Chef/owner Todd Gray's spruced-up dining room--renovated after a fire two years ago--is at the center of the area's seasonal-cooking movement, and the menu is regularly tweaked to reflect what's available from the farm. It also draws inspiration from the Mid-Atlantic, whether the Eastern Shore or Virginia's Piedmont. Equinox's proximity to the White House means that chairs are often filled with VIPs--the President and First Lady have visited--and the place has plenty of regulars. You'll often see Gray chatting up the dining room.
What to get: Oysters on the half shell; poached-pear salad with a quail egg; shrimp and grits; any soup, such as cream of curried cauliflower; rosemary-roasted bison with sweetbreads; truffled macaroni and cheese; the signature crabcake; figs with toasted hazelnuts and fig-leaf ice cream.
Open Monday through Friday for lunch and dinner, Saturday and Sunday for dinner. Very expensive.
