Food

Need Eggs, Booze, and Toilet Paper? DC-Area Restaurants Are Doubling as Grocery Stores

Where to order dinner with a side of sanitizer.

A package of groceries from Alta Strada. Photograph courtesy of Alta Strada
Coronavirus 2020

About Coronavirus 2020

Washingtonian is keeping you up to date on the coronavirus around DC.

Restaurants aren’t just pivoting to takeout and delivery amid the health crisis—they’re turning into full-fledged grocery stores with prepared foods, pantry items, fresh meat and seafood, alcohol, and yes, toilet paper. Just as we found with independent grocery stores around DC, these ventures are well stocked and many have necessities that are hard to find in big box aisles like sanitizer and eggs.

Alta Strada
465 K St., NW;  2911 District Ave #150, Fairfax
Michael Schlow’s Italian restaurants in DC and Fairfax are selling several varieties of grocery boxes as of Wednesday, April 28. Customers can pick between packages loaded with dairy, produce, meat, pantry items—or a huge option loaded with all. Currently the boxes are available for pickup between 2 and 5 PM (orders must be placed by 7 PM the day before). Delivery coming soon.

Neighborhood Provisions
Delivery in DC and Virginia
Neighborhood Restaurant Group operates 20 concepts in the DC-area, including Iron Gate, Red Apron Butcher, Buzz Bakery, Planet Wine, and Bluejacket brewery. All have come together in the form of Neighborhood Provisions, an online marketplace that just launched for delivery in DC, Arlington, Alexandria, and soon, Fairfax. What’s available and how you can get it varies slightly by location, and most orders must be placed 24 hours in advance. Menus include a wide range of chef-prepared foods, pantry and grocery items, fresh meats and charcuterie, alcohol, coffee/tea, and ingredients in high demand (eggs, toilet paper, flour, and yeast).

Farmers Restaurant Group
Locations in DC, Maryland, and Virginia
Owner Dan Simons says Founding Farmers and its sister concepts—eight in total—are “uniquely positioned” for the grocery model: large spaces with in-house bakeries, pasta making, butchery, and even a DC distillery. Eventually all will have a shoppable menu of items like house-made cleaners, toilet paper, produce, bread, deli meats, and more for curbside pickup and delivery (plus a curated restaurant menu to-go). The market launches at the Tysons Corner and Potomac locations starting April 7. Order online here.

All-Purpose
1250 Ninth St., NW; 79 Potomac Ave., SE
If you’re an aspiring pizzaiolo but never learned the trade, chef Mike Friedman has pizza making kits to-go that include homemade dough, tomato sauce, cheese, and basil. His Shaw and Capitol Riverfront restaurants are also selling wine, toilet paper, and CSA boxes from Earth & Eats farm with eggs, milk, produce, and dried beans. 

Aqua Al 2
 212 7th St., SE
The Barracks Row Italian restaurant offers a lengthy menu of grocery items, whether you’re in the market for baking and bread making ingredients, cleaning supplies, or a long list of wines and liquor. You’ll need to purchase an item of food for all alcohol sales, but the restaurant is offering $1 mozzarella if you don’t need a meal.

Big Bear Cafe
1700 First St., NW
The Bloomingdale cafe now has a new online marketplace menu with staples like fresh fruit, eggs, milk (cow and oat), coffee, dried beans, and more. You’ll also find freezer items like homemade bolognese sauce or ready-heat family-style lasagna.

Canopy Central Cafe
975 Seventh St., SW
The Canopy Hotel at the Wharf now has an online marketplace for common grocery store goods like milk, eggs, fruit, and freezer meals like Lean Cuisine and Hot Pockets—all at grocery store prices (or less).

Chef Geoff’s and Lia’s
3201 New Mexico Ave., NW; 4435 Willard Ave., Chevy Chase
Chef Geoff Tracy’s restaurants are offering produce, fresh pastas, housemade sauces, milk, eggs, breads, and more alongside their prepared food takeout menus and to-go beer, wine, and cocktails. You can also find sought-after cleaning products such as gloves and bleach. All pantry proceeds go to staff.

