It happened again. Bon Appetit magazine is recognizing the D.C. region’s food scene on its 50 Best New Restaurants List, with H Street neighborhood “Indian-ish” spot Daru and Rockville’s Z&Z Manoushe Bakery making the cut this year.

The magazine praised Daru co-owner and bar manager Dante Datta for excellent cocktails (“creative without feeling overly serious”), particularly the Chai-teani, a rum, masala chai, and cacao cream confection that’s “a refreshing rejoinder to the espresso martini trend.” Chef and co-owner Suresh Sundas got similarly heaping accolades for crafting Daru’s “thoughtful and cheeky” offerings that fuse Indian flavors with other cuisines and locally-grown food. For example: Bon Appetit especially loved the “richly-spiced black daal,” with an oozy pillow of burrata cheese, “without a doubt the best use of the cheese we came across this year.” High praise indeed. 

This isn’t Daru’s first star turn in the D.C. restaurant world. The restaurant and bar, which was announced in 2019, finally opened during the pandemic after a quick pivot from a drinks-centric establishment to more of a neighborhood restaurant. Since then, it snagged a RAMMY award for best new restaurant in D.C., and it also got a Michelin Bib Gourmand recognition — the honorific given to restaurants of exceptional quality at a lower price point than Michelin-starred spots.

“We spent a lot of time in the neighborhood during the pandemic while the restaurant was being built out,” Datta told DCist around the opening of the restaurant.“We realized how many families were here, so we thought a neighborhood restaurant would be a better fit than a nightlife-style cocktail bar.”

Up in Rockville, Z&Z Manoushe Bakery has been serving up manoushe, a type of Palestinian flatbread, topped with all kinds of delicious things — think za’atar, labneh, traditional cheeses and more — since last fall. The family-run business, led by brothers Johnny and Danny Dubbaneh, comes after years of building a customer base at the Foggy Bottom farmers market, and success selling the flatbread in Whole Foods stores across the mid-Atlantic.

Basically: Bon Appetit loved the bread. “The manoushe emerge puffed and blistered from the saaj, a traditional convex metal griddle, and come with toppings that range from the expected to the inventive,” the magazine said. “If you have a hard time deciding, go ahead and overorder; you’ll be thankful for leftovers later.” 

Many other restaurants in D.C. have taken their turns in the BA new restaurant spotlight. Maydan, Ellē, and The Line hotel got the nod in 2018; Himitsu, Timber Pizza, Pineapple & Pearls made the list in 2017; Bad Saint, The Dabney, and Tail Up Goat were tapped in 2016; and Thip Khao got in in 2015. It all started when the magazine elevated Rose’s Luxury as its best new restaurant of the year in 2014 — remember those lines? — and named D.C. its restaurant city of the year in 2016.