At Lime & Cilantro, which opened in Silver Spring in May, a server pours a deeply verdant aguachile (chili water) around ultra-thin slices of branzino decorated with dainty dollops of avocado crema and tiny pickled spheres of cucumber and radish. The sauce, zesty from jalapenos, transforms the raw fish into a delightful ceviche imbued with—no surprise here—lime and cilantro. The dish is a study in modern art with hallmarks of refinement found at the fanciest of fine-dining restaurants. But Lime & Cilantro is a no-frills spot offering tacos and tortas (sandwiches) as part of its contemporary Latin fare. 

Chef and co-owner Danny Chavez, 36, was born in El Salvador. When he was 12, he moved to Windsor, Connecticut, to live with his father, a chef in an Italian restaurant. Under his dad’s tutelage, he trained over the years on every station, starting as a dishwasher and winding up as the sous-chef. When his maternal grandmother died in 2012, Chavez went to D.C. to help his mother, Maria Torres, and two siblings. A friend tipped him off to a job at the Liaison Hotel (now YOTEL Washington D.C.) as a banquet cook at its restaurant, Art and Soul, where he worked his way up to line cook, sous-chef and, after returning from brief stints at D.C. restaurants Plume and Gravitas, executive chef. He left in February 2024 and opened Lime & Cilantro with Fathi Sarsouri, who had been Art and Soul’s food and beverage director. The two had been looking to strike out on their own, Chavez says, and when a pal told them about the availability of their current space, he contacted the landlords and signed the deal that day. “We thought it was the perfect location for our modern Latin concept because there was nothing like it in that area,” he says.  

The business partners rolled up their sleeves, scrubbed the former fried chicken joint from stem to stern and prettified the 1,700-square-foot, 40-seat space on a shoestring budget, with design help from Chavez’s fiancée, Sarah Reinecke. Walls, painted in off-white and sage green, are decorated with collections of basketry and wooden spoons. Narrow pinewood planks of varying lengths line the walls horizontally with small wooden shelves protruding between them to hold flowerpots of cascading faux flora. Woven baskets on each table hold cutlery, paper napkins and salt and pepper shakers.  

Chavez, wearing a black T-shirt and apron, can be spotted in the open kitchen in the back of the restaurant standing under two large copper heat lamps as he puts finishing touches on dishes. In addition to the branzino crudo, start with guacamole brightened with plenty of lime juice and topped with queso fresco, pickled red onions, chili oil and cilantro sprigs. Then move on to a round, flaky empanada filled with chicken that has been braised in a mole of dried peppers (guajillos, pastillas, poblanos and fiery, smoky chipotles), chocolate, sesame seeds, corn tortillas, cinnamon and cloves. Chavez pulls and shreds the chicken and mixes it with caramelized onions to add a hint of sweetness to the already flavor-packed filling. The pie is served with dollops of chipotle aioli and striations of dark green chimichurri, a South American salsa that, in Chavez’s version, includes ramps in addition to more traditional herbs, including cilantro, chives, parsley and garlic.  

Another starter, a hummus made with 75% corn and 25% chickpeas and served with roasted corn salsa, is a good idea that, with boosting of some of its ingredients—perhaps more lemon juice, cumin and chili oil—could turn into a great one. The homemade potato chips that accompany it are fab, though. The “not-your-classic” Caesar salad (it has corn and avocado in it) could also benefit from a boost of extra anchovies and garlic in its timid buttermilk chipotle dressing. 

Chavez offers four kinds of tacos, all made with corn tortillas pressed and griddled to order, including al pastor (adobo-marinated pork butt sliced and cooked on the flattop griddle and served with fermented pineapple salsa enhanced with Korean gochujang, a fermented red chili paste), carne asada (griddled flank steak that has been marinated in a puree of guajillo peppers, soy sauce, chili oil and a paste made with annatto seeds, garlic and spices) and a vegetarian option made with sauteed mushrooms (maitake, cremini and button), refried beans, charred broccolini and whipped goat cheese. The standout, though, is the fish taco, thick batons of perfectly cooked and moist fried sea bass lightly coated with crispy cornmeal and beer batter and crowned with pickled cabbage and chipotle aioli. (The slaw, touched with oregano, is the recipe Chavez’s mom uses to accompany her pupusas.) 

Among the entrees, a marvelous choice is the roasted chicken breast with a red, chili-based sauce called pozole. To make the sauce, Chavez simmers chicken stock, garlic, bay leaves, chipotles and charred poblano, guajillo and jalapeno peppers for 90 minutes and purees the mixture after removing the bay leaves. To assemble the dish, chicken breasts are brined overnight, then pan-seared to order with garlic, thyme and butter and enrobed with pozole that has been sauteed with browned and rendered chorizo sausage, corn and kale. A final spritz of lime juices adds just the right touch of acid. The chicken is tender and juicy, its sauce layered with complexity.  

For another entree, Chavez braises seared short ribs for 10 hours in the deep, rich mole used for the chicken empanadas. The tender beef then gets glazed with more mole and served with wild rice, kale, pickled cabbage, queso fresco and a swirl of chili oil. The result is luxuriant and rib-sticking.  

Pan-seared branzino basted with lemon, butter and thyme and accompanied by a kale, quinoa and avocado salad dressed with chipotle tamari vinaigrette is also a winner. I have high hopes for tamales—one corn, the other chicken—but find them a tad bland and stodgy and their fillings skimpy.   

Tortas, lightly pressed sandwiches filled with mortadella, herb-crusted pork, pastrami-spiced chicken, or mushrooms and broccolini, are not a strong suit at Lime & Cilantro. Do try the fluffy cheesecake with rhubarb jam and caramel sauce or the rich tres leches bread pudding with macerated berries for dessert.  

Chavez won my heart moments after I sat down for my first meal at Lime & Cilantro and eyed a dog’s menu alongside the fare for humans. “There’s a veterinarian next door to the restaurant and I’m a dog lover with two dogs,” he says. Offerings include grilled, unseasoned flank steak tips, “awoof con pollo” (braised chicken with rice and veggies) and “bon a-pet treat” (popsicles made with peanut butter, banana and yogurt). Chavez says you have 30 minutes to get the popsicles home before they melt. The restaurant has no outdoor seating except a two-top right in front of the building. 

A sign on one of Lime & Cilantro’s walls says, “Vive tus Sueños,” which means “Live your dreams” in Spanish. It’s heartening to see Chavez living his. 

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For Darnestown resident Rob Gresham, a teachable moment during the pandemic led to Isaac’s Poultry Market, a Gaithersburg fast-casual restaurant specializing in chicken, sold roasted, fried (tenders, wings and sandwiches) and in chicken salad. Sides, salads and frozen custard round out the fare.

Explaining to his sons Robbie and Jackson (now 17 and 16) four years ago that the world has faced pandemics before and prevailed, Gresham relayed that Isaac Newton discovered the law of gravity and invented calculus while quarantined for the plague in 1665. As a learning opportunity to go along with virtual schooling, he had Jackson help write a business plan for an imaginary restaurant; his son suggested they name it after Newton, and Isaac’s Poultry Market was born. Gresham says he focused on chicken because from his first-hand experience running and consulting for fast-casual brands, the protein accounts for more than 50% of their sales.

Gresham’s no stranger to the restaurant business. His first job while growing up in Montgomery County was at Chesapeake Bay Seafood House in Burtonsville, where he started as a dishwasher and became a cook at 16 while attending Paint Branch High School. “I’ve been in restaurants and kitchens ever since,” he says.

