WASHINGTON 鈥� When Bon App茅tit named D.C. 2016鈥檚 , no one was more surprised than the magazine鈥檚 editor-in-chief, Adam Rapoport.
That鈥檚 not to say he thought the town鈥檚 chefs and eateries didn鈥檛 deserve the designation. Rather, he was shocked by how much the city鈥檚 culinary landscape had changed.
鈥淲hen I grew up in D.C. in the ’70s and ’80s, there were not a lot of promising options in the restaurant-scape,鈥� said Rapoport, a D.C. native and graduate of Woodrow Wilson High School.
His most memorable dining experiences were going to Yenching Palace in Cleveland Park for Chinese food or venturing downtown to Duke Zeibert鈥檚 for steak and potatoes.
鈥淏ut yeah, there weren鈥檛 a lot of interesting restaurants happening at the time and it鈥檚 come just a tremendous way since then.鈥�
In the past several years, chefs, innovators and those in the culinary industry have been eagerly peeling away聽the 鈥渟teakhouse鈥� label that long defined D.C. dining. Warehouse pop-ups replaced stuffy dining rooms, ramen overtook聽rib eyes 鈥� and others took notice.
In response to the city鈥檚 uptick in neighborhood eateries, wrote in 2014, 鈥渢he future of dining in Washington, D.C., has arrived.鈥� Later that year, named Rose鈥檚 Luxury the best new restaurant in the country.
This year, Columbia Heights’ Filipino restaurant Bad Saint .
鈥淚t鈥檚 been a cumulative effect,鈥� Rapoport said about the city鈥檚 shift into the culinary spotlight.
鈥淵ou have these sort of small, independently owned and run restaurants doing really creative food with a very sort of welcoming environment 鈥� unpretentious, but yet a high level of cooking that people are willing to line up for. 鈥� It used to be that ambitious food was limited to white tablecloths and having to reserve a month ahead of time and that鈥檚 no longer the case, and that鈥檚 a really refreshing point we鈥檙e at in our food world right now.鈥�
D.C.鈥檚 new dining identity has a lot to do with millennials. Rapoport says younger diners are more adventurous eaters and they spend more money dining out than other generations.
鈥淟ike I said, when I was growing up, I think D.C. probably was a more conservative town in that regard,鈥� he said.
While the District may be leading the charge, it聽isn鈥檛 the only place where food is experiencing a renaissance of sorts. Rapoport took the helm at Bon App茅tit six years ago, and in that time has seen the industry go from trivial to trendy.
鈥淵ou look at chefs now and they鈥檝e got their skinny black jeans and tattoos,鈥� Rapoport said.
鈥淔ood has become cool. People have always loved food, obviously, but it never had that cool factor until recently.鈥�
Listen to the full interview with Adam Rapoport here:聽
