Daniel Bortnick, Executive Chef
Hospitality runs in the family for Firefly executive chef Daniel Bortnick. Born and bred in the Washington suburb of Rockville, Md., Bortnick's roots go back to the very block on which Firefly sits today, where the chef's grandparents owned a neighborhood grocery and near where his great uncle, a famous DC restaurateur, became known as "The Watermelon King" - a nickname acquired from a habit of handing out melons to local children.
After graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in marketing and international business, Bortnick's passion for the food industry lead him to the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco. Post-graduation restaurant gigs in Madison and at D.C.'s wine-centric Mendocino Grill eventually inspired Bortnick to cooking stints in Lima, Peru and Florence, Italy, where the simple flavors and clean farmer's markets ingredients sparked his love for fresh, local food.
It was then that Bortnick joined D.C.'s Kimpton family, in the kitchen of Poste Moderne Brasserie, after which he moved up to become Firefly's Executive Chef in 2007. Since then, he's continued to reinvent the menu - inspired by meals from his own childhood - while remaining committed to protecting the environment through Kimpton's Earthcare program and relationships with local farmers and purveyors.
Bortnick lives in Bethesda, Md. with his wife and two sons, who were the inspiration behind his critically acclaimed kids' menu. In his spare time, he enjoys tending to the 71 varieties of fruits, vegetables, and herbs in his 450 square-foot home garden.
Todd Wiss, Chef de Cuisine
In 2012, Firefly chef de cuisine Todd Wiss, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, reunited with executive chef Daniel Bortnick, with whom he previously collaborated under the tutelage of chef Robert Weland at Poste Modern Brasserie in D.C. After a successful two-year run as the owner of Radius Pizza in D.C.'s Mount Pleasant neighborhood, Wiss rejoined the Kimpton family and once again partners with Bortnick to prepare locally sourced, seasonally driven and sustainable fare.
