Multiple eateries and restaurateurs in Montgomery County were nominated Monday for RAMMY Awards, which are presented by the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington.
Winners will be announced at the 42nd Annual RAMMYS Awards Gala on July 21, which “honors excellence in the restaurant and foodservice industry in the Washington, D.C., area across a range of categories celebrating culinary concepts, service, and individuals,” according to the association’s website.
Here are the local nominees:
- ala, which has restaurant locations at 4948 Fairmont Ave. in Bethesda and in Washington, D.C., is nominated for best brunch.
- Andy’s Pizza, which has a location at 4600 East-West Highway in Bethesda and several others in Washington, D.C., and Northern Virginia, is nominated for favorite fast bites.
- Colada Shop, at 7993 Tuckerman Lane in Potomac, along with other locations in Washington, D.C., and Virginia, is nominated for hottest sandwich spot.
- Roaming Rooster, which has numerous locations in the area including at 11586 Old Georgetown Road in North Bethesda and 511 Quince Orchard Road in Gaithersburg, is also nominated for hottest sandwich spot.
- Taco Bamba, at 670 Quince Orchard Road in Gaithersburg and 1627 Rockville Pike in Rockville, is nominated for casual restaurant of the year.
- Zinnia, a restaurant and bar at 9201 Colesville Road near downtown Silver Spring, is nominated for beer program of the year.
Out of the restaurant owners nominated for the association’s restaurateur of the year award, four owners or group of owners run restaurants in the county.
The local nominees are:
- Bethesda’s José Andrés, who created José Andrés Restaurants, owns 19 restaurants in the area, including the Spanish Diner at 7271 Woodmont Ave. in Bethesda.
In February, Andrés was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his work with World Central Kitchen, which he created in 2010 following the Haiti earthquake and has provided roughly 350 million meals around the globe to those impacted by COVID-19, the Ukraine war, the Israel-Hamas war and other disasters and incidents, according to a statement.
“With World Central Kitchen, we created something that is necessary, and I think we’ve shown that by inviting all the professional chefs and cooks to the task of feeding people in an emergency, we’ve done a better job. Because we understand the urgency. Actually, chefs, we have proven we are good at that,” Andrés said in a 2019 interview with Bethesda Magazine.
- Kyle Bailey, Jon Ball, Jeremy Carman, Gavin Coleman and Paul Holder, who are part of Longshot Hospitality, are also nominated. They own and manage four restaurants, including The Salt Line, which has a seafood outpost at 7284 Woodmont Ave. in Bethesda.
- Nominees Andrew Dana and Daniela Moreira own several eateries, including Call Your Mother Deli, which has a location at 1807 Grand Park Ave. in North Bethesda.
- Enrique Limardo and Ezequiel Vázquez-Ger, who are part of the Seven Reasons Group, own seven restaurants, including Joy by Seven Reasons at 5471 Wisconsin Ave. in Chevy Chase, which is a Latin American restaurant known for its brunch.