Susan Bae of Moon Rabbit Wins DC's 2026 James Beard Award
Susan Bae of Moon Rabbit wins Washington DC's 2026 James Beard Award. Here's what it means for DC's Vietnamese-inspired fine dining scene.
In brief
Susan Bae, the executive chef behind Moon Rabbit — Washington DC's acclaimed Vietnamese-inspired fine dining restaurant — claimed a 2026 James Beard Award, cementing her place among America's culinary elite. The honor marks a landmark moment for DC's dining scene and signals the continued rise of Asian-American chefs at the top tier of the industry.
🔑 Key Takeaways
Susan Bae of Moon Rabbit wins a 2026 James Beard Award, DC's most prestigious culinary recognition of the year.
Moon Rabbit serves Vietnamese-inspired fine dining and has been a standout on DC's upscale restaurant circuit since opening.
The win adds DC to a short list of cities producing James Beard honorees in 2026, alongside Chicago, New York, and New Orleans.
Bae's recognition accelerates a broader national conversation about Asian-American representation at the top of American fine dining.
DC's food scene now holds multiple James Beard wins across recent years, reinforcing the city's reputation as a serious culinary capital.
Who Is Susan Bae and What Is Moon Rabbit?
Susan Bae built Moon Rabbit into one of Washington DC's most talked-about dining destinations by threading Vietnamese culinary tradition through a fine dining lens — a approach that resonated deeply with both critics and a city that takes its restaurant culture seriously. Moon Rabbit draws diners who want more than a meal; they want a story on the plate.
The restaurant sits among DC's competitive dining corridor, where chefs like José Andrés have long set a high bar for what the city expects from a white-tablecloth experience. Bae carved out her own identity not by competing with that model, but by expanding what fine dining in the capital can mean — rooted in heritage, expressed with precision.
The James Beard Foundation, which has administered its annual awards since 1991, considers nominees across categories including Best Chef, Outstanding Restaurant, and Emerging Chef. A win — or even a nomination — routinely transforms reservation books and national media coverage overnight. For Bae, this win is both personal validation and a commercial turning point.
For DC food lovers tracking the city's best tables, Moon Rabbit has long appeared on WDCM's DC Restaurant Power Rankings as a must-visit for serious diners.
What a James Beard Win Means for Washington DC's Dining Scene
Washington DC has spent two decades fighting off the reputation that it's a city of power lunches and lobbyist steakhouses — competent, but not creative. The last decade proved otherwise. Chefs like Kwame Onwuachi (formerly of Kith and Kin), Erik Bruner-Yang of Maketto, and the entire constellation of restaurants orbiting the 14th Street NW and Shaw corridors rewrote that narrative. Bae's 2026 James Beard win is the latest chapter.
The James Beard Foundation has increasingly recognized DC as a legitimate culinary capital, with the city producing honorees across multiple categories over the past five years. That trend accelerates with Bae's win, which arrives as DC's restaurant industry continues rebounding from the structural disruptions of the early 2020s — rising food costs, staffing shortages, and shifting dining habits among the city's federal workforce and professional class.
The win also matters commercially. Washington Post food critics and national outlets alike will revisit Moon Rabbit's menu with renewed scrutiny — and diners will follow. OpenTable and Resy data from previous James Beard cycles consistently show booking surges of 30–50% in the weeks following a chef's win.
Track how DC's power dining culture shapes city influence in WDCM's DC Power Players Index.
Asian-American Chefs and the New Architecture of Fine Dining
Susan Bae's win lands at a moment of genuine reckoning in the American restaurant industry. The James Beard Foundation itself undertook a sweeping equity audit in 2021, pausing its awards to address longstanding concerns about diversity in nominations and selection. The reforms that followed produced a more intentional process — one that has, over the past three award cycles, yielded a more representative field of honorees.
Asian-American chefs in particular have moved from underrepresented to celebrated at the foundation's annual gala. Bae joins a cohort that includes past honorees like Nobu Lee and others who have used their platforms to argue that diaspora cuisine — when executed with rigor and intention — belongs at the highest levels of culinary discourse. That argument no longer needs making. The medals speak for themselves.
According to the James Beard Foundation's equity reporting, the organization has significantly increased the diversity of its nominating committees and judging panels since 2021 — a structural change, not a cosmetic one. Bae's recognition reflects that recalibrated system producing results.
For context on how DC's culinary and cultural institutions intersect, see WDCM's DC Power Index 2025.
Why This Matters in Washington
Washington DC is not just a city of policies and press conferences — it is a city where a dinner reservation can close a deal, launch a career, or signal who matters this season. The James Beard Awards function differently here than they do in, say, Nashville or Portland. In DC, culinary prestige intersects directly with political and corporate power. Embassies host chefs. Think tanks court restaurateurs. The dining room is an extension of the briefing room.
Susan Bae's win elevates Moon Rabbit into a category of restaurants that shape the city's self-image — the tables where DC decides what kind of world city it wants to be. For a capital that has long deferred to New York and San Francisco on matters of culinary culture, another James Beard win is a statement: DC sets its own table now.