His resume includes many now-closed Montgomery County establishments, among them Eatzi’s Market & Bakery in Rockville, Cafe Deluxe in Bethesda and Harry’s Cafe in Silver Spring, where he met his wife, Christine, who was bartending there while attending law school. From there, he climbed the corporate ladder, working for successful powerhouses including Founding Farmers, Chipotle and Cava, which he joined in 2010. He says he helped develop the Cava Mezze Grill brand (now known as Cava) as the business grew to 80 restaurants, with 20 in the pipeline. “My job was morphing into an office guy, but I like building and creating,” Gresham says. He left in 2019 and started a restaurant consulting business. 

When the pandemic hit, Gresham says, restaurants didn’t need consultants, and he found himself at home baking bread like everyone else. He moved forward with Isaac’s, and the 2,400-square-foot space opened in February 2023. (It’s called a market because the plan is to offer retail items in the future, such as baked goods and olive oil.) 

It took two years to develop the recipes. The roast chicken is dry-rubbed for 24 hours with a blend of za’atar, cumin, smoked paprika, garlic and other spices and roasted in a combi oven (a combination convection and steam injection oven) to keep it moist. In August, the fried chicken breast Isaac sandwich (toasted potato bun, broccoli slaw, dill pickles and a mustard honey barbecue sauce) won the 2023 Restaurant Association of Maryland’s Best Sandwich competition. “I put a giant banner on the store about it, and sales skyrocketed,” Gresham says. The win qualified him to enter the World Food Championship in Dallas in November, where he finished in the top 10 and was invited to compete in next year’s competition. 

A second location of Isaac’s is slated to open in the Burtonsville Crossing development in Burtonsville at the end of the year.

Isaac’s Poultry Market
12163 Darnestown Road, Gaithersburg
240-477-5037
isaacs.market

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For Chris Brown, taking one of his two young daughters to the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., for high tea soon after opening Zinnia in September 2022 inspired a profitable idea. It was so delightful an experience that he test-ran weekend tea at the Silver Spring restaurant this past holiday season, intending to end it after the new year. It was such a huge hit that he kept it going; now it runs on Saturdays and Sundays, with 90-minute 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. seatings in two rooms near the restaurant’s entrance.

The charming low-ceilinged parlor room original to the 1850 house that once served as Mrs. K’s Toll House restaurant features a white brick fireplace and glass cases filled with myriad china tea sets. Patterned wallpaper brings to mind a country estate’s library. Tables are set genteelly with white tablecloths, forest green cloth napkins, porcelain sugar bowls with tongs, cups and saucers and tea strainers. “My father-in-law accumulated tea sets from estate sales, and guests called offering family heirloom tea sets because their kids weren’t interested in them,” Brown says.

The 12 Harney & Sons tea offerings (four black, two green, two white and four herbal) include traditional varieties such as Earl Grey, Darjeeling and Japanese Sencha and flavored offerings, among them Royal Wedding (Chinese Mutan white tea with rosebuds, vanilla and coconut) and black tea enhanced with chocolate and peppermint leaves. The teapot is brought with a three-minute hourglass timer to take the guesswork out of steeping.

A triple-tiered serving plate teems with treats, including tea sandwiches (ham; smoked salmon; mango chutney chicken salad; egg and cress; cucumber; brie and fig), pastries (croissants, cheddar scallion biscuits, cranberry scones and pistachio madeleines) and desserts (lemon meringue tart and chocolate mousse). Accompaniments include Chantilly cream, jams and honey butter. Tea costs $60 per adult ($70 with a glass of sparkling wine) and $40 per child. Reservations require a $25 deposit per person.

Zinnia, 9201 Colesville Road, Silver Spring, 301-704-6653

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Editor’s note: ala announced on July 19, 2024, that the restaurant would close to make changes and reopen on July 26, 2024. Read more here.

It’s a pretty safe bet that if there’s an assortment of spreads offered on a menu, I’ll be schmearing and dipping with abandon in short order. Such is the case at ala, the Levantine restaurant that opened in the space occupied by the beloved Italian mainstay Positano for 44 years. I happily tear apart pieces of warm pita bread encrusted with za’atar seasoning and lap up silken hummus topped with dried figs and apricots; labneh topped with za’atar and olive oil; baba ghanouj adorned with dill pesto, pumpkin seeds and pomegranate seeds; and a puree of roasted butternut squash, tahini and harissa (spicy red chile paste) with a sprinkle of chopped pistachios. The dried fruits’ sweetness, the eggplant’s char, the harissa’s piquancy and the crunch of the nuts detonate bursts of flavor and texture, delightful accompaniments to a tart martini made with pickle juice and dill-infused gin.

This is the second location of ala for Cabin John residents Deniz and Celal Gulluoglu. An architect job for Celal with a Fairfax, Virginia, firm brought the Gulluoglus to the U.S. from their native Istanbul in 2016. (Deniz is a writer.) They fell into the restaurant business when friends of theirs wanted out of it, asking the Gulluoglus to take over their restaurant Ankara in Washington’s Dupont Circle neighborhood, which they did in 2021. They added dishes to the Turkish menu to reflect the wider Levantine region (Israel, Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and others) and changed the name to ala, which means “mixed colors” in Turkish, reflecting the melting pot nature of the cuisine.

Celal, who owns the D.C.-based architecture and design firm AAG Interiors and Design, is largely responsible for ala Bethesda’s look. Its exterior—bright white stucco accented with Mediterranean blue wooden shutters and doors and a charming patio that seats 30—brings to mind houses found on Greek islands. The interior of the 4,000-square-foot restaurant, which seats 110, including 12 at the bar, recalls its predecessor. “We originally intended to demo it completely and start over,” Celal says, “but every time we went to the space, people would stop us outside, ask what we were going to do to it and tell us stories about graduations, kids’ marriages and baby showers there. We realized we should keep the decor and modernize it a little.” So Positano’s terra cotta floors and faux balcony with a clay-tiled roof remain. So do its grotto-like walls—now white stucco instead of amber colored—with built-in shelving to store and display wine bottles. Bric-a-brac abounds—enormous glass jars filled with faux produce (lemons, pomegranates, garlic heads); an old cash register; amphoras filled with wine corks. Murals of the Amalfi coast are out; faux columns and olives trees with artificial birds wired onto branches are in. Swags of green, gold and burgundy fabric hang from the exposed ceiling, draped from its black metal infrastructure. Mid-century modern upholstered side chairs in turquoise and mustard add flair.

Zack Baker, whose resume includes stints at Xiquet, Del Mar and Zaytinya in Washington, is the corporate chef for both ala locations, splitting his time between them, which could explain some inconsistencies in the food. Whereas I enthusiastically enjoy the spreads and a generously portioned appetizer of large sauteed shrimp in a tangy, smoky, mildly piquant tomato sauce redolent of Turkish urfa pepper, the tiny manti (Turkish dumplings) are disappointing. They’re supposedly filled with white beans, roasted mushrooms, horseradish and truffles—promising distinctive flavors. All I can discern is dough. Dense disks of chickpea falafel attractively presented on a swath of tahini and topped with pickled vegetables and sprigs of fresh mint and dill are lackluster. A better option is fattoush salad, a pretty gathering of radicchio, pumpkin seeds, roasted butternut squash, red onions, sliced pears and radishes in a Dijon mustard and sumac dressing. (Note: ala’s menu alters according to the season. On the menu that went in after my meals there, strawberries, asparagus and peas replaced butternut squash on the fattoush, for example.)

