Upcoming Events

City Tap House, the craft-beer focused restaurant located at 901 9th Street, NW, 20001, is inviting guests to experience the best selection of European beers without leaving the nation’s capital with their new European Vacation Series.  Each month, from August through October, City Tap House will host an event showcasing the beers from a different region of Europe.  Craft beer aficionados will not want to miss “Mussels and Waffles and Beer, Oh My!” on Thursday, September 3, as well as “City Tap Haus” from Thursday, October 1 to Sunday, October 4.  All events are free to enter, and open to the public.  For more information about these events please visit: http://www.citytaphousedc.com. 

Graffiato and Kapnos Taverna are celebrating the symbolic end of summer with a pair of fixed-price seasonal feasts this Friday throughSunday, September 4-6.

• At Graffiato, Mike Isabella and chef de cuisine Jose Adorno are serving up an Italian BBQ dinner featuring beef brisket, Chinatown ribs, cacio e pepe, baked white beans, artichoke coleslaw and rotol for $25 a person.

• At Kapnos Taverna, guests can feast on a crab roast platter which comes with grilled king crab leg, crispy soft shell crab, "Old Bay" steamed Maryland blue crab, Maryland blue crab keftedes and lump crab imperial. The platter is served with assorted Greek sides and serves 2-4 people for $85. 

As an added bonus, guests can enjoy the crab roast platter on Kapnos Taverna's brand new patio, opening this week.

Epicurience Virginia returns Labor Day weekend 2015 in the East Coast’s premier wine region, Loudoun County, giving visitors a chance to savor the flavors of Virginia finest food and wine. This year, meet Top Chef and Top Chef Masters contestant, and cookbook author chef Bryan Voltaggio who will headline the chef demonstration pavilion on Sept. 5th at Morven Park in Leesburg.  Tickets for Epicurience Virginia are $85 for general admission and $145 for the VIP experience. For all  Epicurience Virginia updates, visit www.epicvirginia.com  and follow us at @EpicurienceVA and on Facebook.

On Capitol Hill, Ambar, the nation’s capital’s first Balkan restaurant, located at 523 8^th Street, SE, 20003, offers a fixed price brunch of unlimited small plates and free-flowing cocktails Saturday and Sunday, from 10 AM to 3:30 PM.  Priced at $35 per person, excluding tax and gratuity, guests can enjoy an all-you-can-eat selection of mezze, soups, salads, sandwiches, egg dishes, pastry & crepes and sweets along with three distinctive brunch cocktails.  Bottomless Brunch must be ordered by the entire table. One might wish to start with some of Ambar’s most popular dishes including Balkan Salad, tomato, peppers, cucumber, onions and aged cheese; Egg BLT, and the Almond & Walnut Crusted Fried Chicken Sandwich with spring mix and apple-wasabi slaw.  Those looking for breakfast fare options will want to consider the Eggs Benedict served on an English muffin with ajvar, prosciutto and Kajmak sauce; the Salmon Omelet or Prosciutto Omelet; Poached Pear Waffle with house-made caramel sauce, or the Steak & Eggs, sirloin served with homemade fried potatoes and chimichurri sauce, and the Balkan Scrambled Egg with red & yellow peppers, onion, aged cow cheese served with homemade potatoes.  Ambar also serves Ham & Cheese or Roasted Mushroom Crepes, plus two types of savory pie, Cheese, with cucumber yogurt and ajvar emulsion, and Meat made with ground pork & beef and marinated pepper. Ambar’s brunch menu is complemented by a bottomless supply of featured cocktails such as the Traditional Mimosa; Bloody Mary and the Ambar Mimosa with Champagne and peach puree.  Ambar is also home to Washington’s first Rakia Bar with over 30 varieties of Rakia, a popular Balkan alcoholic beverage produced by the distillation of fermented fruit.  For additional information please call (202) 813-3039 and visit http://www.ambarrestaurant.com. 