The broader DC dining landscape, from Navy Yard's emerging restaurant row to the established corridors of Dupont Circle and Capitol Hill, benefits when any of its chefs earn national recognition. Bae's win is Moon Rabbit's moment, but its ripple runs citywide. Explore how DC's neighborhoods are evolving with our DC Neighborhood Market Report.
What to Watch Next
Moon Rabbit will almost certainly see a surge in reservation demand in the weeks following the James Beard announcement — a pattern that repeats every awards cycle. Whether Bae expands her footprint, takes on a second concept, or deepens Moon Rabbit's existing programming will be the storyline DC food media tracks through the remainder of 2026.
More broadly, the 2026 James Beard class — announced by the James Beard Foundation through its formal gala process — sets the competitive benchmark for the next generation of DC chefs watching from their prep kitchens in Columbia Heights, Ivy City, and beyond. Bae's win tells them the ceiling is gone.
The bottom line: Susan Bae's 2026 James Beard Award is the kind of recognition that reshapes a chef's career trajectory, elevates a restaurant's national profile, and reminds the country that Washington DC belongs in every serious conversation about American fine dining. Moon Rabbit earned this. So did the city.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Susan Bae? Susan Bae is the executive chef of Moon Rabbit, a Vietnamese-inspired fine dining restaurant in Washington DC. She won a 2026 James Beard Award, one of the most prestigious honors in American cuisine.
What is Moon Rabbit DC? Moon Rabbit is a fine dining restaurant in Washington DC that draws on Vietnamese culinary traditions. It has earned critical acclaim for its approach to elevating Southeast Asian flavors within an upscale dining format.
What are the James Beard Awards? The James Beard Awards, administered by the James Beard Foundation, are annual honors recognizing outstanding achievement in American cuisine, food media, and hospitality. They are widely considered the Oscars of the American food world.
Why is Susan Bae's win significant for DC? Bae's win reinforces Washington DC's standing as a serious culinary capital and highlights the growing national recognition of Asian-American chefs in fine dining. It also marks a commercially significant moment for Moon Rabbit, which can expect a surge in national media attention and reservations.
Where is Moon Rabbit located in Washington DC? Moon Rabbit operates in Washington DC. The restaurant is part of the city's competitive fine dining scene that has grown significantly over the past decade across neighborhoods from Penn Quarter to Shaw.
Has DC won James Beard Awards before? Yes. Washington DC has produced multiple James Beard honorees in recent years, including chefs like Kwame Onwuachi. The 2026 win by Susan Bae continues a trend of DC chefs earning top-tier national recognition.
Reporting drawn from: Axios. Washington DC Magazine provides original analysis, DC-specific context, and editorial perspective beyond the source material.This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by WDCM editorial staff. Washington DC Magazine is committed to accuracy, transparency, and editorial integrity. If you believe any information in this article requires correction, please contact editor@washingtondcmagazine.com.
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CAN I KICK IT? screens New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument, on Aug. 22. (Courtesy SHAOLIN JAZZ)
The live-cinema series CAN I KICK IT? returns to the National Mall this month with what its producers are calling the "Gangsters on the Mall" chapter of their free outdoor summer run. On Saturday, August 22, the SHAOLIN JAZZ production brings the 1991 crime classic New Jack City to the Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument for a night of film, music, and community under the DC summer sky.
What sets the event apart is the sound. As the film plays, DJ 2-Tone Jones builds an original score in real time, reimagining one of the most iconic crime movies of the ’90s through hip-hop, soul, funk, and more. It is less a movie screening than a live performance built around the film.
The details:
Film: New Jack City (1991), with a live soundtrack by DJ 2-Tone Jones
When: Saturday, August 22 — seating opens at 7:30 p.m. (bring lawn chairs and blankets); film begins at 8:30 p.m.
Where: Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument, Independence Ave SW & 15th St NW
A parking note from the organizers: expect road closures and restricted parking east of 14th Street NW due to a separate race event in the District. Roads west of 14th Street NW will be accessible and available for parking.
New Jack City is the second of three screenings in this year’s free CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series, which opened with Black Panther at Skyland Town Center and concludes with Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial on September 5. Produced by the Washington, DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, the series has presented more than 150 live cinematic experiences at venues across the country, from Lincoln Center to SXSW.
"I wanted to be able to tell good stories with substance and remove the ‘ego’ out of the art," said Andrew Huang during a recent interview. Now, he’s building his career at the intersection of discipline, creativity and innovation.
Andrew Huang, founder of New Place Studios. (Courtesy photo)
As a Chinese American, Huang was reared with a deep respect for hard work, consistency and excellence. He describes his childhood as "not so affluent" and later attended college to hone his passion for videography. "In college I tried to do something I loved, which was video, but along the way I knew that I had to find a job. And so I thought, ‘what was the low hanging fruit to get to that stable 9 to 5 job?,’" he stated.
