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Eater
15 hours ago
- Business
- Eater
Greek Group Balos Announces New Italian Restaurant Downtown
Skip to main content Current eater city: Washington, D.C. Plus, Carmine's marks 15-year milestone and more intel Jun 27, 2025, 9:08 PM UTC Downtown is getting a chic Italian spot from rapidly expanding Balos Restaurant Group. The upscale newcomer will be called Sorella, per a rep, and span nearly 10,000 square feet (1800 M Street NW). Landlord Columbia Property Trust, which is in the midst of renovating the 10-story office tower, confirms the 15-year restaurant lease on the ground floor. While the 'all-new concept' is in the 'very early stages,' the look and menu is going for 'Amalfi Coast' vibes. Co-owners Joe Ragonese, Tom Tsiplakos, and Stefanos Vouvoudakis are best known for Balos Estiatorio, the napkin-throwing Greek hot spot in nearby Dupont (and celebratory site of Washington Capitals NHL star Alex Ovechkin's record-breaking goal). Its New York-styled sibling Bar Angie, which debuted in April in the West End, will soon expand across state lines with the opening of the much-bigger Angie in Arlington, Virginia. Vouvoudakis and Tsiplakos are also behind NY-born For Five Coffee Roasters, which also fuels the restaurants' espresso martini programs. Sorella plans to debut in spring 2026, joining Pret A Manger and Slapfish at the base of the building. Penn Quarter's 750-seat Southern Italian staple Carmine's just turned 15, and to celebrate, chef Glenn Rolnick put a lighter, summery spin on its traditional lasagna. The all-veggie, 'pinwheel' platter feeds up to six and features spinach lasagna sheets from Rafetto's NYC. Carmine's will donate 20 percent of each $37.95 order sold to DC Central Kitchen. A who's-who of D.C. cut a 15-foot-long version this week to commemorate the big birthday. With 20,000 square feet and nine private dining rooms, Carmine's is considered the city's biggest restaurant (425 7th Street NW). Lasagna pinwheels feature sundried peppers, ricotta and mozzarella cheeses, roasted eggplant, basil, and plum tomato sauce. Chicatana, a breakout star in Columbia Heights' crowded taco scene, suffered extensive damage in the late hours of Wednesday night. Per DC Fire, a mechanical fire occurred in the kitchen (with no injuries reported), and the restaurant will remain closed until renovations are completed. The 3-year-old spot, which recently relocated to the nearby 14th Street NW space that formerly housed DC Corazon, caters to daring diners with generous use of ants and grasshoppers — a delicacy of its chef's native Guerrero. Due to its proximity, Italian standby Little's Coco's was also forced to close until Monday, June 30 'to deep clean for smoke.'
Eater
16 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Eater
Sonoma's Breakout Fine Dining Restaurant Enclos Wins Two Michelin Stars
Sonoma fine dining destination Enclos pulled off one of the most difficult feats for a restaurant on Wednesday, June 25: The new spot was awarded two Michelin stars within six months of opening, and it also secured the city of Sonoma its first recognition by the Guide. It's a hotshot debut that isn't the typical path of a Michelin-starred spot. While it's not unheard of for a restaurant to earn one star in its first year, two Michelin stars are typically gained after some time under the belt. (Three stars, meanwhile, is a notoriously difficult achievement that belongs to just a few select restaurants.) Chef Brian Limoges's restaurant was highlighted early on as a strong Michelin contender. In a Bite Curious newsletter in April 2025, San Francisco Chronicle restaurant critic MacKenzie Chung Fegan predicted that Enclos 'absolutely will' bring a Michelin star to Sonoma and suggested readers book a table before that happens. Enclos is the restaurant for the Stone Edge Farm Vineyards & Winery, set within a Victorian home at 139 East Napa Street in Sonoma. The restaurant offers two menus — an 8- to 10-course tasting menu and an a la carte menu in the lounge available only for members of the winery's Collectors Cellar. The menu skews highly seasonal thanks to the Stone Edge Farm and other producers the restaurant works with, for a meal the restaurant calls 'modern California coastal cuisine.' In terms of expectations at Wednesday's Michelin ceremony, Limoges and the Enclos team were reasonably confident they would get one of the Michelin Green Star designations, which rewards restaurants for their sustainable practices. As Limoges explains, Stone Edge Farm owners Mac and Leslie McQuown set the foundation for sustainability in the restaurant through their farm and its MicroGrid, a 'self-contained system of distributed electrical generation and storage' that powers the farm. 'Our late founder Mac was very much into [establishing] the MicroGrid,' Limoges says. 'So that was really special to get that for him and for his family, too.' Likewise the chef himself has worked in multiple Michelin-star kitchens — Atelier Crenn (then a designated two-Michelin-starred restaurant, now with three stars), Quince (three stars), Birdsong (one star in its first year, then two stars in later years), as well as Saison (two stars) and Angler (one star). Although Limoges acknowledges that he had given consideration to the prospect of acquiring Michelin stars, in the aftermath of the two-star designation he says he believes the Enclos team's achievement was less about that mission and more about the fundamentals of hospitality in a new restaurant. 