Movie star Chef Marcus Samuelsson Makes a Large D.C. Comeback

NoMa’s 2-year-old Morrow Resort has a brand new chef in cost: NYC-based Marcus Samuelsson Restaurant Group simply assumed all meals and beverage operations on the 200-room Hilton by Curio Assortment property close to the Union Market district, his crew solely tells Eater.

Marcus DC, one of many three venues Samuelsson will open within the trendy resort this spring, will likely be a “seafood-focused, full-service brasserie” situated proper off the foyer (222 M Road NE). The anchor eating attraction replaces Le Clou, D.C. chef Nick Stefanelli’s bold French vacation spot for frog legs and frisee salads that quietly fizzled out final fall.

For his first hospitality mission within the nation’s capital, Samuelsson attracts “inspiration from the historical past of Black excellence within the arts in D.C.” This isn’t his first rodeo within the space, nevertheless. The Ethiopian-born, Swedish-raised chef made a short-lived DMV debut inside MGM Nationwide Harbor again in 2016, christening the Maryland on line casino alongside different notable names like José Andrés. (Marcus Nationwide Harbor served fried hen, mac and cheese, and native seafood over its year-long lifespan.)

“I’ve cherished the DMV area for a few years and have wished to open in D.C. correct for a while,” he tells Eater by way of e-mail. (He’s presently throughout the globe in Africa, the place he’s checking in on his year-old Ethiopian restaurant there.)

The worldwide restaurateur who helped revitalize Harlem’s eating scene with the 2010 opening of polished consolation meals spot Purple Rooster went on a NY growth tear lately. Arrivals embrace seafood-heavy Hav & Mar in Chelsea and decrease Manhattan’s ultra-glam Metropolis within the Perelman Performing Arts Middle.

Given D.C.’s proximity to Chesapeake Bay waterways, going with a seafood delicacies focus made most sense on the Morrow. “Rising up in Sweden, I’ve eaten my fair proportion of seafood and it’s my go-to consolation meals,” he says. Newly named govt chef Anthony Jones, a part of the opening crew at Miami’s Purple Rooster Overtown in 2020, reunites with Samuelsson at Marcus DC. The Maryland native and Meals Community Chopped champ most just lately led the kitchen at Penn Quarter’s Soiled Behavior.

The Morrow Washington DC

The bounty of the Bay will present up in uncooked, cured, and dry-aged varieties at Marcus DC, which has similarities to what Clyde’s Restaurant Group’s new Cordelia Fish Bar does close by.

“What’s been occurring right here in the previous couple of years has made me excited to be part of the subsequent evolution,” he says. “There are such a lot of nice gamers in meals open in and close by Union Market.”

The booming Northeast neighborhood is now house to different NY hospitality magnates like Stephen Starr (St. Anselm, El Presidente, Pastis) and Keith McNally (Minetta Tavern).

“NoMa felt like the fitting neighborhood, with this unimaginable cross part of historical past, arts and tradition,” he says, shouting out the close by website the place the Beatles performed their first live performance within the U.S. (The long-lasting Washington Coliseum is the place REI’s D.C. flagship retailer now stands.)

Marcus DC’s menu can even carve out room for “premium steaks, revolutionary interpretations of consolation meals classics, and seasonal produce sourced from native farms,” per a press release from his group. It’s “too quickly to share” dish particulars proper now, he says.

The gilded eating room that previously housed Le Clou will get a brand new look from Kamille Glenn, an alum of the identical Rockwell Group that designed his sparkly Metropolis restaurant close to One World Commerce.

Adrian Gaut/Metropolis

Samuelsson can even spearhead the resort’s reimagined rooftop restaurant (in what was Upstairs on the Morrow), an Eleventh-floor cocktail lounge, and personal occasion area. Every venue get a recent new title and distinct menu beneath his watch.

Whereas the Morrow marks Samuelsson’s first brick-and-mortar return to D.C.’s eating scene since 2018, his culinary ties to the nation’s capital run deep. He cooked for President Barack Obama throughout his tenure on the White Home and maintains shut friendships with James Beard-nominated D.C. cooks Angel Barreto and Jerome Grant.

“Every time I [visit] I discover myself winding up at a late dinner someplace that I really like,” he provides, naming U Road establishment Ben’s Chili Bowl as a longtime favourite.

Coming to D.C. looks like house. “Exterior of Ethiopia, the DMV has essentially the most wonderful locations to get pleasure from Ethiopian meals and tradition,” he notes. As host of No Passport Required, a PBS sequence produced by Eater, he devoted a whole 2018 episode to D.C.’s vibrant Ethiopian scene.

Samuelsson’s worldwide portfolio consists of different “Marcus” eating places in Atlanta, New Jersey, the Bahamas, Canada, and Ethiopia, together with Streetbird and Vibe BBQ shops within the U.S. and Bahamas.

The chef is presently within the clouds within the coronary heart of Addis Ababa, visiting his Forty seventh-story Marcus Addis restaurant that debuted final 12 months atop the tallest constructing in East Africa.

“We’re touring [and] having fun with seeing the arduous work the crew put in,” he says. “Africa is such a vibrant meals continent.”