Only the top 40 restaurants were ranked in 2011's Best Restaurants list.
This little yellow house with a front porch looks like a place that should be slinging biscuits and redeye gravy. But this is an enterprise of Jeff and Barbara Black, the restaurateurs behind Black’s Bar and Kitchen, BlackSalt, and Black Market Bistro, and the menu puts a sophisticated spin on comfort cooking.
Fried oysters arrive with a crackly cornmeal crust and bacon; Carolina mountain trout is set off with vanilla-infused cabbage; and a spectacular apple dumpling shines with a toffee-like glaze. Vegetarian dishes, such as fried green tomatoes stuffed with goat cheese or a pretty beet salad over goat cheese, show the kitchen’s skills with produce.
Follow servers’ advice on wines—if they’re not excited about one you’re considering, you probably won’t be, either.
Also good: Charcuterie plate with cured meats, rabbit pâté, and pumpkin marmalade; summertime mixed-bean salad with ham; pork chop with pumpkin grits; grilled chicken with sweet-potato bread; ice cream specials such as chocolate with bits of toffee-pecan cake; spiced pumpkin cheesecake.
Open Monday through Saturday for lunch and dinner, Sunday for dinner. Moderate.
>> See all of 2011's Best Restaurants
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.
