Eat Great Cheap 2016Whether you’re ending a juice cleanse, have had a rough day at the office, or just feel like indulging in a whole lot of cheese-laden goodness, Jill Erber’s gourmet-shop/bistro hybrids are where you want to end up. Her kitchen produces standout grilled cheeses—the Garden of Eden pairs sharp Amish blue with fontina and sweetly glazed figs—plus hefty sandwiches and four decadent renditions of mac and cheese. Part of the fun is in putting together a cheese board and learning about wedges and wheels from unexpected corners of the cheese-making world, such as Red Cloud, a pungent, soft raw goat’s-milk variety from Colorado, or Mirabo, a walnut-studded Brie made in Germany.
Cuisine: Snacks and Small Plates
Where you can get it: 2411 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria, 703-706-5300; 4056 Campbell Ave., Arlington, 703-933-8787
Also good: Burrata with crostini; tomato soup; “grown-up” grilled cheese, with Dubliner cheddar; mac and cheese with goat Gouda and Asiago; cheesecake with berry compote.
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.
