Lutèce

Lutece opened in February 2020 at 1522 Wisconsin Avenue NW, in the Georgetown space that used to hold Cafe Bonaparte, and it is small - a snug room built for a neighbourhood rather than an occasion, even though it has become an occasion restaurant. It is part of The Popal Group, the family business behind Lapis in Adams Morgan and Pascual on Capitol Hill, and it is led by chef-partner Matt Conroy, a Food & Wine Best New Chef who won a Michelin star at Oxomoco in Brooklyn, alongside pastry chef Isabel Coss. The cooking is modern seasonal French, poured against a natural-wine list, and the recognition has been broad: a place on the New York Times list of the most exciting restaurants in America, a top ranking in Washingtonian's 100 Very Best Restaurants, and a listing in the Michelin Guide. The Infatuation's Thomas Rose has written that it spins the rigid recipes and thousand-year-old techniques that define French cooking into a menu full of genuine surprises.

The reason it matters here is the depth of the non-alcoholic programme, which goes well past a couple of house sodas. Bar manager Megan Coyle curates a roster of zero-proof cocktails that can be ordered at the bar a la carte or taken through the tasting experience, and the restaurant offers a full Sans Alcool pairing at $55 - a genuine parallel to the wine pairing rather than a discount version of it. That pairing is built on serious non-alcoholic bottles: Jorg Geiger's Mirabellengold sparkling, made from mirabelle plums rather than dealcoholised wine, and Oddbird's Blanc de Blancs Chardonnay. Named zero-proof cocktails on the list have included the Defanged Chupacabra, built on agave syrup, grapefruit and picante spices, and Indulgence in Moderation, made with non-alcoholic vermouth, honey and almond.

Practical notes worth having. Lutece is dinner-only, from 5pm, seven nights a week, closing at 9pm Sunday to Thursday and 10pm on Friday and Saturday. The room is genuinely small, so reservations matter, and the bar is the place to sit if you want the zero-proof list a la carte rather than as a pairing. It sits on the upper Wisconsin Avenue stretch of Georgetown, a walk up from the waterfront.