2019 Year in Review

December 20, 2019Leave a comment

Our lives have dramatically changed since our last end-of-year recap. When we began 2019, Marnay was pregnant so that meant no more alcohol for us. When June 21, 2019 came around, we had a baby boy! As you can imagine, that cut into our time eating out at restaurants. But we love food, so we are back and ready to eat in 2020!

Paul, Marnay and Brendan Meyer

As always with our end of year recaps, Marnay and I asked each other a series of questions and we did not coordinate our answers. Any similarities are pure coincidence!

Best place to bring a baby:

Marnay – Le Pain Quotidien! This is certainly not a gourmet option, but we have spent a lot of time in Union Station since Brendan’s pediatrician is nearby and Union Station is the nearest metro stop. This LPQ location has a room in the back that is almost always empty. Plus, this is in a busy train station so there’s no concern about noise when Brendan gets loud. We can enjoy our (surprisingly good) avocado toasts and breakfast sandwiches for dinner and then head back to the metro.

Paul – The Girl and the Vine has it all! It’s a combination expertly curated wine store, market, all-day café and bar. On the weekends, it is full of parents and babies creating a casual, kid-friendly setting with the best changing tables in the DMV.

Wine and pie for dessert at The Girl and The Vine in Takoma Park, Maryland

Best place when we have a babysitter:

Marnay – We had Paul’s birthday dinner at Fancy Radish back in November and I am still craving those Pastrami Spiced Carrots! Their desserts are also top-notch – you would never know that they were vegan!

Paul – Whenever we can slip out on our own, we try to get to Tail Up Goat, our favorite all-around restaurant! Every time we go, we get treated like VIPs and the food is consistently amazing.

Dinner at Tail Up Goat in Washington DC

Favorite neighborhood:

Marnay – We have been spending a lot of time in Takoma Park, partly because it is so easy (and close) to travel to but the restaurant scene has also exploded in the last year or two. Top two favorites: Cielo Rojo for their papas con rajas quesadilla and The Girl and the Vine for sandwiches and cocktails plus a bottle of wine to go.

Paul – We have always enjoyed spending time in Takoma Park, especially at Republic, but the opening of The Girl and the Vine in May was a game-changer. It’s now our favorite weekend hang-out spot.

Paul eating a sandwich at Republic in Takoma Park, Maryland

Best BBQ spot we have visited:

Marnay – Tejas Chocolate + Barbecue! You can’t beat a place that feels as cozy as being in someone’s living room and sells delicious bean-to-bar chocolates as well as the best brisket I have ever had! Plus, Tomball is a cute little town about 45 minutes north of downtown Houston.

Paul – Tejas Chocolate + Barbecue in Tomball, TX spot is our choice for best barbecue overall. The brisket and pork ribs are stunningly good. Plus, they offer a rare taste of pork belly at a barbecue joint. We don’t normally use sauce, but we make an exception for their mole barbecue sauce, AKA the most expensive barbecue sauce in the world.

Tejas Chocolate and Barbecue in Tomball, Texas

Favorite restaurant outside of the DC area (non-barbecue):

Marnay – We had so much barbecue on our trip to Austin that we were craving a meal of vegetables. Emmer & Rye delivered! I love their concept of having circulating carts offering ‘dim sum’ bites in addition to ordering dishes off the main menu. Such a fun meal and their bread program is out of this world.

Paul – Emmer & Rye! With a restaurant name that is simply two different grains, you would expect that it would have good breads. But the bread at Austin’s Emmer & Rye, offered on one of the “dim sum” carts that Marnay mentioned above, is the best bread we have had anywhere. They even offered different toppings to go with the bread – we chose cultured butter and brassica foam.

Marnay enjoying some cocktails at Emmer and Rye in Austin, Texas

Favorite spot in Silver Spring:

Marnay – El Sapo! We went to this new Cuban restaurant from the owners of Urban Butcher a few times when I was pregnant and I can’t wait to return so I can finally enjoy some of their famous mojitos!

Paul – We only started going to the Silver Branch Brewing Co. after Brendan was born but Silver Branch has quickly become one of our favorite local spots. It has a small but concise menu of Bavarian food, excellent sausages, great beer and a HUGE space right at the Silver Spring metro.