For entrees, kebabs are a good option. The server is quick to explain that the one made with lamb tenderloin (lokum kebab), which comes with herb salad and braised cabbage, is seasoned only with salt and pepper, not herbs, per the Turkish fashion. It is tender and flavorful, but I’m glad I hedge the bet by asking for sides of toum (whipped garlic fluff) and harissa as flavor boosters. Tawook (chicken) shish kebab is moist and flavorful even if it’s made with chicken breast instead of thigh meat, as the menu states. This sort of change happens frequently. Delicious and beautifully cooked branzino (flown in from Turkey) with parsnip puree arrives pan-seared, not grilled as billed. A braised short rib that’s mostly fat is supposed to feature ras el hanout, but that bold North African spice mix made with coriander, cumin, ginger, cinnamon and other spices seems a no-show to me. The grilled eggplant puree that accompanies it is quite tasty, though. (No matter, the menu posted online as of this writing has switched in spice-rubbed rib-eye steak with bulgur salad for the short rib.)

Sumac ice cream for dessert—one of three offered—intrigues me but is 86ed on my visits. Pistachio baklava, brought in from Turkey weekly, is mercifully not drenched in syrup and has a slight but pleasant tang to it. “They use sheep milk ghee instead of cow butter. That’s the difference with Turkish baklava,” Celal says. Another winner is kunafa, a log of chewy, briny Egyptian akawi cheese (similar in texture to mozzarella) rolled in kataifi (shredded phyllo dough) and grilled like a kebab. It’s garnished with rose petals, chopped pistachios and drizzles of cherry sauce.

Service at ala is earnest but not polished. Items I order aren’t coursed on one occasion, with a food runner showing up at the table bearing entrees and a plaintive look for me to make room by shuffling around the appetizers that had arrived only moments before. I don’t notice a manager touching the tables to ask diners how things are going, kind of surprising at a restaurant new to the scene. Celal tells me that he and Deniz manage from the outside and go to the restaurant as customers, a strategy they might consider revisiting. Let me add—because it’s such a peeve—that the flimsy paper napkins offered at ala really downgrade the dining experience.

During the summer, the Gulluoglus plan to start building out a fast-casual Tex-Mex joint, a sports bar and possibly a rooftop dining area in the remaining 6,000 square feet of the building ala occupies. Hopefully, they will have ironed out the kinks at ala by then.

FAVORITE DISHES
Mixed spread assortment (hummus, baba ghanouj, labneh, squash); fattoush salad; branzino with grape vinegar; chicken kebab; kunafa (baked shredded phyllo and cheese pastry)

PRICES
Mezze: $12 to $22; Entrees: $22 to $36;
Desserts: $12 to $14

LIBATIONS
The beverage list includes 10 craft cocktails ($16), three zero-proof ($10), five bottled beers from Turkey, Palestine and Armenia ($12), seven draft beers ($10) and four anise-flavored Levantine libations (raki, ouzo and arak) for $14. The 15-bottle wine list features vintages from Palestine, Persia, Turkey, Lebanon and Israel: one sparkling ($105); two rosé/orange ($90); six white ($60 to $90) and six red ($70 to $100). Twenty-six wines are offered by the glass for $14: four sparkling; nine white; five rosé and eight red. There are also four wines by the glass infused with such flavors as mint and cucumber, pomegranate and elderflower ($12).

SERVICE
Attentive but needs polish

ala Bethesda
4948 Fairmont Ave., Bethesda
ala-dc.com

David Hagedorn is the restaurant critic for Bethesda Magazine.

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The Heights, a 10,000-square-foot Chevy Chase food hall that opened at Wisconsin Place in December, was curated by Alexandria, Virginia-based Common Plate Hospitality (CPH). The hall’s 10 concepts feature notables of the DMV restaurant world, newcomers, and CPH establishments, such as Urbano (a full-service Mexican restaurant), This Deli of Ours and Turncoat Speakeasy (see page 72 for more on that). There is seating for 84 inside and 78 on a spacious patio. 

In 2022, CPH’s chef and co-founder Chad Sparrow held a competition called Stall Wars, the winner of which would receive a built-out stall where they would have a one-year lease (renewable) and pay a percentage of sales as rent. Two entrants were so outstanding that both were granted stalls: Saoco and Sky Lantern. 

We toured the food hall and discovered five dishes we love.

The Cubano sandwich at Saoco ($15) 

In addition to being the chef and owner of Saoco, a Miami-style Cuban cafe, Colombian-born Dario Arana-Rojas, is a salsa dancer. “Saoco is the swagger you feel, the happiness that embraces you when salsa dancing,” he says. That’s also the feeling you get when eating what we consider the best Cuban sandwich we’ve ever had. Arana-Rojas marinates Boston butt with sour orange, tons of garlic and a cumin-based spice mix for 48 hours, slow-roasts it for 16 hours and shreds it. The pork is layered with shaved and shredded Virginia tavern ham, Swiss cheese, pickles, yellow mustard and a mayo-based secret sauce inside a split mini loaf of Cuban bread imported from Miami. The sandwich is brushed with lard and placed in a press until the bread is crisp and the cheese oozy. The richness of the pork shines through, with the mustard’s acid acting as a foil instead of being overwhelming.

The 36-hour drunken beef short rib lo mein at Sky Lantern ($20.75) 

Chef and owner Phuriphada (Yui) Chonsorawuth offers modern twists on Thai cuisine at her stall Sky Lantern. For her riff on drunken noodles, she rubs short ribs with five spice powder and garlic and cooks them sous-vide for 36 hours. Ultra-thin slices of the short ribs are served atop lo mein noodles stir-fried with garlic, shallots, basil and housemade chile oil. Fried basil leaves and sauteed cherry tomatoes complete the dish.

Masala Uttapam at DC Dosa ($15) 

This is the third location of Mumbai native Priya Ammu’s DC Dosa (the others are in D.C. and Crystal City, Virginia), which offers variations of two crepe-adjacent South Indian street foods made with lentil-based batters: dosas (large, crispy pancakes folded over fillings omelet-style) and uttapam dosas (thicker and more the texture of American flapjacks). We love the masala uttapam, which is griddled on one side, then flipped over and topped with turmeric-tinged curried potatoes dotted with black mustard seeds and flipped over again to crisp the potatoes like hash browns. It’s topped with chopped cilantro and comes with two of four chutney offerings: onion tamarind, mango habanero, coconut and cilantro sesame. 

Chirashi sashimi at Doki Doki Sushi ($27) 

Chef Kevin Tien, who owns the acclaimed restaurant Moon Rabbit in D.C. and is a James Beard Foundation award nominee, cofounded Doki Doki Sushi with chef Judy Beltrano. (Doki Doki means heartbeat in Japanese.) They offer a wide range of nigiri and rolls (classic and specialty), but we’re fans of the chirashi sashimi, pristine slices of hamachi, salmon and tuna served atop sushi rice with surimi (crab stick), wakame (kelp salad), house-cured cucumbers and shredded daikon, as well as requisite garnishes: pickled ginger, wasabi and, for the rice, sushi-zu, a soy-and-vinegar-based dressing. 

