100 Very Best Restaurants: #15 – Elle

Black bass with green curry. Photograph by Madeleine Cole.

About Elle

cuisines
American
Location(s)
3221 Mt Pleasant St NW
Washington, District of Columbia 20010-2139

By day, this penny-tiled Mount Pleasant cafe is one of the city’s top breakfast carry­outs, crafting housemade bagels with glistening beet-cured salmon, fragrant guava turnovers, and breakfast sandwiches spilling with brisket and cheese from its front counter. At night, the scene moves into the grandma-chic back room, where flowered plates bear such delights as a dainty Comté-cheese tart with apple; katsu-style fried tempeh; or thick toast layered with whitefish and crème fraîche. Inexpensive to expensive.