Dinner at El Sapo in Silver Spring, Maryland

Favorite restaurant to order delivery from:

Marnay – A weekly staple in our household is Cielo Rojo. One of us puts the baby to bed, the other orders the quesadillas and tostadas via DoorDash.

Paul – Cielo Rojo was a total game-changer when, in early November, this Takoma Park fast-fine Mexican restaurant partnered with DoorDash to offer their tacos, quesadillas and tostadas for delivery. We have ordered once a week ever since!

Quesadillas at Cielo Rojo in Takoma Park, Maryland

Place we are most looking forward to in 2020:

Marnay – We can’t wait to take Brendan to 2Amy’s! It’s notoriously kid-friendly and we already frequently visit for their pizzas and small plates. I’m always amazed by how kid-friendly the staff is.

Paul – Teddy’s Barbecue! I have been following the Garcia brothers in FAR South Texas’s Rio Grande Valley since before this place opened. Joel Garcia worked the pits at Terry Black’s in Austin, one of our favorite barbecue spots in the country. I was so excited for Teddy’s to finally open that I asked them to mail me a Teddy’s T-shirt all the way to Maryland! I can’t wait for next Fall when we go on our ultimate Texas trip and I get to try their ‘cue!

Oranges and olives at 2Amy's in Washington DC

If you’re interested, read our 2018 and 2017 Year in Review. Happy holidays and we will see you next year!

A Guide to Mocktails

March 19, 20191 Comment

As you may have seen in our Instagram post from our recent trip to Austin and Houston, we are expecting!

Marnay and Paul are expecting a baby boy

Yes, Marnay is pregnant and baby boy Meyer will be making his arrival in July 2019. As a result of this, we have gotten quite good at ordering mocktails (non-alcoholic cocktails) at bars and restaurants. For the record, I am also not drinking during the pregnancy. I figure if Marnay can do it, so can I. If you are also expecting, don’t drink, or just want to give drinking a break, here are some tips we picked up along the way:

Ask Your Server
If you don’t see anything you like on the menu, just ask your server if the bartender can make something special for you. We did exactly this at Himitsu and they came up with a drink simply called “Orange-Ginger,” a very well-balanced mocktail.

Orange-Ginger cocktail at Himitsu in Washington DC

Consider Agua Frescas
Tacos, Tortas, Tequila (TTT) in Silver Spring makes great margaritas. (I mean, it has tequila in the name). But now that we’re not drinking, it was time to discover agua frescas, non-alcoholic sodas made from fruit, spices and nuts. At TTT, Marnay’s favorite agua fresca is the Jamaica and I am a fan of the Horchata.

Jamaica and Horchata agua fresca's at Tacos, Tortas, Tequila (TTT) in Silver Spring, Maryland

Step Outside of Your Comfort Zone
When eating Indian street food at Chai Pani in Decatur, Georgia we looked for a non-alcoholic drink that would complement the food. We ordered a Lime Ricky and a drink called a Salt Lassi, which was purely savory. One of the most unique beverages I’ve ever had. It was a lot to handle on its own but it complemented the food very well.

Salt Lassi cocktail at Chai Pani in Decatur, Georgia

You Don’t Need to Avoid Bars
Even though we aren’t drinking, we do not need to avoid the fun and energy of sitting at a bar. At Anvil Bar & Refuge in Houston, we had the best mocktail of our lives. The bartender asked us what we wanted and Marnay said “something refreshing with cucumber.” The bartender put a lot of effort into making a drink with cucumber, lime, mint and sparkling water. It’s no surprise that Anvil was recently named a 2019 Semifinalist for a James Beard Foundation Award.

Cucumber mocktails at Anvil Bar and Refuge in Houston, Texas

Topo Chico
We love Topo Chico! It is our go-to sparkling water and while we can find it at Whole Foods in the DC area, it was EVERYWHERE is Texas. During our recent trip to Houston and Austin, we had Topo Chico at least once per day, usually twice. The source is from a spring in Monterrey, Mexico and it just feels exotic, like a fine wine. It is something fun to drink. We also enjoy drinking it for “happy hour” at home before we cook dinner.

