Critically-acclaimed D.C. chef and restaurateur Matt Baker — behind Michelin-starred Gravitas, French-influenced Michele’s, and all-day cafe Baker’s Daughter — is doing injury management after his latest social media habits of reposting inflammatory rhetoric had been documented and uncovered by an area eating influencer on Friday.
Anela Malik of @Feedthemalik captured screenshots of Baker’s latest retweeting historical past of different X customers pushing anti-immigrant agendas, pro-Trump ideology, DOGE-induced authorities layoffs, and linking DEI to airplane crashes. D.C.’s widespread group weblog Washingtonian Issues blew up the carousel, too, which additionally spotlighted Baker’s conduct.
His posting intersects with Baker having hit monetary bother, together with his Michelin-starred tasting room Gravitas in Ivy Metropolis getting slapped with a gross sales suspension discover by D.C.’s Workplace of Tax & Income on February 19. Eater reached out to Baker and to the company for touch upon its standing. Reservations are nonetheless exhibiting availability this week on Tock.
In the meantime, Baker is meant to be opening one other restaurant quickly, Lucille’s Fashionable Chophouse: his first-ever steakhouse set to debut on the bottom flooring of the Kimpton George Lodge this spring.
Instagram person @lemonlimefluenced commented, “as a fired fed, no method will I help any of those eating places.” And large scorching sauce firm @clarkandhopkins, which provides its merchandise to a number of D.C. cafes, wrote it “will NOT be participating [Baker’s] locations ever once more.” “Of us don’t get to revenue off the identical communities they select to marginalize,” stated meals journalist @Matt_Lardie. And D.C. chef Rock Harper together with sommelier Nadine Brown additionally endorsed Malik’s submit.
Baker’s eating places Michele’s and Baker’s Daughter have anchored the foyer of downtown’s Eaton lodge since 2021. Eaton, an brazenly progressive model that launched in 2017 with a broadly identified “anti-Trump” stance, responded to the social media firestorm surrounding its star chef with a assertion on Friday, saying the homeowners are “deeply upset” by the character of the content material circulated by Baker on X, which doesn’t align with Eaton’s values or ideas. Eater has reached out to the lodge group for extra data.
In response to the spotlighting of his on-line conduct, Baker posted on Instagram Monday, claiming his posts had been “inconsiderate,” and “sincerely” apologizes to anybody he’s harm.
“I don’t condone hate or discrimination in any type,” continues the assertion from Baker, who says he does “not help” concentrating on immigrants or folks of coloration. He additionally backpedals on seemingly backing the mass firing of federal staff, who he says “contribute a lot to our metropolis.”
