Washington, D.C., Emerges as a Top City for Food Tourism

In an era of extreme polarization, it’s no surprise that one of the biggest firestorms in food this year came out of Washington. Back in January, as the government shutdown affected the White House catering staff, President Donald Trump feted the college football champion Clemson Tigers with $3,000 worth of McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and Burger King, served on silver platters.

But it wasn’t for lack of options: Washington, despite what you may have heard, is the most exciting food destination in America.

The nation’s capital isn’t the obvious choice for this accolade. Los Angeles has become the glittery hot spot, welcoming top chefs such as Gabriela Cámara, David Chang, and Enrique Olvera, all of whom have either opened or are planning new concepts there. New media opportunities from companies like Netflix, which produces food-focused series like Ugly Delicious and Chef’s Table, have made Hollywood attractive to food journalists, too, as traditional culinary publications verge on extinction.

Another nominal contender, New York, is having a tough dining-out year. A $15 minimum wage has gone into effect, and rents remain prohibitively high — vacancy storefront rates can run up to 20 percent in parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Add to that consumer prices including rent that are 32 percent higher in New York than Los Angeles. The city’s biggest restaurant openings in 2019 were in a mall, Hudson Yards, or were reboots of old favorites such as Pastis. There was no new power dining epicenter in town, a place like Lilia, where the likes of Jennifer Lawrence, Ivanka Trump, and Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Officer David Solomon populate the tables.

Contrast this with Washington. The city has a restaurant scene that mirrors its World Series-winning Nationals — a group of underdogs who are fun to watch as they raise their city to championship levels.

It’s a lazy cliché that Washington has only recently been saved from steakhouse purgatory. Landmark chefs such as Jean-Louis Palladin, who catered to Reagan administration hotshots, and Nora Pouillon, the East Coast answer to Alice Waters, made the city compelling even in the ‘80s and ‘90s. They in turn laid the groundwork for José Andrés, who helped introduce America to tapas at Jaleo before becoming the food world’s disaster-relief ambassador. “Those cooks added layers and layers to the dining scene that chefs are standing on now,” he says. He also points to the area’s wealth of ingredients, whether Virginia cheeses, Rappahannock oysters, or Maryland crabs.