“It sucks,” Davila said. “I felt like I failed Chef Pepe to certain degree.”

Cranes is the fourth Washington restaurant to lose a star since the coveted awards resumed following a pandemic hiatus. It was the only restaurant to lose its star in the November 2023 guide. Two of the 2022 losses—Plume and Komi—had permanently closed or significantly changed their business operations before inspection. Only Sushi Taro, which lost its star last year, was in a position to defend its award.

“Everyone was kind of sad and brought down,” Davila said. He recalls Moncayo sitting everyone down following the announcement and reminding them that although having a star was welcome, it wasn’t the end goal. Moncayo implored his chefs to think about the loss of the star as an opportunity to reset and to be creative without the pressure of retaining a star hanging over them.

“There was also a lot of motivation that came out of it,” Davila said of the meeting.

Studies have shown that consumer expectations inevitably increase once a restaurant receives a Michelin star. Patrons are to have negative feelings when restaurant experiences fail to live up to their Michelin reputations. Craving relief, in recent years have even returned their stars and stepped away from haute cuisine, including French chef Sébastian Bras and Swede Magnus Nilsson.

Moncayo did not respond to repeated interview requests for this story.

Davila joined Cranes as a line cook in April 2022, less than a year after the restaurant received its first Michelin star. Just a month after he arrived, the restaurant retained its star in the 2022 guide published on May 4.

“Of course, I didn't really feel like I contributed much because I had just started,” Davila said, but even though he didn’t make a major contribution, working at a Michelin-star restaurant had exceeded any expectations Davila had for his culinary career.

“It was it was always like a fantasy,” Davila said, “I never thought it was going to be me. I never thought I was ever going to go up to a Michelin-star restaurant.”

During his time as a line cook, then a station lead, Davila worked with Moncayo on a couple of dishes that were added to the menu, demonstrating his culinary promise and knack for development. At the beginning of 2023, Davila was promoted to junior sous chef, although he has since taken on the responsibilities of an acting sous chef, handling a lot of the research and development, Davila says.

“Going from just being a line cook or a lead line is a completely different world,” Davila says.

For Davila, 2023 has been a learning experience. He now understands how to push a team without leaving them unmotivated and stressed. He learned how to listen and when to let someone try something on their own and when to intervene with assistance. He also learned how to take responsibility for his mistakes.

“We had a lot of change in the restaurant, whether it was management or personnel,” Davila said. “We all just had a lot of change that was happening all in the same time. And then a lot of cooks were able to keep up, others weren't.”

Cranes’ former sous chef, Marc-Adam Rodriguez, left earlier this year, telling the Wash only that “Cranes had to release some staff during the slow season, myself included.” He only assumed the sous chef position in May, according to his LinkedIn page.

Michelin stars are awarded against five criteria: the chef’s skill, the personality in the cuisine, ingredient quality, value for money, and consistency. Keeping consistency, Davila said, has been a struggle this year.

As soon as Cranes lost the star on Nov. 7, Davila and Moncayo began making changes. The day after they returned from California, they started work on a whole new menu, Davila says.

“We already started sort of changing, like small things here and there that we weren't necessarily happy with,” Davila said, “making sure that we just check on like the minor details, quality and error and everything else.”

Part of this effort was to show the staff that they weren’t giving up and were motivated to get the restaurant back to where it was. “Not necessarily getting the star back,” Davila said, “just making sure that every little detail of the food and ingredients really shines through.” He added that he is now “more motivated than ever.”

“We are working towards just getting back to our, not to say roots, but just getting back on track on things,” Davila added, “making sure that we're able to keep our quality regardless and just make every experience for customers who do come and eat at Cranes the best possible.”

91���� spoke to several diners who visited the restaurant on a recent Friday evening. Many were shocked to hear that the restaurant had lost its Michelin star. Zach Loeffler, a Navy Yard resident, said that the shrimp tempura—served with lime aioli—was the best he’d ever had. Meredith Shields, also of Navy Yard, was equally impressed.

