100 Very Best Restaurants 2015: No. 56 Ripple

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Gratis flatbreads kick off a meal at Ripple in DC's Cleveland Park. Photograph by Scott Suchman

About Ripple

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cuisines
American, Modern

Some restaurants you go to once a year; others are “rotation” restaurants, those places you pop by once a month or even once a week—whenever you don’t feel like cooking or you need a lift or you just need to be around some folks you know. If there’s anyplace in the area we can imagine dropping by several times a week, it’s this cozy, gently trendy Cleveland Park spot.

Treat it as a glorified wine bar (and let Fred Uku, the charismatic and witty bartender, take care of you), a stop for grazing before a movie at the Uptown across the street (get a load of the extensive cheese selection on view up front), or an ambitious American bistro where you can eat lightly or go all out.

Marjorie Meek-Bradley’s seasonal, local cooking is creative, light, and playful, though not so much of any of these things as to put her needs above yours.

Don’t miss:

  • Fluke crudo with smoked egg and pickled mushrooms
  • Spaghetti with Nantucket bay scallops and sea urchin
  • Dorade with spinach and curried cauliflower
  • Ricotta cavatelli with broccoli-rabe pesto and Italian sausage
  • Rabbit cassoulet
  • Mascarpone cheesecake
  • Butterscotch pot de crème
  • Baked-to-order chocolate-chip cookies with milk

Try Ripple’s Chef Recipes

Bacon-Roasted Pecans from Ripple’s Logan Cox

Olive Oil Pistachio Financier From Ripple

Warm Cider Cocktail From Ripple’s Josh Berner


Ann Limpert
Executive Food Editor/Critic

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.

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.