Soft-serve swirl in a fish-shaped cone at Mimi’s Handmade Ice Cream ($9) 

Who can resist a cake cone shaped like a fish with a swirl of soft-serve vanilla and matcha ice cream rising from its mouth? Not us. Order the taiyaki (which means sea bream, a type of fish) cone from Alexandria-based ice cream shop Mimi’s Handmade. 

The Heights Food Hall, 5406 Wisconsin Ave. (The Shops at Wisconsin Place), Chevy Chase; 240-800-3820; theheightsfoodhall.com

This story appears in the May/June edition of Bethesda Magazine.

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The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in Montgomery County, especially where food and drink products are concerned. Here are eight locals who took ideas and breathed life into them, some as full-time endeavors, some as side gigs, and all with passion. 

Lan Jin, Jinlan Wenhua Dumplings

For Potomac resident Lan Jin, 50, teaching Chinese to children for the past 11 years at Bethesda’s Norwood School has been one way to introduce people to her native culture. Making and selling dumplings has become another. 

“All Chinese people know how to make dumplings. It’s very social for us,” she explains. “I’d make and freeze them for friends and colleagues so they could make them at home, and teach my students how to make them for Chinese New Year.” They were such a hit that Jin started selling them as Jinlan Wenhua Dumplings (wenhua means “culture” in Mandarin) at the now-closed Central Farm Market in Falls Church in October 2020, and then at Bethesda Central Farm Market three months later. Now she’s at eight farmers markets, including Bethesda on Sundays and the Freshfarm market in Silver Spring on Saturdays. She produces the dumplings in a commercial kitchen in Gaithersburg, but will be moving the operation to White Flint Station in North Bethesda this summer, when she anticipates opening a 30-seat restaurant there called Jin Lan Dumplings. She plans to open another location in Georgetown in October.

On the market menu are varieties of frozen beef, pork, lamb, chicken, shrimp and vegetarian dumplings, such as pork and chive; pork and bok choy; chicken and cabbage; egg, shrimp and chives; and lamb and carrots. The dumplings are raw and come with directions for pan-frying and microwaving. All are $13 for eight dumplings, except for lamb dumplings, which are $15. Other items include Sichuan wontons ($15) and Shanghai scallion pancakes ($15).

Jin, who now only teaches part time, sources many ingredients from other farmers market vendors. She has 14 part-time workers, two drivers and four dumpling makers. “I like to give jobs to immigrants, especially mothers and grandmothers. A lot of Chinese grandmothers came here to help with their grandchildren; once the kids are grown, they have nothing to do at home,” she says. “Now they have something to do with their hands and a way to socialize.”

jinlancooks.com

Chris Pedraza, The Kernel’s Pop

“I never thought I’d be doing popcorn as my business,” says Chris Pedraza, a Clarksburg resident who works in sales for GE HealthCare and dedicates his nights and weekends to The Kernel’s Pop, which he started in 2021 when the pandemic was in full swing. He was born and raised in Potomac, his family often touring battlefields and historical homes in the Maryland area, something the history maven continued into adulthood. During a visit to Gettysburg, he looked at the local businesses—restaurants and ice cream parlors—and wondered what was missing. Popcorn, he decided, and he coined the name The Kernel’s Pop, creating a backstory to go with it: a colonel who returned to his farm and realized he could shoot popcorn out of his retired cannons and create a delicious treat for the community.  

In his research, Pedraza, 32, came across an old-fashioned way of making popcorn: popping the corn with no seasoning in a Dutch oven, then coating it with salted caramel and baking it for four hours. “Low and slow, like good barbecue,” he says. He used to make the popcorn at home, but recently moved the operation to a commercial kitchen in Frederick.

The popcorn is available online and at Unwined Candles in Sykesville, Maryland, and Locally Crafted in Gaithersburg. Flavors include buttery caramel, caramel and cheddar, better cheddar, sweet and crabby (with Maryland crab seasoning) and scout mix (caramel, chocolate and toasted coconut). A 1-quart bag is $10.

Pedraza recently purchased a kettle corn maker, a truck and a trailer, and he sells kettle corn in addition to his other offerings at events such as the Locally Crafted Makers Market at Gaithersburg’s Rio on certain weekends.

thekernelspop.com

Voula Tripolitsiotis, Blue Lace Cakes 

What do a bold black and red Nissan 350Z race car, a sky blue Birkin bag resting on a signature orange Hermès gift box, and a giant pumpkin with delicate green tendrils all have in common? They’re spectacular cakes created by Voula Tripolitsiotis, a custom cake artist who operates out of her Gaithersburg home.  

Tripolitsiotis, 42, earned a bachelor of fine arts degree in sculpture from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore in 2002. Among the jobs she’s held was a five-year stint as a wedding photographer, which led her to discover cakes. “I never went to pastry school, but I baked my whole life. Like most artists, you jump from job to job until you find your path,” Tripolitsiotis says. In 2013, she took a job as a sugar artist at now-shuttered Amphora Restaurant in Vienna, Virginia, even though she had never so much as touched fondant. She built a portfolio there for a year and half, then worked with cake bakers such as Creative Cakes in Silver Spring and Fancy Cakes by Leslie, a since-closed bakery in Bethesda. 

In 2017, Tripolitsiotis struck out on her own, focusing on special-occasion cakes. “Everything is made by my hands specifically for you,” she says. Cakes start at $325 for a single-tiered cake and $375 for multitiered. Wedding orders start at $650.

bluelacecakes.com

Manisha Eigner, Clear Skies Meadery

In December 2018, Manisha Eigner, 55, burned out from a career in the pharmaceutical regulatory field, chose to go into business for herself. The Bethesdan teamed with Yancy Bodenstein, a longtime friend who had married Eigner’s best friend from graduate school, to open a store featuring mead. Bodenstein had been making the honey-based fermented libation, which historians generally consider to be the world’s oldest alcoholic beverage, at his Gaithersburg home since 2003. “Years ago, some of them tasted like Manischewitz [kosher wine], but over the years they greatly improved,” says Eigner, who decided the time was right to capitalize on a resurgence in meaderies. 

With Eigner as the majority partner (Bodenstein is a National Institutes of Health chemist), they opened in the Kentlands in Gaithersburg in March 2020, just as the pandemic began. It was rough going, but thanks to a supportive community their 12-tap meadery caught on. “We were able to stay afloat by a thread,” Eigner says. In December 2022, they decamped to an 8,000-square-foot, 40-seat, 23-tap facility in Rockville. It’s the only meadery in Montgomery County.

Clear Skies’ mead is fermented in a two-step process before being aged for three to six months. ABV (alcohol by volume) is 7% or 13%. Flavored meads, most sold in 12-ounce cans ($5.56 or $3.50), include Meadarita (lime, salt, agave), Twisted Cherry, Violet’s Outburst (with notes of lilac and lavender) and Jolly Watermelon. Several Montgomery County retailers carry Clear Skies products, such as Dawson’s Market (Rockville), Downtown Crown Wine and Beer (Gaithersburg) and Old Town Market (Kensington). 

clearskiesmeadery.com

Glenn Milano, Chevy Chase Pizza Co.

