The Garden Café at the National Gallery of Art just announced the latest big-name chef to design a menu: Cathal Armstrong, who’ll create dishes for the pop-up Garden Café Americana in conjunction with the “Masterpieces of American Furniture from the Kaufman Collection, 1700-1830.” Armstrong joins a long list of toques who’ve created rotating exhibit-themed menus for the gallery cafe in the past, including José Andrés, Michel Richard, Fabio Trabocchi.
You’ll have to cross the Potomac to sample fare from Armstrong’s seven other ventures (including Restaurant Eve, Virtue Feed & Grain, and the Majestic), but DC dwellers can head down to the Mall starting at 11:30 AM on October 2 to get a taste of Armstrong’s dishes, executed with the help of chef David Rogers of the National Gallery. The American farmland theme matching the exhibit doesn’t stray too far from Armstrong’s ingredient-driven style. On the buffet ($20.75 per person) you’ll find homey dishes such as glazed root vegetable salad with toasted garlic vinaigrette, turkey pot pie with buttermilk biscuits, braised beef pot roast, and pecan pie; certain items are also available à la carte. To truly feel like a tourist on vacation, match your lunch with American wines or cocktails such as bourbon milk punch or a gin rickey.
Anna Spiegel covers the dining and drinking scene in her native DC. Prior to joining Washingtonian in 2010, she attended the French Culinary Institute and Columbia University’s MFA program in New York, and held various cooking and writing positions in NYC and in St. John, US Virgin Islands.
