About Restaurant Openings Around DC
A guide to the newest places to eat and drink.
El Bistró at El Cielo. 1280 Fourth St., NE.
Michelin-starred modernist Colombian restaurant El Cielo offers a nearly $300 tasting with out-of-the-box presentations, including black truffle buñuelos served atop hot stones and a “chocotherapy” course that involves washing your hands in warm chocolate. Now, the restaurant is debuting a more affordable à la carte concept, El Bistró, housed in the front dining room of its La Cosecha space in Union Market.
“We’re very known for a being a fine-dining restaurant, but we wanted to be more approachable to the guests around our neighborhood,” says corporate chef Sebastian Moreno Henao, who oversees the DC restaurant and its Miami sibling. “El Bistró will be more relaxed and more casual.”
At El Bistró, you can expect many of the same well-known dishes that propelled El Cielo to stardom, including the photo-friendly “Tree of Life” topped with pan de yuca as well as pork-stuffed pies known as carimañolas. (Sorry, but you can only wash your hands in chocolate with the tasting menu.)
You’ll also see some newcomers on the menu. Among the most noteworthy: blue crab arepitas with coconut and pineapple, beeswax-aged ribeye served with duck-fat-poached fries, and a white chocolate lava cake with a scoop of Macallan whiskey-infused ice cream. Dishes range from $14 to $150.
“The dishes at El Bistró will highlight one product,” Henao says. “We won’t have a full intervention of techniques, and we’ll just try to keep it simple.”
Meanwhile, El Bistró and El Cielo will have identical cocktail menus with highlights including a cachaça-based soursop drink, a lemongrass old-fashioned, and a “New York Sour” with bourbon and red wine.
With El Bistró now taking over the front dining room and bar, El Cielo will offer its tasting menu in the smaller dining room in the back. Not only will these changes effectively make El Bistró the focal point of the restaurant, but Henao says that fewer seats at El Cielo space will create a more “exclusive type of experience for for our guests.”
