Take an egg roll, add creative fillings like Buffalo chicken or mac n’ cheese, fry until crisp-and-gooey, and you have a “meggroll”—the delicious creation of native Alexandrian Meghan Baroody. The food truck operator-turned-caterer is finally going brick-and-mortar with her concept along with business partner Alexandra Pare of Cherry Blossom Events. Their 25-seat shop will open in Old Town, Alexandria in spring 2017.
No surprise, the idea for Meggrolls came about at a bar. Baroody and her boyfriend, both veteran bartenders, were sampling traditional egg rolls she’d made from the Joy of Cooking, and he suggested a filling of chicken parm instead of Chinese cabbage.
“I started bringing them to my local bar after midnight and handing them out to people, and they were gone in 60 seconds,” says Baroody.
Baroody plans to offer a variety of quick-grab rolls at the shop, including classics like the Big Megg—essentially a Big Mac stuffed inside an egg roll—Buffalo chicken with ranch or chunky blue cheese, and the Mexican chorizo with roasted poblanos and cheddar. Whether or not guests can wash down the creations with a cold beer is still TBD, though Broody hopes to stay open late for the bar crowd.
“People love Meggrolls for lunch and dinner, but they love them ten times more after cocktails,” says Baroody.
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.
