From ,June 2006 Cheap Eats
Almost two years ago, Jackie Greenbaum tacked a faux-fur curtain across the doorway to an old auto-parts warehouse off Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring. She hung Lucite cutouts from the rafters and a movie screen in front of the dining room, threw around some shaggy throw pillows, pulled in a cook from Cashion's Eat Place, and gave the place her name. A jumping hotspot on a desolate corner, Jackie's seemed impossibly trendy and a little alien, like a teenager showing off her new tattoo to Grandma.
These days it's a hit with both teens and grandmas as well as with Silver Spring's new wave of condo dwellers, who sip foam-topped mango martinis while they wait for a table.
Chef Sam Adkins does comfort food proud. Elvis burgers–mini-patties dolloped with pimiento cheese–are addictive. So are chili-spiked pork riblets and nachos with whipped avocado and pico de gallo. More refined are mussels wrapped in shredded phyllo, fried, and served with pale-yellow aïoli, and a beautifully simple appetizer of seared scallops with buttery portobello mushrooms.
Main courses, such as flatiron steak with celeriac mashed potatoes, are sophisticated but expensive. Bargain-friendly Nostalgia plates, which rotate weekly, are worth seeking out, especially Wednesday's golden fried chicken and potato salad and Saturday's killer meatloaf.
Ann Limpert joined Washingtonian in late 2003. She was previously an editorial assistant at Entertainment Weekly and a cook in New York restaurant kitchens, and she is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education. She lives in Petworth.
