The chefsofPhiladelphia's much-lauded vegan restaurant, Vedge, are officially coming to Washington.

Husband and wife team Richard Landau and Kate Jacoby are behind the most well-known meatless restaurant in the country andhave a half-dozen James Beard Award semifinalist and nominee nods to their names. For years, they've talked about opening up shop in the nation's capital. Now they've signed on to join the Apollo development at 600H Street NE, which includes a new Whole Foods Market and Wydown coffee shop, and have plans for a late fall opening.

[Philadelphia restaurants are moving in on D.C. Get used to it.]

For the new location their first outside of Philadelphia Landau and Jacoby plan to replicate their V Street concept, a vegan street food bar.We celebrate street foods by drawing influence from popular dishes and ingredients around the globe, Jacoby said in an email. Nothing is a literal take, just our inspiration.

[The next frontier for vegan restaurants? Not calling yourself a vegan restaurant.]

V Street's offerings include such dishes as dan dan noodles with roasted mushrooms and a red chile-sesame sauce, Peruvian fries with aji amarillo sauce and flatbreads. Cocktails will also draw on global flavors, such as the Lokum at the Bazaar (Turkish coffee, bourbon and a Middle Eastern syrup known as jallab) andCruz Control (tepache, horchata andtequila).

Jacoby, the pastry chef, has big plans for dessert. Expect soft serve in such flavors as halvah with sumac sour cherries or cannoli with pistachio, bitter orange and chocolate magic shell. Also: chocolate-stuffed beignets.

Landau and Jacoby were drawn to Washington for personal and professional reasons. Landau has family in the area, and Jacoby attended Georgetown University. Jacoby said she and Landau always saw potential in the city's restaurant scene, especially when it came to opportunities for growth in meat-free concepts. She gives props to such operations as Elizabeth's Gone RawandSticky Fingersfor helping to grow the vegan restaurant scene. We know the demand for serious vegan food is getting stronger all the time, she said.

The couple has already witnessed thedemand from D.C. residents. After those for Philadelphia and New York, Washington's 202 area code is the most popular number on the reservation books at Vedge.

Read more:

The new H Street Whole Foods wants to be your neighborhood pub

The search for America's best food cities: Philadelphia

How two vegan chefs find inspiration in a world of (sometimes meaty) cooking

L.A. restaurants treat vegetables like stars

Read the original post:

The chefs behind the best vegan food in the country are opening a ... - Washington Post