term. —Elizabeth Tuten
Lapis
Darrow Montgomery/file
1847 Columbia street NW; (202) 299-9630; lapisdc.com
if you arrive at an Afghan family for dinner and qabuli palow is on the table, you know you're important. gaining knowledge of the dish, a rice pilaf cooked with carrots, raisins, and lamb, takes time and energy. The equal goes for aushak and mantoo dumplings—the former leek-filled, the latter containing spiced ground pork—that are meticulously crafted via hand. That's why Shamim Popal made certain to consist of these dishes on the menu at Lapis, the contemporary Afghan bistro she owns together with her family. "When a visitor walks in here, it's like our apartment, and we are looking to do something about you," she says.
When Lapis opened in 2015, Shamim and her husband Zubair were already professional restaurateurs. They arrived within the D.C. enviornment with their three children in 1987 after being pressured to flee their battle-torn domestic in Afghanistan. "We came with nothing," Zubair says. "however we never notion issues would no longer happen." And things did happen. In 2003, the Popals opened Parisian eatery Cafe Bonaparte in Georgetown. next got here two more French restaurants: Napoleon Bistro & Lounge (which Lapis replaced) and Malmaison in Georgetown, which lately became The Berliner.
French meals got here readily to the Popals, who've family in Europe, and in contrast to Afghan cuisine, it turned into some thing locals recognized. but in the Popal family unit, Shamim cooked almost completely Afghan dishes, and her family ultimately satisfied her to take her home cooking public. Drawing on family recipes and including her personal aptitude, Shamim wrote the menu in a month, and stuffed it with various hearty, aromatic dishes. —Ella Feldman
Tsehay Ethiopian3630 Georgia Ave. NW; (202) 808-8952
Selam Gossa insists on importing spices from Ethiopia for her first restaurant in america, Tsehay Ethiopian. She has a unique means of obtaining them. "I even have a fine relationship with individuals who work for Ethiopian airways and the flight comes day by day," she says. "So it's easy to get it when i want it. I actually have some coming Friday from two individuals."
She changed into just as meticulous about deciding on the correct injera—the spongy flatbread diners use to scoop up their food. Gossa didn't desire the bread to sit down too heavy within the abdominal, and she or he went with Alem Injera made from one hundred percent teff in Alexandria. When Gossa isn't in the kitchen, her sister, Sara Gossa, is. There's extra power to create memorable meals for diners because the restaurant, which opened in may also, is termed after the Gossa sisters' late mother, Tsehay, who was certainly one of 14 toddlers and ran her personal café in Addis Ababa.
"My mom always had a guest in our apartment," Selam explains. "We had been 4 youngsters, but she always had eight pepole. She introduced in kids whose mothers weren't in a position to feed them. unwell americans, homeless. We'd come home from college to find somebody in our beds … She lived all her existence for others."
Tsehay died in 2014, two years after Selam moved to the U.S. for a job at the Ritz-Carlton in Pentagon metropolis. "I'm upset that I wasn't in a position to bury her," she says. "however I'm very chuffed to have her identify on the restaurant."
The berbere-flavored red lamb stew is her mom's recipe and lines slowly cooked meat to be sure tenderness. Selam recommends the stew, as neatly as the vegetarian sampler platter that includes a rainbow of beneficiant pinches of purple lentils, yellow cut up peas, cabbage with potatoes and carrots, collard greens, sauteed beets, and salad.
Selam's next step is introducing breakfast at Tsehay, which she plans to do subsequent month. She'll use recipes from her mom's café, where the morning meal become specially regular. —Laura Hayes
dawn Caribbeanvaried locations; (202) 291-2949; iamsunrise.com
When she moved to the U.S. in 2003, Alisa Plaza, owner of sunrise Caribbean, informed herself that she would now not prepare dinner for a dwelling. "I did that in Trinidad and also you don't have a life when you prepare dinner—day and night—a restaurant, it's no funny story." however she and her husband, Selwyn Mungo, needed to make ends meet and ship 4 infants to school, so she lower back to the kitchen.
