Wolfgang Puck has been a mainstay of D.C.’s food culture for several years now, and he’s interested in expanding — one day, with a new location and also with the help of his son, Byron Lazaroff-Puck.
Puck first made waves in the local food scene when he opened modern Asian restaurant The Source at the Newseum in late 2007 and later the CUT steakhouse in Georgetown in 2019. He told WTOP that he’d “love” to have another restaurant in the area, but the problem is finding “the right place.”
“I think if we get the opportunity to open another place to get a good deal, maybe in rent … I am certainly open. I keep my eyes open all the time about doing new projects because if we don’t move forward, we move backwards,” Puck said.
Recently, the Austrian-born chef and restaurateur sat down with WTOP to discuss the local food scene, his work, his legacy and his son, who has been steadily making a name for himself in the hospitality industry.
Before the closure of The Source in 2020 following the building’s sale to Johns Hopkins University, Puck told WTOP that he wanted to create “something interesting,” saying, “I thought we had so many steakhouses and other restaurants here already, so let’s try to do an Asian restaurant.”
In 2015, Puck announced plans for a new restaurant in the District, which became CUT. Not long after opening in 2019, his steakhouse concept had to temporarily close because of a fire. In September 2023, Puck discussed the cause of the fire (a new exhaust system had to be built) as well as the challenges that the pandemic stirred within his business (staffing, primarily).
His son’s career in the hospitality industry began at the age of 12 when he started as a dishwasher at Spago in Beverly Hills. Later, he worked in London under Nobu Matsuhisa and eventually in New York under Eric Ripert at Le Bernadin. His career is further punctuated by other well-known names: the three-star Michelin restaurant Alinea, El Celler de Can Roca in Spain and his alma mater, Cornell, in which he attended the hospitality school.
Now, in his position as Director of Food, Beverage and Hospitality, Lazaroff-Puck is predominantly based in Los Angeles, but his role in the company takes him to all of the restaurants, including D.C.’s CUT.
In an interview with WTOP, Lazaroff-Puck said working alongside his father has allowed him to be creative, have fun and learn to feel like the restaurants were “my home.”
“The company that my father has built is wonderful. Each restaurant is so indicative of its location and the culture surrounding it. So for me, it’s not just a matter of maintaining that and the core concept of our business, but expounding upon it,” Lazaroff-Puck said. “Really, I want to make my father proud, and I want to do right by the business that he’s already built.”
When considering the legacy he hopes to leave, Puck told WTOP, “To me, my dream is when I’m gonna look up from hell, I’m going to say, ‘Oh, Byron did much better than I did.'”
“Normally you say, ‘Look down from heaven,'” Lazaroff-Puck said.
But Puck replied saying that the appeal of hell is the fire “so you can cook on the ground.”
“You can still get your Peking duck down there at least. That makes sense,” his son laughed.
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