Bon Appétit Picks DC as its Restaurant City of the Year for 2016

WASHINGTON, DC — We all know how lucky we have it in terms of restaurants in the D.C. area, but influential food magazine Bon Appetit says we don't know the half of it -- they've named Washington, D.C. its 2016 Restaurant City of the Year.

The magazine, which has 1.5 million subscribers, praised D.C. for having perhaps the best up-and-coming dining scene in the nation, noting that it had named three D.C. restaurants -- Bad Saint, The Dabney and Tail Up Goat -- as among the 50 finalists for America's Best New Restaurants.

"Yes, D.C. has long been a city that could out power-lunch any place in the country, and great meals could be had at many of the big-box restaurants in the center of town," noted Bon Appetit writer Andrew Knowlton. "But now D.C. has more than that: It finally has a ton of great neighborhood restaurants. And they are sprouting up in areas that you would not have imagined ten years ago—neighborhoods like Shaw, Columbia Heights, Barracks Row, and Petworth."

Knowlton went on to say that D.C. is "bubbling with momentum," noting that exciting restaurants seem to be popping up all over town with regularity -- D.C. seems to have gone from a town totally obsessed with politics to one that seems to be just as obsessed now with food.

The article adds that the restaurants in D.C. seem to share in the quality of "fearlessness," with chefs and restaurateurs "simply taking their passions and diverse backgrounds and turning those into the restaurants of their dreams."

Now's a good time to get out and experience the D.C. food scene: the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington is hosting the annual Restaurant Week in the D.C. area starting this month and running through Aug. 21. Participating restaurants are offering three-course meals for a heavily discounted price, so book your tables now.

Image via Bon Appetit