About Pineapple and Pearls
100 Very Best 2017
100 Very Best 2019Tasting menus can sometimes feel as solemn as Sunday Mass. Aaron Silverman’s Barracks Row hideaway is just the opposite, unfussy and fun. Your ticket price—$325, drinks, tax, and tip included—gets you nine or so courses that wander around the globe. Some, such as a blood-sausage-topped toasted-rice custard that tastes like a cross between Thai larb and crème caramel, are mindblowingly creative (drink pairing: smoky Märzen beer spritzed with sherry from a grandmotherly perfume bottle). Others are more by the book but still manage to surprise and wow, whether a duo of black and white mole sauces with warm tortillas—plated on gilded china—or poached turbot fin over a glorious distillation of English peas. Throw in warm, kind service and a funked-up soundtrack and the result feels like a party you never want to leave. Very expensive.
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.
Jessica Sidman covers the people and trends behind D.C.’s food and drink scene. Before joining Washingtonian in July 2016, she was Food Editor and Young & Hungry columnist at Washington City Paper. She is a Colorado native and University of Pennsylvania grad.