For Glenn Milano, a senior adviser in the U.S. Agency for International Development’s global health office, necessity was the mother of pizza. The 50-year-old Chevy Chase resident, a pizza fanatic since living in Rome during college, was unimpressed by the quality of pizzas available to his family during COVID-19—something he hadn’t noticed until spending so much time at home—so he set out to make his own. He immersed himself in pizza-making, acquiring a computer program to help develop and track every batch, and giving away pizzas to family and friends. That led, in late 2021, to the owner of Chevy Chase Farmers Market asking him to sell pizzas there after seeing an Instagram post about them. “Demand was through the roof,” Milano says. “I brought the ingredients and a Gozney pizza oven and sold out the first day.”

To become more efficient and consistent, Milano turned to making fully baked frozen 11-inch pies ($13.99) instead of fresh, relying only on high quality ingredients—such as 00 flour, San Marzano tomatoes and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese from Italy—to make four varieties: Margherita, pepperoni, mushroom and cacio e pepe. 

When Milano introduced the frozen pies at the farmers market later in 2021 he quickly sold out of 100 of them. Now the pizzas are made at a commissary kitchen in Rockville. (For pizza aficionados: The dough is 65% hydration with a 72-hour ferment and baked at 900 degrees Fahrenheit in a brick oven.) Dawson’s Market in Rockville started carrying the frozen pizzas in January 2023; now they’re available in several stores, including Brookville Market (Chevy Chase) and Corner Market (Silver Spring).  

chevychasepizza.com

Robin Snider, Rustic Route Coffee Co.

Robin Snider, 38, has been drawn to coffee culture since she was in Poolesville High School. “A friend of mine worked at Starbucks and I’d watch her being a barista, making the coffees and talking to customers at the same time, and it made an impression on me,” she says. Snider earned a degree in hospitality and tourism from Virginia Tech in 2007, then worked various food- and beverage-related jobs (catering sales, event planning and restaurants) before settling on a career in marketing and fundraising for the Barnesville School of Arts & Sciences, a private school in upper Montgomery County.  

A year before the pandemic, Snider decided to change careers and wound up at the Watershed Cafe in Poolesville, a farm-to-table restaurant in Montgomery County’s Ag Reserve where she got to be a barista. When the restaurant closed at the beginning of the pandemic, Snider’s entrepreneurial spirit kicked in. She bought a Behmor 1600 drum coffee roaster and started learning what goes into a great cup of coffee—where the beans come from, how climate affects them, how they’re roasted and for how long. She built out a two-story garage on her Barnesville property and Rustic Route Coffee Co. was born, specializing in small batch, fairly sourced, chemical-free coffee. It’s outfitted with an American-made Mill City roaster. “I went from a microwave-size one to one as tall as me,” she says. 

Rustic uses eight different beans from five places: Colombia, Nicaragua, Brazil, Sumatra and Ethiopia. All are single origin, except for the espresso, which is a blend of Ethiopian and Nicaraguan beans. “The things you can change in the roasting affect the flavor—the heat and time, the amount of gas pressure, the speed of the drum. Airflow makes a difference because it creates more or less oil. No two beans are roasted the same,” Snider says. The coffee is $15.99 for a 12-ounce bag, available online (free shipping to Montgomery County) or at several retail stores, including Locally Crafted (Gaithersburg), Potomac French Market, Dawson’s Market (Rockville), Butler’s Orchard (Germantown) and Locals (Poolesville). 

rusticroutecoffee.com

Ajay Malghan, Ahara

At Ahara’s 2,000-square-foot warehouse in Rockville, enormous clusters of organic lion’s mane mushrooms resembling heads of cauliflower sprout from inoculated logs on multiple stacked shelving units. On other racks, antler reishi mushrooms—long brown protrusions tipped in white, like pussy willows—flourish. Both kinds of mushrooms, once fully grown (four to five weeks for lion’s mane; three to four months for reishi), are dried, pulverized into powder and turned into capsules ($24 for 60 capsules of 250 milligrams each). Lion’s mane powder is also available as chai mix, flavored with turmeric, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger and cloves ($20 for 2.3 ounces), and cocoa mix ($16 for 4 ounces). 

Rockville resident Ajay Malghan, 44, owns Ahara, a company he founded in 2022 with his father, Subhas Malghan, to create mushroom-based products as health supplements. Ajay says that nutrients in lion’s mane promote nerve, gut and brain health, and that reishi mushrooms are potential immune system boosters. “We call ourselves a mindful mushroom company,” Ajay says. “Ahara means ‘diet’ in Sanskrit. It’s an Ayurvedic tenet that everything is food and everything you consume should be nourishment that connects all the senses.” (The FDA, per its website, “advises consumers to talk to their doctor, pharmacist, or other health care professional before deciding to purchase or use a dietary supplement. For example, some supplements might interact with medicines or other supplements.”) 

At 20, Ajay, an artist and photographer, was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia, undergoing chemotherapy and then, over the years, 16 surgeries for avascular necrosis caused, he says, by a bad reaction to prednisone. To alleviate crippling pain and debilitating mental health issues, including depression, he sought various palliative remedies. In 2018, a forager friend told him about lion’s mane mushrooms and Ajay threw himself into researching mushrooms and their potential healing properties. Now he credits mushrooms for his improved mental state. “It’s night and day compared to before,” he says. 

aharamushrooms.com

Dini McCullough Amozurrutia, Dini’s Divine Pies

Sometimes passions come later in life rather than sooner. Garrett Park resident Dini McCullough Amozurrutia, 55, figures that the key lime pie she made for her then-boyfriend’s birthday in October 2021 was only the second or third pie she’d ever made. This March, she opened Dini’s Divine Pies in Rockville, sharing space with Vignola Gourmet in Randolph Hills shopping center.

Her ex’s workmates and her friends started asking McCullough Amozurrutia to bake pies for them, and that became a nice side gig to her job as a legal aid attorney for Montgomery County. Soon she acquired a business license, rented space at a commercial kitchen and began selling pies at Rocklands Farm Winery and at various pops-ups, including one at MezeHub. Vignola Gourmet started carrying her key lime pie, which led to their collaboration.

McCullough Amozurrutia uses an all-butter crust for her extra flaky pies and empanadas. Nine-inch pies are $32 to $40; 6-inch pies are $16 to $18; empanadas are $5 to $8. Her Guinness chocolate cream pie with whipped cream spiked with Jameson’s has already become a signature. Others include mixed berry (with or without mezcal), sweet potato with curry spices, apple cardamom crumble, classic apple, cherry and Mexican chocolate. Empanada fillings include blueberry, strawberry (dipped in chocolate) and cherry with candied jalapeños. 

dinisdivinepies.com

This story appears in the May/June edition of Bethesda Magazine.

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The first bite of chicken satay explodes with flavor at Artha Rini, an Indonesian restaurant in Kensington opened in August by the chef and owner Artharini, who goes by one name. Artharini marinates the skewers overnight with a sweet and sour sauce flavored with ginger-like galangal, white pepper, garlic, onions, mushroom powder and lime leaf. She serves the grilled skewers with a sauce of ground fried peanuts cooked with brown sugar, chiles, garlic and lime leaves ($13). “I love lime leaves,” she says. “Everything here is made with them.” That explains the fragrant, citrusy tang to so many of the dishes at Artha Rini. 

Artharini is Javanese. She immigrated to the United States in 2004 when her husband, Wirawan Ismudjatmiko, took a job at the Embassy of Burkina Faso, and they settled in Silver Spring. He later wound up at the Algerian Embassy, leaving that position to help his wife—he waits tables at the 24-seat restaurant while she prepares meals in its open kitchen.  

