Washington, D.C

Inside Celebrity Chef Kwame Onwuachi’s Long-Awaited Return to D.C.

Published

3 months ago

August 14, 2024

Inside Celebrity Chef Kwame Onwuachi’s Long-Awaited Return to D.C.

Most chefs prefer to sit down to discuss their upcoming restaurant in the space itself. But Kwame Onwuachi isn’t most chefs. Instead, the national culinary icon insisted on talking while walking as he played a few rounds on D.C.’s East Potomac public golf course last week. Over the duration of his 5 p.m. tee time, the Top Chef star told Eater all about his anticipated return to D.C.’s Southwest Waterfront dining scene in September.

At his new Afro-Caribbean restaurant Dōgon (pronounced “Doh-gon”), opening at the foot of the 373-room Salamander Washington DC on Monday, September 9, Onwuachi pays homage to D.C.’s legendary land surveyor Benjamin Banneker and his ancestral ties to the Dōgon tribe. Onwuachi’s menu explores both his own Nigerian, Jamaican, Trinidadian, and Creole heritage and D.C.’s melting pot of cultures through a “West African lens.”

The “H Street” chicken and rice features Ethiopian berbere spices, jollof rice, and herbs.

Scott Suchman

“Everything is meant to be shared,” says Onwuachi. “I’m taking inspiration from everything from Korean to Ethiopian [cuisines].”

While Dōgon won’t usually be open on Mondays, September 9 signifies the date when D.C. was formally named in 1791. Gold chain curtains surrounding the stunning, 200-seat dining room reference the mathematical device Banneker used to map out city lines (1330 Maryland Avenue SW).

Onwuachi is best known locally for his time at the Wharf InterContinental’s long-closed Kith/Kin, and Dōgon marks the celebrity chef and author’s second act inside a posh hotel along the scenic Potomac River.

“It’s so emotional to be back,” he admits, while sporting Dōgon’s new black-and-gold cap on the course. “There’s lots of memories here, good and bad — but there’s a homecoming feel at the same time, similar to when I went back to New York.”

He returned to his NY roots in 2022 with the blockbuster opening of Tatiana, a high-end ode to the Bronx carryouts of his youth. Long wait lists and accolades quickly ensued, with New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells giving the wildly successful Lincoln Center attraction a three-star review — and No. 1 title of the best restaurant in New York.

Kith and Kin alum Martel Stone reunites with Kwame Onwuachi as chef de cuisine at Dōgon.

Chef Kwame Onwuachi and D.C. master mixologist Derek Brown team up for the first time.

It was during his D.C. hiatus when he also fell in love with the game of golf; ever since his actor friend Adrian Homles — who plays Uncle Phil on Peacock’s modern-day TV series Bel-Air — took him to his first driving range, he was hooked. “It’s so serene — you’re in nature and can’t be on your phone,” he says. In between taking swings and bites of his “fucking good” $5 half-smoke from the course’s on-site cafe Potomac Grille, he adds: “This is the first time I’ve had work-life balance.”

The night before, he previewed Dōgon’s full menu for the first time during a private tasting with Salamander CEO Sheila Johnson. The duo’s fourth annual Family Reunion is this weekend at Salamander Middleburg, where 40 of his chef friends (plus surprise musicians) gather to celebrate diversity in the hospitality industry. He reveals he first met the billionaire businesswoman six years ago “very randomly,” after delivering a speech at a Bahamas wedding convention. “I was very candidly myself and cursing,” he recalls. “She was the only person who got up at the end, saying ‘You’re real. I like you.’”

Maybe it’s his newest outdoor hobby, or simply the culinary confidence that comes with more years in the kitchen, but the 34-year-old chef appears to be fully at ease and in control as he undertakes his next big project. After his first D.C. restaurant Shaw Bijou famously fizzled fast in 2016, the pressure was on to make Kith/Kin deliver at the Wharf (it did, of course, earning him the 2019 James Beard Award for Rising Chef and critical acclaim for his refined approach to jollof rice, oxtails, and curried goat).

“I just feel more mature and not so obsessive over it, unlike the last time when I was in the public eye. I was still a kid growing up,” he says, of opening his first restaurant at age 26. “This one is super special to me.”

