Hear the name Anju, and many people’s first thoughts will float to Korean bar snacks. Pan-tossed pork-and-kimchi mandu with blistered skins and juicy centers. Crisp Korean fried chicken whose juices run with its gochujang glaze at first bite. Tender beef tartare, punctuated by lotus crisps for a compelling crunch.
If those diners know the restaurant scene in the nation’s capital and its suburbs, those gustatory recollections will be completed with the faces of Danny Lee and Scott Drewno. The chef duo behind The Fried Rice Collective opened Anju in 2019 and have since garnered multiple James Beard nominations, a legion of celebrity fans, and a reservation book that’s notoriously tough to crack.