“One of the more interesting meals I’ve had in a long time,” Shields mused. “The best part was the dessert,” she said emphatically.

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Lemoupa, now 34 and living in Capitol Heights, was a medical lab technician in his home city of Bamenda in northwestern Cameroon when he left in 2015. But as a gay man in a country where homosexuality carries a potential five-year prison sentence and torture and violence are a constant threat—a hardship Lemoupa had experienced firsthand—he felt he had to leave.

“I could really see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Lemoupa said of arriving in the U.S. “I felt like, yes, I am in a land that supports people’s rights and that stands up for people like me.”

Lemoupa’s optimism has since faded, ground down by an asylum process that left him in legal purgatory. For eight years, his asylum application has languished in the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) backlog, leaving him struggling to advance his career, build a life, see friends and family, and even, at times, legally drive a car.

“This place hasn’t been feeling like a safe haven for a while,” Lemoupa said.

Lemoupa entered the U.S. on an international student visa with restrictions. After he arrived in Washington, D.C., following a brief stint in California, he filed an “affirmative” asylum application, available only to asylum seekers who entered the country legally; not via an unauthorized border crossing.

“I was supposed to have had an interview in 21 days, according to the message that was on the USCIS website at the time,” Lemoupa recalls. However, almost three months later, he received a letter from USCIS that only confirmed receipt of his application. “I was a little frustrated at the time, but I mean, there was nothing I could do.”

Lemoupa is not alone. The size of the backlog for affirmative asylum cases has ballooned in 2023. As of August, 974,571 affirmative asylum applications were pending a final decision, reported, up from around . Processing times can take over a decade and are set to grow as the backlog could reach one million applications by the end of 2024, a Department of Homeland Security ombudsman report said in June.

A $40 million proposal in the Senate to reduce the backlog is on the line in the fiscal tug-of-war over 2024 appropriations in Congress.

Part of the backlog can be attributed to a surge in affirmative asylum filings. In 2022, the agency received more than 230,000 applications—a record high. As of Sept. 15, the agency had received some in 2023. There are also fewer staff to handle the influx of applications. The agency has 760 working officers, 72 fewer than in

While affirmative asylum seekers are eligible for work permits 180 days after filing their application, many report facing additional career hurdles because of their pending status.

“Nobody will really want to give you any position of authority or responsibility because they will feel like you don't have a status, and they don't really see you like a long-term employee,” Lemoupa said.

Lemoupa has also had difficulties keeping a driving license, as licenses expire every one, two or five years with an asylum applicant’s work permit. In one instance he was unable to drive for a three-month period while he waited for his renewal, which endangered his job as a care worker in a group home for people with disabilities. He has also been unable to leave the country to see friends or family abroad with a pending application.

Andrea Barron, an advocate for torture survivors, is working with more than 100 affirmative asylum applicants in the DMV area who have been waiting more than five years for an asylum interview to determine their application.

“None of our people—zero—have gotten interviewed in the past few years unless they got what’s called an expedited interview,” Barron said. “It’s so unfair.”

On a chilly Autumn evening around Capitol Hill she called and checked in with her clients. Barron, 72, program manager at Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition (TASSC), speaks at a rapid clip, a Boston twang betraying her New England origins. “Hello? Are you okay? Your voice doesn’t sound so good.”

She extolls her work helping asylum seekers present their testimony to policymakers with the same passion as she does her go-to menu item at her favorite Thai eatery or the meeting she attended the previous evening with a group working to combat political polarization.

“The Biden administration said it would implement a more ‘humane’ and ‘fair’ asylum system,” Barron said. Human rights groups expected that asylum applicants waiting more than five years for an interview would finally receive an answer on their applications. “That turned out not to be true. The Biden Administration developed a better asylum system for some migrants,” Barron added.

For example, applications from Afghan citizens received during the U.S. withdrawal have received priority, as have more recent cases under a “Last In, First Out” policy.

