About Rappahannock Oyster Bar
Our favorite reason to visit the artisanal-food hall Union Market is this convivial horseshoe-shaped oyster bar. The menu is as tightly executed and carefully thought out as it is concise, and we’ve yet to try a dish we didn’t want to devour. Raw oysters, from the owners’ beds in Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay, are musts, and it’s tempting to while away an afternoon with a few leisurely rounds of crisp Stingrays and a cold Muscadet. But then you’d miss the cooked side of the menu, with its changing lineup that might include steamed clams with sake and seaweed, peel-and-eat shrimp steamed to order with butter and Old Bay, and often excellent ceviches and tartares. To go with it all, there are local beers—including one brewed with oyster shells—and refreshing, easy-drinking cocktails.
Open: Tuesday through Sunday for lunch and dinner (closes at 8).
Don’t Miss: Crabcake with celeriac rémoulade; egg salad with caviar and potato chips; oyster chowder; “lamb and clams” stew; ribs of pacu (a fish) with green-mango salad.
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.
Anna Spiegel covers the dining and drinking scene in her native DC. Prior to joining Washingtonian in 2010, she attended the French Culinary Institute and Columbia University’s MFA program in New York, and held various cooking and writing positions in NYC and in St. John, US Virgin Islands.
