Here’s some good news (in 2020) for the District’s food scene: Four local restaurants and chefs have been named in Esquire’s “23 Best New Restaurants in America” list for the year. That’s a slight step up from 2019, when three D.C. restaurants and chefs made the list (though 14th Street eatery Seven Reasons topped that edition).

Esquire’s food and drink editor Jeff Gordinier and Kevin Sintumuang, the culture and lifestyle director, traveled the country from November 2019 to March 2020 to start compiling this year’s list. But as Gordinier writes, “It’s an understatement to say that 2020 was different.” The pair had to improvise and decided to road-trip it the rest of the year — with Sintumuang covering restaurants from Brooklyn to the West Coast and Gordinier going south to cover D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, eating on patios and ordering takeout all the way.

But why even rank the best new restaurants in a year when “the best” of any category might as well have a giant asterisk next to it?

“Well, we’re doing it as an expression of support—love, really—for the chefs and bartenders and servers and dishwashers and maître d’s who are fighting that fight every day,” Gordinier writes. “We have decided to celebrate them, and we’ve done that by meeting them where they are in the midst of this crisis.” The critic doesn’t lay out his exact criteria for the rankings — what makes a No. 1 versus a No. 2, for example — but he does note that diners won’t find any “fancy tasting menus” on the list, as it’s all about the food that tells stories of “urgency and beauty.”

This year’s D.C. game-changers are also joined by Baltimore’s NiHao and Adarra in Richmond (Nos. 4 and 22 on the list, respectively), along with restaurants in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and others.

So, which District restaurants made the list?

11. Piccolina

Do you like bread? Good. Bread is king at this 11th-ranked all-day café. “The little sister to chef Amy Brandwein’s Centrolina, hums with a laid-back spirit of spontaneity, specializing in the à la minute char of a wood-fired oven,” writes Gordinier. The mushroom pizza and melt-in-your-mouth porchetta panuzzo stand out at this CityCenter spot from Brandwein, a four-time James Beard Award finalist. 963 Palmer Alley NW

12. Albi (and Yellow)

Michael Rafidi blends Levantine traditions and Maryland flavors at his waterfront spot Albi and its adjacent café Yellow, which come in right after Piccolina at No. 12. “He folds Maryland crab into his labne as a nod to the mid-Atlantic region (creating one hell of a chip dip in the process),” Gordinier notes. The mouthwatering smoked duck hummus is just as impressive as sommelier Brent Kroll’s wine selections. 1346 4th St. SE

Pastry Chef of the Year: Paola Velez

This pastry chef won a RAMMY for her creations at Kith/Kin but has since taken her talents to Compass Rose and Maydan. The 29-year-old has also been TikTok-ing to get through the pandemic (like the rest of us) by sharing delicious recipes with her followers (not like the rest of us). “Paola Velez is not just one of the most skilled young bakers and dessert creators in the country,” says Gordinier, “she’s a leader when it comes to innovating new modes of activism, from registering voters to raising money for social justice.” Compass Rose, 1346 T St. NW; Maydan, 1346 Florida Ave. NW

Rising Star of the Year: Chef Armani Johnson

The Prince George’s County native scored his first executive chef position at ABC Pony in July and hasn’t slowed down since. His playful cooking is what caught the taste buds of the Esquire critics — more specifically, his PB&J doughnuts and crispy lumpia stuffed with burrata and meatballs. Per the the magazine, Johnson “excels at cooking after-school snacks for grown-ups.” ABC Pony, 2 I St. SE

Read the full list at Esquire.