Kinship

Kinship is the feeling of being close or connected to others, a sensibility warmly cultivated at Eric Ziebold’s award-winning restaurant of the same name. He operates it with his wife, Célia Laurent, whom he met while they were both working at Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry. Located on the southern edge of Washington, D.C.’s Shaw neighborhood, the Michelin one-star restaurant sits above its sister restaurant, Métier, which also holds a Michelin star. “I think of them both as destination restaurants, but each one is a different type of experience,” says Ziebold. “I’ve always seen Kinship as approachable fine dining.”

Which is to say, it is extravagant by any standard. Since opening in 2015, the 55-seat restaurant with a 10-seat bar has become renowned for indulgences presented with refined elegance. There is a high-low caviar service featuring Kaviari Prestige Osetra with Yukon Gold potato chips cooked to order in clarified butter and whipped Kendall Farms crème fraîche accented with chives. There is the James Beard Award–winning chef’s savory French toast, a luxuriant breakfast-meets-dinner tour de force topped with butter-poached lobster and a velvety toasted sesame mousse, along with cucumbers and marinated rhubarb for balance. And for the table, there is roast chicken concealing a layer of lemon-garlic brioche panade beneath its crackly golden skin, served with warm Parker House rolls.

Over the years, the restaurant has earned widespread acclaim, including a rare four-star review from The Washington Post, a AAA Five Diamond Award, and a place on Washingtonian’s 100 Very Best Restaurants list.