Barbecue greens with candied Cipollini onions, roasted garlic and beef bacon.

He’s amassed a dream team of talent to debut Dōgon, which includes his former Kith/Kin chef Martel Stone and beverage director Derek Brown, the pioneering D.C. mixologist who founded Columbia Room.

“Hoe crab” (plantain hoe cake, shitto “whatever,” aji verde).

Grilled wagyu short rib with red stew jam, “mad” pickles (banchan), and baby greens.

The vision for Dōgon predates Tatiana, going back four years ago when he was researching how big of an impact Banneker made on the nation’s capital. “I was like, ‘this is incredible.’ This Black man was hired by George-fucking-Washington — how good did he have to be at his job to be hired back then at the beginning of time?”

Banneker, a largely self-educated mathematician, astronomer, and urban planner, turned to the starry night sky as a geographical guide.

“D.C. wouldn’t even have a capital without West African science as we know it today. So why not tell the story? All the dishes are inspired by that,” he says.

As far as what Dōgon’s destination one will be, he always leaves that up to the guests; he didn’t anticipate Tatiana’s greatest hits to be its tender short rib pastrami suya or “bodega special” featuring a Cosmic Brownie. (Turns out, no one ended up ordering his hopeful signature: a hot pocket.)

“Honestly, I’m just trying to cook some good food — that’s always my goal,” he says.

Surrounded by swaying willows, views of DCA planes flying in, and sounds of squawking geese on the 18th hole, his randomly-matched golf partner of the day finally realized he was playing with a famous chef the entire time. “Holy shit, I just Googled you,” he says. “You’re the answer on today’s Washingtonian crossword puzzle.”

To which, Onwuachi quipped back: “I’m just an amateur golfer, man.”

Rum cake with vanilla whip and charred fruit.

Carrot tigua (pickled onion, peanut crustacean stew, burnt carrots).

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Washington, D.C

NewDay USA Honors Vietnam Heroes by Hand-Washing Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. as Part of Veterans Day Tribute

Published

5 hours ago

November 2, 2024

Press Room

Initiative is part of NewDay’s mission to serve the military and Veteran communities

WASHINGTON, Nov. 2, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — In the lead-up to Veterans Day, employees from NewDay USA, a national mortgage lending company serving the Veteran community, today traveled to Washington, D.C. on behalf of the NewDay USA Foundation to help hand-wash the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

Coordinated by the National Parks Service, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and surrounding grounds are regularly cleaned and maintained by volunteers who wish to pay tribute to the more than 58,000 servicemen and women who gave their lives during the Vietnam War. The NewDay USA Foundation has been a steadfast supporter, deploying volunteers several times a year for more than a decade to help clean the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, along with other significant memorials and sites in Washington, D.C.

“Joining our fellow citizens in honoring the service of Vietnam Veterans through this unique and very meaningful tradition is an important part of NewDay USA’s mission,” said Rear Admiral Tom Lynch (USN, retired), Executive Chairman of NewDay USA. “As a company dedicated to helping Veterans achieve the American dream of homeownership, we are humbled to participate in this effort to keep the memory of their service and sacrifice alive, especially as we commemorate Veterans Day.”

For the NewDay USA Foundation, this event aligns with its long-standing commitment to support and honor the nation’s servicemembers and their families. Nearly two dozen NewDay employees and leaders, including Rear Admiral Thomas C. Lynch (USN, retired) will participate in the wall washing alongside Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund founder Jan Scruggs.

“As we approach Veterans Day, NewDay USA is honored to support our Veterans by cleaning and maintaining the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, a tradition that reminds us of the sacrifices made by those who served,” said Rob Posner, CEO of NewDay USA. “It’s our privilege to stand alongside local community partners as we preserve and honor the legacy of our nation’s heroes.”

“Maintaining the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is about more than preserving a physical structure; it’s about honoring the sacrifice and memory of those who served,“ said Jan C. Scruggs, founder of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall. “Having companies like NewDay USA join in this solemn responsibility demonstrates the deep reverence our community has for the 58,276 names etched on this sacred wall.”

The NewDay USA Foundation was established to improve the lives of Veterans, service members, and their families. To date, the foundation has provided more than $10 million in scholarships for children of military families and supported over $1 million in grants to hospitals and charities that serve members of the military community. NewDay USA employees have committed more than 5,000 volunteer hours in support of the foundation’s important work since 2014.

