A traditional Valencian fideuà with sea bass, cuttlefish, monkfish, and prawns. | Scott Suchman Acclaimed Spanish chef Danny Lledó unveils El Taller del Xiquet later this month A new epicurean laboratory of sorts will soon rise right under Glover Park’s one-Michelin-starred tasting room Xiquet. El Taller del Xiquet, the latest project from chef Danny Lledó, will welcome its first guests later this month with a bustling cheese cart, inventive paellas, and unctuous desserts — all served in an a la carte format. Glover Park’s forthcoming El Taller del Xiquet, which translates literally into “Xiquet’s workshop,” will serve almost as the research and development arm of its more formal sibling restaurant located right upstairs. El Taller takes over the ground-floor space formerly occupied by Slate Wine Bar, which previously closed its doors in late 2022 to initially make way for another luxurious tasting room (2404 Wisconsin Avenue NW). Opting to go the a la carte route instead gives El Taller’s guests the freedom of choice, he explains, whether that’s an appetizer, an entree, and dessert, or just some wine and cheese. “At El Taller, we’re giving guests the chance to understand how dishes are first conceived at Xiquet, even if those dishes never quite make the menu upstairs,” says Lledó. Like Xiquet, El Taller is also intimate with just 14 seats. “I love cooking in intimate spaces that allow us to be more purposeful in terms of what we want to do,” says Lledó. “This is not a high volume tapas restaurant — that’s just not who I am as a chef.” Unlike prix fixe Xiquet, Lledó can now offer items that wouldn’t otherwise fit the progression of his set menu. Xiquet never offered a cheese course before, for example, but El Taller will have a cheese cart rolling around the room. “I really love cheese and highlighting the cheese of Spain and the Valencia region,” he says. Scott Suchman Chef Danny Lledó celebrates his native Valencia at El Taller del Xiquet. Other playful dishes include an unusual take on sea bass, sustainably sourced from the Canary Islands. “I grew up in the D.C. area eating salmon gravlax, and wanted to recreate this with another fish,” says Lledó. “We found this beautiful sea bass that actually has a different texture because of its environment.” As such, he’s able to debut a sea bass gravlax at El Taller. Scott Suchman European sea bass is served on brioche toast with capers and lemon caviar pearls — “the way I’d want to eat it,” says chef Danny Lledó. Valencia, the coastal city in Spain his family has called home for generations, was devastated by ravaging floods this fall. Lledó says El Taller grants him the opportunity to help rebuild the livelihoods of the same farmers and fishermen he’s worked with for his entire career. El Taller will also feature the famed paellas the chef is known for, as well as fideuàs, which leverage vermicelli noodles rather than the bomba rice typically found in a paella. El Taller’s Fideuà de Gandia will be served tableside, accompanied by deep-sea Carabineros prawns with cuttlefish, monkfish, and sea bass. “With this new concept, we want to give our diners more options to choose from and take the opportunity to create new things, or repurpose old recipes that never saw the light of day at Xiquet,” he says. For example, dessert at El Taller may come in the form of a chocolate and hazelnut mousse with a berry sorbet — a recipe that Lledó created years ago in Valencia, but has never shown off on a menu before. “I want our guests to experience food the way my people do, but I also want to evolve the menu based on guest preferences,” he says. Offerings are subject to change on a regular basis, highlighting both seasonally available ingredients as well as diner tastes. “I want El Taller del Xiquet to reflect intention, presentation, and quality, without asking you to break the bank,” he says. —Tierney Plumb contributed to this report