100 Very Best Restaurants 2013: Bartlett Pear Inn

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Ahi tuna carpaccio with tempura fried baby sepia. Photograph by Chris Campbell.

About Bartlett Pear Inn

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cuisines
American

Cocktail culture and farm-to-table fare give this Georgian mansion on Maryland’s sleepy Eastern Shore some urban edge. Eat in the high-ceilinged dining room or in the chic eggplant-purple bar area with its ornate fireplace and ceramic pear sculptures.

The sophisticated hangout is run by Alice and Jordan Lloyd. (She manages, he cooks.) Chef Lloyd, who’s done kitchen time at Thomas Keller’s Per Se in New York and Michel Richard’s Citronelle in DC, employs a globe’s worth of ingredients,and his French training is evident in his house-made pâtés and his elegant saucings. Justin Peregoy, the talent behind the cocktails, is a DC transplant with a flair for the avant garde. His Dark & Cloudy (rum, ginger syrup, lime juice, and ginger cloud) and Fine Manhattan Swine (Maker’s Mark, bacon, and maple syrup) are sublime.

Don’t miss: Duck pastrami with juniper-brioche toast; truffle-glazed pappardelle with maitake-mushroom fricassee; duo of guinea hen; fries with ketchup and truffle mayo; cassoulet; chocolate lava cake with caramel and pistachio.

Open: Wednesday through Sunday for dinner. Expensive.

100 Very Best Restaurants 2013


Ann Limpert
Executive Food Editor/Critic

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.