Topo Chico in Austin, Texas

We honestly have not missed alcohol during these last five months. It makes it easier not drinking when you can still have fun with cool non-alcoholic drinks. It’s helping us to became more well-rounded in our knowledge of food and drink which, frankly, is exciting! We hope this guide helps you on your journey!

Cake for Dessert

April 25, 2018Leave a comment

As you are aware if you are a fan of the blog, Marnay and I enjoy eating out. But since we can’t eat out all the time, we follow a lot of chefs, restaurants and bloggers on social media. That way, we can stay up to date with what’s going on in the food scene.

One unmistakeable trend that I’ve seen recently is the rise of cake. Huge cakes that beget huge slices. I had never seen this much cake being served in restaurants. The question: Why? Why now?

I’ve seen huge cakes all over my Instagram lately. In fact, Marnay and I went to the café at Maketto and had a ginormous piece of (very tasty) carrot-walnut cake. We also were recently at Elle on a weekday morning and saw the prettiest cake we had ever seen in their pastry case. A perfectly smooth, symmetrical cake covered with purple and white icing and simply a few blackberries on top. It looked like cake perfection.

Elle blackberry cake in DC

I think that nostalgia is a factor in the great cake revival of 2018. Everyone has memories of eating birthday cake, or baking a cake with their parents. More regionally, you may have memories of Jersey diners and their display cases of innumerable types of cakes.

Pete Wells recently wrote a brilliant article in the New York Times about the proliferation of ice cream sundaes on dessert menus in New York, often as the only dessert. Restaurants claim that this is for nostalgia reasons, but Pete Wells astutely points out that the real reason is likely because anyone can make ice cream and this means that restaurants do not have to hire a pastry chef.

Cakes are also relatively straightforward restaurant desserts. Once the cake is made, it does not take much effort to slice it into individual portions. However, a lot of work goes into making a well-executed cake. How do you find the perfect balance between cake and icing? What is the right flavor combination? How can you blow people away?

I think that cakes have been undervalued for too long. Perhaps because people have eaten it at every birthday party since they were a child, and had so many bland, dried-out examples, that cake gets overlooked. It takes a lot of talent and effort to make these cakes. They can be visually stunning and taste great at the same time.

This is a trend that I hope continues…cakes are not just for birthdays anymore!

Crispy Salmon with Wilted Chard and Oregon Pinot Noir

November 14, 2017March 29, 2019Leave a comment

This blog is mainly about restaurant reviews, but most nights you can find us cooking at home. We love to cook, and we love it even more if there is a bottle of wine involved! When we were in Oregon last month, we visited the Domaine Drouhin winery and took home a bottle of the 2014 Domaine Drouhin Dundee Hills Pinot Noir. I was flipping through October’s Food and Wine magazine when I found the perfect dish to pair it with: Crispy Salmon with Wilted Chard.

Now, let’s step back. You may have heard that red wine and fish do not go together. Not so! Salmon is meaty and oily, so it can easily stand up to a medium-bodied red like pinot noir.

Before we started cooking, we had a glass (or two) of the wine. The wine has a ruby red appearance, with notes of vanilla, oak and baking spices. At 14.1% alcohol, it packs a punch, but is still well-balanced.

2014 Domaine Drouhin Dundee Hills Pinot Noir wine

The recipe we are presenting here serves four people. Since we were just making dinner for the two of us, we cut everything in half. The recipe is simple and can be broken down into three elements: making the vinaigrette, sautéing the chard and searing the salmon.

Vinaigrette:
Combine 2 tablespoons champagne vinegar, 2 tablespoons chopped tarragon, 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard and ¼ cup olive oil in a bowl and whisk away, then season with salt and pepper. The tarragon is important, since some of the most prominent flavors of the dish are going to be produced by the herb.