To learn more about NewDay and its mission, please visit here.

About NewDay USA
A leader in Veteran mortgage lending for 25 years, NewDay USA has proudly served more than 100,000 Veteran families nationwide. From buying a new home to refinancing, NewDay’s goal is to ensure Veteran families improve their credit and get back on the road to savings to live the lives they always imagined and deserve. NewDay has an industry-leading Government National Mortgage Association (GNMA) record of loan performance with a delinquency rate that is two times lower than the industry average. Today, 95 percent of NewDay USA’s clients are enlisted Veterans.

About the NewDay USA Foundation

The NewDay USA Foundation is committed to supporting Veterans and their families by providing educational opportunities and resources. With a mission focused on empowering military families, the Foundation has awarded over $10 million in scholarships to more than 125 children of servicemembers, including 14 Gold Star children and 74 children of severely disabled Veterans. The Foundation’s initiatives include community service projects and direct support for Veterans, demonstrating its dedication to corporate responsibility and positive impact. The recognition as a finalist for the United States Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s 2023 Citizens Awards underscores the Foundation’s efforts in promoting corporate citizenship and making a meaningful difference in the lives of those who have served the nation.

SOURCE NewDay USA

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Washington, D.C

Wonder women in Washington DC

Published

16 hours ago

November 2, 2024

Press Room

Dressed in a cotton and silk tutu with linen slippers, Belgian dancer Marie van Goethem stands proud, face upturned, and feet in classic ballerina pose. She’s been immortalised for eternity as Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer, a wax sculpture by Edgar Degas. Today revered for being one of his greatest works, Little Dancer wasn’t warmly received by critics and French bourgeois society who called it “ugly”, “repulsive” and oddly, a “threat to society”. All because Marie didn’t fit the society ideal—she was, after all, an “opera rat”, a term given to working-class young dancers with the Paris Opera ballet.

Today, a recast of Marie is one of the highlights at Washington DC’s National Gallery of Art.

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Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer. (courtesy National Gallery of Art)

It speaks volumes that even today women are still often lambasted for not fitting a perfect society ideal. As Marie shows us, it is absolutely alright to stand out from the crowd because history will remember you.

It is my maiden visit to Washington DC, the capital of a country that could soon be electing its first woman President. There, I find many other powerful women, like Marie, whose stories fascinate and delight.

At The National Museum of Women in the Arts, I am reacquainted with that legendary feminist painter, Frida Kahlo. It’s a self-portrait painted for her lover, Russian revolutionary leader Leon Trotsky, during their brief affair. She’s dressed in a pink embroidered skirt, gold jewellery and honey-hued shawl, black hair woven with flowers.

Frida Kahlo, a self-portrait. **(courtesy National Museum of Women in the Arts)**

The revolutionary artist and feminist may be the most famous woman in the museum but hers isn’t the only inspiring work. The museum is the first of its kind dedicated only to women (or those identifying as women) artists, with paintings and sculptures that are big, bold and powerful.

Take Lalla Essaydi’s Bullets Revisited #3, a staged photo where a henna-d model sleeps on bullet casings. “This photograph is to showcase the role of women in revolutions, which often gets ignored. It’s also a way of talking about how the white gaze has impacted perceptions of Arab women,” says our guide, Micah Koppl.

There’s a floor dedicated to heavier work, sculptures in iron and wood because “work by women are thought to be delicate and small”.

The beauty of this museum is that it is all inclusive—there are non-binary artists’ work on display, it features transgender artists during exhibitions, there’s a nursing lounge for mothers, and all-gender bathrooms.

Interestingly, its grandeur is owed to the fact that it sits in what was once a Masonic temple. Elsewhere, on a visit to a functioning Masonic temple, Scottish Rite House of the Temple, what stands out in this all-male bastion is the fact that my guide is a woman. She has no connection to the freemasons and yet, conducts a tour that is informative, knowledgeable and extremely witty.

While on the subject of women breaking the mould, there’s aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, which deservedly pays tribute to this record-setting aviator and pilot. I learn that Earhart was also a trendsetter when on the ground. She designed and wore her own clothes. The line, Amelia Fashions, released in 1933, was revolutionary for its time, being practical, fuss-free and meant for “active women”.

