Albi

There’s no more fetching kitchen in town than the open one at Albi — Arabic for “my heart” — surrounded by a mural of characters holding hands.

Albi now counts two, the newest of which is a glass-enclosed rear patio that can seat up to 25 revelers.

Washington has welcomed a host of impressive places to eat around the pandemic — Albi in Navy Yard, Imperfecto in the West End — but none that have excited me more than Oyster Oyster, a fun name for a serious, and seriously delicious, restaurant.

Smoked lamb pita– from Yellow the Cafe –If you order the smoked lamb sandwich at Yellow, the casual offshoot to chef Michael Rafidi’s more refined Albi, you may get shoulder or you may get leg meat tucked into your za’atar-dusted pita.