December 31, 2019: Reports of pneumonia—eventually diagnosed as a novel coronavirus—begin to surface in China.
January 24, 2020: Shoppers report bare shelves at area Whole Foods.
February 4: Washington Post food editor Joe Yonan releases a presciently timed bean cookbook.
February 25: Restaurateur Lydia Chang reports that 90 percent of Lunar New Year reservations have been canceled at Bethesda’s Q by Peter Chang.
March 5: Maryland announces its first Covid cases. DC and Virginia confirm theirs two days later.
March 12: DC bartender Derek Brown sets up a cocktail “hotline,” tweeting recipes to folks who tell them what ingredients they have.
March 12: Medium Rare owner Mark Bucher offers a free meal to anyone over 70. He’ll go on to serve thousands more to area seniors.
March 13: New York restaurateur Danny Meyer jolts the food world by temporarily closing 19 New York restaurants—plus Navy Yard’s Maialino Mare and Anchovy Social (which remain shuttered).
March 15: Liquor sales in Virginia spike nearly 60 percent over the week.
March 16: Maryland governor Larry Hogan and DC mayor Muriel Bowser shut down bars and restaurants for everything but takeout. Virginia does the same the following week.
March 16: Park View bar Hook Hall turns into a relief center to help out-of-work restaurant employees.
March 17: DC passes a bill allowing restaurants to sell alcohol with a carryout food item.
March 20: Adams Morgan restaurant Jack Rose sells off its rare whiskey collection to stay afloat.
March 21: Republic Cantina is burglarized. Only cleaning supplies and hand sanitizer are stolen.
March 23: Mayor Bowser commissions 2,000 gallons of hand sanitizer from Republic Restoratives Distillery and Compass Coffee.
March 25: Robots deliver groceries—and later, lobster rolls from a virtual restaurant—to Chevy Chase residents.
March 25: Capo Deli debuts its Fauci Pouchy cocktail.
March 27: Campono becomes the first DC restaurant to close because of the pandemic.
March 27: While yeast is in short supply, Mercy Me chef Johanna Hellrigl begins
giving out hundreds of sourdough starters.
April 7: José Andrés’s World Central Kitchen turns Nationals Park into a giant prep kitchen.
April 17: Columbia Room launches Get a Hero, Be a Hero (now known as Your Only Friend)—the first in a wave of cheffy sandwich pop-ups.
April 26: Shoppers make OpenTable reservations to visit Dupont Circle’s FreshFarm market.
May 8: As the meat supply chain is disrupted, the price of beef—and burgers—skyrockets.
May 10: Ivy & Coney owners launch DCtoGoGo, a delivery platform with lower commission fees than those of competitors such as Doordash.
May 29: Demonstrations protesting the death of George Floyd begin near the White House. The same day, DC restaurants reopen for on-premises dining.
May 29: The Inn at Little Washington uses mannequins to fill empty tables in its half-capacity dining room.
June 10: Bethesda opens its huge downtown streetery.
June 12: Northern Virginia restaurants are allowed to reopen their dining rooms—one week after the rest of the state.
June 15: DC chefs Paola Velez, Rob Rubba, and Willa Pelini launch the Bakers Against Racism virtual bake sale, an international phenomenon that raises $1.9 million for racial-justice causes.
June 24: DC restaurant Cuba Libre employs a desinfectador—a white-coated staffer who continuously sanitizes the dining room.
July 5: Gaithersburg’s Grille at Flower Hill restaurant closes after refusing to require employees to wear masks.
July 6: Star chef Kwame Onwuachi resigns from the Wharf restaurant Kith and Kin. It closes for good shortly after.
July 16: Ryan Ratino opens Jônt on 14th Street. Its 12-person tasting counter features acrylic dividers.
July 22: Bowser decrees that masks must be worn in all public spaces—even between courses at a restaurant. She announces $1,000 fines for restaurants and bars that flout pandemic rules.
August 28: Ghostline—DC’s first “ghost food hall”—debuts in Glover Park.
September 15: Ian and Eric Hilton announce the indefinite closure of seven DC bars/restaurants. One—El Rey—ends up getting a reprieve.
September 21: Bowser announces $6,000 grants to help restaurants winterize their outdoor spaces.
September 24: Montgomery County allows drinking in public parks.
September 29: Dolcezza announces the temporary closure of five gelato shops. (Two end up permanently shut.)
October 18: Coconut Club is one of many DC restaurants to “hibernate” for the winter.
October 31: Trick-or-treating happens, thanks to socially distant candy chutes.
November 27: Georgetown’s Fiola Mare rents $120 plastic “igloos” for cold-weather outdoor dining.
December 3: News breaks that President-elect Biden has selected Call Your Mother co-owner Jeff Zients as his Covid czar.
December 4: Several maskless revelers are spotted at White House holiday parties.
December 7: In a plea for federal relief, unemployed restaurant workers place hundreds of empty plates on the Capitol lawn.
December 18: DC hotels allow diners to book rooms for a few hours so they can dine
in private.
January 1, 2021: A Giant shopper gets a leftover Covid vaccine. Crowds begin lining up at grocery stores for any extra shots.
February 11: Guy Fieri launches a DC ghost restaurant out of the chains Buca di Beppo and Brio.
February 18: DC grocery-store and food-packaging workers—but not restaurant employees—become eligible for the vaccine.
March 5: Ian and Eric Hilton announce that several of their bars will reopen.
March 11: President Biden signs the American Rescue Plan. The $1.9 trillion stimulus package has $28.6 billion earmarked for independent restaurants, food trucks, and bars.
This article appears in the April 2021 issue of Washingtonian.
Ann Limpert joined Washingtonian in late 2003. She was previously an editorial assistant at Entertainment Weekly and a cook in New York restaurant kitchens, and she is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education. She lives in Petworth.
