Axios D.C.

July 17, 2025
Happy Thursday!
🌦️ Today's weather: Sunny, then chance of a T-storm. High of 97.
🎂 Happy birthday to our Axios D.C. member Jan Edwards!
Today's newsletter is 926 words — a 4-minute read.
1 big thing: MAHA food fads fuel D.C. restaurants
Marrow is hot. Tallow is trending. Bone luges are back. D.C.'s "clean eating" MAHA diners are taking nose-to-tail to the next level.
Why it matters: Trump's first term was all about well steak and fast food — largely divorced from local dining — but MAHA's unprocessed obsession is popularizing whole-animal trends and driving sales.
Zoom in: At Capitol Hill's haute MAGA hangout Butterworth's, chef Bart Hutchins blows through 500 beef bones a week for best-selling roasted marrow.
- It's Steve Bannon's go-to order, Hutchins tells Axios. VIPs like Marco Rubio get it compliments of the kitchen. Nigel Farage and other Brit Breitbart journos are eating it up, too.
- Patrons like a Port bone luge to "soak up the beefy, fatty flavor," Hutchins says.
What they're saying: "Before, the audience for offal was Berkeley hippie types who knew about Alice Waters. Now it's right-wing staffers," Hutchins says. "I tell my staff, we're a success if we sell more head cheese than cheeseburgers — and that's happening naturally here."
- Hutchins has long pushed offal on reluctant diners. Now, bones mean bank. "It's buzzy. If you describe something with 'collagen,' it's poised to move for a certain economic class."

The big picture: Chefs' whole-animal focus is compounded by wellness obsessives touting the health and beauty benefits of bone broth and "sipping collagen."
- Add in RFK Jr.'s war on seed oils and processed foods and you have diners going fat-to-bone.
Between the lines: Blue Duck Tavern's roasted bone marrow began as a W. Bush-era obsession. Today, "We can never take it off [menu]. People come in just for that," food and beverage director Jean-Claude Plihon tells Axios.
- The West End restaurant sells 5,500 marrow dishes annually — roughly 210 pounds of bones a week.
Like with other old-is-new-again crazes, traditionalists are caught off guard.
- "I had no idea, but I'm glad everyone is into it," Hai Le, the butcher turned chef behind Bloomingdale's new PhoXotic, tells Axios. Le brews intensely flavored bone broths.
- "I have people coming in asking for pho as a daily dose for their skin."
Keep reading below ...
2. 📈 Tallow trending
For face or plate, beef tallow is trending.
Why it matters: Rendered beef fat is an unlikely combination of beauty trend and food fad touted by MAHA influencers.
🐄 Where's the beef: "I didn't carry it two years ago, and now we're flying through cases," a rep for Baltimore wholesaler Fells Point Meat tells Axios.
- Naturally, tallow is the frying fuel of choice for Georgetown's new club Executive Branch, co-founded by Donald Trump Jr.
The intrigue: The only U.S. frozen tallow fry is Rockville-based Jesse & Ben's. Co-founder Jesse Konig took his popular fries from Navy Yard's Swizzler, reengineering them for shoppers with avo oil or grass-fed tallow. They've blown up in a year, and now:
- Stock them in 1,500 Whole Foods nationwide.
- Run 24-hour production to keep up with demand.
What they're saying: "The movement toward less processed foods is a big part of it," says Konig of the success. "It's top of mind in the culture right now."
- He doesn't see it as a MAHA fad. "There are people who go down the rabbit hole of tallow and raw milk. Others just like the way it tastes — and taste always wins."
3. 🤖 D.C. bill would allow robotaxi service
Waymo says it'll begin offering robotaxis in the District next year if the D.C. Council passes a new bill allowing driverless cars.
The big picture: The legislation, from Council member Kenyan McDuffie, comes as Waymo continues testing more than a dozen cars in D.C.
- Waymo operates its robotaxi service in LA, Phoenix, San Francisco, Atlanta and Austin, with D.C. and Miami being eyed next.
How it works: The cars being tested in Washington have a specialist behind the wheel, per D.C. regulations.
- If the bill passes, the next step will be testing with no one inside, before opening the service to the public for rides.
Between the lines: The legislation could also invite other autonomous-vehicle companies, like Tesla, into the D.C. market, the Washington Business Journal notes.
What's next: The bill could get a vote in the fall.
4. Around the Beltway: Trump's job cuts
📊 President Trump's 2026 budget outlines having 5% fewer federal employees compared to the last year of the Biden admin. Here's the downsizing plan charted by agency. (Washington Post)
🍎 Plans to build a grocery store in the large McMillan redevelopment near the Bloomingdale neighborhood are in flux after the developer says it couldn't attract a full-size grocer. (Washington Post)
🖼️ Four Smithsonian museums — the Hirshhorn, Asian Art, African Art and American Indian museums — reopened yesterday after HVAC issues. (WTOP)
5. 🚴 How much D.C. walks and bikes

D.C. is #8 among U.S. areas with relatively high shares of trips taken on foot or bicycle, a new report finds.
Why it matters: Walking and biking can be healthier than driving, while places designed for people rather than cars can have less air pollution, better neighborhood connectivity and other benefits.
Driving the news: Transportation data firm StreetLight ranked all continental U.S. counties with at least 150 people per square mile by their share of trips taken via "active transportation" in 2023.
- D.C. clocked 24% of trips taken by walking or biking.
- Arlington County came in at number 14 (19%).
Caveat: Sorry, Randy Clarke — transit trips aren't included in the report.
6. 🍷 Women in wine
👋🏻 Anna here, with a fun wine event I'm moderating next Thursday.
West End hotspot a.kitchen+bar is teaming up with women's collective Vin. Vitalité to spotlight DMV's leading ladies — vineyard to glass.
- Join us for sips and a discussion with five female powerhouses.
Tickets ($20) include wine and light bites.
- July 24, 6-8:30pm.
🩴 Anna is loving her new Oofos sandals.
🙄 Cuneyt is looking for new running socks that don't feel like they're choking his ankles.
🎭 Mimi is going to see "Dead Inside" at Woolly Mammoth tonight.
Want more Axios D.C. content? Check out our Instagram for extra stuff to do, behind-the-scenes photos, videos and more!
Today's newsletter was edited by Alexa Mencia Orozco.
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