TAGLIATELLE: The pasta is freshly made and comes with abalone, Sungold tomatoes, and shaved bottarga. Its mind-bogglingly good.

TAGLIATELLE: The pasta is freshly made and comes with abalone, Sungold tomatoes, and shaved bottarga. It’s mind-bogglingly good. kelly o

When chef John Sundstrom and partners J.M. Enos and Kelly Ronan opened their Capitol Hill restaurant Lark in 2003, it was a radical move. At the time, its location—a worn-down 1930s building located on a stretch of 12th Avenue just south of Madison—was, in Sundstrom’s words, “a little off the beaten path.”

Then there was the food. Rather than the familiar categories of appetizers, entrées, and desserts, the five-page menu was broken into sections labeled “Cheese,” “Charcuterie,” “Vegetables/Grains,” “Fish,” and “Meat,” with many of the ingredients coming from local farms and producers…

Angela Garbes began her food writing career as a freelancer for The Stranger in 2006, joined the staff in 2014, and is now freelancing once again amid writing books; Like a Mother: A Feminist Journey Through...