New Heights

Quiet Room, Considered Kitchen

There is a particular category of Washington restaurant that the city's dining culture depends on but rarely celebrates: the neighbourhood anchor that has outlasted multiple waves of trend-driven openings without chasing any of them. Woodley Park, a residential enclave north of the National Zoo, has never been a destination dining corridor in the way that 14th Street or Shaw attracts the most attention. That relative quiet is part of what defines the restaurants that survive there. New Heights, at 2317 Calvert Street NW, is that kind of place.

Walk in and the room reads immediately: coffee-colored carpet, a restrained color palette, and a crowd that is present to eat rather than to be seen. None of those signals would typically forecast a meal worth seeking out. But the disconnect between the room's low-key presentation and the confidence of what comes out of the kitchen is precisely what makes this address worth knowing. Under new management, with Chef Michael Wright running the kitchen and Domenick Carnicelli serving as both wine director and general manager, the restaurant operates in a register that most newly opened rooms in D.C. spend years trying to reach.

How the Menu Reads Against D.C.'s Current Scene

Washington's mid-tier dining conversation is currently dominated by a handful of ambitious, high-concept rooms: Bresca, Gravitas, and the more ingredient-driven Oyster Oyster each occupy the $$$$-tier and lean into tasting-menu or strongly auteur formats. New Heights sits one price tier below at $$$, in a bracket shared with venues like Ris and the longer-standing institutions of Georgetown, among them 1789. The comparison is instructive: that tier rewards cooking that is technically fluent and generously portioned over cooking that is conceptually provocative.

The menu at New Heights covers American and Mediterranean ground simultaneously, which in less skilled hands tends to produce a diffuse, unfocused list. Here, it reads more like a kitchen comfortable moving between registers without losing its thread. Broccolini with black garlic Caesar dressing sits alongside crispy fried oysters with pickled cauliflower and tempura beach mushrooms dusted in a Moroccan spice blend — a spread that draws from distinct culinary traditions without forcing them into artificial coherence. The approach is closer in spirit to the kind of California-inflected American cooking found at Hilda and Jesse in San Francisco or Selby's in Atherton than it is to the more European-anchored Georgetown dining tradition.

Main courses follow a familiar but well-executed arc: rack of lamb with salsa verde and halibut with coconut broth represent the kind of proteins-with-considered-accompaniments approach that rewards sourcing and technique rather than novelty. The pistachio ricotta cake closes the meal. These are not dishes designed to generate social media traction. They are dishes designed to satisfy, and at the cuisine pricing tier of $$, covering a typical two-course dinner in the $40–$65 range, that proposition has clear value against higher-priced alternatives in the city.

For reference, the $$$$-tier rooms on D.C.'s contemporary circuit — Albi, Causa, and Bresca , ask guests to commit to a different kind of evening: longer, more structured, with a higher check. New Heights offers a complete dinner without that level of investment, which is not a concession so much as a different editorial position on what dinner should be.

The Wine Program as Anchor

The wine list is more serious than the room's atmosphere implies, and that gap is worth noting. With 350 selections and a total inventory of 1,770 positions, the program runs considerably deeper than what most mid-tier Washington restaurants carry. California and France anchor the list, which aligns with the kitchen's American-Mediterranean approach without being prescriptive about it. The $$ pricing on the list indicates a range of accessible options rather than a cellar skewed toward trophy bottles, which keeps the program functional rather than merely impressive on paper.

Corkage is set at $50, relevant for guests who want to bring something specific. Domenick Carnicelli, who holds both the wine director and general manager roles, is the structural reason the program maintains its coherence across both the floor and the cellar. That dual accountability is relatively uncommon at this price tier and tends to produce more integrated experiences between what guests are drinking and what they are eating.

For comparative context, the depth of this list positions it closer to the wine programs at restaurants like Blue Duck Tavern and Michele's than its neighbourhood setting might suggest. In that company, the 1,770-bottle inventory is a genuine differentiator within the $$$-tier bracket.

Where New Heights Fits in Washington's Dining Geography

Washington has a well-documented pattern of concentrating its most-discussed restaurant openings in a small number of high-density corridors. Woodley Park sits outside that gravitational pull, which means New Heights operates with a local constituency that expects consistency over novelty. That audience rewards restaurants that show up the same way over multiple visits. The Google rating of 4.6 across 267 reviews reflects a consistent positive signal rather than the spike-and-fade pattern that sometimes characterises newer openings in higher-traffic neighbourhoods.

The broader category of American restaurants in D.C. spans everything from fast-casual to the kind of destination rooms that benchmark against Le Bernardin in New York or The French Laundry in Napa. New Heights occupies none of those extremes. It sits in the working middle of the market , a dinner-only address with a deep wine list, a kitchen that cooks across American and Mediterranean traditions with confidence, and a room that asks nothing of you except that you pay attention to what's on the plate.

That positioning, relative to peers like Opal or the more hotel-anchored dining addresses in D.C., reflects a deliberate choice. The restaurant is not competing on concept or spectacle. It is competing on execution and value within its tier, and by that measure, it holds its ground.

Frequently Asked Questions

What should I order at New Heights?

The small-plate section of the menu functions well as a self-contained meal. Crispy fried oysters with pickled cauliflower, broccolini with black garlic Caesar dressing, and tempura beach mushrooms with a Moroccan spice blend represent the kitchen's range without requiring a full multi-course commitment. Among main courses, rack of lamb with salsa verde and halibut with coconut broth have both drawn consistent praise in editorial coverage of the restaurant. The pistachio ricotta cake is the dessert most noted in reviews. On the wine side, the California and France sections of the 350-selection list are where the program is deepest, and with a $$-tier pricing structure, there is real range across price points rather than a list anchored only at the high end.

For more on dining in Washington, see our full Washington, D.C. restaurants guide. You can also explore our Washington, D.C. hotels guide, our bars guide, our wineries guide, and our experiences guide for a full picture of the city.