Esquire has a long history of taste making, and its list of the Best New Restaurants in America, 2024 is filled with places we'd like to try that spans coasts. Many of the picks include restaurants in major cities like Chicago, New York and Los Angeles, but luckily, the list includes one from an in-demand chef that's local to Washington, D.C.
RECOMMENDED: Yelp named these Washington, D.C. spots to its list of the best new restaurants of 2024
The list isn't ranked, and the authors of the list write that every restaurant included "nudged us to think in a new way about the weaving, wandering course of 'American food.'" Dōgon, the Afro-Caribbean spot from decorated chef and restaurateur Kwame Onwuachi, made the list. Located inside the ritzy Salamander Washington DC hotel, Dōgon marks Onwuachi's return to the District after opening Tatiana in New York's Lincoln Center, which is the hottest reservation in the city at the moment.
At Dōgon specifically, Esquire writer Omar Mamoon was particularly taken with the menu from Onwuachi and chef de cuisine Martel Stone, which "tells a story about the cuisines of the African diaspora—and the city itself." He points to the berbere marinated roast chicken and jollof rice as a stand-out nod to both Onwuachi's Nigerian heritage and the Ethiopian community in D.C. (the District is home to the most Ethiopian people outside of Africa). He also highlighted the hoe crab, "a dish in which picked plump pieces of the blue crustacean are stuffed back into a shell (hello, D.C.), topped with a spicy shito crunch (oh hey, Ghana), and served with roasted plantain hoecakes (sup, South!) as well as a creamy aji verde (we see you, Peru)." Take a look at some of the dishes:
Take a look at the Esquire's full list of the Best New Restaurants in America, 2024 here and below:
Esquire's Best New Restaurants in America, 2024:
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Four Kings, San Francisco (Restaurant of the Year)
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Azizam, Los Angeles, CA
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Budonoki, Los Angeles, CA
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Camélia, Los Angeles
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Mae Malai Thai House of Noodles, Los Angeles, CA
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Mori Nozomi, Los Angeles, CA
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7 Adams, San Francisco, CA
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Charlie’s Napa Valley, St. Helena, CA
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Alma Fonda Fina, Denver, CO
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Dōgon, Washington, D.C.
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Itamae AO, Miami, FL
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Little Sparrow, Atlanta, GA
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Maxwell’s Trading, Chicago, IL
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Acamaya, New Orleans, LA
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Oun Lido’s, Portland, ME
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Vecino, Detroit, MI
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Vinai, Minneapolis, MN
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Le Veau d’Or, New York, NY (Comeback of the Year)
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Sailor, Brooklyn, NY
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Demo, New York, NY
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Four Twenty Five, New York, NY
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Naks, New York, NY
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Penny, New York, NY
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Tolo, New York, NY
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Hellbender, Queens, NY
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Wildweed, Cincinnati, OH
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Amy’s Pastelillos, Philadelphia, PA
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Bastia, Philadelphia, PA
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River Bar, Westerly, RI
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Bintü Atelier, Charleston, SC
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Kultura, Charleston, SC
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St. Vito Focacceria, Nashville, TN
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Mābo, Dallas, TX
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Late August, Houston, TX
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Atoma, Seattle, WA
- Hot Stuff, New Orleans, LA (Bathroom of the Year)