100 Very Best 2017
100 Very Best 2019No disrespect to the Neapolitan pies that have dominated the scene for the last decade, but we’ve developed Margherita fatigue. Thankfully, the crew from the Red Hen—including chef Mike Friedman—gets us excited about pizza again. Friedman’s crusts, baked in a deck oven, aren’t thick so much as sturdy. They never flop or get bogged down by toppings, and their accessories—such as simple pepperoni with hot honey or a bright arrangement of mortadella with pistachio pesto—are carefully applied and well thought out. But there’s so much more than pizza to discover at the Shaw hangout: bitter-leaning cocktails, an iceberg salad that channels a dynamite Italian sub, and overseeing it all, a team of friendly servers. Unless you show up right at 5, though, you’ll find a swath of folks waiting to get in. Moderate.
Also great: Beet panzanella salad; fried calamari; garlic knots; eggplant Parm; black-walnut Manhattan.
Ann Limpert joined Washingtonian in late 2003. She was previously an editorial assistant at Entertainment Weekly and a cook in New York restaurant kitchens, and she is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education. She lives in Petworth.
Anna Spiegel covers the dining and drinking scene in her native DC. Prior to joining Washingtonian in 2010, she attended the French Culinary Institute and Columbia University’s MFA program in New York, and held various cooking and writing positions in NYC and in St. John, US Virgin Islands.
Jessica Sidman covers the people and trends behind D.C.’s food and drink scene. Before joining Washingtonian in July 2016, she was Food Editor and Young & Hungry columnist at Washington City Paper. She is a Colorado native and University of Pennsylvania grad.
Kristen Hinman has been editing Washingtonian’s features since 2014. She joined the magazine after editing politics & policy coverage for Bloomberg Businessweek and working as a staff writer for Voice Media Group/Riverfront Times.
