About Restaurant Openings Around DC
A guide to the newest places to eat and drink.
Marcus DC. 222 M St., NE.
Marcus Samuelsson—the Ethiopian-born, Swedish-raised celebrity chef behind Harlem’s famed Red Rooster—has spent a lot of time in DC over the decades, between visiting extended family, operating a short-lived restaurant at the MGM National Harbor, and checking out the Ethiopian dining scene. “Coming in the nineties, it was always that place where I was really inspired by the mom and pops, Adams Morgan, and everything that happened. DC is a very special place when you come from an Ethiopian background.”
Samuelsson will draw on the city’s local and international flavors along with his own globe-spanning roots at his newest restaurant, Marcus DC, which opened this week in NoMa’s Morrow hotel. The menu focuses heavily on seafood, with Maryland native chef Anthony Jones adding some regional flair (hello, crab and mumbo sauce). It’s one of three concepts Samuelsson is bringing to the Morrow, including a just-opened rooftop bar called Sly and a cocktail lounge that is coming soon.
Cornbread is always on the menu at Samuelsson’s restaurants. Here, it’s made with blue corn and served with an aleppo-and-berbere butter. A fluke crudo comes with an apple-cucumber aguachile and crispy plantain chips, while a dish called “Swediopian” combines cured salmon, goldenberry broth, and a teff waffle crisps.
Jones, a Red Rooster Miami alum who was more recently the executive chef at Penn Quarter’s Dirty Habit, was Samuelsson’s first and only call to run the DC kitchen. He’s made his own mark on the menu with dishes like smoked-clam pepe pasta with peas, preserved lemon, and green peppercorns.
Among the larger dishes: “Chuck B’s” whole roast chicken with mumbo sauce, and Mel’s crab rice, which is named after a guy who sells crabs from a truck in Calvert County (where Jones is from). “Every summer we would stop by and get a few bushels,” Jones says. “And that was like always a great family gathering.” The dish starts with red rice, folded with crab at the last minute so you still get the lumps. It’s topped with an uni béarnaise and served with hot sauce-pickled okra.
Service Bar and Causa/Amazonia co-owner Glendon Hartley consulted on the drink menu, and incorporates ingredients such as lingonberry, teff flour, and berbere spice into the cocktails. Among Samuelsson’s favorite is “Golden Milk” combining an unlikely combination of vodka, aquavit, dark rum, and pisco. Hartley is also helping with the opening of Samuelsson’s cocktail bar, Goodie Lounge, coming to the hotel’s 11th floor later this year.
Pastry Chef Rachel Sherriffe, whose resume spans from Jean-Georges in New York to Rooster & Owl and Ellie Bird, draws from her Jamaican heritage on the dessert menu. Find flourless chocolate cake with plantain ice cream or a Thai basil/coconut rice pudding with ginger-lime jelly and yogurt sorbet. Some of her cakes will roam the dining room on a cart.
While the menu is very international, the dining room is focused on artists and designers with local connections. Baltimore-born visual artist Derrick Adam is behind the colorful abstract collage behind the bar. And the fashion designer brothers behind BruceGlen, who grew up in DC and have dressed the likes of Beyoncé, created the staff’s colorful aprons. A private dining room is splashed with paintings and art from DC-area artists.
“It was important to create something that is rooted in joy and elegance and craftsmanship,” Samuelsson says.
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.
