The Dabney

What Sean Brock did for Coastal Southern food, Jeremiah Langhorne is trying to do for the mid-Atlantic. The former chef of McCrady’s in Charleston, South Carolina, dug around old-timey Maryland and Virginia cookbooks to research the menu for his breakout D.C. restaurant. With no gas lines in the kitchen, Langhorne relies almost solely upon live fire. Snapper, rockfish, pork belly, quail, Camembert: You name it, and Langhorne can cook it over fiery embers. Langhorne combines these old-world techniques with a modern chef’s outlook, turning out dishes like grilled chicken wings with fish sauce, duck with kimchi purée, and individual portions of cast-iron–baked cornbread. Langhorne even has a way with breads: The sweet potato rolls with sorghum and brown butter taste like the best Parker House rolls of all time. This historically minded cooking feels at home among the Dabney’s farmhouse vibe, complete with exposed-brick floor and walls, antique mirrors, and paintings of hunting dogs. Sometimes the best new restaurants draw from the oldest traditions.

PRO TIP: It’s possible to score a seat without a reservation. But doing so means arriving just after 5:30 p.m. If you have to wait later in the night, grab a cocktail at the jewel-like Columbia Room next door.

THE DETAILS: Tuesday–Thursday, 5:30–10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 5:30–11 p.m.; Sunday, 5:30–9:30 p.m.