When she was a child in Semarang, Indonesia, Artharini’s family ran a catering business, and her grandmother sold gudeg (jackfruit stew) in a food stall. Artharini was drawn to the kitchen early on, even winning a cooking competition in high school. She parlayed her home cooking skills into professional ones in Silver Spring when a client at her sister-in-law’s day care heard of her prowess and ordered some food. Word of Artharini’s talent spread in the Indonesian community, and she found herself cooking for several people who worked at the International Monetary Fund. That led to gigs for the Indonesian Embassy, making it necessary for Artharini to find commercial cooking space, which she did elsewhere in the commercial strip where Artha Rini is located now. When that landlord offered to rent her the brick-and-mortar spot she is currently in, she leapt at the opportunity, decorating the small space with a collection of Indonesian clay cooking pots, wayang golek (doll puppets) and an intricate Balinese wooden statue depicting the birdlike Hindu deity Garuda. 

The flavor nexus of many of the all-halal dishes at Artha Rini are white or red spice pastes called bumbu, whose base is onions, garlic and candlenuts. (Red bumbu has red chile peppers and paprika in it.) Highlights are mendoan (batter-fried tempeh, $3 per slice); rawon (beef soup made with coconut milk, galangal, lime leaves, tomatoes, onions, celery and a salted hard-boiled egg) served with cassava chips, rice and a potato fritter ($16); and nasi padang, steamed rice platters offered with one to four tastings of Indonesian specialties: braised beef in spicy red curry sauce (rendang), jackfruit curry, egg in red bumbu, and grilled chicken ($9 to $18). It’s an excellent way to tour Indonesia in one meal.  

Artha Rini, 10562 Metropolitan Ave., Kensington; 240-505-7203; artharini.com

This story appears in the May/June edition of Bethesda Magazine.

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Editor’s note: The Grove announced on April 28, 2024, that the restaurant would close temporarily and reopen as a new concept. Read more here.

If ventures from savvy restaurant groups during and after the pandemic are any indication, there’s gold to be found in Montgomery County. Alexandria, Virginia-based Common Plate Hospitality opened The Heights, a 10,000-square-foot food hall, in Chevy Chase in December, and The Grove, an upscale Mediterranean restaurant, in Potomac’s Cabin John Village in November. Jackie Greenbaum, who owns several restaurants in Washington, D.C., and Silver Spring’s Quarry House Tavern, has been doing booming business in Gaithersburg from the day she opened Charley Prime Foods at Rio last May. Long Shot Hospitality has a winner with its first Montgomery County location of The Salt Line, which opened at Bethesda Row in July. Olney resident Mike Friedman, the chef and co-owner of D.C.-based RedStone Restaurant Group, is confident that the prospects are good at Aventino and AP Pizza Shop, which debuted in Bethesda in January. “We are thrilled to go into a new community and give our special brand of hospitality,” Friedman says. “Bethesda and Montgomery County are especially important because a lot of these residents have been our clients in Washington for years. We are so excited to be closer to home for them.”

Aventino

One of the best dishes at Aventino, a Roman-Jewish-inspired Italian restaurant that opened in Bethesda in January, is a secret—diners have to ask for it. With the off-menu item, chef and co-owner Mike Friedman has managed to indulge three of my favorite pastimes—snacking, sipping and splurging—in one perfect starter for two. A 12-gram tin of Osetra caviar served on ice comes with two half-pours of Prosecco and cunning conveyances for the roe: three perfectly spherical, light-as-a-feather, golf ball-size potato buns (maritozzi) filled with whipped crème fraîche (think cream-filled Pac-men) and topped with chopped chives and a few droplets of olive oil. The $60 price tag makes it an extravagance to be sure, but on a special occasion it’s a delightful way to luxuriate and relax before looking at the menu. (I downed my Prosecco and moved on to a terrific Sicilian spritz made with Lambrusco and blood orange, thrilled to see underappreciated Lambrusco getting attention.) Post-caviar, I indulged in warm, roasted Campagna olives sprinkled with fennel seeds, coriander, pink peppercorns and rosemary, a welcome treat offered to all Aventino diners.

The look of the 4,000-square-foot, 135-seat bi-level restaurant, which is named for one of Rome’s seven hills, is the work of D.C.-based Grizform Design. To have the best vantage point of the goings-on, ask for the captain’s table just past the host stand; it affords a view below to the buzzy 50-seat bar outfitted with emerald-hued tile and gray marble, a tucked-away open kitchen and a dining room with tufted blue-velvet semicircular banquettes, marble tables and gold velvet and caned bistro side chairs. 

Aventino (plus its adjacent 30-seat AP Pizza Shop) has been much anticipated, with the dual opening delayed for nearly a year due to construction and supply-chain issues. But good things have come to us who waited, not surprising given the experience that 42-year-old Friedman brings to the table. His RedStone Restaurant Group, which includes business partners Mike O’Malley, Colin McDonough and Gareth Croke, includes three D.C. restaurants: the Red Hen and two locations of All-Purpose Pizzeria. (Hence AP Pizza Shop’s name.) Friedman met O’Malley in 2004 when he bluffed his way into a cooking job at Mon Ami Gabi, where O’Malley was assistant manager, with little more experience than having worked in a deli in Westfield, New Jersey, the predominantly Italian suburb of New York City where he grew up. 

Before starting his own company, Friedman, who lives in Olney, earned an associate degree in 2007 from The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, then worked at several notable D.C. restaurants, including Zaytinya and Jaleo, both owned by José Andrés, and Proof and Estadio, both now closed. 

The chef’s fondness for Italy began when he visited there in 2006 with his father. The trattorias of Rome impressed him, particularly those in Aventino, the area where Jews lived until the 1500s, when they were forced into a cramped ghetto until 1870. He pays homage on the menu to their cucina povera (literally “poor kitchen”), cooking made from the most economical ingredients, such as artichokes—too hard to clean and eat, so cast aside by highbrow Romans—and variety meats, the “undesirable” parts of the animal. Friedman’s sweetbreads, dredged in seasoned flour, fried like chicken and served with creamy tuna sauce and a celery root and apple remoulade, are sumptuously desirable in their velvety texture and subtle offal tang. Artichokes, halved lengthwise through the stem and trimmed of choke and tough outer leaves, are braised in white wine, anchovies and olive oil, roasted to order and topped with parsley sauce, toasted breadcrumbs and fresh mint. They are delectable but should be served with bread for sopping up the liquid gold.

Another appetizer not to be missed: suppli al telefono, meaning “telephone cords” and referring to the strings of melty mozzarella cheese that result when these crispy risotto fritters are pulled apart. “We also put chicken livers cooked with chicken stock in them as a nod to Rome’s offal tradition,” Friedman says. That boost of umami makes these nuggets otherworldly. I’m a mortadella fan, so I am thrilled with the gnoccho fritto—fried ribbons of yeast dough that serve as crackers for thin slices of luscious, upscale, bologna-like charcuterie larded with cubes of fat and made in-house. Its dried cherry mustard compote is a perfect complement to the richness.

