Chef/owner Jeffrey Buben brings elegance and daring to down-home cooking with riffs on the Southern repertoire. And though the results are deeply satisfying, there’s a surprising lightness to many of the savory plates.
Whether you’re enjoying a killer mint julep in the living-room-like lounge or biting into buttery cornbread in the relaxed dining room, this subterranean eatery is all about comfort, both in mood and cuisine.
What to get: Crisp pork trotters (pig’s feet) with candied pecans; Bibb-lettuce salad with buttermilk dressing; Frogmore stew with mussels, monkfish, shrimp, and sausage; shrimp and grits; lunchtime fried chicken with pepper-cream gravy; Palmetto burger with pimiento cheese, charred Vidalias, and a fried egg; pecan and lemon-chess pies; sugared doughnuts.
Open Monday through Friday for lunch and dinner, Saturday and Sunday for dinner. Very expensive.
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.