'While it was certainly our goal, in the back of my head, of course — my goal is to eventually get three with a Green Star, to get all of it — in the short term, we just wanted to focus on our guests and hope that Michelin would recognize us. And I think that was the right approach,' he says. 'I don't necessarily know that it's a tangible goal,' Limoges says of aiming for Michelin stars. 'I mean, you can map it out, 'Hey, this is our goal.' [But] I don't think that it's practical to do that.' For a moment at the California Michelin Guide ceremony, it almost looked like a star designation wasn't going to happen for the Enclos team. The new one-starred establishments were announced, as well as the returning one-star restaurants, but Enclos was nowhere to be seen. But in a twist, the host pulled Limoges onstage to give him the Green Star for Enclos, only to follow that up with the announcement that the restaurant also earned two Michelin stars. 'Accepting the Green Star was really special, a lot of emotion there,' Limoges says. 'And then the one-two punch [of the announcement] — I was just really happy for our team, because we rolled in with nine people, our owners, our chefs, and my wife, and so to be able to celebrate with them within eyeline, it was awesome. It was really cool.' Later, the moment was made all the sweeter: Limoges shares that they closed the restaurant for the night so the team could hold a watch party of the ceremony's livestream. They filmed their reaction and sent the video over to the group at the ceremony. Reflecting on the designation, Limoges recalls conversations with the team over the tiniest details — in one case, whether the smell of a certain lotion was 'too much' — and all of the things they 'nitpick' daily to construct a special experience for diners. 'We have some really, really talented people,' Limoges says. 'We also have some people who have never worked at a Michelin-starred restaurant, but are very eager and hungry and believe in what we are doing.' He adds: '[The stars] reaffirm all those little things, and I think that we're more confident in what we're putting out, and it allows us to grow further because we're not second-guessing our decisions.' See More: San Francisco Restaurant News
Eater
18 hours ago
- Business
- Eater
Newest Charleston Restaurants Openings to Know Right Now, June 2025
Having trouble keeping up with all the new openings in Charleston and the Lowcountry? Here's what opened in May and June. Sorghum & Salt sat at 168 Coming Street for over eight years, but now it sits just one block over at 168 St. Philip Street in a newer, grander space. The menu, created by chef-owner Tres Jackson, still focuses on local products, offering options for a four- or six-course tasting menu. However, the establishment now features more seating and a full bar. Recent menu items include a Royal Red shrimp with kimchi beurre blanc, summer squash with a green mole, and a sea scallop with hazelnut butter and red miso. The battle for the best croissant in town heats up with the opening of Grit Bakery from baker Allison Anspach. After graduating from Tulane University, Anspach joined a vegan bakery in New Orleans, making bread. She attended culinary school in San Diego, thinking she might branch out into desserts, but she discovered she really enjoyed working with dough. Anspach and her husband, John Nagler, relocated to the Lowcountry, and she decided it was time to open her own bakery. Anspach hopes Grit, located at 601 Meeting Street, will become a neighborhood bakery. 'I would love if customers would stop in on their way home and grab a baguette for dinner or a loaf of bread and maybe a simple breakfast pastry,' she says, 'We like to highlight seasonal ingredients we're getting from Grow Food. And it's super that the menu changes, but the staples stay the same. We will always have a scone. We will always have a plain croissant. We will always a chocolate croissant.' When Bar Copa shuttered, it gave a few friends from Chicago a chance to open their own restaurant. Executive chef Zach Woody, beverage director Noah Kulisek, general manager Josiah Andrist, and chef de cuisine Brandon Andrist recently opened Snow Monkeys at 3297 Maybank Highway. The restaurant combines Japanese flavors with French techniques and a raw bar sensibility. Woody is French trained and most recently worked at Lark at Coterie and Lux at Warehouse. Why Japanese? 'We respect the culture and how they are very perfectionist about food,' says Woody. Kulisek also studied Japanese cocktail crafting while stationed at Okinawa. The menu at Snow Monkeys reads fine dining (for example: marinated octopus, pearled edamame, potato puree, togarashi aioli, tarragon, and chili crunch), but Woody contends that the restaurant is meant to be a more relaxed, sharable style of dining. 'No white tablecloths here,' he says. See More: Carolinas Restaurant News Charleston Restaurant Openings
Eater
18 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Eater
4 Restaurants to Try This Weekend in Los Angeles: June 27
