I try to visit a new “splurge” restaurant about once a season. It’s a great way to connect with the changes in local ingredients and celebrate the year in food and drink. But now, having been to Gravitas, a modern American restaurant in Ivy City, I think I might have to change my routine and go only here. Helmed by Matt Baker, Gravitas’s exceptional team consistently creates new, inspiring, and refined menus that have me eagerly awaiting my next meal.

The cuisine at Gravitas focuses on ingredients from the Chesapeake watershed. This means a lot of seafood, like tuna and oysters, but also locally raised meat and vegetables. Recently, I’ve been wowed by their oxtail porridge with black truffles and parsnips, perfect for early fall. The oxtail is served with its braising liquid, and it’s incredibly juicy and pulls apart easily. The oat porridge is arranged around the oxtail centerpiece and the parsnips are on top and have a touch of earthy sweetness.

I always love going to Little Serow on a night off. It serves up Northern Thai specialties, and I think it’s consistently one of the best places to eat in the city, hands down. It’s just great, straightforward cooking. The dining room is small, no frills, but cozy and inviting. It’s generally always busy. It’s pretty dark in there but every time I’ve been, I’ve seen another chef or another industry person. There really isn’t anything else like it in DC.

The dining experience itself is also very unique: you never know what you’re going to get, because they only serve a pre-set, rotating menu; the food is super spicy; and they don’t make any special accommodations. I am a huge fan of the Golden Mermaid Menu, which is a fish- and shellfish-based menu that they do several times a year. It’s different every time they do it, but last time I had this crazy fried fish; it was a whole fish with Southeast Asian-style flavors—fish sauce, chilies, that kind of thing. Before heading over, do note that the restaurant is closed on Sundays and Mondays.