News & Politics

Gordon Ramsay vs. Jon Taffer: Their Restaurants Will Fight It Out in DC

Which tough-guy TV host’s cuisine will reign supreme?

Gordon Ramsay vs. Jon Taffer: Their Restaurants Will Fight It Out in DC
Photograph by Scott Kirkland / FOX. © 2021 FOX MEDIA LLC.
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Gordon Ramsay

Gordon Ramsay Fish & Chips

501 Seventh St., NW

The volatile host of Hell’s Kitchen taps pro chefs for a brutal cooking competition. He also runs high-end eateries around the world. There’s fish. There’s chips. There’s a bunch of sauces. Put it all together in a cardboard box and you get . . . Gordon Ramsay’s fish and chips. Tavon Hubbard—then based in DC—finished in last place on season ten of Hell’s Kitchen. “Fish & Chips is a humble departure, and yeah, a bit of fun,” he told Las Vegas Weekly. “We’ve elevated it, made it a little more sexy . . . more Cool Britannia.”

Jon Taffer

Taffer’s Tavern

700 Sixth St., NW

The volatile host of Bar Rescue helps failing watering holes. He’s also a consultant and entrepreneur. Basic pub fare made with what’s touted as “innovative cooking technologies.” A particularly notorious Bar Rescue episode focused on Silver Spring’s Piratz Tavern. “I believe . . . we will set the standard for cocktails programs in the city,” he told Washington Business Journal.

Photograph of Ramsay © 2017 by FOX Broadcasting.
Photograph of Taffer by Allison Gallagher/Flickr.
This article appears in the November 2021 issue of Washingtonian.

Daniella Byck
Lifestyle Editor

Daniella Byck joined Washingtonian in 2022. She was previously with Outside Magazine and lives in Northeast DC.