100 Very Best Restaurants: #2 – The Dabney
Chef Jeremiah Langhorne (center) in the open kitchen.
Sometimes at the end of a meal, we play the “What’s the dish of the night?” game. At Jeremiah Langhorne’s Mid-Atlantic dining room, it’s just about impossible to pick only one. A fried-catfish slider might sound simple enough, but in Langhorne’s hands, the tiny sweet-potato-roll sandwich tastes transcendent. (Can we get six more?) Most everything is cooked in the giant hearth. (Check out the cooks fanning and raking the glowing embers.) Charred brassicas emerge draped in n’duja-stoked hollandaise and chimichurri, cornbread and chicken and dumplings are the best kind of comfort food, and lobster and grits had us scraping the edges of the bowl for every last bite. While scoring a reservation can be a game unto itself, the lovely downstairs wine bar takes plenty of walk-ins. Expensive.
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Executive Food Editor/Critic
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.
Food Editor
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.
Food Editor
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.