DC’s Best Chef to Bring Indoor-Outdoor Restaurant to Crystal City

The restaurant will be called Surreal and will transform an existing one-acre park at 2121 Crystal Drive that could allow diners to walk around the park with their drinks.
Chef Enrique Limbardo, whose acclaimed DC restaurants include Seven Reasons and Imperfecto, has been enlisted by great Crystal City owner JBG Smith to run a new indoor-outdoor restaurant in a Crystal City park.
The restaurant will be called Surreal and will transform an existing one-acre park at 2121 Crystal Drive.
The park itself is getting a makeover as Dining in the Park, and may include herb gardens and outdoor markets. And as a new lifestyle trade designation JBG Smith hopes to get, diners will be able to walk around the park with their drinks.
Surreal will offer indoor and outdoor seating year-round, with an all-day menu, for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Surreal will also be bringing food carts to the area.
“Surreal’s dining atmosphere aims to excite the existing community and visitors to engage and interact with one another. It’s a chance for people to slow down and enjoy a one-of-a-kind immersive dining experience, ”said Limbardo.
There was no detail on the menu.
Construction on Dining in the Park will begin early next year. Surreal is slated to open in 2023.
Limbardo is prolific on the DC food scene. Earlier this month, DC’s Planet Word Museum announced that Limbardo will be opening a restaurant named Immigrant Food + inside the historic Franklin School Museum. This will be the third location for Immigrant Food, whose other locations are in Union Market and 1701, PA. This one is called Immigrant Food by the White House.
Esquire Magazine ranked the Latin American-inspired Seven Reasons No.1 on its 2019 list of America’s Best New Restaurants. Limbardo’s Mediterranean-inspired Imperfecto can be found in DC’s West End.
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