Marnay cooking Crispy Salmon with Wilted Chard

Chard:
Chard stems are thick and similar to celery. After thoroughly washing the chard, tear the leaves, leaving only the stems. Put the leaves aside and then cut the stems into 2-inch pieces. Next, prepare your aromatics: mince 2 cloves of garlic and 1 large shallot. Since the chard stems are thick, you will want to sauté them first. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a saucepan and sauté the chard stems with the shallot and garlic for 5 minutes. Once your kitchen smells like garlic and the stems are softened, add the chard and cook for another 3 minutes. The final step is to add half of your vinaigrette to the saucepan plus salt and pepper. That vinaigrette is going to bring big flavor!

Salmon:
Last up is the centerpiece of the dish, the crisp-skinned salmon. You will want about 5 to 6 ounce of salmon per person. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the pan and heat it up over medium high heat. A non-stick pan is best for this so that there are no concerns about losing the skin. Once it’s hot, add the salmon skin-side down. Make sure you press down on the salmon! You need to do this so that all of the skin touches the pan and has a chance to get crispy. And you want crispy skin, right?!? After 3 minutes, flip the salmon and cook for another 3 minutes until just cooked through. If your salmon is on the thicker side, cook for another minute.

Paul cooking Crispy Salmon with Wilted Chard

When it’s done, serve up the salmon with the chard and pour the rest of the vinaigrette over everything. You also could just pour the vinaigrette over the salmon, since the chard already received its vinaigrette. The earthy Oregon pinot noir pairs well with the salmon and does not overpower it with fruit. Pinot noirs from Oregon have more in common with the subtle pinot noirs from Burgundy, rather than the fruit bombs from Napa and Sonoma. There’s a time and place for the California pinot noir, it’s just not right now.

Homemade Crispy Salmon with Wilted Chard and Oregon Pinot Noir

If you aren’t able to find Domain Drouhin Pinot Noir, feel free to get another Williamette Valley Pinot Noir. If you can find one from the Dundee Hills subregion, even better. Doing a quick online search, I saw that this exact wine is available at Calvert Woodley, across from the Van Ness metro station, along with a few other Dundee Hills wines.

Now that you’ve finished cooking, all that’s left for you is to enjoy your meal and drink your wine. Cheers!

Looking for more recipe posts? Check out our Pinot Noir-Braised Pot Roast with Mashed Potatoes recipe.

5 Best Pizzerias in the DMV

September 25, 2017September 25, 2017Leave a comment

In our household, we like pizza. A lot. Part of this is due to the fact that we each grew up in pizza-crazy regions of the country (New Jersey and Philadelphia, respectively) and part has to do with the fact that pizza makes a relatively inexpensive night out. After living in the DC-area for the last five years, our taste in pizza has changed from New York style to Neapolitan, but when it comes down to it, a good pizza transcends styles.

Without further ado, here is our list of the top five pizzerias in the DMV. Note that it’s not in order, because they are all excellent!

Inferno Pizzeria Napoletana

Inferno graces our list having the “chefiest” pizzas around, made by former Oval Room executive chef Tony Conte. You will do well with a classic margherita, but this is the place to load-up on top-notch toppings and well-thought out pizza-creations. One of our favorites was a summertime special – a shrimp sausage pizza with sweet corn, smoked parmesan and basil. Don’t forget to end your meal with soft serve ice cream!

Inferno Pizzeria Napoletana

Inferno Pizzeria Napoletana soft serve ice cream

Frankly Pizza

Frankly Pizza is the place for pork. That’s because chef-owner Frank Linn makes his own bacon and sausage The crust is thicker than the other pizzerias on this list and the tomato sauce is a touch sweeter. It’s liberally applied, but not excessive. The Porky Marge is the best way to experience Frankly Pizza, with mozzarella, bacon, basil, tomato sauce and a light topping of romano cheese. The restaurant has a very small selection other than pizza, so you may want to try multiple pies while you are here, along with a housemade soda.

Frankly Pizza Porky Marge

Pizzeria Vetri

Our award for best crust goes to Philadelphia-import Pizzeria Vetri. The crispness and char are something to behold. We like to wash it down with a beer or wine, both on draft. Since the crispiness of the crust makes for a lighter pie, we have plenty of room to pair it with a rotolo, a cinnamon roll-looking creation filled with ricotta, mortadella and pistachio pesto.