Maryland's Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D), who sits on the Appropriations Committee and pushed for the $40 million recommendation in the FY2024 Department of Homeland Security appropriations, has championed the issue in Congress. Since 2021, groups of affirmative asylum applicants have written letters to his office, and the senator’s aides have met with Lemoupa and a handful of other applicants on Capitol Hill.

The DHS appropriations bill passed in the House does not include the $40 million earmarked for easing the backlog. There will likely be much wrangling over spending commitments in the political tussles before the February government funding deadline.

“We're trying to get these voices before the key people at this point,” said Steve Metalitz, a TASSC volunteer, “which is right now the House appropriators.”

Some organizations, however, argue taxpayer money should not be used to clear the backlog and that this money should be raised from charging asylum applicants filing fees, a proposal tabled by former President Trump but nixed under Biden.

“Applicants, not U.S. taxpayers, should pay their fees to adjudicate applications. That is a sound fiscal policy,” Lora Ries, director of the Border Security and Immigration Center at the Heritage Foundation, told 91���� through a spokesperson. “Applicants for other benefit types cover the cost of asylum adjudications with higher fees of their own,” she added. “This administration needs to stop allowing aliens to apply for benefits for free.”

But even if the advocates win the funding fight, the $40 million alone won’t be enough to clear the backlog. Andrea and her team are also pushing for an end to Last In, First Out and for those waiting more than five years for a decision to receive priority for asylum interviews. This cause received support from progressive lawmakers in a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in September 2021.

Today I sent a letter with 40 House colleagues to and asking them to address the backlog of 400k asylum cases at . No one who has escaped persecution, or even torture, should have to wait 5 to 7 years for a decision.

— David Cicilline (@davidcicilline)

Lemoupa thinks he must have met with congressional aides three or four times a year, every year, since 2021.

“Going into all these congressional meetings, one thing I will tell you is when you go there, they pay attention. They listen to you; they take notes; they're empathetic. That part of it is good. But on the other hand, they keep telling you, ‘oh, we are very limited in what we can do,’” Lemoupa said.

“I think the policy wheel might be too slow to turn,” he added.

The optimism and relief that Lemoupa felt on that day in the Kansas winter has been replaced with anger.

“I feel enraged,” he said. “We're not asking for any special treatment. I'm not asking that I should be given a status without due process,” Lemoupa added, “I'm asking for fair and equal treatment, which is not what we're getting from the system.”

“If it does not go in that appropriation, I will be even more enraged.”

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“Back when interest rates were close to zero, I voted yes on those,” said John Graves, a McLean resident, who was voting at McLean’s Governmental Center on Saturday—the last day of early in-posting voting in the county. “Interest rates are so high right now,” he continued, adding that he was skeptical that the county should be adding to its debt burden.

Fairfax County Public Schools’ standard operational costs come from the County Executive’s Budget. But to finance building and renovation projects, which require large one-off expenditures, the school district issues bonds to spread the costs out over several years. For this, they need voters’ approval. This year, $435 million in school bonds are on the ballot, with revenues tipped to fund development projects at 15 elementary schools and one middle school, according to the

These bond issuances typically pass with overwhelming public support. In 2021, almost 70% of voters voted to approve $360 million in new school bonds. In 2019, school bonds passed with 77% support. In 2023, however, Republicans have been campaigning against the initiative.

“Their use of bonds is, at best, inappropriate,” said Arthur Purves, the Republican candidate for chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. Purves cites research from the Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance, which he has been president of for more than 25 years, showing that since 2016, the cost of servicing existing debts has exceeded revenue from bond sales.

“That’s like opening a new credit card to pay off a previous credit card, and meanwhile, you’re paying interest, which could either be used to lower taxes or to do more construction.”

Purves is also concerned about the misuse of funding from previous bond sales.

“They’re not frugal, I think, in their design of buildings,” Purves said, citing the construction of the new Public Safety Headquarters near Fair Oaks, mainly funded through bonds. “With all the vacant office space in Fairfax County, why couldn’t they repurpose an existing building for their public safety?” Purves added. The retired computer programmer is running against the Democratic incumbent, Jeff McKay.

