Buffalo & Bergen. 3501 Connecticut Ave., NW.
Buffalo & Bergen opened its third and largest location yet in Cleveland Park last week. But the classic deli menu with New York bagels, knishes, and egg creams is just the start. Owner Gina Chersevani will soon be adding a “carb bar” serving old-school pastries, pizzas, and hot pockets.
The expansive all-day menu carries over all the favorites from Buffalo & Bergen’s Union Market and Capitol Hill locations, including potato latkes, matzo ball soup, and Reuben sandwiches. Bagels—brought in from Long Island’s A&S Bagels, then proofed and baked on site—can be turned into egg sandwiches or stuffed with pastrami-spiced lox.
New bagel creations include “Pickle Me Pink” with cold-smoked lox, beet-horseradish cream cheese, and pink pickled onion as well as a tuna salad sandwich with jalapeno cream cheese and crushed Zapp’s potato chips. Rather than using canned tuna, the restaurant roasts its own ahi tuna slow and low with olive oil.
But perhaps the most epic menu addition is a braised brisket sandwich topped with a mozzarella pupusa plus jalapeno slaw and lime crema on an onion challah bun. Chersevani says chef Silvia Zelaya “makes the greatest pupusas ever.” They were previously available only on a catering menu, but Chersevani found they make an excellent sandwich topping: “Why isn’t a pupusa literally the cheese on other things? It’s so good.”
Sound messy? No worries—Buffalo & Bergen has installed a hand-washing sink in the dining room. If you head to the restrooms instead, you might notice it smells like citrus. That’s because they’re covered with blood orange-scented wallpaper.
Within the next month, the bakery will begin serving morning pastries, like lemon-curd and prune danishes, plus upgraded Hot Pockets and Neapolitan-ish pizzas. Chersevani’s husband and partner, Neil Dundee—who briefly sold pizza from a vintage airstream trailer called Eternal Love and Pizza at Windridge Vineyards—makes a 72-hour fermented dough with bread flour and rye flour, which he says creates a more flavorful, crisper crust. Expect some bagel crossovers like a pizza with everything seasoning crust.
Chersevani cut her teeth as a bartender in DC (and owns Last Call in Union Market), so naturally there are cocktails too. One of her favorites at the moment is the “Long Distance Lover” with white rum and blood orange. The Cleveland Park location also serves Buffalo & Bergen’s famous bloody Mary with an entire lox-and-cream-cheese bagel as a garnish.
At some point, Chersevani would like to extend to late-night hours. A patio is also coming this spring with a three-wheeled Italian Piaggio Ape that’s been refurbished to serve draft cocktails. The cart is nicknamed Frizzante—”Bubbles is her street name.” Among the kid-friendly patio sippers will be southern Italian-inspired “exploding lemonades,” which erupt with fizziness with the addition of baking soda.
“I don’t want this to be serious,” Chersevani says. “Something’s new always. Something fun is happening. I don’t want it to be just another location.”
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.
