Immigrant Food is in a fascinating place, both literally and figuratively.
Just steps from the White House, which will soon be occupied by a new president with ardent ideas about immigration, the restaurant illustrates the influence of global cuisine, showcasing how immigrants have shaped the American palate.
Téa Ivanovic, the chief operating officer and co-founder, sees the situation as an opportunity, though.
“We’ve had people with MAGA hats, and staffers from both administrations in here and it’s been fine,” she said. “We’ve had conversations with them and I would ask, ‘How do you feel about coming to a restaurant called Immigrant Food?’ The responses are always the same: “They say, ‘Oh, well, we don’t hate immigrants, just the illegal ones.’”
Even so, she was adamant that Immigrant Food is “not a political space,” but instead a business using “gastro-advocacy” to support people who come to this country seeking a better life, “which is the American story,” she said. She plans to continue that approach undaunted as the new administration comes into power.
One thing that will undoubtedly change, though? The turmeric rice and coconut curry chicken, inspired by Kamala Harris’s cultural background, will now be called the Heritage Bowl.
“Calling it the Madame Vice President Bowl won’t be accurate anymore, so we have to change the name,” Ms. Ivanovic said.
Renaming a dish, though, is a small thing compared with larger potential changes coming to the district’s dining scene once the second Trump administration begins. Restaurant owners in the area are watching the transition carefully, considering how proposed initiatives will impact businesses and the local community. Though most of the restaurant owners interviewed for this article have experienced a Trump administration before, they said this time around feels different.
Layoffs of a large number of federal government workers in the area and a mass deportation of undocumented immigrants are both on the table in the coming months. There have been reports that the new administration is considering immigration raids on local businesses in its early days.
Even discussing the proposed changes can feel perilous for business owners, and many local restaurateurs were hesitant to share their feelings for fear of retaliation from diners on either side of the political spectrum. President-elect Trump himself has promised “retribution” for his supporters who have been “been wronged and betrayed.”
“It’s so charged,” said Rainbow Gordon, a co-owner of Florida Ave. Grill, a soul food restaurant opened in 1944. “We support all, as long as it’s to the benefit of everyone.”
Just as political winds are shifting in the city, some of the country’s most successful restaurant names are opening outposts here. This week the chef Marcus Samuelsson announced that he would be helming a restaurant in the Morrow Hotel later this year. And the acclaimed California chef Nancy Silverton opened an outpost of her beloved Osteria Mozza in Georgetown in November.
Keith McNally, the outspoken New York restaurateur, opened a location of his eternally buzzy Greenwich Village restaurant Minetta Tavern in Union Market in December. “D.C. seems to me a serious city,” Mr. McNally said. “I thought I should open my most serious restaurant here.”
In November, Mr. McNally promised to buy a bottle of pricey Champagne for every table at his SoHo restaurant Balthazar if Kamala Harris had won on Nov. 5. He was less partisan recently. “Minetta’s a public restaurant, so of course I’d serve Donald Trump. Or any of the Trumps for that matter,” he said in an email Thursday. “If opposing views can’t come together over food, what hope is there for humanity?”
(But he added, “ A MAGA hat, however, is a bridge too far. I can’t bear baseball caps anyway, regardless of what’s written on them.”)
For many of the district’s older restaurants, like Clyde’s or Old Ebbitt Grill, weathering transfers of power is nothing new. Nick Selimos, 74, a manager at the Monocle since 1974, has seen nine transitions during his tenure at the longstanding haunt of politicians and Hill staffers. According to Mr. Selimos, the key for a Washington restaurant is to have “no political beliefs” and “treat everyone the same.”
“We’ve been through so many transitions of power, and people still come back year after year,” he said.
Still, such live-and-let-eat attitudes may be outdated in today’s political climate. In recent years, officials have endured public fury while dining out in the district. Justice Brett Kavanaugh was heckled at a restaurant in 2022 after voting to overturn Roe v. Wade, and in December, a manager was fired by Beuchert’s Saloon on Capitol Hill after telling Washingtonian magazine that she would refuse service to Trump administration officials.
