Ayat, regarded as one of New York City’s best Palestinian restaurants, opened in D.C. on Wednesday, July 22 (2112 Pennsylvania Avenue NW). The 3,500-square-foot space sits on the same strip as the White House, located about a five-minute drive away.
“This
one means a lot,” the team writes in an opening statement on Instagram this week. “In a world that keeps giving us reasons to be divided, we’ll keep setting the table.”
Ayat is known for its huge portions of all-halal food, with highlights like chicken shawarma platters, silky hummus, and mixed meze spreads — and no alcohol in sight (but you can, however, BYOB). Ayat’s married co-owners Abdul Elenani and Ayat Masoud debuted their first location in Brooklyn’s Bay Ridge neighborhood in 2020, and the brand has been on an expansion spree ever since. They added other NY outposts in Brooklyn (Bushwick, Ditmas Park, Industry City); Queens (Astoria); Manhattan (East Village, Upper West Side); and Staten Island, plus Princeton, New Jersey, and Dallas, Texas, with the next one en route to Philly. The 100-seat Foggy Bottom location marks its first in the District.
“D.C. is a city where voices matter and where stories travel far. Bringing the Palestinian culture into the heart of the nation’s capital is a blessing I do not take lightly,” stated Elenani in December on Instagram, when Ayat’s D.C. expansion plans were first announced. Chef Michael Rafidi helped put Middle Eastern and Palestinian cooking on the map in D.C., and his Michelin-starred marvel Albi was just awarded the first four-star review outside of NYC by the New York Times.
The menu is predominantly the same as the ones in NYC, the team tells Eater, but the addition of a lunch deal – discounted platters from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. – is a new feature for D.C. Its Northwest nexus is home to a robust daytime crowd of George Washington University Hospital and World Bank employees.
Customers can expect to be greeted with complimentary olive oil, za’atar, and pita bread. One best seller from the start is mansaf, slow-cooked lamb with fermented yogurt sauce over a bed of fresh sajj bread and rice.
Hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. during weekdays and until 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. A patio is coming soon.