Many Aventino pastas are Roman classics—spaghetti-like tonnarelli cacio e pepe (with Pecorino Romano cheese and freshly ground black pepper); rigatoni carbonara; lumache (snail-shaped pasta) all’amatriciana (with tomatoes, Calabrian chiles and guanciale). All the pastas are homemade. Don’t miss the spaghetti and manila clams “diavolo,” bathed in white wine, olive oil, garlic and chiles and topped with toasted breadcrumbs laced with bottarga (cured mullet roe) and a dollop of neonata, a Sicilian hot sauce that Friedman makes with Fresno chilies, ginger, red vinegar, lemon juice and anchovies. Also divine are the cappelletti stuffed with ricotta cheese served atop sunchoke puree, bathed with a preserved white truffle butter sauce and sprinkled with sunchoke chips. (I would prefer the pasta rolled a little thinner.)

For entrees, lamb ribs rubbed with black pepper, fennel, coriander and chile flakes—crusty on the outside but fall-apart tender—are the star. Their honey vinegar glaze and pickled fennel accompaniment are perfect foils to add sweetness, acid and crunch to the tender lamb’s slight mustiness.

Presented skin-side-up, the pan-seared whole dorade (like branzino) is a stunner. When I lift the skin to start taking the fish apart, I discover it has been deboned already, its two perfectly cooked fillets reassembled to conceal the braised escarole with pine nuts and currants underneath. The sweetness of the fish and currants melds with the slight bitterness of the greens to strike a pleasing balance. 

Anne Specker, who worked at Michelin-starred Kinship and Métier restaurants in D.C. for seven years, is Aventino’s uber-talented pastry chef. Her Amalfi lemon float is a glass of vanilla gelato, lemon granita, fresh kiwi and cubes of coconut gelee that gets topped with juniper coriander soda tableside. It’s utterly chic and refreshing. Her almond panna cotta with orange mousse, candied kumquats, cara cara orange segments and honeycomb toffee tuiles is a refined and light way to end a meal. 

Aventino is a smash hit, an already hard-to-get-into addition to the Bethesda dining scene. I do have some minor quibbles. They could use more soundproofing; the din is deafening when the place is hopping, which is most of the time. The rimmed plates they offer as share plates are too small for much of anything other than being a nuisance. (Dinner plates for sharing, please!) 

On my last visit to Aventino in February, a team of Secret Service people was doing advance work for a high-up government official’s visit. I won’t say who it was, but Friedman tells me he loved it and is looking forward to becoming an Aventino regular. I’d say he has excellent judgment.

4747 Bethesda Ave., Bethesda; 301-961-6450; aventinocucina.com

The Grove

If anyone missed the cherry blossoms this year, head to The Grove—the cheerful 4,000-square-foot interior of the upscale Mediterranean restaurant is festooned with them. I’m a fan of Madrid-born chef Jose Lopez-Picazo’s cooking, starting with heavenly pan de cristal ($14), airy, toasted bread rubbed with garlic, slathered with grated peeled tomatoes, drizzled with Spanish Arbequina olive oil and sprinkled with Maldon salt. It comes with the “Gilda” pintxo (little snack)—a skewer of anchovies, piquillo pepper, pickled guindilla pepper, an olive and a cornichon—and a spoonful of sobrasada, a spread of raw, cured ground pork laced with Spanish paprika.

Lopez-Picazo adjusts his menu frequently, but appetizer favorites I sampled include warm poached oysters topped with hollandaise sauce and Osetra caviar ($28) and tuna tartare with avocado and soy yuzu dressing ($28). Among my preferred entrees are crispy-skinned duck breast with blood orange demi-glace ($44) and grilled halibut with asparagus and pearl onion confit ($38). Finish with cheesecake topped with apricot marmalade or a chocolate orb filled with tiramisu, both $11. Sommelier Julia Ollar will guide you through The Grove’s well-curated 34-bottle wine list.

11325 Seven Locks Road, Potomac; 240-386-8369; thegrovemd.com

The Salt Line

Judging by the crowds at The Salt Line, the seafood-centric restaurant is a prime example of the right thing in the right place at the right time. It’s the third—and first Montgomery County—location of Long Shot Hospitality’s concept, which offers reasonably priced, unfussy food in a pleasant, nautically themed environment with—praise be—plenty of soundproofing. 

The 7,500-square-foot space seats 60 outside and 170 inside, including 24 at a bar with a buzzy scene, even during late-night happy hour that starts at 9:30 p.m. daily and offers half-price oysters, $10 cocktails and other specials. 

My favorite things at The Salt Line include an ice-cold martini made with blue cheese-infused vodka ($18); rockfish tartare dressed with coconut milk, fish sauce, Thai chiles, lime juice, pickled chiles and crispy fried shallots ($15); and bucatini with littleneck clams, pancetta, sweet red Jimmy Nardello peppers and garlic swathed in onion puree ($26). Tip: If the Nashville hot fried soft-shell crabs wind up on the menu again this summer and fall, order them.

7284 Woodmont Ave., Bethesda; 240-534-2894; thesaltline.com

Charley Prime Foods

In Charley Prime Foods, restaurateur Jackie Greenbaum had a smash hit on her hands from the moment she and co-owners Gordon Banks and executive chef Adam Harvey opened the American gastropub. The 7,700-square-foot space seats 85 inside and 110 on its buzzing lakeside patio, half of which is covered by a 12-foot-high pergola outfitted with a louvered roof and retractable mesh screens. Heaters make the space usable year-round, but the place really runs on full cylinders in good weather. 

The original menu was steak-centric and fancier than now. “It was hard to reconcile the summer patio, which is crazy, with the more formal dining room inside,” Greenbaum says. “So we’ve lightened the menu and added more raw bar items, dips and spreads, with more emphasis on seafood and sandwiches and less on steaks. We’ve got crabcakes, both sandwich and platter, three burgers and a shrimp roll now.” There is still a section devoted to steaks (steak frites, flat-iron, 12-ounce strip, 8-ounce filet mignon, ribeye), but Greenbaum notes that high-end beef prices fluctuate drastically weekly. “It’s very hard to manage and keep the quality and pricing stable,” she says. (Steaks range between $27.95 and $47.95.)

Charley Prime’s bar program makes it as much a drinking destination as a dining one. The 32-drink cocktail list is divided into intriguing categories: Crushes & Frozens & Margarita Remixes; Our Old-Fashioneds; Charley Classics & Classic Charley; Charley’s DMV Mules; and Totally Tiki. There are 14 wines offered by the glass and bottle, 11 beers and an extensive offering of non-alcoholic cocktails. 

9811 Washingtonian Blvd. (Rio), L9, Gaithersburg; 240-477-7925; charleyprimefoods.com

Turncoat Speakeasy

Open the blacked-out glass door of Turncoat, the speakeasy that is one of the 10 concepts at The Heights food hall in Chevy Chase, and step into an homage to the days—or rather nights—of the Prohibition era. The 400-square-foot space features a decorative tin ceiling, a 14-seat bar with cushy stools, and a corner banquette in tufted black leather with low cocktail tables. Mugshots of bygone gangsters (Capone, Dillinger) adorn the walls. Behind the bar, a replica of a red Rock Creek Railway trolley car houses the liquor. The walls are crimson red, the lighting is low.

