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What’s Hot: Washington, D.C.What’s Hot: Washington, D.C.

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

September 14, 2009

1 Min Read
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Bret Thorn

Bourbon Steak

Four Seasons Hotel, 2800 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W. (202) 944-2026. www.michaelmina.net .Seats: 144 in dining room, 42 in lounge.Cuisine: contemporary American.Specialties: steak that is butter-poached and then grilled; saffron-braised veal cheek with chickpeas, peppers, watercress gremolata and baby zucchini; butter-poached lobster with butternut squash, pumpkin seeds, mâche and black truffles.Main courses: $26-$85.Managing chef: Michael Mina.Executive chef: David Varley.Owner: Strategic Hotels and Resorts.

Kora

2250-B Crystal Drive, Arlington, Va. (571) 431-7090. korarestaurant.com .Seats: 200.Cuisine: Mediterranean.Specialties: quinoa linguine with summer vegetables in basil sauce; gnudi in butternut squash cream sauce with sautéed fennel and green and red asparagus; pork shank osso buco with steamed fruity rice, raisins, dates and prunes.Main courses: $16-$22.Chef: Amadou Ouattara.Owners: Heather and Morou Ouattara.

Point of View

W Hotel, 515 15th St. N.W. (202) 661-2478.Seats: 24 on roof, 34 in lounge.Cuisine: Asian street-fare.Specialties: beef satay; chicken samosa; rice cracker-crusted tuna roll.Main courses: $12-$15Executive chef: Jean-Georges Vongerichten.Chef de cuisine: Philippe Reininger.Owner: Nakheel Hotels.

Potenza

1430 H St. N.W., (202) 638-4444 www.potenzadc.com .Seats: 175.Cuisine: Italian.Specialties: Tuscan bean soup with prosciutto and basil; duck sausage pizza with candied fennel; guinea hen with apples, chestnuts and figs.Main courses: $12-$26.Chef-partner: Bryan Moscatello.Owners: Dan Mesches, Stir Food Group and The Malrite Company.

Room 11

3234 11th St. N.W., (202) 332-3234, www.room11dc.com .Seats: 15 inside, 28 on patio.Cuisine: eclectic small plates.Specialties: Tunisian meatballs with harissa; lamb cutlets with mint chutney and raita; Mediterranean chicken panini with comté cheese and pickled cipollini onions; honey-goat cheese cake.Small plates: $4-$10.Chef/co-owner: Ben Gilligan.Co-owners: Nick Pimentel, Paul Ruppert and Dan Searing.

About the Author

Bret Thorn

Senior Food Editor, Nation's Restaurant News

Senior Food & Beverage Editor

Bret Thorn is senior food & beverage editor for Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality for Informa’s Restaurants and Food Group, with responsibility for spotting and reporting on food and beverage trends across the country for both publications as well as guiding overall F&B coverage. 

He is the host of a podcast, In the Kitchen with Bret Thorn, which features interviews with chefs, food & beverage authorities and other experts in foodservice operations.

From 2005 to 2008 he also wrote the Kitchen Dish column for The New York Sun, covering restaurant openings and chefs’ career moves in New York City.

He joined Nation’s Restaurant News in 1999 after spending about five years in Thailand, where he wrote articles about business, banking and finance as well as restaurant reviews and food columns for Manager magazine and Asia Times newspaper. He joined Restaurant Hospitality’s staff in 2016 while retaining his position at NRN. 

A magna cum laude graduate of Tufts University in Medford, Mass., with a bachelor’s degree in history, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Thorn also studied traditional French cooking at Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine in Paris. He spent his junior year of college in China, studying Chinese language, history and culture for a semester each at Nanjing University and Beijing University. While in Beijing, he also worked for ABC News during the protests and ultimate crackdown in and around Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Thorn’s monthly column in Nation’s Restaurant News won the 2006 Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award for best staff-written editorial or opinion column.

He served as president of the International Foodservice Editorial Council, or IFEC, in 2005.

Thorn wrote the entry on comfort food in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, 2nd edition, published in 2012. He also wrote a history of plated desserts for the Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, published in 2015.

He was inducted into the Disciples d’Escoffier in 2014.

A Colorado native originally from Denver, Thorn lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Bret Thorn’s areas of expertise include food and beverage trends in restaurants, French cuisine, the cuisines of Asia in general and Thailand in particular, restaurant operations and service trends. 

Bret Thorn’s Experience: 

Nation’s Restaurant News, food & beverage editor, 1999-Present
New York Sun, columnist, 2005-2008 
Asia Times, sub editor, 1995-1997
Manager magazine, senior editor and restaurant critic, 1992-1997
ABC News, runner, May-July, 1989

Education:
Tufts University, BA in history, 1990
Peking University, studied Chinese language, spring, 1989
Nanjing University, studied Chinese language and culture, fall, 1988 
Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine, Cértificat Elémentaire, 1986

Email: [email protected]

Social Media:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bret-thorn-468b663/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bret.thorn.52
Twitter: @foodwriterdiary
Instagram: @foodwriterdiary

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