The Team Behind Imperfecto Doubles Down on the West End With a Ritz-Carlton Takeover

The fast-growing group behind luxe, Mediterranean-leaning Imperfecto adds a blockbuster hospitality project to its West End portfolio this fall.

Venezuelan chef Enrique Limardo and co-owner Ezequiel Vázquez-Ger will take over the posh Ritz-Carlton Washington D.C.’s pair of lobby-level dining establishments, the partners just announced on social media. Chic drinking lair Quadrant Bar & Lounge will retain its name and reopen in October under their watch. The 300-room hotel’s high-end American eatery Westend Bistro, which is currently closed, will transform into a Spanish-meets-Latin American restaurant called The Saga next spring (1150 22nd Street NW). Eater reached out to Limardo and Vázquez-Ger for further comment.

At Imperfecto (1124 23rd Street NW), which debuted right behind the hotel in spring 2021, the group clinched its first Michelin star for the elaborate tasting menus at Limardo’s “Chef’s Table” station. Their scene-y D.C. predecessor Seven Reasons opened on 14th Street NW in 2019 and was named Esquire’s No. 1 new restaurant in the country.

Navy-wrapped Quadrant, around since 2015, made a name for itself over the years with a “sound-aged” spirits program, themed cocktail booklets, fireproof safe stocked with big-ticketed whiskeys, and theatrical Old Fashioneds and global small plates sent out from a black marbled bar.

Corner fixture Westend Bistro originally opened in 2007 under Eric Ripert, the French celebrity chef behind NYC’s three-Michelin-starred seafood showpiece Le Bernardin. Ripert stripped his name from the restaurant in 2013 and hasn’t made a move in D.C. since. The new Saga replacement will seat 120 diners with a 50-seat patio out front.

Prior to the pandemic, Westend Bistro offered highly-customized chef’s tasting menus from a six-seat marble counter. Its then-chef de cuisine Alvin Dela Cruz is now at Montage Hotels & Resorts in Los Cabos.

Limardo and Vázquez-Ger should feel right at home wining and dining guests at the celebrity go-to hotel. Their high-profile clientele has included everyone from President Joe Biden at Imperfecto to U2 frontman Bono and Colombian pop star Carlos Vives at Seven Reasons, which added a new prix fixe option and ceviche patio out back this summer.

The Latin standout will add a casual spinoff in Chevy Chase this fall called Joy by Seven Reasons. The group will soon expand to Virginia with the opening of indoor-outdoor bistro Surreal near Amazon HQ2.

Stay tuned for more details on each forthcoming project at the Ritz-Carlton.