Pizzeria Vetri neapolitan pizza

Pizzeria Vetri pistachio rotolo

Pizza CS

Pizza CS, in the Twinbrook section of Rockville, has taken the time to earn VPN-certification, making pizzas to the exacting standards of the international Neapolitan pizza organization. This is the place to go when you’re in the mood for an absolutely textbook Neapolitan pizza. Pizza CS is good for kids, since it’s a counter-order spot with plenty of space of kids to run around. Other than pizza, there are a few basic salads to choose from, so come to CS to get your pizza-fix. Plus, there’s foosball.

Pizza CS

Pacci’s
Pacci’s is our neighborhood pizzeria and we feel fortunate that we have it in walking distance. The pies here are Neapolitan and margherita is your best bet if it’s your first visit. Our favorite, however, is the La Diavola, which really brings the heat. That traditional Neapolitan base is then topped with copious slices of spicy Neapolitan salami. If it’s nice out, ask to sit on their large outdoor patio. The experience is worth it.

Pacci’s La Diavola Pizza

I hope that you enjoyed our list! What are you favorite pizzerias? They don’t even have to be in the DMV – a great pizza is something worth traveling for!

Pinot Noir-Braised Pot Roast with Mashed Potatoes

January 3, 2017November 13, 2017Leave a comment

We are going to try a new feature on ENRL. We cook often, and we want to share our favorite recipes with everyone. There certainly will be some trial and error but that is part of the fun of cooking.

First up, a Pinot Noir-Braised Pot Roast with Mashed Potatoes, recipe courtesy of Cebo in Geneva, NY and Chef Ben Dailey. We found this recipe in Food & Wine magazine, of which we are avid readers. Full disclosure, we have made this dish once before.

There are not too many ingredients in this dish: mainly chuck roast and root vegetables. Okay, there are some tubers as well if you want to nitpick. The thing about the recipe is that it takes time to break down the chewy chuck. We omitted the pickled red onions, mainly because of the time factor.

Since it was a Saturday we had time to shop, so we did our ingredient hunt at Union Market. We got the chuck roast, which was sourced from Roseda Farms in Monkton, MD, from Harveys Market. Roseda Farms, in northern Baltimore County, provides beef to area restaurants including Woodberry Kitchen in Baltimore and 8407 Kitchen Bar in Silver Spring.

Our celery root, leeks, carrots, parsnips and onions were from Almaala Farms, which grows its produce on the Eastern Shore. Finally, the all-important bottle of Pinot Noir was from Cordial. We couldn’t help ourselves and also got a bottle of Untitled Whiskey No. 3, aged in Vigilante coffee barrels, from Ivy City’s One Eight Distilling.

Assembling the dish is not difficult; it just involves some peeling and rough chopping. I cut the chuck into small cubes while Marnay peeled and cut the vegetables into 1 inch pieces. We kept some fat on the meat for flavor, but didn’t keep all of it.

Next, we browned the cubes of meat in our cast-iron dutch oven. The purpose of browning is to give the meat flavor, not to cook it. There will be plenty of time to cook the meat. Once the meat was ready, we removed it and added the vegetables, also to brown. We did not add the potatoes or onions because they are used for the mashed potatoes.

After the vegetables are browned, we put the meat back in and then poured the entire bottle of Pinot-Noir into the dutch oven, as this is the braising liquid. After adding the wine, your job is basically done. Stir the pot occasionally and return in one and a half hours.

In the meantime, we started the mashed potatoes, another set-it and forget-it dish. All we did was add the potatoes and onions to a large sauce pan and then we covered it with water. Once the water is boiling, we added a generous pinch of salt and let it cook for 40 minutes. Again, lots of downtime.

During our downtime, we made negronis! A negroni is equal parts gin, Campari and sweet vermouth. Our gin is from Joseph A Magnus distilling, also in Ivy City. To go along with our drinks, we watched Somm: Into the Bottle, a sequel to the film Somm. I think that the original Somm is required watching for any foodie who wants to know more about wine.

