"Chef Reid Shilling puts mid-Atlantic ingredients on a pedestal at his 5-year-old Navy Yard restaurant and raw bar, devoting an entire menu page to credit the dairy, oyster, cattle, and produce purveyors helping build his seasonal dishes at any given time. A seven-course tasting option gives diners a front-row seat of the wood-burning action, with a la carte available too. Highlights include Chesapeake rockfish with Karma Farm carrots, squash blossoms dressed with basil from Shilling’s own on-site garden, and Autumn Olive pork rib-eye sweetened up with honey-poached apricots from Ridgeview Farms. Shilling puts his preservation skills on full display in clear glass jars around the dining room, and bobbing blueberries or blackberries may make their way into a dreamy dessert on any given night. Now there’s even more reason to visit: Shilling recently tapped Michelin-starred Minibar’s former lead chef Sarah Ravitz to lead the kitchen. Shilling’s popular Ampersandwich pop-up recently made a comeback with lip-smacking sandwiches like a Baltimore pit beef." - Tierney Plumb, Emily Venezky
