Ryan Ratino’s guide to DC’s best late night eats

“They serve food until 1am and they’re open until 2am. We eat copious amounts of raw bar items and shrimp cocktails here. We love the burgers, the fried calamari, and we always get the grand shellfish platter, the Grand Plateau. I can eat shrimp cocktails until I’m blue in the face. It’s fun, it’s always busy… at 1am they’re busy, at 8pm they’re busy. We’ll take over a big table, and create an island with our seafood, walking around it and eating. I’ll go with 10 to 14 people, and we go nuts and eat like crazy until they tell us they’re not serving anymore.”

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“When Old Ebbitt closes, we go here. They serve food until four in the morning. I love the walnut shrimp, the scallop fried rice, and the wok-sauteed chive blossoms. We always get some sort of sticky meat product like sweet and sour chicken or pork, or black pepper pork.”

“We love to go for cocktails at Astoria. It’s in an old train car and they do Szechuan-inspired food and cocktails. You have to get the lamb and scallion broth. I love their walnut shrimp, too. We come here with a smaller after-work crew since you can walk there from Bresca and Jont.” 

“They’re on the North America’s 50 Best Bars list and we love their fried mozzarella and chicken nuggets. They serve nostalgic bites, reminiscent of childhood.”

“I’m from Ohio and so is Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams. We took the team from Masque here when they were here from Mumbai [for a collaboration at Jont]. They serve ice cream until midnight, and we go late and eat all their random, delicious ice creams. They’re so good because they’re from Ohio. It’s an amazing thing to have on the same street as Bresca and Jont. Brambleberry crisp is their number one flavor.” 

“There’s another restaurant by the group behind Old Ebbitt (Clyde’s Restaurant Group) called The Hamilton. Late night, they have half off sushi rolls. When I have a guest chef team in town, we sit in the bar area and get big sushi boats with 25 rolls.”

“Sometimes when guests [regular diners!] are visiting DC for the first time and eating at Jont, we will go [around the corner] and grab them a Ben’s Chili Bowl hot dog to bring home with them. I don’t know if they’re able to eat it since they’re so full, but we give it a shot. These are my favorite. I’m obsessed with hot dogs from growing up in Ohio.”