Skift Take
Working with the right architect gave Maydan owner Rose Previte, license to create her ideal dining room centered around a central hearth with an open flame.
Rose Previte, owner of Washington, D.C.’s Maydan, describes her restaurant as an 'organic, feelings-based project," admitting that her approach to opening the place may have been unconventional. Given the restaurant’s reception, though, going with her gut isn’t something Previte really needs to justify.
Critically lauded many times over (including its most recent: near top placement on Bon Appétit's Best New Restaurants list) since it opened last November, Maydan has been warmly welcomed — something Previte hopes she, too, can do for everyone who steps foot in her restaurant. This goal is, both figuratively and literally, accomplished through Maydan’s physical design.
Maydan is located in D.C.’s trendy Shaw neighborhood, more specifically in its historic Manhattan Laundry Building, a 130-year-old space that formerly housed (unsurprisingly) a commercial laundry in the early 20th century, and a printing plant before that. Originally, the space functioned as a service center and storage facility for street cars, hence its enormous scale; in recent years, a WeWork and La Colombe Coffee Roasters have opened.
A developer approached
