Union Market’s Mexican Stalwart Destino Enters a ‘Fun’ Era Under a New Chef | Eater DC

"I found Destino, the nearly three-year-old modern Mexican spot inside La Cosecha food hall (1280 4th Street NE) in Union Market, to be a playful, experimental kitchen led by newly named executive chef Vincent Badiee. Badiee — who has worked at Gravitas, Cranes, Fiola, Eleven Madison Park, and the Restaurant at Patowmack Farm — runs an open, collaborative kitchen with a no-rules approach, calling the experience “fun” and stressing that vegetables are the stars while meat is a supporting actor. His signature absurd-but-delicious beef-and-mango idea evolved into a hard taco of beef tartare topped with both unripe and ripe mango salsa with mezcal, oodles of chives, and white sturgeon caviar, which Destino co‑founder Joshua Phillips calls “as delicious and beautiful as it is ridiculous.” The reinvented menu is organized into plantas, carnes, and dulces: carnes include deconstructed “grandma’s” dishes like chicken and rice served stew-style with a ramen-like broth and a tuna ceviche in aguachile paired with apples, pecans, and squash; plantas offer deconstructed guacamole, a serrano-sesame-coconut salsa trio, multicolored carrots tostada-style, an ensalada of beets, avocados, and ricotta, and enchiladas refined by executive sous-chef Mari Garcia-Moreno; dulces include a layered rice pudding with banana and mango and a chocolate “chocoflan” served with grapes. Cocktails lean Mexican with hibiscus, mezcal, and pineapple, and even an Old Fashioned gets a twist of bourbon, mezcal, piloncillo syrup, and mole bitters. The menu shifts frequently as the team experiments, and a tasting menu described as “approachable luxury” was planned before 2024." - Abi Newhouse