Meridian Finds the Right Latitude

Over the years it has been a moped shop, a go-go club and a furniture store. Now the window-wrapped space at 5832 Georgia Ave. NW is a restaurant named Meridian (202-722-8882), offering a menu that includes some pleasing Southern and tropical elements.

"I grew up in Riggs Park," says Rodney English, who owns the 110-seat establishment with his wife, Lynn, and a half-dozen partners. "I always thought this would be a good space for a restaurant." He's got that right. Aside from a fast-food joint or two, there's sparse competition in the neighborhood.

Meridian is a double reference to Washington's Meridian Hill Park and the African diaspora, which found black slaves settling along similar geographical lines, says English, who consults for nonprofit groups when he's not in his hip new dining room.

The secret to the pleasure of a plate of wings at Meridian lies not just in its rousing trio of sauces, the most exotic of which is apricot-tamarind, but also to the quality of the chicken: "We only use fresh wings," says chef Michael Robertson, 45. He also makes a mean gumbo, which changes from day to day; at the suggestion of some vegetarian customers, the chef is working on a meatless version.

Born in London to Jamaican parents, Robertson comes to the new project from the Sports Club/LA in the West End, where he was executive sous-chef, and before that, Zola in Penn Quarter, where he worked as sous-chef. His background explains the presence of Caribbean cod fritters and red snapper escovitch -- "things I grew up eating" -- on a menu that also includes a grilled rib-eye steak, a hibiscus-marinated pork chop, and prawns and andouille sausage arranged in a bowl of creamy cheese grits.

On the horizon: brunch on Saturdays and Sundays, and a menu that will expand to include jerk rack of lamb, braised oxtail and a crawfish tart.

Dinner entrees, $15-$25.