Skip to main content Current eater city: Los Angeles Every Friday, our editors compile a trusty list of recommendations to answer the most pressing of questions: 'Where should I eat?' Here now are four places to check out this weekend in Los Angeles. And if you need some ideas on where to drink, here's our list of the hottest places to get cocktails in town. Los Angeles seems to be teasing us with waves of summer, stretches of long days where the sun beats down and doesn't disappear until 8 p.m. But those who have lived in LA for some time know that the best part of the day is the hours when the sun is waning and it's still warm. It's in those evening hours that bingsoo (Korean shaved ice) jumps to the top of my agenda. At Sul & Beans, tucked into the second floor of MaDang Courtyard, snow-like ice is layered with flavors like taro, green tea, and injeolmi. It's sweet enough to satisfy a dessert craving, but not so sweet that it becomes overwhelming before you reach the bottom of the bowl. Keep an eye out for special seasonal flavors, like corn bingsoo. 621 S. Western Avenue #208-A, Los Angeles, CA 90005. — Rebecca Roland, editor, Eater Southern California/Southwest Jamaican chef Donovan Gray has been running a streetside stand for traditional, drum-smoked jerk chicken in Westchester for two years, where he has gained a loyal following for his reasonably priced, generously piled plates of jerk chicken (sold by the half-chicken with diner's choice of white, dark, or mixed meat), slightly sweet fried festival, stewed cabbage, and allspice-flecked rice and peas. The stand beckons with the smoky, almost nutty scent of the chicken's barky exterior; the only other things sold beyond the jerk plates are a handful of drinks. Don't miss him from Thursday through Saturday: Thursday is a pared-down offering with just jerk chicken and festival, while Friday and Saturday offer the whole shebang. 6921 South La Tijera Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA, 90045. —Nicole Adlman, Eater cities manager As summer kicked off on June 21, it's an ideal time to sip an inventive cocktail or nosh on food from a popular pop-up in the newly converted parking lot patio at Good Neighbor Bar. This Altadena spot exudes pure neighborhood vibes, perfect for friends, families, or any gathering when you're hanging outside. The 21 and up crowd can remain happily sequestered indoors at the bar, which is attached to owners April Langford and Randy Clement's Silverlake Wine shop. It's always fun to explore the menu, which is expertly organized into sections like refreshing highballs (try the summery mezcal Paloma), booze-forward drinks (a hearty mezcal Negroni), sweet tiki-oriented cocktails (rum-blended Puka Puka Punch), and more. They typically schedule food pop-ups (Shucks Oyster Company will appear Friday and For the Win on Saturday evening), so there's not much else to say or recommend, except to start texting, rally a group of friends, and figure out a time to meet. While there, check out Good Neighbor Bar's mural. It's a stunning visual of Altadena's wildfire damage. Langford and Clement are Altadena residents who care very much for their neighborhood, and this depiction is a stunning reminder of what happened, and to keep it in our memory. 2311 Lincoln Avenue, Altadena, CA, 91001. — Mona Holmes, editor, Eater Southern California/Southwest For years, I'd passed by Azuma in Gardena, wondering what the deal was. Walk inside and see a loud, tightly-packed front dining room with a fully open kitchen that gives way into an even louder back area where families and groups can pile into tables. Open the menu and it'll make the Cheesecake Factory blush, with something like a 100 menu items that seem to go over the entire canon of casual Japanese food. Portions here are as big as the Cheesecake Factory, too, with combination or dinner sets large enough for two people to share. The crispy pork tonkatsu curry probably comes with four pounds of food, a pool of thick, meat-studded curry (they throw in bits and pieces of chicken and pork) alongside a small hill of steamed white rice. On top, sliced pork cutlet pieces are ideal for dipping into the curry or the tonkatsu sauce held in standard Bull Dog-brand bottles. Beef teriyaki makes a fine companion, an entire 3/4-inch cut rib-eye steak seared on the grill and dressed with sweet teriyaki sauce. Tempura is fantastic too, crispy and still juicy inside, loaded onto a plate and big enough for the table to share. Azuma is nothing if not fun, a relaxed hangout for Gardena locals who aren't taking the food too seriously, a solid complement to the slightly more precious Otafuku a few blocks away. 16123 S. Western Avenue, Gardena, CA 90247. — Matthew Kang, lead editor, Eater Southern California/Southwest See More:
Eater
18 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Eater
Essential Ice Cream Shops in New York City
Salt and Straw Dining Out in NY Where to find the best classic and less common flavors Summer is the ideal time for ice cream, whether it's regal vanilla, black sesame, or the mayhem of French toast, lox, and pizza flavors. The five boroughs are now home to a variety of ice cream options, including decades-old parlors, hipster creameries, and vegan scoop shops. These are 16 of our favorites. Added to the list is Salt and Straw, Glace by Noglu, and Julia Jeans. Dropped we have Emack and Bolio's, Max and Mina's, Caleta, the Social, and Sweet Dynasty.