Plaza started small, selling roti by way of the dozen, and these days she runs two areas of first light on Georgia Avenue NW. probably the most contemporary one opened in April. Plaza additionally presents catering, teaches cooking courses, and, most weekends in may additionally via September, travels to prepare dinner at festivals around the Mid-Atlantic.
individuals are inclined to consider that if they've had Jamaican food, they've had all Caribbean food, according to Plaza, who insists Trini meals is distinctive. first light has the classics, together with buss up shut (torn items of flaky flatbread used for dipping into quite a few curries), and doubles (two fried bara, or mini flatbreads, stuffed with curried chickpeas). "americans build homes in Trinidad simply on doubles," Plaza says, explaining how ubiquitous vendors of the snack-sized road meals are in Trinidad and Tobago. At break of day, they're provided Fridays via Sundays.
are attempting any of the plentiful vegan dishes, but above all the mac and cheese, made with house-made soy- or almond-based "cheese" flavored with dietary yeast and spices. Specials are offered on Saturdays, including the cornmeal-based coo coo, made with coconut milk, okra, and carrots. It's served with fish and callaloo (stewed greens and pumpkin with spices). If anything is bought out, ask for one more advice, and always pair a meal with apartment-made sorrel, a spiced hibiscus drink. —Kara Elder
Thamee
1320 H St. NE; (202) 750-6529, thamee.com
On any given night at Thamee, the District's new Burmese restaurant, there may be a chef, supervisor, bartender, or server with an immigrant story to inform. Seven out of eleven kitchen employees are immigrants, including two resettled refugees from Afghanistan. 9 of 13 eating room personnel are immigrants or first-generation american citizens. "We need to be welcoming to every person—that's all the time been our intention," says co-owner Simone Jacobson.
The kitchen at Thamee, which in Burmese potential daughter, is helmed with the aid of Jacobson's mom Jocelyn legislations-Yone. most of the dishes on the menu were impressed via legislation-Yone's early childhood in Rangoon, Burma, (these days Yangon, Myanmar). Thamee's third proprietor, Eric Wang, is also an immigrant. He hails from Taiwan by means of Japan.
"My hospitality isn't informed or discovered, it comes from the coronary heart," legislations-Yone says. "I suppose all of us came to this [restaurant] with lots of strong food reminiscences, and handiest love can create and inspire that."
Jocelyn law-Yone
Thamee's menu spans a number Burmese noodles, salads, and curries, together with meeshay—a pork udon noodle dish that's blended desk-facet with cilantro, sparkling-picked cherry tomatoes, mustard greens, and fermented tofu. It's a client favorite, and a dish that bursts with wealthy and daring flavors.
but when there's one plate in excessive demand right now, it's the catfish "hash brown" on the weekend brunch menu. It resembles a McDonald's hash brown however as a substitute of being greasy and salty, it's filled with sparkling, flaky fish, grilled to golden-brown interior a banana leaf and served with heirloom tomato salad and fried eggs.
"In Burma, breakfast, or brunch, or anything your first meal of the day is, is essentially the most crucial," she explains. "So, if you basically consider about it, our brunch should still be our standout provider as a result of we're serving probably the most natural and omnipresent food from there." —Tim Ebner
Taco city DC1102 eighth St. SE; (202) 629-4012; tacocitydc.com
Peer into many a kitchen in D.C., and also you'll see Salvadorans rolling sushi, stirring Thai curries, finely reducing steak tartare, and in the case of Taco metropolis DC, cooking highway tacos. That's as a result of D.C.'s largest immigrant inhabitants comes from El Salvador.
Chef Francisco Ferrufino got here to D.C. from San Miguel in 2007 when he was 17 years historical. "I came on a Wednesday, and on Thursday i used to be already washing dishes," he says. "That's the style I all started."
Now Ferrufino, who up to now worked because the executive chef of Meridian Pint, co-owns Taco metropolis with fellow Salvadoran Juan Jimenez. The pair met when Jimenez, who came to D.C. from La Unión in 1984, was bartending at Oyamel. Ferrufino would consult with for late nighttime margaritas. They shared a dream of serving Mexican tacos and small plates. "We're not from Mexico, however we like the way of life," Jimenez says, noting that they had "recipe helpers" from Mexico city and Puebla.
No meal is comprehensive without an order of esquites. "It's sauteed street corn identical to in Mexico city, where food vehicles promote esquites in little bowls with a spoon," he says. consider of it like elote, however off the cob. Taco metropolis tops the kernels with pequin and guajillo peppers, queso fresco, mayo, lime, and crema.
Of the 12 available tacos, don't skip the carnitas. Ferrufino takes care that the pork isn't too fatty and cuts the richness with condominium-made salsa verde. Pork rinds sit atop the taco for some crunch. The restaurant makes its own corn tortillas.
