FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 27, 2007

NEW RESTAURANTS & DINING NEWS: FALL 2007

DC's dining scene is in for some exciting developments later this year. Here's a look at what's coming soon:

Coming Soon:

• Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck opens The Source, his first fine dining restaurant in DC, at the Newseum complex in early fall. On the restaurant's lower level, diners will enjoy a casual menu served in a "bar and grill" setting. Puck's fine dining cuisine will be showcased on the upper level.
• Eric Ripert has also announced plans to open a new bistro, West End, in the Ritz-Carlton Washington, D.C. The restaurant is expected to open by September.
• Near the Ritz-Carlton, Chef Greggory Hill is closing his namesake restaurant, David Greggory. The restaurant will re-open this fall as Hudson, a showplace for sustainable and locally-procured ingredients. It's located at 21st and M Streets NW in DC's West End.
• Alison Swope, who won acclaim for her Mexican delicacies at Andale, returns to the DC dining scene with a new venture, Restaurant K by Alison Swope. For the new concept, she'll work with McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurants to put together a menu of new interpretations of traditional American favorites. The restaurant will open this fall at 1700 K Street NW.

Now Open:

• The after-hours hipster set has fallen for Lotus Lounge at 1420 K Street NW (202-289-4222, lotusloungedc.com). Asian and Asian-influenced creations like sushi, salads and wraps are served with wine, champagne and organic teas in one of the city's most fashionable new spaces. After dinner, the lounge morphs into a trendy night club, complete with fiber-optic DJ booth.
• The menu at Georgetown's Hook (3241 M St. NW, 202-625-4488, hookdc.com) speaks to what's fresh and local, including seasonal produce and regionally-procured meats. True to the restaurant's name, fish shows up on the menu in various forms, always provided by small, ecologically-responsible fisheries, prepared by 28 year-old Executive Chef Barton Seaver, formerly of Café Saint-Ex and Bar Pilar.

Washington, DC Restaurant Week Returns

Sample the season's freshest flavors at the District's top tables during Washington, DC Restaurant Week, which returns for its summer 2007 edition August 6 through 12. The popular biannual culinary event allows diners to sample three-course, prix-fixe menus at more than one hundred eateries for $20.07 for lunch and $30.07 for dinner.

Among this summer's participants are local favorites like Firefly, Zola and IndeBleu, among others. Diners can also take advantage of the Restaurant Week promotion to try recently-opened restaurants like Café du Parc and Rasika, voted best new restaurant at this year's RAMMY awards. 

Washington, DC Restaurant Week is co-produced by the Washington, DC Convention & Tourism Corporation and Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington. Visit restaurantweekdc.org for more information and to view a list of participating restaurants.

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About Destination DC: Destination DC, the lead destination marketing organization for the nation’s capital, is a private, non-profit membership organization of more than 1,000 businesses committed to marketing the area as a premier global convention, tourism and special events destination with a special emphasis on the arts, cultural and historic communities. Destinationdc.com