100 Very Best 2015Owner Scot Harlan and chef de cuisine Pierre Saussy may have come together under renowned New York chef David Bouley, but there’s nothing formal about their Clarendon restaurant, where most of the beer arrives in cans, chatty servers sport black T-shirts, and Wet-Naps accompany a hulking stack of buffalo ribs.
The meat—actually pork ribs slicked with fiery Buffalo sauce and blue-cheese dressing—is one of the many reasons to venture here and get your hands messy. Another: the eclectic menu, a mash-up of French (a soulful bouillabaisse), Southern (crisp-fried pork shanks with grits), and “other” (tostadas or Kung Pao sweetbreads, anyone?). Dishes tend toward the rich, but don’t skip dessert. Harlan, a pastry chef by training, makes a terrific peanut-butter-brownie sundae.
Don’t miss:
- Snails and mushrooms on toast
- Steak tartare with potato chips
- Bacon-cheeseburger
- Cornbread with maple butter
- Carrot cake
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.
