In a night celebrating legacy, dedication and trailblazing work within the DMV restaurant scene, the second annual RAMMYS Honors on the Schuyler on the Hamilton Resort in Northwest D.C. showcased the bravery, resilience and willpower it takes to thrive as an entrepreneur within the hospitality trade and the energy of this area’s culinary leaders.
Hosted by the Restaurant Affiliation of Metropolitan Washington (RAMW) the honors is a more recent enterprise, introduced on by RAMW President and CEO Shawn Townsend, as a part of the group’s long-standing work in uplifting the native service trade. The occasion additionally serves as a method of highlighting meals and beverage trade innovators, earlier than the bigger forty third annual RAMMYS Awards on Aug. 3 on the Walter E. Washington Conference Middle in Northwest.
This 12 months’s awardees honored eating places celebrating vital anniversaries — D.C.’s Bistrot du Coin, Chef Geoff’s and Bobby Van’s Steakhouse, and Maryland’s Caribbean Superior, all marking 25 years, plus Virginia honorees Heidelberg Bakery and Celeb Delly, with each commemorating 50 years of serving the world by their culinary choices. Specialty award winners included Virginia Ali, co-founder and proprietor of Ben’s Chili Bowl; Linda Roth of Linda Roth Associates, Inc.; and Ruth Gresser, chef and proprietor of Pizzeria Paradiso, who additionally participated in a fireplace chat led by the evening’s MC Tommy McFly of NBC Washington.
“We’re proud to acknowledge leaders like Ruth Gresser, Virginia Ali, and Linda Roth, who embody what it means to guide with objective, ardour, and a dedication to uplifting their communities,” stated Townsend. “They aren’t simply leaders, they’re legends. Their impression reaches past the plate — they’ve modified the best way our area eats, gathers, and thrives.”
Whereas the occasion was about highlighting the honorees, it was additionally a second for networking and showcasing the work of trade professionals.
Mitchell Linton, CEO and co-founder of 3708 Spirits — a Black-owned distillery — was glad to community with restaurant and bar house owners whereas company loved his model through the celebratory occasion.
“We launched our first product, which is our 3708 Silver, on the finish of 2023, after which we launched our 3708 Gold in June 2024,” Linton advised The Informer. “It’s nice to be right here as a result of it’s such various people right here with completely different tales and the way they have been capable of develop their enterprise throughout the meals and beverage trade. And so it’s superb to only join and be in a room filled with perseverance.”
Honoring Business Innovators, Highlighting the Energy of Hospitality
With meals and spirits as an added bonus, the night’s focus have been the honors.
District officers equivalent to D.C. Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie (I-At-Massive), chair of the Committee on Enterprise and Financial Growth, and Nina Albert, deputy mayor for planning and financial improvement, have been current to salute the ability of the restaurant and beverage neighborhood.
Furthermore, restaurant house owners lauded their friends for his or her contributions to the world’s booming service trade, together with Ris Lacoste, chef and proprietor of Ris in Northwest D.C., who launched Roth.
“Linda is an expensive pal. I opened Ris 16 years in the past, they have been the kitchens, I ran the present however I by no means created the stage and in 2005 after I left 1789, I made a decision I used to be going to open my very own restaurant. I wasn’t a child anymore, so I stated, let’s do it. However I had not created that stage… And Linda Roth was by my aspect each step of the best way and she or he by no means left my aspect. She is a kind of individuals that’s simply dedicated to you. She’s dedicated to all of us and she or he’s dedicated to this trade.”
Roth, who famous working “with some legendary restaurateurs” in her greater than 45 years in public relations, emphasised that she doesn’t merely signify the meals and beverage trade, however has turn into a part of it, having an in-depth understanding of its nuances and a deep appreciation for the work.
“Al Copeland stated ‘You realize why we employed you? It’s since you stated you’d by no means name between 12 and a couple of as a result of it was lunch service.’ He stated, ‘You spoke our language,’” Roth recounted, when she acquired the job representing the late restaurateur recognized for Popeyes, Copeland’s New Orleans and Copeland’s Cheesecake Bistro. “I’m actually fortunate I’ve had the respect of working with so lots of you.
Ali, recipient of the 2025 John G. Laytham Government Management and Affect Award, was honored for her greater than six a long time of service to the District by Ben’s Chili Bowl.
“I’m simply proud and blessed and so grateful for the help that I’ve gotten for the final 67 years from not solely our lovely metropolis, however the entire nation and now I get individuals coming from everywhere in the world, which is a giant shock to me,” stated Ali, 92, who co-founded Ben’s Chili Bowl on U Road NW together with her husband, the restaurant’s namesake, in August 1958. “However I’m simply blessed to be right here and to be the recipient of this award, and thanks very, very a lot.”
Whereas Ali continues to be very hands-on with Ben’s Chili Bowl, and may be noticed at places all through the town, she and her late husband instilled a love for the household enterprise to their sons, who’re persevering with their mother and father’ work and legacy. The Ben’s Chili Bowl Basis, which the RAMMYS additionally honored, furthers the Alis’ mission to provide again to the town that has supported them for 67 years.
“We’re all within the service trade, so we honor service tonight. However the service [my parents] went above and past for, was notably with the underprivileged,” stated Kamal Ali, co-owner of Ben’s Chili Bowl, who spoke on behalf of the enterprise’s neighborhood basis, which was established 15 years in the past. “We’re so glad to have the ability to proceed to serve the best way that Mother and Dad [did] in an official capability to essentially assist the underprivileged in our space.”
Gresser, winner of the Duke Zeibert Capital Achievement Award, used the second to talk out in opposition to injustices and uplift the various immigrants who preserve the District’s restaurant scene sturdy day by day and evening.
“After I opened my enterprise… I had the good, luck of being born into and surviving the twentieth century due to my household’s migration to this nation,” Gresser, whose maternal and paternal grandparents have been immigrants, who got here to the U.S. looking for a safer and higher life. “When Pizzeria Paradiso opened and because it grew, I had the good, luck of working with immigrants who got here to the U.S. within the late twentieth century to equally escape oppression and hazard. I share this historical past as a result of I might not be standing right here and Pizzeria Paradiso wouldn’t exist as it if these two migrations had not occurred.”
Many honorees, together with Ali, talked in regards to the significance of “hospitality,” which Gresser famous as a buzzword of the night.
“In lots of cultures, hospitality performs a major function in social interactions, as people are sometimes judged by their capability to increase kindness and generosity in direction of others,” Gresser continued. “As we speak, as we face a deterioration within the degree of hospitality on this nation, I wish to share my honor tonight with all of the Paradisians from this and different lands with whom I’ve had the privilege to work — hospitality-focused Paradisians, who push in opposition to that tide.”
