Rioja

When chef Jen Jasinski and Beth Gruith opened Rioja seventeen years ago, it was a game changer for this block — and it’s still a winner. Rioja was the last place we ate before the March 2020 pandemic shutdown and the first place we ate when restaurants reopened that May. A meal here is just a quintessential experience, whether you’re eating on the expanded patio or in the chic dining room that offers a view of the kitchen, where Jasinski can still sometimes be spotted cooking up her trademark pasta and other Mediterranean-influenced dishes.