Aaron Silverman is an American chef and restaurateur, known for his Michelin starred restaurants Rose's Luxury, Pineapple & Pearls, and Little Pearl in Washington, D.C. Silverman won a James Beard Foundation Award in 2016.
Silverman was born and raised in Montgomery County, Maryland, graduating from Thomas Sprigg Wootton High School in Rockville, Maryland. [1] He went to Northeastern University to study accounting and political science but decided that he wanted to be a chef, enrolling in L'Academie de Cuisine in Gaithersburg, Maryland and working under Jonathan Krinn, a family friend, at 2941 Restaurant in Falls Church, Virginia. [2]
In 2006, Krinn referred Silverman to the restaurant Jovia in New York City, and he then found jobs at Momofuku Noodle Bar (with David Chang), Insieme (with Marco Canora), and Aldea (with George Mendes). [2] In 2010, he moved to Charleston, South Carolina to work with Sean Brock at McCrady's Restaurant. [3]
After a year at McCrady's, Silverman began planning his own restaurant. He read Danny Meyer's Setting the Table and moved back to the Washington, D.C. area in August 2011. He held a series of pop-up dinners in 2012 and 2013, developing a menu and attracting investors, signing a lease for a vacant townhouse in Barracks Row, which would be the location of his first restaurant: Rose's Luxury. [3]
Rose's Luxury opened in October 2013 and was an immediate success. The first review from The Washington Post's Tom Sietsema gave the restaurant three stars. [4] Bon Appétit named it the best new restaurant in America for 2014. [5]
In 2016, Silverman was recognized by Food & Wine Magazine as one of America's Best New Chefs, [6] and he won the James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef, Mid-Atlantic. [7]
Silverman opened Pineapple & Pearls next door to Rose's Luxury in spring 2016, serving a 15-course dinner for $250 - the Washington Post named it the best new restaurant of 2016. [8] In the inaugural Michelin Guide for Washington, D.C., Rose's Luxury received one star and Pineapple & Pearls received two stars. [9]
In December 2017, Silverman opened Little Pearl, a more casual cafe and wine bar located at the Old Naval Hospital, a few blocks from his other restaurants. [10]
In October 2019, Little Pearl received one star in the Michelin Guide for Washington, D.C. [11]
(Rose's Luxury), the Michelin Guide . [9] 
(Pineapple & Pearls), the Michelin Guide . [9] (Little Pearl), the Michelin Guide . [11] 
The Inn at Little Washington is a luxury country inn and restaurant located in Washington, Virginia. Patrick O'Connell and Reinhardt Lynch founded the Inn in a former garage in 1978. It has been a member of the Relais & Châteaux hotel group since 1987. It is the only restaurant listed in the Michelin Guide for Washington, D.C. that is not located within D.C.'s city limits. It is also the only three-star Michelin restaurant in the Washington, D.C., guide.
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Derek Brown is an American entrepreneur, writer, and bartender. He owned the bars Columbia Room, The Passenger, Mockingbird Hill, Eat the Rich, and Southern Efficiency in Washington, D.C. Brown is a Distinguished Fellow at Catholic University's Ciocca Center for Principled Entrepreneurship.
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Rose's Luxury is a restaurant on Barracks Row in Washington, D.C., created by chef-owner Aaron Silverman. It is known for not taking reservations which creates long lines, such that a nearby bar's top cocktail is called 'Waiting for Rose's' and line waiters are reported to make up to thirty dollars an hour waiting in line. President Barack Obama celebrated his 54th birthday at Rose's after First Lady Michelle Obama previously ate at the restaurant. The opening of Rose's Luxury in 2013 was the subject of a documentary, New Chefs on the Block. Chef Aaron Silverman had prior experience at Momofuku. It opened a fine dining restaurant next door to Rose's Luxury named Pineapple & Pearls in 2016. Silverman has been the subject of a profile in The Washington Post, which characterized his work as mastery of 'the art of serious play'.
Ashok Bajaj is a restaurateur based in Washington, D.C.. He is head of the Knightsbridge Restaurant Group.
Pineapple & Pearls is a restaurant located on Barracks Row in Washington, D.C., serving a fixed-price multi-course dinner. The Washington Post gave the restaurant a four-star review, writing that Aaron Silverman, the chef and owner, "...pushes the fine-dining cause in only exquisite directions." Pineapple & Pearls was a semifinalist in the Outstanding Restaurant category of the James Beard Foundation Awards in 2024.
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Fabio Trabocchi is an Italian chef and restaurateur based in Washington, D.C., where his restaurant Fiola earned a Michelin Star. Before opening his own restaurants, Trabocchi ran kitchens in London, Virginia, and New York, winning a James Beard Foundation Award in 2006.
The Dabney is a restaurant located in Blagden Alley, in the Shaw neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Chef-owner Jeremiah Langhorne opened the restaurant in 2015, focusing on Mid-Atlantic cuisine. The Dabney was named one of the Best New Restaurants of 2016 by Bon Appétit magazine, it was a awarded a Michelin Star in 2017, and Chef Langhorne won the James Beard Award for Best Chef, Mid-Atlantic in 2018.
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