About Restaurant Openings Around DC
A guide to the newest places to eat and drink.
Silver and Sons BBQ, which started off as a pandemic pet project for chef Jarrad Silver, has already gone about as far as a food truck can go. By 2022, Silver had managed to take his Jewish and Mediterranean-inspired mobile smokehouse, which this magazine named one of DC’s 100 Very Best Restaurants last year, from a cottage business run out of his driveway to a big name on the local barbecue scene
Now, Silver is finally getting what he needs to settle in and expand: a brick-and-mortar location in Bethesda’s forthcoming Westbard Square development and a sprawling commissary kitchen in Rockville. The new Silver and Sons outpost will serve up Silver’s signature cumin-spiced pulled lamb shoulder, pastrami-fied short ribs, and sides like harissa carrots and lemon-schmaltz potatoes.
Silver, a Bethesda native who left DC’s Birch & Barley to start the barbecue business, has had his eye on a brick-and-mortar restaurant for years. With that in mind, he’s always tried to overdeliver with his two food trucks, baking his own challah sandwich rolls and making all of the spice rubs, sides, and sauces from scratch.
“I needed to make sure that everyone was thinking ‘if they’re doing this out of a food truck, I can’t wait to see what they’re going to do when they have a brick and mortar,” Silver says.
Starting March 1, Silver will anchor his trailer on Westbard Avenue, just in front of where his place will open, from 11 AM to 6 PM Friday through Sunday. The permanent restaurant is currently set to debut by October, though Silver says it may not be up and running until the end of 2024.
In the meantime, Silver’s commissary kitchen should be operational by June, allowing him to expand his menu significantly. Silver currently works with three smokers, one for each of his trucks and one tow-behind, and a smaller commercial prep kitchen in Gaithersburg. The Rockville commissary will consolidate everything, and help to boost Silver’s already popular catering business.
New menu items starting in June will include slow-braised wagyu beef cheek, deli-style smoked turkey, and a French dip made with short rib. Housemade merguez sausage, which Silver & Sons has served in the past, will become a permanent menu item, as will seasonally available sides like smoked beet salad with sumac and pickled onions.
The Silver & Sons space in Westbard Square—which is springing up in part of the former Giant parking lot this year—will be relatively small: an 800-square-foot takeout eatery with just a few dine-in spots along a standing counter. But Westbard will incorporate an outdoor picnic area, and Silver notes that bigger isn’t always better. He grew up just down the street, and he believes the neighborhood will appreciate a pint-sized takeout spot.
“One of the things I learned from the pandemic was: all the square footage people put into the front-of-house of their restaurants doesn’t really mean anything if nobody’s coming,” Silver says. “The places that really stand the test of time in a neighborhood tend to be your smaller carryout places.”
