Starr’s Le Diplomate In The New York Times


Okay, so the piece in the New York Times Dining & Wine section wasn’t all about Le Diplomate. As a matter of fact, Stephen Starr‘s new(ish) D.C. version of Parc only gets one paragraph in a story talking about the newly-booming restaurant scene in our nation’s capitol.

But what’s important is that the writer has a line (paraphrasing Starr, I assume) that has likely never been spoken before about Philadelphia.

Some out-of-town chefs have answered this with importation. For Le Diplomate, a much-ballyhooed French bistro on 14th Street, the Philadelphia-based owner, Stephen Starr, brought a local task force for the first 60 days, and some of his most experienced team members relocated here.

Did you catch it? Yeah, Starr is importing servers from Philadelphia. Which either speaks to the improving quality of the professional service culture here in Philly, or to the absolutely abysmal quality of servers in D.C.. The writer implies that the latter is the case, but still. No one has ever before turned to Philly as a place to find good serves to bring somewhere else, so this truly is a banner day for Philly restaurants.

If you’re super interested in the state of dining in Washington D.C., you can read the whole piece at the link below.

Washington Has More On Its Plate [New York Times]