Owner Common Plate Hospitality attributes the speakeasy’s name to a signal that train conductors used during Prohibition—turning their coats in a certain way—to indicate the availability of forbidden spirits. The company’s beverage director, Dan Marlowe, created 12 fun craft cocktails ($16 to $19), including the Rum-Runner (Luxardo Maraschino, simple syrup, espresso, rum), Billie Holiday (orange bitters, prickly pear syrup, rye, orange twist), Boot-Legger (chocolate and orange bitters, turbinado syrup, guanciale-infused Old Overholt rye, SmokeTop cherry wood smoke) and the Clawfoot Tub, a gin-based drink served in a mini clawfoot tub and topped with pineapple tonic foam to resemble suds. Twelve wines are available by the glass ($10 to $25) or bottle ($40 to $99), and four beers are offered ($7 to $15). A bar menu includes terrific duck fat fries ($14), sliders (beef or fried chicken for $17, lamb for $24), a lobster roll ($27) and mushroom wonton tacos ($14). For more on The Heights food hall, turn to page 104. 

5406 Wisconsin Ave., Suite A, Chevy Chase; 240-800-3822; theturncoatbar.com

Also recently opened:

ala Bethesda
In March, restaurateur Deniz Gulluoglu, who lives in Cabin John, opened the second location of her D.C.-based Levantine restaurant ala in Bethesda, taking over the former Positano space. 
4948 Fairmont Ave., Bethesda; ala-dc.com

Coming Soon

Bouboulina
Noted Montgomery County restaurateurs Ted Xenohristos, Dimitri Moshovitis, Ike Grigoropoulos and Brett Schulman, who co-founded Cava plan to open a steak and seafood restaurant in Pike & Rose at the end of the year. 
11580 Old Georgetown Road, North Bethesda

Elena James
Danilo Simich and chef Colin McClimans expect to open Elena James, an all-day cafe, this summer in the Chevy Chase Lake development. The duo opened Nina May in Washington in 2019 and Opal in Chevy Chase, D.C., in 2022. 
8551 Connecticut Ave., Chevy Chase; elenajamescc.com

Solaire Social
Solaire Social, a 10-vendor food hall that was slated to open in Silver Spring in 2023, is expected to be up and running this spring. 
8200 Dixon Ave., Silver Spring; solairesocial.com

David Hagedorn is the restaurant critic for Bethesda Magazine.

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Behold the baguette. It’s such a simple thing—flour, salt, water and yeast. And yet so many available in the DMV are subpar, devoid of the trademark shatter-y crispiness of the crust and the billowy interior found in any boulangerie in France—and one in Potomac: Boulangerie Christophe. “So many of our customers tell us, ‘This is the first baguette I’ve had that tastes like the ones in France!’” says Sylvie Grattier, who co-owns the bakery with her husband, baker Stéphane Grattier, and their partner, Didier Martin. The Grattiers immigrated to the United States in 2017 from Grenoble, France, where they once owned six bakeries, for Stéphane to work for Fresh Baguette. He left to join Martin at Boulangerie Christophe in Georgetown in 2019. The Cabin John Village location opened in May 2022.

Grattier’s baguettes are award-winning, earning the Best Sourdough Baguette in the USA designation from the Tiptree World Bread Awards in New York 2019 and, after the awards were halted during COVID, in 2022. (The awards didn’t take place in 2023.) This didn’t happen by chance. The bread takes two days to make in a meticulous process using the best ingredients. Grattier imports Label Rouge T65 flour (10.8% protein) from France, an additive-free flour that contains a higher percentage of germ than American varieties generally do. The French government ascribes the red label only to products it considers superlative.

To make the baguettes, Grattier mixes the flour, water, levain (starter), a little yeast and fleur de sel Guérande (natural French sea salt) at low speed for 10 minutes and lets the flour absorb the water (this is called “autolyse”) for two hours. The dough’s hydration—the percentage of water versus flour—is 70%, which will create an airy product. Then the dough is stored in plastic containers and put in a proofer at around 37°F for 12 to 24 hours. Grattier portions the dough the following day, lets it rest for 30 minutes, then forms the loaves and lets them rest an hour before baking at 500°F for 24 minutes in a wood oven fired with oak pellets. He adds water to the oven to create steam, which facilitates formation of a thin, crunchy, deep brown crust. On an average day, Grattier bakes 150 to 200 plain and seeded baguettes ($4.50) and 20 to 40 (1.2-pound) loaves ($9). Sometimes the simplest things aren’t so simple after all. 

Boulangerie Christophe, 11321 Seven Locks Road (Cabin John Village), Suite 100, Potomac; 301-298-9878; boulangeriechristophe.com

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Before a dinner party in Bethesda around the holidays, I remarked on the rich, tangy Colston Bassett Stilton cheese friends served with small dollops of fig jam on rice crackers. “Oh, our cheese guy at Whole Foods [in Rockville] recommended it. He’s terrific,” one said, before dropping the buried lede: “And his name is Brie!” A week later, at a party in Kensington, the top of a wheel of bark-bound Jasper Hill Harbison had been lopped off so guests could spoon the creamy, velvety cow’s milk cheese onto slices of French bread. “Oh my God, where did you get this cheese?” I asked. 

“From my cheese guy at Whole Foods. His name is—”

“Don’t tell me. Brie?”

“Yes! How did you know?”

I had to talk to the cheese guy named Brie.

“The name comes from having insane Greenwich Village parents in the ’50s,” jokes Brie Salzman, 66. “My middle name was Ely de Bretagne. A dear friend of my great-grandmother was named that, and my parents didn’t want people calling me Ely, so they added the Brie.” 

Salzman’s early fascination with cheese dates to food shopping trips with his father to Dean & DeLuca and Murray’s Cheese, a well-known cheese emporium that was a few blocks from their house. He deepened his knowledge in the ’80s working for a wine, cheese and olive oil distributor in Spain. Returning to the States, he worked in medical reporting for magazines, winding up in Maryland in 1998 to take care of his mother, who had breast cancer. In 2013, a friend told him about a job opening at the Whole Foods cheese counter, where he became a Certified Cheese Professional. He works there Thursday through Monday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Salzman loves his job, matching people’s tastes and needs to the 250 to 300 cheeses the market carries. “If I feed someone something comforting and new, that’s a great way to start a relationship,” he says. 

Here are Salzman’s suggestions for putting together a cheese board. (He says to take soft cheese out 30 minutes before serving and hard cheeses one hour before.)

Put a creamy cheese in the middle—say, La Tur, a tangy soft-ripened cheese from Lombardy in Italy, made from goat’s, sheep’s and cow’s milk. Then add various sheep’s, cow’s and goat’s milk cheeses of different textures (soft, semi-soft, semi-hard, hard) and flavor intensities.

Sheep’s milk cheese: Six-month-old Manchego (Spain) with quince paste and Marcona almonds; Pecorino or truffle-laced Moliterno al Tartufo (Italy); Ossau-Iraty, P’tit Basque with cherries or Roquefort (France).

Goat’s milk cheese: Pata Cabra (Spain); Bamboozle, a semi-soft goat’s and cow’s milk cheese from Goat Rodeo Farm near Pittsburgh; Sofia ashed goat cheese from Capriole Creamery in Indiana.

Cow’s milk cheese: Le Cremeux, a relatively new Swiss cheese that’s a creamier, milder version of Gruyère; French Comté, which Salzman calls “consistently magical, almost like cashew butter”; Grayson, a washed rind cheese from Meadow Creek Dairy in Galax, Virginia; and Moses Sleeper, a Brie-like cheese with a bloomy rind from Jasper Hill Creamery in Vermont, “one of the shining lights of American terroir,” says Salzman.

Find Brie Salzman at the Whole Foods Market at 11355 Woodglen Drive, Rockville; 301-984-4880; wholefoodsmarket.com

This story appears in the March/April issue of Bethesda Magazine.

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