WASHINGTON – The second major restaurant at the Trump International Hotel in Washington opens Friday, but New York-based restaurateur Alessandro Borgognone isn’t touting the property’s proximity to the president. In fact, he’s pointing out that the D.C. location of Sushi Nakazawa has its own door.
“You can’t walk in from the hotel, you don’t have to walk in from the hotel, it’s got its own entrance,” Borgognone told The Post.
Since President Trump was sworn in, his Pennsylvania Avenue hotel bar – and its one restaurant BLT Prime – has become a see-and-be-seen spot for administration officials and their friends. It’s a safe spot in a liberal city for those aligned with the president’s policies.
But the association has only caused pain for Borgognone and his business partner chef Daisuke Nakazawa, the duo behind the original Sushi Nakazawa in the West Village.
Bloomberg dubbed the eatery the “most polarizing restaurant in Washington” this March because of the Trump connection.
Weeks after the 2016 election, Anthony Bourdain told Eater he would “never eat” in Borgognone’s restaurant, after two other high-profile restaurant owners – Jose Andres and Geoffrey Zakarian – had pulled out of the Trump D.C. property over the then-candidate’s statements about Mexicans.
“I have utter contempt for him, utter and complete contempt,” Bourdain said of Borgognone, while also calling BLT Prime’s chef David Burke a “steaming pile of s–t.”
Of the criticism, Borgognone explained that “there’s a real big misunderstanding for the people that occupy spaces in any Trump hotel.”
“We operate solely, we’re not partners with them, we rent a space from them, like we would rent from any landlord, and we operate in every which way we would want to operate,” he said.
Borgognone also didn’t do himself any favors with Washingtonians by using an outdated dig on the city’s culinary climate, calling it a “meat-and-potatoes” town.
But Borgognone is hoping the locals will come to the restaurant, after all, pointing out that it’s located on the other side of where Trump fans enter the property, away from the busy bar, past the hotel’s Starbucks and down a set of steps.
He shrugged off getting patrons from the hotel saying he wanted D.C. neighborhood types. And he wasn’t bracing for a special guest.
“I don’t think the president eats sushi, so I don’t think we’re going to, at any point in time, see him,” Borgognone told The Post.
He added that he’d treat President Trump like “any other customer” and sit him at the bar – which is prime seating, as guests get to see the sushi chefs craft the innovative 21-piece meal for $150 that the restaurant will serve three times an evening.