Gravitas Chef Matt Baker runs two restaurants at the Eton DC Hotel. Photos by major DC.
This year, there’s a stack of financial, legal and political issues piled up for chef Matt Baker, including Michelin-starred Gravitas in Ivy City and more casual spots with Michelin-starred Gravitas in the Eaton Hotel Downtown.
In December and January he closed two locations of Baker’s daughter in Georgetown and Ivy City, but retains the latter space for future projects. Then, in February, the DC Tax and Revenue Department temporarily closed Gravita and Michele for unpaid taxes following a series of tax liens, but all of them have since been resolved. Meanwhile, Baker is being sued by the landlord of the property in the union market, which plans to open a Mediterranean wine bar.
And on top of that, Baker is currently not going well with liberal DC.
Tax turbulence
DC Tax Authority filed three separate liens against Gravitas at various points over half of the last year. According to a notice from OTR, in the latest, the tasting menu restaurant owes more than $33,500 in taxes. Michele dates back to December 2022 and faces four farewells in 2024 with a new record of around $61,800 unpaid tax. After “many attempts to collect unpaid taxes from these facilities without success,” the city was forced to revoke Gravitas and Michele’s sales tax certificates on February 19, an OTR spokesperson said. However, both companies resumed a few days after entering compliance on February 21st.
Baker declined to comment on his record on cash flow issues. However, in a 2023 interview with the Washingtonian, the chef talked about how the increase in labor costs from initiative 82 has overturned the old school rules of thumb for running restaurants and how difficult it is to change his business model. He adjusted prices several times with Spot Gravitas on the tasting menu, adding options to keep him profitable as his Ivy City neighborhood struggles to become a once-promised destination. Just like a few weeks ago, he reduced the price of the three-course menu from $95 to $72 to make the restaurant more accessible.
However, Baker said in a 2023 interview that places like Michele are less flexible. In places like Michele, “there is a threshold for what people are willing to pay,” with dishes like fried steaks and heirloom tomato linguini. “Unfortunately, Michele lost a lot of money this year, and me and our investors had to cover the costs,” he said at the time. Baker refused to say what it was going on in the record, but it remains open.
Litigation against a new wine bar
Baker has two new restaurants in the work. While Capitol Hill Steakhouse, known as Lucille’s Modern Chophouse, is still on track, Union Market’s Mediterranean wine bar, known as Non SE, is currently facing legal challenges.
Baker is currently being sued by the space landlord. He claims that the restaurateurs have made it impossible to do fraudulent HVAC work and could not pay the fee. The lawsuit filed in early February states that in March 2024, the landlord had negotiated a lease with Baker and revive the lease on new terms, but the two parties have not reached an agreement. A few months later, despite being told there would be no lease, the landlord says Baker will sign a contract with a company called Roman Machinery to close the work of the HVAC with real estate. Since then, Roman has recorded two mechanic liens against the property for more than $213,000 on the outstanding HVAC bill.
Baker declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Social media backlash
The most popular issue these days is Baker’s social media posts. Anela Malik of DC Food Content Creator Feed Malik blows up Baker last week with an Instagram post for “Elon, Antimigrant Clips retweets, how Doge stops Steal and lightly pars federal workers.” She shared a series of screenshots of his repost. “It’s okay to be patriotism again. Trump is president,” reads a tweet that Baker reposted from right-wing commentator Ian Miles Chong. Since then, most posts have disappeared from Baker’s X-page, but are now private.
Malik also first pointed out that tax authorities had previously stopped selling at Gravitas, writing, “Maybe you’ll get your own home first?”
The Instagram account @washingtonianProbs also posted screenshots of Baker’s retweets and posts, with 500,000 followers. In his first tweet since one since February, Baker invited a mask to eat at Gravitas. “Thank you for the hard work you’ve done!” he wrote. “I’m reaching out to B.C. I’ve found out I’ve referenced Gravitas a few times today. My favourites are your son X and an oval office! I’m a chef at DC and have the gravity of a restaurant.
The post guided the “Resistance Chic” Eaton Hotel (where Baker runs Michele and Baker’s daughter) and said it was “a genuine supporter of the right to express his personal opinion, but he was deeply disappointed by the nature of the content Chef Baker shares.”
On Monday, Baker issued his own statement on Instagram, apologising to Eton’s staff and partners, and offering to drink coffee with anyone he wants to have a conversation.
“I do not tolerate hatred or discrimination in any way. I do not support immigrants or targeting people of color. I also stand with federal workers who make a significant contribution to the nature of our city,” the statement reads in part. “I regret that my posts and retweets have undermined it. My online association didn’t seem to think, and I had no intention of hurting the city or its people, so I sincerely apologize.”
Baker declined to comment further on the social media backlash.
Food Editor
Jessica Sidman covers the people and trends behind the food and drink scenes in DC. Before joining Washington in July 2016, she was a food editor at Washington City Paper and a Young & Hungry columnist. She is a Colorado native and graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.