When the potatoes are done, they need to be drained. After that, we added the butter, salt and pepper and whisked it until it was creamy. When we took the lid off of the dutch oven, the ingredients had soaked up the wine and the alcohol had cooked off, leaving an intoxicatingly fruity essence. We took a scoop of mashed potatoes in a bowl and layered the pot roast on top, a rich and satisfying meal for a cold winter night.

Ultimate Silver Spring Weekend

July 1, 2016March 20, 2017Leave a comment

Thursday

On Thursday, we headed to one of our favorite bars in Silver Spring, Scion, for their Right Proper Tap Takeover. The event was to celebrate Right Proper’s entry into the Montgomery County market, which is certainly a big deal. The Shaw brewpub just opened up a much larger production brewery in Northeast DC.

The bartender at Scion, Matt, is extremely knowledgeable about beer and a good guy in general. Scion has a huge beer list and I will usually ask his opinion on what to get. The bar is a relaxed place, and the atmosphere was still relaxed even though there was a good crowd for the event. Another thing that Scion has going for it is that it has one of the best patios in Silver Spring, on the large sidewalk fronting East-West Highway. The food at Scion proper is good, but at the bar you can also order bao (Chinese steamed buns) from their sister restaurant, Nainai’s. I think that Nainai’s may be one of the best restaurants in Silver Spring for both quality and value.

Friday

As you know, we are both huge foodies. About three weeks ago, I (Paul) saw one of my favorite food writers mention on twitter that she was at The Classics. I tweeted back and told her that we’ve lived in Silver Spring for two and a half years and had never even considered it…we’re not really into steaks and it didn’t seem like the kind of place we would like. She strongly recommended it, though. She said that she and her husband, who is also a food critic, used to go there every Friday until they moved.

Because of her recommendation, we decided to include it in our #ultimatesilverspringweekend. Boy, are we glad we did. The bartender is this friendly yet curmudgeonly man and he is absolutely perfect for the place. He’s an old fashioned bar tender….the service was amazing, but he also just let us do our thing and didn’t bother us unless we wanted his attention. We ordered a New York Strip Steak, cooked to a perfect medium. As I mentioned earlier, we are not big steak eaters, but we devoured this. It was just the right amount of food for two people to be full afterwards.

We were finished up dinner, getting ready to leave, when guess who walks in? M. Carrie Allan, the Washington Post spirts columnist who I had tweeted at three weeks ago! I froze, starstruck. She came and sat at the other end of the bar. We had already gotten the check at this point but I told the bartender that we had a change of plans. We ordered another drink and who walks in but Tim Carman, the Washington Post food writer who sometimes fills in for Tom Sietesma as head food critic! Alas, we did not get a chance to talk to them. But it just shows what an interesting and fun place Silver Spring is!

Saturday

On Saturdays, first thing upon waking up we like to walk across the street to Bump ‘n Grind. We will normally get two drip coffees to go as well as two biscuits, which are made at La Mano in Takoma Park. We then take the biscuits and make sandwiches with them at home. Bump ‘n Grind has recently starting showing soccer games on a large projector screen, which has drawn crowds the last few times I was there.

Later in the afternoon, we went for a walk to focus on the parks of Silver Spring. We actually went on part of my running route and it was nice to be able to appreciate the scenery instead of flying by. First stop was the surprisingly large Woodside Park, just on the edge of downtown at the corner of Spring and Georgia. Next, we made our way through the Woodside neighborhood to connect with the Sligo Creek Trail, an incredible resource to have so close. We walked all the way to Kemp Mill, basically to the northern end of the trail. Exhausted and hungry, we sat in the parking lot of a shopping center and ate food from CVS, the only thing open. Kemp Mill has a large Orthodox Jewish population, so almost everything was closed on Saturday.

We took the 9 Ride on Bus back to downtown and got some delicious black bass from Whole Foods to cook for dinner. Whole Foods is another great resource to have in walking distance.