Emilie’s
1101 Pennsylvania Ave., SE
Chef Kevin Tien is serving a Vietnamese takeout menu out of his new Capitol Hill restaurant, but there’s also a long list of pantry items for pickup. This isn’t a place to snag TP, but if your idea of necessities involve fresh pasta, kimchi, miso butter, and a cheffy take on Dorito’s—you’re in luck.

Fiola Mare and Sfoglina Van Ness
3100 K St., NW and 4445 Connecticut Ave., NW
Chef Fabio Trabocchi’s glitzy Georgetown waterfront restaurant and Van Ness pasta house have reopened for business, serving hot meals to-go, prepared foods like pasta kits and lobster bisque, and practical grocery items (i.e. paper towels, toilet paper, and baking needs). The restaurants are also selling market baskets from local farms with fresh produce alongside fresh seafood like branzino and tuna steaks and meats (the latter can be sold raw or simply grilled). All are available for curbside pickup with delivery in DC, Maryland, and Virginia launching soon.

The Grill
99 Market Sq., SW
Knead Hospitality’s new Wharf restaurant is now doubling as The Butchery, an online marketplace offering fresh and marinated meats and seafood to cook at home. Chef Roberto Santibañez’s lineup includes filets, king salmon, skirt steak, chicken, and more.

Beer and wine from Neighborhood Provisions, the new online marketplace from Neighborhood Restaurant Group. Photograph by Rose Collins

Heart + Seoul
Pickup and delivery in DC and Maryland
Virtual bodegas are the new corner neighborhood bodegas—at least that’s the case with this online shop from the owners of Seoul Spice, offering free doorstep delivery in DC and Maryland, or curbside pickup in Tenleytown, Capitol Hill, and College Park. Staples like toilet paper, eggs, and sanitizer are available alongside pantry items like rice, fresh herbs, produce, and prepared meals such as a Korean feast for four.

Ivy City Smokehouse
1356 Okie St., NE
ProFish, one of DC’s major seafood wholesalers, is behind the Ivy City seafood restaurant, smokery, and fish market. The new delivery platform (via GrubHub) includes a long list of items like smoked salmon platters, crab cakes, citrus, and bottled water alongside hot meals. There’s also a large menu of fresh and frozen fish and shellfish available from ProFish alongside Ivy City Smokehouse items and Cucina Della Cucina frozen pastas. 

The Pub and the People General Store
1648 North Capitol St., NW
In addition to a takeout menu with growlers of beer, wine, and retail-priced liquor, the gastropub has turned into a grocery with dry necessities (batteries, paper towels etc.), pantry items, and CSA boxes that are available for pickup on Sundays from 5 to 8 PM. Sister restaurant Present Company Public House (438 Massachusetts Ave., NW) is also selling CSAs along with quarantine-friendly recipe ideas from chef Lincoln Fuge.

Rare Steakhouse
1595 Eye St., NW
In the market for a special cut? Chef Marc Hennessy has opened up the dry-aging room of the downtown steakhouse for shoppers, offering strips, ribeyes, and chops, and other grass-fed beef from Virginia. There’s also chicken, stew and ground meat, and special-occasion wagyu. Everything is 25-percent off the menu price and packaged with salt, pepper, butter, and jus for pickup or delivery (within a five mile radius).

Stellina Pizzeria
399 Morse St., NE
In addition to Italian necessities like wine and pizza dough, the Union Market pizzeria is selling “butcher boxes” of premium meats for pickup and delivery. Options range from a mixed box of basics (ground beef, chuck, a chicken, and bacon) to a splurge-worthy collection of steaks.

Walters Sports Bar
10 N St., SE
The Navy Yard sports and beer bar is doubling as Walters CSA. Customers can order boxes of groceries for pickup, including fresh produce bundles ($40) and a la carte portions of meat, fish, eggs, bread, fruits and veggies, and more. There’re also prepared foods like wings and taco boxes, wine, liquor, and six-packs of beer.

Mastiha Bakery
10560 Metropolitan Ave., Kensington (rear unit)
Kensington’s Greek bakery was already a favorite for delicious (and easily freezable) pita breads, dips, and phyllo pastries. They’ve added groceries to the lineup including baking staples like butter and flour, and big produce boxes that mix favorites like bananas and citrus with local veggies and greens. Order online for pickup on select days.

 

Food Editor

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.