Apéro

Apéro plays it straight and plays it well. The room reads like a Parisian bistro that got serious about wine — a list running past 700 selections with a real Champagne focus — and the kitchen backs it up with classics executed at full attention. Deviled eggs get bacon and chives instead of a shrug. A fromage trio comes with blood-orange compote and baguette, doing more with a cheese plate than most places bother to.

The beef bourguignon is the case for the whole restaurant: rich, patient, sitting on Robuchon potatoes and a cabernet reduction, the kind of dish that reminds you why the format never dies when someone actually cares about it. Dessert closes strong too — caramel bread pudding paired with an espresso martini, a combination that sounds like a gimmick and isn't.

Nothing here is reinventing French bistro cooking, and it doesn't need to. The ambition is depth within a known form, not novelty, and it's been consistent enough to earn a Michelin selection four years running. Georgetown has plenty of restaurants trading on atmosphere alone. Apéro backs the atmosphere with a kitchen that means it.