Sign of the times: High-profile restaurant closures suggest reshaped D.C. dining habits and office culture
A wave of high-profile restaurant closures in D.C.’s Downtown, Chinatown, Penn Quarter and other nearby neighborhoods have left many in the industry questioning whether the city can fully recover from reshaped dining habits, office culture and higher labor costs, reports WTOP.
Within the last six months, continues the WTOP post, a variety of restaurants in that core “have closed: Cranes, Arrels, Michele’s, and Tonari this year, with Tony Cheng’s, Kinship and Métier shuttering in late 2025. The reasons behind these notable closures vary, but several restaurateurs who spoke to WTOP point to the same pressures in reshaping the city’s dining industry.
“Near the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Métier, which was once dubbed “the best restaurant in Washington” by Washingtonian, closed in December 2025 after 10 years of service. Kinship, located above the space, closed at the same time.”
Eric Ziebold, formerly chef-owner of Kinship and Métier, told WTOP that he closed his restaurants because he “couldn’t find an environment that made sense to resign a lease currently with the state of things.”
“In the post-pandemic world, people aren’t going downtown as regularly as they used to,” said Ziebold, who attributed this to workers not returning to offices, traffic, crime and parking issues.
For Jeffrey Bank, owner and CEO of The Alicart Restaurant Group, which owns Carmine’s in Penn Quarter, “D.C. has its challenges and has great opportunities also.”
“D.C. has changed,” he told WTOP. “D.C. has been the one (city) that has had the most changes of lots going on.”
Bank said, states WTOP, these changes include fewer workers returning to the office (though more jobs are requiring workers to return to the office), perceptions about crime and public safety, and the Capital One Arena renovations.”
However, data from the Downtown Business Improvement District (BID) suggests some indicators are improving.
The “State of Downtown D.C.” 2025 report, continues WTOP, “highlights that office attendance in the area jumped in 2025. From March through December, office attendance was 48%, up 4% from the previous time frame in 2024.
“During the fall, when federal job cuts went into effect and the federal government shutdown occurred, office attendance growth slowed, but “rates remained above their 2024 average,” according to the report.
“The report also noted a 2.5% increase in overall foot traffic in Downtown D.C., when comparing data against 2025 numbers.”.