Fritz Brogan, a founder and owner of Mission Group, a locally based restaurant company started in 2014, is looking forward to having Republican leadership back in town. A new administration always brings new energy to the city, he said.
Mr. Brogan, who was executive deputy chief for former Gov. Rick Scott of Florida, said he was glad to see a new administration that has promised to be tough on crime. “Every administration is a little different, but I’m excited because we’re seeing a lot of people moving to D.C. from Florida,” he said.
He thinks President Trump’s policies will ultimately be good for business in the area. “I think we’re already starting to see a little bit of a change,” Mr. Brogan said. “This is the most powerful political city in the world, so I think D.C. should be a shining example for the U.S.”
Regardless of political affiliation, many restaurateurs are avoiding mixing politics and dining.
“We’re in the business of hospitality, and while I may not agree with someone, they’re still coming to our restaurant and supporting us,” said Kevin Tien, the chef and owner of Moon Rabbit, a modern Vietnamese restaurant in the Penn Quarter neighborhood. Though he added, “It’s not a secret that I voted for Kamala.”
Like many in the restaurant industry, Mr. Tien is worried about more than just a vibe shift. He is keeping a close eye on immigration policy. “We have a weekly manager meeting where we talk about the news,” he said.
He has also spoken with an immigration lawyer who keeps the team abreast of developments on immigration law and helps workers at Moon Rabbit navigate the citizenship process.
Immigration is also top of mind for Ms. Ivanovic of Immigrant Food, who sees mass deportations as bad news for restaurants and the food business in general.
“If you’re going to deport millions of farm workers and restaurant workers, it doesn’t take a Ph.D. to see that labor is going to go down and prices are going to go up,” she said.
As for Inauguration Day, Moon Rabbit will be closed. Mr. Tien doesn’t expect the restaurant to be busy, and parking in the area is tough even on normal days. “Our restaurant is mostly for locals, and they’re mostly getting out of town,” he said. “So we’re going to take that day off, too.”
But beyond the inaugural festivities lie worries about the local customer base. Mr. Trump has said he intends to “slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure federal agencies” as part of his planned Department of Government Efficiency, Federal employees make up 15 percent of the metropolitan area’s work force, and significant reductions in their ranks could have a broad economic impact.
“D.C. restaurants are really the front line,” said Shawn Townsend, president and chief executive of the Restaurant Association of Metro Washington. “Anything that happens in the region, in government, the restaurants here feel it first.”
Inflation, the loss of foot traffic from government workers downtown during the pandemic and the end of the tipped minimum wage, have already made running a restaurant challenging in the district, he said. “Our happy hour, our lunches and late-night culture are not back to what they used to be.”
A report released by the association this month, on Covid’s impact on the district’s restaurants, found a 20 percent decrease in foot traffic and a 6 percent drop in sales since last year, a sign that local restaurants are still being affected by remote work keeping potential diners out of the city. Significant layoffs of federal workers could worsen the problem.
Erik Bruner-Yang, the chef and owner of Maketto, is hoping that federal workers come back downtown, another stated goal of the planned efficiency department led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
“I think this city could use that boost of foot traffic,” Mr. Bruner-Yang said.
Mr. Townsend is hopeful that the incoming administration will prioritize bringing workers back downtown, and reconsider some of the minimum- wage mandates to buoy restaurants that are still struggling after the pandemic. According to the restaurant association, in the last year, 70 percent of restaurants in the area have cut hours, laid off staff or stopped hiring to reduce costs.
“The loss of full-service restaurant jobs should concern everyone who cares about economic opportunity,” Mr. Townsend wrote in the report. “We’re not just losing jobs, we’re losing opportunities.”
Whatever the challenges posed by a shift in power and policy, restaurateurs are used to navigating change, Mr. Bruner-Yang said.
