Sticky Fingers, Washington’s favorite vegan bakery, is no longer hiding in an 18th Street basement, buried beneath offices, halfway between Dupont and Adams Morgan. In fact, it's no longer just a bakery.
The expanded Sticky Fingers, now home to a line-up of savory as well as sweet treats, is sitting pretty in a much bigger space one block from the Columbia Heights Metro station. Before, the bakery felt like a walk-in closet. Now there's enough room for retro tables, about twenty seats (perfect for WiFi users) and an actual bathroom.
There's a fridge stocked with individually-wrapped lunches and dinners. The menu, which seems to rotate daily, is still unpredictable, but co-owner Kirsten Rosenberg whips out the already-crowned vegan favorites, like the breakfast sandwich and elbow mac n' cheese, like mad.
So how does a breakfast sandwich–traditionally made with egg and cheese–come out as vegan? With no chickens in this equation, Sticky Fingers blends tofu, nutritional yeast (the vegan’s answer to missing vitamins), flour and spices to create a “vegan egg.” Somehow, it still comes out yellow–and pretty tasty. To go with it, there's now fair trade drip coffee and drinks from a fancy new espresso machine.
The German potato salad is another hit, even better than most non-vegan versions. More sophisticated than the creamy picnic staple, this one pairs red potatoes with cider vinegar, stone-ground mustard, and smoky tempeh bacon. Though lasagna and Tofurky chili dogs are both on the menu, Sticky Fingers doesn’t actually serve anything hot. They go for the DIY approach—a microwave sits near the condiments.
Sticky Fingers is still a bakery at heart. They take special cake orders, and the glass display of baked goods stays well-stocked with Cowvin cookies—oatmeal cookie sandwiches with fluffy vanilla filling (vegan, of course)—and little devils, which are spoofs on Little Debbie’s Devil Squares.
Sticky Fingers Bakery, 1370 Park Rd., NW; 202-299-9700; Stickyfingersbakery.com.
