Ellen Yin has been a fixture of the Philadelphia dining scene for more than 25 years with restaurants including Fork, High Street, and a.kitchen + bar. Last year, she won the James Beard Award for “Outstanding Restaurateur.” And now, she’s expanded to DC with a second location of French-inspired, wine-centric a.kitchen + bar in Foggy Bottom’s Hotel AKA Washington Circle. Yin says the move to DC was born from the existing partnership with the hotel, where it’s housed in Philadelphia and which opened here last spring. “It wasn’t that we were really looking to expand to Washington, DC, at that particular moment,” says Yin. “But when we came down and we saw the space and the neighborhood and started to get to know people in the industry, we started really feeling like this could be a community where we feel like we belong.” Chickpea panisse is a popular carryover from the Philadelphia location of a.kitchen+bar. Photograph courtesy High Street Hospitality Group. Executive chef Eli Collins, who’s led the Philadelphia kitchen of a.kitchen+bar for seven years, will oversee the DC one as well. And the majority of the menu will look familiar to anyone who’s visited the original location. One signature is the chickpea panisse, a chickpea flour fritter that’s crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside. It’s served with a roasted squash tahini sauce and roasted carrots. “I‘ve tried to take it off the menu in Philadelphia at times, and it’s very popular and people ask for it,” Collins says.  A rotating fruits de mer platter at a.kitchen+bar. Photograph courtesy High Street Hospitality Group. Oysters are another staple, served with a ginger and jalapeno mignonette or as part of a seafood platter with tuna, scallops, and shrimp. Also carrying over: crispy oyster mushrooms come with a sunchoke miso aioli and a half chicken with roasted cabbage, husk cherries, and salsa verde. Spaghetti nero with little neck clams and a spicy crab broth. Photograph courtesy High Street Hospitality Group. The restaurant aims to incorporate local farms and artisans with some new dishes and seasonal cocktails (although Collins was surprised to find how many farmers at the Dupont Farmers Market come from Pennsylvania). A spaghetti nero dish features little neck clams steamed in spicy Maryland crab broth with some roasted peppers. Collins says it’s a Chesapeake riff on the angry crab pasta at one of his favorite south Philly restaurants, Palizzi Social Club. Meanwhile, local rockfish is served simply with braised white beans, lemon, and turnips. An all-French wine list at a.kitchen+bar showcases low-and-no-intervention bottles. Photograph courtesy High Street Hospitality Group. The wine list is entirely French, aiming to highlight small producers making organic and low- to no-intervention wines. “Over the past 12 years, we’ve become known so much for finding those kinds of gems and natural wines that that really showcase people who are doing things the right way,” Yin says. She notes that DC has a big edge on Philadelphia in sourcing a wider variety of wines, thanks to diverse distribution channels here (compared to Pennsylvania’s government-run liquor system). The open 2,200-square-foot DC space lets in plenty of outside light with a lot of natural elements including light ash wood banquettes, a granite bar, bronze accents, and tons of greenery. A terrace with fire pits for colder months is coming next spring. A.kitchen + bar. 1010 New Hampshire Ave., NW.The post James Beards’ ‘Outstanding Restaurateur’ From Philly Makes DC Debut first appeared on Washingtonian.