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Pascual

Washington DC

Inventive wood-fired Mexican

Fire, flavour and heritage: Matt Conroy and Mexico City-born Isabel Coss, the trailblazing duo who ran the kitchen at French neo-bistro Lutèce, head up Pascual, a hearth-focused Mexican restaurant with exacting standards: each of its flame-licked dishes is prepared with obsessive attention to detail, cutting-edge technique and a sense of storytelling and the sentimental. The name? A fitting tribute to San Pasqual, the patron saint of cooks and kitchens.

Going granular: Coss and Conroy take the little things seriously at this restaurant from The Popal Group. For example, the pair spent two years liaising with local farmers to grow staple Mexican ingredients such as hoja santa, an aromatic leaf emblematic of Oaxacan cooking. Their diligence extends to the day-to-day, too: in the restaurant, a full-time kitchen employee is tasked each day with grinding masa from heirloom corn, shaping it into tortillas, and cooking each one to perfection.

Must-orders? Standout signature dishes include guacamole and house tostadas, tacos al pastor with roasted pineapple, and lamb neck barbacoa, served with ayacote beans, salsa cruda and tortillas for making tacos. However, Pascual's menu evolves constantly to reflect the seasons – so, depending on when you visit, you could also come across the likes of badger flame beets on a bed of hazelnut salsa and smoky goat's cheese, or fideos negros with huitlacoche, mushroom and black garlic.

And at the bar? Mirroring Pascual's heritage-driven dinner menu, its drinks list is a celebration of quintessentially Mexican ingredients – think small-batch mezcals, aguas frescas and 'Spirits of Mexico' flights. As you'd expect, the selection of cocktails is wonderfully creative, from the margarita al pastor to the mole old fashioned, made with mole negro mezcal, pasilla chile, plum wine and cacao bitters.

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