America’s many women icons can be found in museums and institutions across Washington DC.

A tour of the US Capitol takes me to the rotunda with its paintings and heavily decorated ceiling, and the National Statuary Hall. There, the newest statue is of civil rights leader and journalist Daisy Lee Bates. In the rotunda, a white marble sculpture honours three prominent Suffrage pioneers, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.

Tour guide Ann mentions that Rosa Parks (also in the hall) was the first woman to lie in honour in the Capitol when she passed in 2005; her statue was the first full-length statue of an African American.

Rosa Parks' statue at Capitol. — Rosa Parks’ statue at Capitol. **(courtesy Architect of the Capitol )**

Helen Keller is here too, captured as a seven-year-old showing her expression the first time she touched water. The disability rights advocate’s ashes are interred at the Washington National Cathedral.

The Neo-Gothic structure is the second largest church building in the country but perhaps best known for possessing a gargoyle of Darth Vader.

The Episcopal cathedral looks like a traditional religious structure, but offers much for those with a keen eye. In the section titled the “Human Rights Porch”, are small sculptural heads of Mother Teresa, Rosa Parks and Eleanor Roosevelt. This year is important to the cathedral—it marks the 50th anniversary of the first ordination of women as priests in the Episcopal Church, and they hired their first woman stonemason.

As religious structures go, it certainly is unique.

Museums and their food

One of my favourite finds in the city is the Mitsitam Native Foods Café in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, which showcases native foods. Mitsitam offers a taste of native foods, some in new avatars. There is frybread, manoomin (wild cakes) with smoked salmon, bison burgers and hotdogs, wild rice salad and corn pudding. This kitchen is pathbreaking also because it is led by chef Alexandra Strong and sous chef Toshiba Veney—the first all-female team at a Smithsonian museum café.

Right outside the museum I find presidential candidate Kamala Harris staring at me. Given that it is election time, she and Donald Trump are everywhere.

The stretch of road in front of many Smithsonian museums is parked with vans dishing out hotdogs, pretzels and souvenirs. Harris’ face adorns many of the vans, and you can also find it on tees, caps and magnets. Her famous “I’m Speaking” phrase (from the 2020 vice-presidential debate with Mike Pence) is a particular favourite. It may seem like just a cheap souvenir but it is a sign of the time, or possibly of history in the making.

At the Made in Washington store promoting black artists, it is easy to see whom they support—Harris shows up on candles, magnets, coasters, and tea towels.

Like many of the other iconic women in Washington DC, Harris seems set to become a part of the country’s history.

Joanna Lobo is a Goa-based journalist.

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Washington, D.C

Photos from Washingtonian’s 2024 Tech Titans Reception – Washingtonian

Published

1 day ago

November 1, 2024

Press Room

Photos from Washingtonian’s 2024 Tech Titans Reception – Washingtonian

Washingtonian Tech Titans at ilili Restaurant on Tuesday, October 29th, 2024 in Washington. Photograph by Joy Asico-Smith/Asico Photo.

On Tuesday, October 29th, Washington DC’s Tech leaders gathered at ilili Restaurant to celebrate being named as one of Washingtonian’s 2024 Tech Titans! The list features current tech leaders and rising stars in the industry. The cocktail reception brought honorees together to connect, enjoy food and drinks, and of course, get a picture at the highly sought after Washingtonian faux cover photo booth.

President and CEO of Washingtonian, Cathy Merrill opened the evening by congratulating the honorees, and thanking the event sponsors. Verizon’s Mario Acosta-Velez followed with remarks highlighting Verizon’s work in the tech industry and shared information on their new initiatives.

The vibrant atmosphere of ilili created the perfect backdrop for the evening, and guests enjoyed the Lebanese cuisine. ilili’s bar featured PepsiCo products so guests could pick and choose their own mixers. Those who wished to share more intimate chats could sit in the customized PepsiCo or Verizon lounge.

Thank you to our sponsors for making this event possible:

PepsiCo

Verizon

J.P. Morgan

Amazon

Thank you to our venue and vendor partners:

ilili Restaurant

Washington Talent Agency

Mixing Maryland

Lee’s Flower Shop

Photos by Joy Asico-Smith