Local Republican opposition to the new school bonds broke with recent elections when the party took a softer stance. Local politics is partly to blame. Before 2019, Elizabeth Schultz and Thomas Wilson, two Republican-endorsed candidates, sat on the school board. But Democrats now control all the seats.

Purves said Schultz had pushed the Fairfax County Republican committee not to oppose school bonds “because that would make it harder for a school board member to get reelected.”

Both sides have published campaign literature arguing their respective cases before Tuesday’s election. In September, Fairfax Republicans published a blog post from Purves titled where he assails “excessive spending” and fiscal irresponsibility. Meanwhile, Fairfax County Public Schools distributed fliers to parents last month supporting the bond referendum, from some parents over using student data for political campaigning.

Fairfax County Public Schools declined an interview request for this story.

This political sparring, however, may have been lost on voters.

Joaquin Perez, a school social worker, said he hadn’t heard from anybody telling him how to vote on the issue and didn’t know what school development projects stood to benefit from the bond issuance. He voted in favor of the ballot initiative in McLean on Saturday.

“Appropriate funding for schools is important to me,” he said.

Even voters who expressed concern over worsening borrowing conditions revealed they had still voted ‘yes’ on the ballot initiative.

Amy Hammer, a Republican who is voting for Independent or Democratic candidates “until we get Trump and the crazies out of the party,” said she had backed the new bonds, even if it meant higher taxes in the future to fund the debt.

“I have a granddaughter that’ll probably be going through these schools and I had four kids go through these schools,” Hammer said.

“It’s a bad environment,” said Colin Hart, whose children are now university-aged. “But I don’t think we have much choice.”

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“I have no idea. I’m a little overwhelmed,” Hartnett said as he picked up and put down a $64 inflatable Pokeball costume.

Americans are expected to spend $4.1 billion on Halloween costumes this year, up from $3.6 billion last year, according to the , a trade association. The bulk of that growth will come from adult costume sales, which are anticipated to climb in 2023 by $300 million to around $2 billion, and up from $1.2 billion in 2020, during the height of the pandemic.

“This year, people are coming out. They’re celebrating. They’re purchasing more,” said Angela Toleque, store manager at Bradley Party and Variety, a party and costume store in Bethesda, Maryland. “Since COVID, things have been kind of a little bit quiet,” she added, “this year there’s an uptick, so a lot more interest in costumes.”

Retailers must order their Halloween stock months in advance, forcing them to anticipate sales volumes and trends. Bradley Party and Variety bought its inventory from a Halloween show in January, where they stocked up on consumer favorites, like vampires and witches, but also costumes from trending movies at the time, like Top Gun.

“Since we ordered our costumes in January, they didn’t have the Barbie movie out. So what has been selling has been the wigs and makeup,” said Toleque, who has been working with the company for a decade and in the retail industry three times as long. “Anything pink,” she added.

Brett Snyder, a 28-year-old video producer, is assembling an Oppenheimer outfit, complete with a wide-brimmed hat, suspenders and — if he can find it — a fake cigarette, for an evening of trick-or-treating with his four-year-old nephew.

Like many others, he didn’t attend any Halloween events in 2020, and celebrations in 2021 were muted.

“My friend had a couple of people over to their house, like a very low-key thing. You know, 10 people like sitting outside kind of thing,” Snyder said. “I don’t think anyone was going out and really going over the top for it.”

Usha Hippenstiel, a recent college graduate, has also been spending more on Halloween since the pandemic, attributable in part to higher prices, she says, but also to her pursuit for an array of small trinkets to give the costume added flair.

“All these little like accessory things start adding up,” Hippenstiel said.

She and her partner will attend a Halloween bar crawl this year dressed as secret agents. She has a blonde wig, a ring, a pair of gloves and some laser pointers that attach to her fingers — “because I like the light.”

Hartnett, though, leaves the store empty-handed. It’s all part of his plan to keep costume costs down. Bradley Party and Variety gave him the inspiration he needed.

“Now I’m going to the second-hand store,” he shouted as he walked towards his car.

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