Photo illustration by Emma Spainhoward. Photographs by Ceren Bayrak and Vadim_Orlov/Getty.As we say farewell to 2024 and hello to 2025, it’s time to reflect on the “welcome backs” of this past year. From beloved Zoo animals to a vibey steakhouse, here are four people, places, and things that returned to DC in 2024—and one comeback on the horizon in 2025. Pandas We ended 2023 in a state of sadness over the departure of the National Zoo’s pandas Tian Tian, Mei Xiang, and Xiao Qi Ji. For much of this year, the habitat remained empty, with no sense of when bears could return. Finally, in October, two new pandas Bao Li and Qing Bao, arrived at the National Zoo via the Panda Express. The pair have spent the last two months adjusting to their new home, and the new year will kick off with their debut on January 24. “Both are little celebrity divas in certain ways,” National Zoo veterinarian James Steeil told Washingtonian. “They’re going to fit in great.” RelatedWhat We Know About the National Zoo’s New Pandas, Bao Li and Qing Bao HFStival Once organized by now-defunct radio station WHFS, the Gen X festival started as a picnic in 1990, eventually landing at RFK Stadium. The last event took place in 2011—until this year. IMP resurrected the festival in September, bringing bands such as the Postal Service, Death Cab for Cutie, and Jimmy Eat World to Nationals Park. RelatedCome Out and Play: An Oral History of the HFStival STK The splashy steakhouse first landed on the scene in 2014 as a woman-focused restaurant with the tagline “Not Your Daddy’s Steakhouse.” That iteration remained open for two years before closing. But in March 2024, the steakhouse returned to the Marriot Marquis, maintaining the “Not Your Daddy’s Steakhouse” line while also marketing itself as “the leader in Vibe Dining.” Washingtonian Food Editor Jessica Sidman scoped out the vibes, finding neon signs, throbbing music, and mysteriously, no bathroom inside the restaurant. RelatedDC’s Newest Steakhouse Calls Itself the “Leader in Vibe Dining.” We Went to Party. Chef Kwame Onwuachi The chef behind the Shaw Bijou and Kith and Kin at the Wharf departed DC in 2020 to open New York restaurant Tatiana. This year, the James Beard Award–winning chef made his return to Washington to open Dōgon, an Afro-Caribbean restaurant in the Salamander DC hotel.  “Coming back and creating another restaurant is important to me,” Onwauchi told Washingtonian’s Ike Allen. “I left DC when there was a pandemic. We couldn’t hug people and embrace them—and that’s why I got into the restaurant industry.” RelatedChef Kwame Onwuachi Explains Why He’s Returning to DC And one return we already know is happening in 2025… Donald Trump Photograph by Evy Mages That’s right, in case you somehow missed it, the 45th president will be back in town as the 47th president. Last time Trump was in the White House, he was dining on well-done steak and Heinz ketchup at his hotel—now a Waldorf Astoria—and speaking to a crowd of supporters before they marched into the Capitol on January 6. What will this era hold? Only time will tell. RelatedWhere the Trump Crowd Will Hang Out in DCThe post The Year 2024 in Returns to Washington first appeared on Washingtonian.