AURAS Design is celebrating its 40th anniversary. It’s the perfect occasion to realize a project that has been in the back of my mind for at least half that time. Taste of the Decade is a compendium of recipes from the Washington, D.C. area’s best restaurants—or at least they were 20 years ago. Some are still in existence, many chefs are still in town, and most of the recipes are still worth making at home.
In 1990, Mark Beavers and Mary Jo Shapiro, clients of AURAS at the American Bus Association, approached us about helping on a charity project called Taste of the Nation. AURAS’ small part of that first year was to create a program cover. It was such a worthwhile event that we wanted to really pitch in. The following year we developed all the materials for the local event. Being an inveterate foodie, I thought it would be fun to include a recipe booklet of the samplings as a souvenir for attendees and encourage them to return the following year.
Over the next decade, we produced the theme, graphics—and a recipe book—for the event, which was held in Union Station’s Grand Concourse and attracted hundreds of people each year. Not every restaurant involved provided a recipe for the souvenir book—and I have vivid memories of sampling some dishes that I wish I could include here—but most did.
In 2001, the last year we were involved, the D.C. event was at the Reagan International Trade Center. The Taste events across the country had expanded, and the national sponsor created marketing materials. That left us to design only a few materials—unfortunately, not a recipe book—which is too bad because there were a stellar array of new restaurants. But we did produce ten years’ worth of recipe books with more than 370 dishes from more than 200 chefs at 150 restaurants in the Washington, D.C. area.
The ’90s was a critical decade for the evolution of eating out in the D.C. area. It was once considered a backwater of fine dining. Still, chefs such as Jean-Louis Palladin at the Watergate, creating his version of Nouvelle Cuisine, and Nora Poullian at Restaurant Nora, with her farm-to-table aesthetic, were creating contemporary menus as exciting and original as anywhere in the country.
Regional cooking from Susan McCreight Lindeborg, Jeffery Buben, Terrell Danley, and Jeff Tunks; New American menus from home-grown chefs Bob Kinkead, Jeff Black, Carol Greenwood, Michel Richard, and Todd Gray; and authentic and fresh takes on international cuisines from Roberto Donna, Kazuhiro Okochi, Alison Swope, and Mary Richter all expanded our dining experiences. By the beginning of the 21st century, D.C. became a destination for good food and fine dining. And these chefs, plus many more, participated in our local Taste events.
Many of the restaurants in this book no longer exist. But it is interesting to follow the career paths of many chefs throughout the decade, tracking their stints at different restaurants in D.C. Some of the celebrity chefs, like Jean-Louis Palladin, Michel Richard, and Robert Kinkead, have died.
Many of the restaurants are still serving today. The Occidental Grill remains as popular as it has ever been. Equinox, Sushi‑Ko, Carlyle Grand Café, and Perry’s—along with quite a few more—continue to serve their eclectic, intriguing menus in a competitive restaurant scene slowly recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chefs have grown into their own restaurants. Today, Carole Greenwood heads Buck’s Fishing & Camping; Cathal Armstrong helms a mini-empire of restaurants, including Kaliwa on the Wharf as well as his signature in Alexandria, Restaurant Eve; former White House chef Frank Ruta continues serving his Modern American menu at Annabelle; and Jeff Black has expanded beyond Black’s Bar & Grill to eight others all around D.C., from Republic in Takoma Park to Pearl Oyster Dive in the 14th Street Corridor. Many Taste of the Nation alums are still pushing the envelope of great dining in town.
