Before Mita reached its one-year anniversary, chefs and owners Miguel Guerra and Tatiana Mora discovered their plant-based restaurant made history.
The Latin American restaurant earned its first Michelin star, making Guerra the youngest Venezuelan chef to receive a Michelin star and Mora the first Venezuelan female chef to earn the honor, as reported by WTOP’s partners at 7 News.
Not long after, the James Beard Foundation nominated the D.C. restaurant in the New Restaurant category, though it was bested by Minneapolis’ Bûcheron.
“Mita, for me, is a vegetable experience,” Mora told WTOP. “We try to expose or demonstrate the ancestral food in a holistic way … because I am so spiritual.”
Part of what makes the inventive Shaw restaurant stand out is that Mita is one of only five Hispanic restaurants in the D.C. Michelin Guide to have a Michelin star — among Elcielo, Imperfecto, Causa and Xiquet — and it is the only eatery of the bunch that is plant-based. But diners don’t need to be vegan or vegetarian to enjoy the experience.
The menu may have some items that sound familiar, such as arepas or ceviche, but everything presented — and dutifully explained by the front-of-house staff — invites ooh’s and aah’s. The tricky-to-please Washington Post food critic Tom Sietsema said it best in his review, “Mita is in part a lesson in ingredients you might not have sampled” as well as “an example of unexpected marriages.”
The arepa dish is one of Mora’s most-loved on the menu with the multiple versions of the corn cakes accompanied by three dips: an orange-colored dip from the chontaduro fruit with notes of passion fruit and pineapple, a sour cream made from cashews and heart of palm with a chili oil drizzled on top and, finally, guasacaca, which is an avocado-based sauce.
One of the most wow-worthy dishes on the tasting menu is undoubtedly the pachamama. The dish is inspired from a revered deity in Andean cultures who is regarded as the fertility goddess. The several bites of food — yucca crisp, salt-baked celery root, black bean mole, ají amarillo and more — are placed atop a glass box filled with dollar bills, marshmallows, chocolate coins, among other items.
“It’s a journey through Latin America,” Guerra said. “We wanted to have something that’s unique to Venezuela, but we did not want to create a Venezuelan restaurant, but we felt like there has to be something that represents us.”
Before Mita opened at 804 V St. NW in D.C., the concept was a pop-up in the La Cosecha food hall in Union Market District. Now, diners can enjoy the four-course menu at the bar for $75, the six-course tasting menu in the dining room for $105 or the 14-course tasting menu for $165 per person.
On advice they would give to others in the food and beverage field, Mora said, “Believe in yourself because I think that the limits are in your head.”
Guerra said, “If you believe in what you’re doing and you stay true to it, I think you probably will be successful.”