Sunday

Sunday was our Pete’s New Haven Apizza day. We ordered three personal pizzas to share so that we would have lots of leftovers for dinner on Monday. We got the Staven, with pepperoni, hot sausage, roasted garlic, caramelized onions and hot cherry peppers, the Margherita and the Merritt Parkway (named after the highway in Connecticut), with prosciutto, Kalamata olives, caramelized onions, basil and olive oil. Mmm, my mouth is watering right now just thinking about the Staven! The Silver Spring food scene is embarrassment of riches. We went to a lot of different restaurants on our Silver Spring weekend, but it would take a lot longer than a weekend to visit all of the good spots.

After we finished, we went home to drop off the pizza and then walked on the Sligo Creek Trail again, this time towards Takoma Park. At Maple Ave, we started walking towards Philadelphia Ave and then hopped on the F4 Metrobus back to Silver Spring. We got off at Veterans Plaza to pick up a few more things at Whole Foods.

We had a lot of fun on our Ultimate Silver Spring Weekend. We learned about some new things, like the Classics, but it also helped us appreciate the things we have nearby and that we may take for granted. Silver Spring is an incredible place and we are happy to call it home!

Places we visited
Scion: 1200 East-West Hwy, Silver Spring, MD 20910
The Classics: 8606 Colesville Rd, Silver Spring, MD 20910
Bump ‘n Grind: 1200 East-West Hwy, Silver Spring, MD 20910
Woodside Park: 8800 Georgia Avenue. Silver Spring, MD 20910
Whole Foods: 833 Wayne Ave, Silver Spring, MD 20910
Pete’s New Haven Style Pizza: 962 Wayne Ave, Silver Spring, MD 20910

Jackie’s

February 11, 2016February 22, 2017Leave a comment

As many people know, Jackie’s is closing at the end of March so that Jackie Greenbaum can open an Italian restaurant in Petworth. We went there one last time with Marnay’s Mom on a bitterly cold Wednesday night. The middle of the week is usually a good time to eat out, since chefs know that only the most dedicated and adventurous eaters will be there. We weren’t sure how many dishes we wanted, so we ordered drinks and thought about it for a little bit. I got an old fashioned. The drink tasted good but it came with traditional fast-melting ice so I had to drink it faster than I wanted to. Marnay got a crisp vinho verde and her Mom got prosecco, which is her favorite drink in the world.

We ordered two small plates and two entrees among the three of us. Marnay and her Mom shared cacio e pepe and enjoyed it, especially the heat from the black pepper. We also got burrata with pumpkin butter, prosciutto, arugula and pickled beets. I’ve had a lot of burrata in my life, but this was probably the best I’ve ever tasted. The cheese was extremely creamy and it matched perfectly with the sweet fall spices in the pumpkin butter. The prosciutto had a cracker-like crispiness, meaning it was most likely dehydrated. All together a well-assembled dish and the best of the night.

We waited a while between courses, but it allowed us to talk and enjoy our drinks. I got a corpse reviver #2 which was a gin and absinthe based drink. Without any ice, it was so much better than the old fashioned. Marnay and I ended up sharing the drink because we both liked it.

When the entrees came, Marnay and her Mom had the arctic char with grilled romaine, cauliflower, mussels and a squash and saffron broth. They really liked the crispy skin but noted that the fish could use some more salt. The mussels also seemed a little extraneous.

I had porchetta with white bean ragu, broccoli rabe and citrus gremolata. My first bite of broccoli rabe tasted like the best part of the dish. But then my next bite of broccoli rabe was bland and disappointing. I liked the porchetta, particularly the fatty parts. The dish ended up being better the next day when I made a sandwich out of it at work.

Our server was very attentive but not overbearing. I would easily say that she was the best server we’ve had at Jackie’s. Unfortunately, we have had problems with the servers at Jackie’s in the past, which kept us away.

If this was our last time at Jackie’s, it was very fitting. It’s been years since we were blown away by the food there and tonight was no exception. If only every dish were as good as the burrata!

Best Bite
Paul: Burrata
Marnay: Cacio e Pepe

Best Sip
Paul and Marnay: Corpse Reviver #2

Address (Update: Jackie’s is now closed)
Jackie’s: 8081 Georgia Ave, Silver Spring, MD 20910
Closest Metro: Silver Spring

Eat Now Run Later

Tag: Silver Spring