Equinox

Equinox is as mom-and-pop as high-end White House–adjacent dining gets – Todd Gray and wife Ellen Kassoff are the respective chef and manager. The intimacy of the restaurant’s executive staff extends into the menu, which has long eschewed pricey export ingredients in favor of meat, fish, fowl and fruit sourced from the Shenandoah and Chesapeake Bay. That said, while Gray’s ingredients are rooted in the mid-Atlantic, he can cross the pond for cooking inspiration; the duck breast served over black Indian rice is juicy and comforting, the rice pillow soft, and the accompaniment of roasted cherries plucked from the best rural French traditions.