Chef
Jon Sybert
- Discipline
- Chef
- Based in
- Washington DC, Washington DC, United States
i. Biography
Rye Bunny sets Jon Sybert’s current work inside a counter-service frame built for Mid-Atlantic seasonality: ramps folded into ravioli, anchovies laid over toast, fried chicken, and dishes that keep comfort-food forms close to the guest. The register is direct, with enough technique to make the ingredient legible rather than hidden. Spring is allowed to read as spring; toast and ravioli are used as working formats, not as decoration for a longer service structure. The craft here is proximity: to the counter, to the season, to the sourcing, and to the crew executing it.
The Ascent
Restaurant discipline in Washington, D.C. Kitchens shaped the early part of the work, with Jon Sybert cooking at Komi before moving into ownership and long-term restaurant building. The shift from station work to chef and co-owner at Tail Up Goat in Adams Morgan, Washington, D.C. (2016–2025) placed the craft inside a neighborhood dining room, where menu identity, service rhythm, and daily consistency had to hold over years rather than services. Chef-ownership at Reveler’s Hour in Lanier Heights, Washington, D.C. Extended that practice into another Washington, D.C. Room and another model of hospitality. Across those roles, the through-line is operational as much as culinary: sourcing, pricing, team support, and the work of making a restaurant useful to its neighborhood instead of only attractive as a destination. Counter-service cooking at Rye Bunny (since 2026) distills that background into a more casual structure without treating casualness as a shortcut. The format changes the pressure points: immediacy matters, generosity matters, and seasonal dishes need to read quickly without losing intent.
At Work Now
The operating model at Rye Bunny was designed around fair wages, honest pricing, and a hyper-seasonal Mid-Atlantic menu. In that structure, the business decisions and the plate are linked. What is bought, what is ripe, how it is cooked, and how it is priced all belong to the same system. Comfort foods and nostalgic dishes provide the working vocabulary, with formality reduced so the ingredients carry more of the message. “I try to source the best, local foods and go from there,” Jon Sybert has said. In practice, that line covers ramp-filled ravioli, fried chicken, and anchovy toast as part of a restaurant philosophy around sustainable restaurant work: start with strong local product, then avoid burying it under extra moves. The menu’s craft is in clarification rather than reduction for its own sake. Ramps can be folded into ravioli and still keep their green, short-season character. Anchovies on toast use a modest format to deliver salt, savor, and immediacy. Fried chicken remains recognizable while sitting inside a kitchen attentive to Mid-Atlantic seasons.
Signature
Ramp-filled ravioli at Rye Bunny shows how a familiar pasta format can carry a short-season Mid-Atlantic ingredient without making the dish formal. The signature is not in novelty; it is in proportion, sourcing, and restraint. In Jon Sybert’s current cooking, the dish reads first as comfort, then as a set of choices about season, locality, and how much handling an ingredient needs.
Accolades
Jon Sybert has received James Beard Foundation: Best Chefs, Semifinalist (2019). Best Chefs, Nominee (2020) and Best Chefs, Semifinalist (2019) mark peer recognition for the body of work around Jon Sybert’s Washington, D.C. Restaurants. Those honors sit alongside the practical lineage: cook at Komi; chef and co-owner at Tail Up Goat in Adams Morgan, Washington, D.C. (2016–2025); chef and co-owner at Reveler’s Hour in Lanier Heights, Washington, D.C.; and chef of Rye Bunny (since 2026). The current chapter tests a clear proposition for the trade: casual service can still carry seasonal discipline, ingredient standards, and serious attention to how restaurant work is built.
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Jon
Where did Jon Sybert work before?
Earlier in their career, Jon Sybert worked at Komi, Tail Up Goat, and Reveler’s Hour.
What recognition has Jon Sybert received?
Best Chefs, Nominee (2020).
