Plenty of restaurants impress us with their steadfast commitment to local ingredients and sustainability. What we could stand to see more of is fun. This Silver Spring haunt lets you indulge in good food and drink without feeling as though you’re supporting a cause.
The pillow-strewn, DayGlo-colored room sets the tone. So does co-owner Jackie Greenbaum, who makes the rounds sporting her spiky do. What hits the table, however, is more suggestive of white tablecloths than of brick walls and concrete floors.
Diana Davila-Boldin’s plates are imaginative and executed with care. Pay special attention to items that hark back to her native Chicago or her Mexican heritage. At the adjacent Sidebar, a cocktail lounge with a brief menu of small plates, her gifts are just as evident if more simply presented–and at a fraction of the cost of dinner.
What to get: Miniature Elvis burgers with pimiento cheese; mixed greens with goat cheese, flaxseed cracker, and cider vinaigrette; Scottish salmon in foie gras sauce; Amish chicken with mole; espresso-braised short ribs; Italian beef sandwich with giardiniera; apple strudel.
Open Monday through Saturday for dinner (cafe menu on Monday), Sunday for brunch and dinner. Moderate.
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.
