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As D.C. prepares to lift the majority of public health restrictions on businesses, the Indian-American owners of fast-casual RASA are personally grappling with the world’s worst wave of coronavirus cases. Owners Sahil Rahman and Rahul Vinod say they’ve lost more than 10 family members in India, making a faraway crisis that’s responsible for close to 250,000 (counted) deaths hit close to home. “Because it’s so far away it’s easy to not understand how bad it is,” Rahman says. “It’s the closest thing to a wartime situation.” The country is in dire need of oxygen, so to help from afar, RASA is sending 10 percent of proceeds from Aloo Need Is Love bowls full of sweet potato tikki towards Mission Oxygen India. They point to Diaspora Co.’s list of relief groups for other ways to donate. “The global community is finally starting to step up and provide support,” Rahman says. “Until we defeat COVID globally, we haven’t defeated it.”
In other news...
- Michelin-starred Capitol Hill cafe Little Pearl is closing for a month to undergo renovations and sit out Brood X cicada season, Washingtonian reports.
- Frozenyo just opened in Columbia Heights with an expanded list of boardwalk snacks like Boardwalk Fries, chicken tenders, fried whiting fish, and wings (3237 14th Street NW).
- High-tech convenience store-cafe Foxtrot just named Momofuku CCDC alum Tae Strain its corporate executive chef charged with designing grab-and-go breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks across its D.C., Dallas, and Chicago locations.
- Great American Restaurants’s newest ghost kitchen is Fred’s Chicken Shack, now live for pickup and delivery out of Good Eats Emporium in Sterling and Ozzie’s Good Eats in Fairfax Corner.
