It has been a good week for national recognition of D.C. area restaurants, as three national publications have put them on their top lists.
Bon Appétit Magazine’s Best New Restaurants of 2023 includes Bar Spero, which is among the 24 restaurants nationwide named to the list.
Chef Johnny Spero opened the open fire seafood bar and grill in 2021 at Capital Crossing in D.C.’s East End.
Southern Living Magazine’s 50 Best BBQ Restaurants, a list dominated by restaurants in Texas and South Carolina, includes Riverdale Park, Maryland’s 2Fifty BBQ.
Denny Portillo and Fernando Gonzalez, who emigrated from El Salvador, opened the original 2Fifty BBQ in 2020. A second location will open in D.C.’s Mount Vernon Triangle early next year.
Food & Wine magazine’s 2023 list of Best New Chefs in America includes Isabel Coss, executive pastry chef at French bistro Lutèce in Georgetown.
Coss, a Mexico City native, is partnering on a new restaurant called Pascual, which is opening on Capitol Hill in October.