Jimenez is a veteran of ThinkFoodGroup, a restaurant enterprise that's now synonymous with one of the most District's most heralded immigrants, José Andrés. After working for the restaurant group, and later for Richard Sandoval, Jimenez noted, "Let me convey D.C. one in all my very own." —Laura Hayes
good1324 H St. NE; (202) 733-4604; stabledc.com
although good on H highway NE handiest serves traditional Swiss food, the restaurant's backstory is decidedly international. standard manager Silvan Kraemer and Chef David Fritsche grew up in Switzerland, but their friendship began once they have been working in eating places in Dubai in the early 2000s. After stints working in eire and ny, they landed in D.C. Years of working for others discovered the pair seeking to install a place of their own, and although they originally toyed with the theory of up to date American cuisine, they decided on Swiss.
Most americans' ideas of Swiss cuisine begin and conclusion at fondue, however there's much more to it. As Fritsche explains, "Swiss meals is the crossroads between our neighboring nations." He elements to Italy, France, Germany, and Austria. That stated, solid's fondue is a should-are trying, chiefly within the winter. For brunch, a favourite Swiss breakfast providing is berner rösti, a fritter-like, grated potato dish topped with 1st baron beaverbrook, gruyere, and a fried egg.
If Swiss meals only appears applicable to devour in the Alpine-esque lifeless of iciness, consider once again. stable alterations the menu seasonally, and for summer time they've decisions like a whole branzino baked in a salt crust, and "schnapsicals," or frozen sticks of pureed fruit dunked in a glass of wine and schnaps, which exhibit the restaurant's suit preference of the boozy Swiss distilled beverage. —Stephanie Rudig
Mama's Pizza Kitchen2028 Martin Luther King Jr Ave. SE; (202) 678-6262; mamaspizzatogo.com
Musa Ulusan and Fatima Nayir were no strangers to the restaurant business when the husband-and-spouse crew opened the doorways of Mama's Pizza Kitchen eight years in the past.
earlier than enlisting their daughter to paint "cooked with love" on the wall and opening the family restaurant in Anacostia, Ulusan owned a string of restaurant ventures from diners to pizza shops in cities spanning from New Orleans to Baltimore. but the couple moved to D.C. to place their three toddlers via college and located careers making pizza, sandwiches, pasta, barbecue, and wings.
The pizza joint, favourite without problems as "Mama's" to its regulars, may additionally not serve the Medditerranean dishes the couple grew up consuming in Ankara, Turkey, however Ulusan says staple Turkish parts are top of intellect when the couple appears so as to add to the shop's ever-increasing menu.
a true testomony to the restaurant's place at the core of the neighborhood came in 2015 when the enterprise confronted five robberies in barely one year. Ulusan observed the break-ins have been an enormous challenge, but neighbors rallied around them through elevating funds for security device, and shortly Mama's Pizza Kitchen become recognizable across the District as be aware of the fundraiser spread.
As their company grows Ulusan mentioned he wants to be sure he only serves first rate food to repay the store's loyal consumer base. —Liz Provencher
Ambar523 eighth St. SE; (202) 813-3039; ambarrestaurant.com
When Serbian native Ivan Iricanin determined to open Ambar in 2012 on Capitol Hill, he turned into understandably worried. Serbian food changed into no longer exactly mainstream in D.C. and chums warned the cuisine became too obscure to develop into usual. but Iricanin persevered. He was determined to open a restaurant that showcased the meals and tradition of the Balkans, which he felt were generic "for struggle and poverty, not the warmth of the people, or the unbelievable delicacies." He got here up with a Serbian small plates thought, and two years into working he brought an enormous option where diners might pattern as many dishes as favored. Ambar's popularity skyrocketed after the trade.
The menu folds in traditional Serbian parts: kajmak (a dairy product akin to clotted cream), baked beans, stuffed cabbage, roasted beets, and wild mushrooms. The ajvar is a need to-order since the smoky, sweet Serbian spread made from red bell pepper, eggplant, and garlic is served at most food. The different quintessentially Serbian dish at Ambar is the cheese pie. Serbia is normal for sparkling cheeses and flaky pastries, and the cheese pie combines both. The cheese comes enrobed in crunchy phyllo dough and is plated on a mattress of mint-infused yogurt. —Priya Konings
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