“I can’t cook, but I can edit,” says Umbi Singh.
The proof is in his long and impressive run at New Heights. From 1986 until the coronavirus pandemic forced him to reconsider his priorities, Singh was the talent manager at the modern American restaurant in Woodley Park whose headliners included some noteworthy chefs — Alison Swope, Matthew Lake, Logan Cox — over the decades. As some of Singh’s competitors shifted to offering takeout and delivery in the spring of 2020, Singh dimmed the lights in his second-story dining room, figuring the kind of food New Heights was known for wouldn’t translate well to boxes and bags.
The longer he stayed away, the more he embraced his new life, including evenings with his children. Plus, everything about restaurant work, including finding and keeping dedicated staff, became more challenging. When he turned 73 last year, Singh decided to retire, but not before finding for his landlord a promising new tenant.
Say hello to Mark Namdar, Olena Fedorenko and chef Jose Molina. Former colleagues at the Graham hotel in Georgetown, they’re the new caretakers at New Heights — a name they respected enough to keep, with the blessing of Singh, whom Namdar calls “the mayor of Woodley Park.” Veterans of the hospitality industry, the trio is writing a new chapter at the restaurant, which reopened in January. “Our goal,” says Namdar, “is to make it a destination again.”
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A scan of the 34-year-old Molina’s menu only hints at the fun to follow. Like a lot of restaurants, this one offers crab cakes, roast chicken and grilled octopus — predictable dishes certain to have lots of takers. Yet no sooner do the plates start showing up than you pause to admire a fresh take here, a delicious twist there, a new restaurant for your rotation.
The chef’s Caesar salad is built from grilled broccolini and a creamy dressing, bold with black garlic. Simply billed “garden greens” raise the bar for house salads; this one is colorful and delicious with roasted corn and dried cherries, everything tied together with a sparkling champagne vinaigrette. As an alternative to french fries, Molina serves beech mushrooms dipped in tempura and seasoned with warm spices to “make the mushrooms come alive,” he says. All I know is, the fried golden clusters, cooled down with jalapeño and truffle aiolis, test one’s ability to share an appetizer.
The visuals are as diverting as the tastes. Bright red raw tuna (poke) packs the two-bite wonton tacos, garnished with emerald seaweed and wasabi. Steamed buns stuffed with molasses-glossed pork belly, its sweetness tempered with pickled onions, are positioned with brilliant watermelon radishes (and once, an orchid). Does food taste better when the people serving it make you feel as if you’re a guest of honor? The staff at New Heights suggest as much.
The setting will be familiar to anyone who visited when Singh, reliably dashing in a turban, patrolled New Heights. Guests encounter an airy bar, specializing in gin, before climbing to a dining room set off with windows looking onto treetops, and walls graced with photos or maps of Washington, “the land of opportunity,” says Namdar, a native of Iran. (He, the Ukrainian-born Fedorenko and Molina, who’s from Bolivia, named their partnership American Dream 2.) The restaurant is easier to talk in than ever, thanks to rippled, sound-absorbing plastic on the walls. Linens, carpet and fabric-covered booths help muffle the noise even as the room fills. During spring, at least, cherry blossom branches drew eyes to large insets in the ceiling.
Soup lets the chef make subtle statements. The invasion of Ukraine by Russia, an obviously personal event for Fedorenko, prompted Molina to add borscht to the menu. Picture lots of shredded beets, along with carrots, cabbage, potatoes and kidney beans. So that everyone can try it, the soup, finished with sour cream, eschews meat. By the time you read this, the chef may have perfected his next featured bowl: a peanut soup to pay homage to his homeland.
While Molina incorporates a variety of international accents, Bolivia is currently represented solely by a salsa verde on an entree of lamb, revealed from a smoke-filled cloche that perfumes (but doesn’t mask) the meat. The green sauce — not much more than cilantro, shallots and lime juice — is a bright charge on the plate, which gets filled out with roasted carrots and smashed Yukon potatoes.
The restaurant’s proximity to several hotels means offering dishes with mass appeal. Yet Molina tends to stretch, to the benefit of his audience. Herbed chicken is staged with velvety roasted peppers and atop potatoes that are rich with butter and cream but tempered with lemon juice and rosemary. Crackling-skinned branzino is treated to a slippery cake of Israeli couscous and a butter sauce lit with capers and tomatoes. The head is cut off (boo), but “only because so many people asked” for it.
Most chefs know to put a vegetarian dish or two on their menu for diners who don’t eat meat, a notion that sounds “duh” but has been complicated by the pandemic shift to fewer menu choices. Note to restaurants: Your audience for vegetarian fare might be greater than you think. Plenty of carnivores like a change of pace, too, and they appreciate compositions with some thought behind them, not just what appear to be side dishes posing as main courses.
Molina seems to understand this. His kale and mushroom paella is required eating at New Heights. The base alone swells with flavor. Molina cooks Spanish bomba rice in saffron broth, adding chimichurri toward the end. Before the paella leaves the kitchen, roasted mushrooms, flash-fried kale and a single poached egg lend heft to the score. Lots of notes. Great concert.
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The most original dessert is a pistachio cake layered with ricotta. It’s made elsewhere, but who cares when it’s as sublime as this pale green beauty? Fans of carrot cake will be satisfied by the moist and nutty slice.
Amazingly, Molina has a single line cook helping him feed a potential crowd of 70 in the dining room — 40 more if you throw in the bar and patio. He says the only thing holding him back from expanding the menu is lack of help in the kitchen, a truth that makes me appreciate the new New Heights even more.
Singh has left the building. Thanks to his editing prowess, however — identifying the right successors — New Heights is once again on a trajectory to the stars.
New Heights
2317 Calvert St. NW. 202-290-2692. newheightsrestaurant.com. Open for indoor and outdoor dining and takeout and delivery 5 to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 5 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Prices: appetizers $10 to $28, main courses $18 to $42. Sound check: 69 decibels/Conversation is easy. Accessibility: Wheelchair users can be accommodated on the patio and ground-floor bar, but not the second-floor dining room, where the only restrooms are located. Pandemic protocol: Masks for staff are optional, but everyone is vaccinated.
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