Mark Slater Moves From Citronelle to Ray's

Sommelier Mark Slater takes up a new gig with the Ray's family of restaurants this week. (Michael Temchine for The Washington Post)

After 11 years on the job, Mark Slater stepped down as sommelier and bar manager at Michel Richard Citronelle on Saturday night. His next move might surprise you. He'll be the director of wine and service for all of Michael Landrum's restaurants -- so that's Ray's the Steaks, Ray's the Classics and even those restaurants that are still in development (looking at you, Ray's the Catch).

"I'm excited," Slater said today, while acknowledging that he was sad to say goodbye to Citronelle. "It's a new challenge and that's always fun."

Slater will start in his new role later this week and one of his first orders of business is to bulk up the wine list at Ray's the Steaks, now housed in a new, larger location at 2300 Wilson Blvd. "Ray's is a food destination because of [Landrum's] pricing policies and we would like to become as much a wine destination as a food destination," he said. Expect the list of 50 wines to jump up to 350 bottles, with about 200 in the $50 or under category.

Citronelle has just announced the appointment of Kathryn Morgan to sommelier. Morgan comes to the restaurant after serving as the wine director at 2941.

-- Julia