Later in life, Huang found himself working for corporations where his creativity was often limited, eventually leading to burnout. "I worked in a corporation for a long time and there were a lot of missing pieces. I wanted to fill in gaps missing in corporate video production," said Huang.
He later described how his upbringing and a mindset of "survival" led him toward a corporate career. However, his desire for balance and authentic storytelling ultimately pushed him to take the entrepreneurial leap.
"I founded a new place where you can create video and film with ‘substance and style,’" said Huang. His desire for work-life balance and passion for storytelling naturally evolved into a small business based in Virginia. With the launch of New Place Studios, the entrepreneur quickly found himself reconnecting with the values that would become the foundation of everything he creates behind the camera.
Huang said being a business owner has allowed him to first embrace himself. While others may see video as simply capturing moments, he sees it as a way to preserve stories that inspire, connect and leave a lasting imprint.
By combining cinematic visuals with cutting-edge production techniques and a keen understanding of branding, Huang helps organizations and individuals communicate their vision with purpose. He said understanding a client’s "why" serves as the compass for delivering the services they need.
One benefit of working with a small business, he said, is that clients get to see the production process unfold through a micro lens while working with the same faces throughout the entire project. "The work feels personal," said Huang.
Huang does not regret leaving behind the flash-over-substance mentality and corporate hustle culture. That does not mean the Asian American entrepreneur has been without challenges in the industry. "It’s relatively hard to find other Asian American creatives or people who would want to work with me in the DMV," said Huang.
He identifies the industry culture in which everyone is trying to blend in, creatives may fear displaying their Asian identity and some feel pressure to adopt an American corporate persona. He also points to what he describes as a level of gatekeeping within the industry. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2024 statistics, Asian American and Pacific Islander entrepreneurs own more than 3 million businesses and employ 5.2 million people in the United States.
After tapping into organizations such as SCORE, which offers free small business mentorship, New Place Studios has become a trusted creative partner throughout the DMV (Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia). The company produces a range of creative services, including commercials, corporate branding, documentaries, film, 2D animation, motion graphics and photography.
For Huang, entrepreneurship has become more than a departure from corporate life. It has given him the freedom to create with intention, build meaningful connections and tell stories that go beyond the surface.
The 2026 CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
For three Saturdays this summer, some of Washington’s most familiar public spaces will do something they rarely do after dark: fill up with blankets, lawn chairs, and the sound of a movie being scored live, in real time. CAN I KICK IT?, the traveling “live cinema” series produced by the DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, is bringing a free outdoor run to the city — pairing three era-defining films with an original soundtrack performed on the spot by DJ 2-Tone Jones.
The premise is what sets it apart from a normal screening in the park. Rather than simply pressing play, 2-Tone Jones builds a score as the film unfolds, pulling from hip-hop, soul, funk, jazz, rock, electronic music, and sounds from around the world. The result, the organizers say, is less a movie night than a one-time performance — the same film you know, wired to a soundtrack you have never heard and will not hear again. Guest DJs warm up the crowd starting at 7:30 PM before each 8:30 PM screening.
The 2026 outdoor schedule
All three events are free and open to the public.
Saturday, August 8 — Black Panther at Skyland Town Center. A pop-up marketplace and community activities kick off the evening; guest DJs at 7:30 PM, film at 8:30 PM. Marvel’s superhero epic gets a one-night-only live score in Southeast DC.
Saturday, August 22 — New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument. Seating begins at 7:30 PM; the film starts at 8:30 PM. The 1991 crime drama plays out at the foot of one of the country’s most recognizable landmarks.
Saturday, September 5 — Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial. Seating at 7:30 PM; film at 8:30 PM. The series closes with Brian De Palma’s crime saga against the backdrop of the Memorial, scored live from start to finish.
First up: Black Panther at Skyland Town Center on August 8. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
A DC company with a national footprint
SHAOLIN JAZZ describes itself as a Washington-based arts company working at the intersection of music, film, art, and culture, and CAN I KICK IT? is its signature production. According to the organizers, the series has staged more than 150 live cinematic experiences around the country — at performing arts centers, museums, festivals, and cultural institutions including Lincoln Center in New York, SXSW, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Republic Square in Austin, the Tacoma Armory, and The Cary Theater.
“CAN I KICK IT? has always been about creating a shared experience,” said Gerald Watson, co-founder of SHAOLIN JAZZ. “When you combine iconic films with live music in public spaces, something special happens. People aren’t just watching a movie — they’re experiencing it together. That’s what makes these nights so memorable.”
Cinema as a community event
The DC run lands as cities across the country look for new ways to activate public space through arts and culture — and this series is a straightforward pitch for how to do it: take a landmark everyone already knows, add a film everyone has an opinion about, and let a live soundtrack turn the evening into something neighbors experience shoulder to shoulder. Families, film buffs, and music fans are all invited, and admission won’t cost a thing.
The CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series runs August 8, August 22, and September 5. All events are free; check SHAOLIN JAZZ (shaolinjazz.com) for the latest details and any weather updates before heading out.
