Chef Scott Drewno‘s ten-year tenure at the Source will come to a close at the end of the month, but bits of information are starting to come out about his next venture. Drewno has partnered with Mandu chef and owner Danny Lee and former Matchbox owner Drew Kim on a new restaurant group called Fried Rice Collective. Their first restaurant, Chi Ko, will bring together Lee’s Korean cuisine with Drewno’s Chinese cooking. What exactly that looks like, we’ll have to wait and see.
“There are restaurants in Annandale that say they’re Korean-Chinese or Chinese-Korean that have that fusion menu—it’s not going to be that,” Lee says. But the partners are keeping quiet about most of the details, including the menu (still in development) and the location (although they already secured a space in DC).
What we do know: Chi Ko will be on the casual end, despite Drewno’s fine dining background with Wolfgang Puck‘s restaurants. Also: it’s opening sometime this year. And it’s likely the first of several restaurants the trio will work on together.
“There’s a reason we started a group,” Lee says. “Eventually, we do want to become more than just this one spot.”
Meanwhile, the Source announced this week that executive sous-chef Russell Smith will be taking Drewno’s post. Smith first joined the Source in 2009 after a five-year stint with the Black Restaurant Group. Three years into his time at the upscale Asian restaurant, Smith went to work at another Wolfgang Puck venue—The Sunset Room at National Harbor—as executive chef, then returned to the Source again in 2014. Stay tuned for menu changes.
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.