El Centro D.F., with two locations in the district, serves up all-you-can-eat authentic Mexican brunch on Saturday and Sunday.  Brunch is offered from 10 AM to 3 PM at the Georgetown and 14^th Street locations.  Priced at $35 per person (tax and gratuity not included), guests can enjoy an endless selection from the entire brunch menu, with options such as Jalapeño Beef & Chorizo Slider with Chihuahua cheese, avocado, pickled jalapeno and aji Amarillo aioli; Buttermilk Pancakes with fresh berries, queso requeson and orange tequila marmalade; Bacon, Egg and Cheese Tacos served with Chihuahua cheese and scallions; Fried Egg Divorciados smothered in red and green salsa with chorizo and black beans, as well as the Breakfast Enchilada with scrambled eggs, morita bean sauce and chorizo.  Bottomless brunch drinks, such as the Mimosa, Michelada, Bloody Maria, El Centro Margarita and choice of seasonal Aqua Fresca cocktails, complement the unlimited brunch offering.  The all-you-can-eat brunch menu must be ordered for the entire table.  El Centro D.F. is located at 1819 14^th Street, NW, 20009.  For reservations please call (202) 328-3131. El Centro Georgetown is located at 1218 Wisconsin Avenue, NW, 20007.  For reservations at the Georgetown location, please call (202) 333-4100.  For further information, please visit the websites at http://www.richardsandoval.com/elcentrodf and http://www.richardsandoval.com/elcentrogtown.

Located in the lively 14^th Street neighborhood at 1825 14^th Street, NW, 20009, Masa 14 serves colorful Latin-Asian cuisine to brunch-goers on both Saturday and Sunday. A prix fixe brunch is available in the main dining room from 10 AM to 3 PM for $39 (tax and gratuity excluded, with the last seating at 2 PM).  It includes an unlimited selection of brunch drinks full of seasonal flavor such as the Traditional Mimosa, Masa Mimosa, Lychee Bellini, Bloody Mary, Bacon Bloody Mary and Lemon Lager.  The menu features a selection of Salads, Eggs and Such, Sandwiches, Sweets and Sides, including Pork Belly Benedict with spicy curry potato cake and chipotle hollandaise; Chilaquiles, corn tortillas, chorizo, queso cotija and soft scrambled eggs; Smoked Chicken Hash with caramelized onions, chilies, chipotle hollandaise, yucca and poached egg; Fruit & House-made Granola with citrus yogurt and blood orange syrup, as well as the Crispy Smoked Brisket Bun with hoisin BBQ, pickled onion, toasted sesame and cilantro.  This special brunch offer must be ordered for the entire table.  Brunch can also be ordered a la carte for a light bite and prices range from $4 to $13 per dish.  For more information or reservations, please call (202) 328-1414 or visit www.richardsandoval.com/masa14.

Situated next to the Gallery Place/Chinatown metro, Zengo, located at 781 7^th Street, NW, 20001, offers Bottomless Brunch on Saturday and Sunday, from 10 AM to 3 PM.  Priced at $39 per person and $10 per child under 10 (tax and gratuity excluded), guests can enjoy an all-you-can-eat selection of ceviche, sushi, and salads, dim sum and antojitos, and brunch plates along with seven distinctive brunch cocktails.  Bottomless Brunch must be ordered by the entire table and the menu is offered exclusively for the prix-fixe service.  The unlimited brunch menu includes tempting small plates such as Shrimp Ceviche with coconut, charred pineapple, red onion, basil and bonito flake; Thai Chicken Empanadas with chile poblano, oazaca cheese and mango salsa; Achiote-Hoisin Pork Arepas, corn masa, avocado and crema fresca.  Additional brunch plates include Harris Ranch Beef Barbacoa Hash with poached egg, potato, rajas, and caramelized onion; Bacon & Scrambled Egg Steamed Buns with salsa verde, Oaxaca cheese and house-cured bacon, as well as Hanoi Pandan Waffles with strawberry-guava sauce and whipped cream.  Zengo’s brunch menu is complemented by bottomless featured cocktails such as the Bloody Mary, Bloody Maria, and Sake Sangria, as well as four types of mimosas: Mimosa Traditional, Passion Fruit Mimosa, Guava Mimosa and the Pomegranate Mimosa. Additionally, signature cocktails are available from the full menu for an addition $5 per cocktail. For reservations or additional information please call (202) 393-2929 or visit www.richardsandoval.com/zengodc.

Brothers Piter and Handry Tjan, the co-executive chefs at Sushiko, located at 5455 Wisconsin Avenue, Chevy Chase, 20815, are pleased to debut a mini-omakase menu (mini chef’s tasting menu) for the fall.  It is five courses and includes two small dishes, a sashimi course followed by a nigiri course ending with dessert, for $50 per person (tax and gratuity not included). The mini-omakase does not require an advance reservation, and will rotate weekly to showcase the finest fish and ingredients available for an unforgettable dining experience.  It will be available during the months of September and October exclusively during dinner service throughout the restaurant, in addition to the $90 nine-course omakase menu, and the $60 sushi-only omakase menu served at the sushi bar.