100 Very Best Restaurants 2017: Vermilion

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Photo by Scott Suchman

About Vermilion

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Location(s)
1120 King St
Alexandria, VA 22314

The second floor of this Federal-style building is one of the more intimate spots for dinner à deux, with votive lighting and windows overlooking King Street. Chef William Morris pairs flavors and textures so that the familiar morphs into the unexpected. Steak tartare gets crunch and depth from toasted spelt and radishes, and spice-crusted duck goes Levantine with chickpeas, roasted eggplant, and citrus yogurt. Make time for a pre-dinner drink in the cozy first-floor bar, while a dessert of orange-scented angel-food cake calls for a digestif. If you’ve never tried vintage port from the trendy Douro Valley in Portugal, this is the time. Expensive.

Also great: Salad with butternut squash, feta, and pumpkin seeds; salmon and caviar tartare; roasted gnocchi with lamb Bolognese; Berkshire pork loin with cider jus; pumpkin panna cotta.


Ann Limpert
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.

Jessica Sidman
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.

Kristen Hinman
Articles Editor

Kristen Hinman has been editing Washingtonian’s features since 2014. She joined the magazine after editing politics & policy coverage for Bloomberg Businessweek and working as a staff writer for Voice Media Group/Riverfront Times.