SAVVY SODAS
HOMEMADE SODAS keep popping up at area restaurants, and for people who want the fizz without the fake ingredients, they’re a fun, healthier alternative. Try the sodas at Chef Geoff’s local restaurants and these other eateries:
At Chef Geoff’s restaurants (including Lia’s in Chevy Chase), fresh fruit juice, citrus peels and sugar steep overnight before being strained the next day and mixed with club soda for a house-made blood orange, grapefruit or ginger-lime drink. Photo by Stacy Zarin-Goldberg
FRANKLY…PIZZA!
Owner Frank Linn’s seasonal drinks, made from fresh fruit and sweeteners other than white sugar, have included pineapple lemongrass, blueberry pie and tangerine; he even makes his own seltzer water. 10417 Armory Ave., Kensington, www.frankly-pizza.com
MOCO'S FOUNDING FAMERS
The restaurant’s award-winning beverage menu sports a “farmacy” section with seven from-scratch sodas, as well as other drinks made with them. 12505 Park Potomac Ave., Potomac, www.wearefoundingfarmers.com
&PIZZA
The hip, growing pizza chain pours some unusual pops such as a Pear and Fig Elixir and a Burdock and Anise Root Beer.
7614 Old Georgetown Road, Bethesda, www.andpizza.com
LUNCHBOX
Chef Bryan Voltaggio’s fast-casual spot in the Chevy Chase Pavilion offers a revolving array of seasonal “soda jerk” refreshers.
5335 Wisconsin Ave. NW, Washington, D.C., Suite 018, www.voltlunchbox.com
BREWS WITH A BITE
By Nevin Martell
YOU COULD WALK YOUR DOG by Rockville’s Baying Hound Aleworks a few times before one of you sniffs it out. Tucked away in a nondescript industrial park off East Gude Drive, the tiny nanobrewery produces craft beers with dog-inspired names. Owner-head brewmaster Paul Rinehart always has a half-dozen freshly brewed options on tap, including Taj Mahound brown IPA and toasty Long Snout Stout. However, it’s the highly experimental, limited-edition beers made with unorthodox ingredients that inspire the most devotion from their regulars: S’more Stout incorporates graham crackers, marshmallows and cocoa; while another stout features beans from nearby Mayorga Coffee.
Guided tours of the tiny operation are available from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays and noon to 8 p.m. Saturdays. “I believe in educating people,” Rinehart says, “so they know what goes into making a craft beer. It really is a craft.” Although tours are advertised as free, guests are required to buy a beer ($6.50 on average) or a flight of six smaller samples ($8.75).
Taking home a growler costs $15.75 or more. If you can’t stop by, you can find Baying Hound beers at Gilly’s Craft Beer & Fine Wine, Belby Discount Beer & Wine and The Bottle Shop, all in Rockville.
Baying Hound Aleworks, 1108 Taft St., Rockville; 301-637-9322; bayinghoundales.com Photo by Skip Brown.
FOOD FIND
ATTENTION LAWYERS WHO LOVE the kitchen: Sooner or later, pursuing your passion may win out against billable hours.
Silver Spring’s Puja Satiani gave up a law career to make fine chocolates.
Take Puja Satiani of Silver Spring, a 36-year-old attorney who worked for 10 years at an international law firm and now makes fine chocolates. “I loved the folks I worked with, and while I put a lot into it, I didn’t get the emotional rewards,” Satiani says of her former career. “It’s just a different feeling having someone taste something you make.”
What Satiani makes are distinctive chocolate bars, toffee, brittle, caramels, truffles, drinking chocolate—and even a cacao mask skin cream. A mixture of traditional and unusual flavor combinations, her products include a dark chocolate bar with Hawaiian Kona coffee and bing cherries and another with almonds, black and white sesame seeds and cayenne pepper.
In 2011, while working at the Washington office of Crowell & Moring, Satiani enrolled in the evening pastry program at L’Academie de Cuisine in Gaithersburg, and later trained at L’Ecole du Grand Chocolat in southeastern France and the Chocolate Academy in Chicago. In 2013, she left law to pursue making chocolate full time. But her legal connections have kept her in good stead: Aside from retail sales, weddings and other catered events, she’s also sold her chocolates to corporate clients, including her old law firm.
Puja Satiani Artisanal Confections are sold in Silver Spring at Bump ’n Grind Coffee Shop, 1200 East West Highway, and Adega Wine Cellars & Café, 8519 Fenton St., and at Capital Beer & Wine, 7903 Norfolk Ave., Bethesda. The full line is also available online at www.pujasatiani.com.
FIRST TASTE
Food Editor Carole Sugarman checks out new eateries
LOBSTER ME: One of the standout stalls in the new dining terrace at Bethesda’s Westfield Montgomery mall; go for lobster bisque or the Original Maine Lobster Roll and bypass gimmicks like the Banh ME, a misguided Vietnamese riff on the roll. The eatery’s Lobsicle, a grilled or batter-fried lobster tail speared on a wooden rod, is awkward to eat, and can be over-salted. Thick, homemade potato chips are addictive.
TAKEAWAY: Stick with traditional dishes.
7101 Democracy Blvd. , Bethesda, 301-365-1837, www.lobsterme.com
DEL FRISCO'S GRILLE: The Texas-based steakhouse chain at Pike & Rose in North Bethesda is best for a drink and some starters—head for the ahi tacos and Byrd Mill Grit Cakes.
TAKEAWAY: Pricey for just OK cooking.
11800 Grand Park Ave. , North Bethesda, 301-881-0308, www.delfriscosgrille.com
INDIGO HOUSE: Damian and Stephanie Salvatore, owners of Bethesda’s venerable
Persimmon restaurant and Wild Tomato in Cabin John, branch out from their American bistro roots with a hip Pan-Asian eatery. The appealing menu features Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese and Chinese dishes, with a menu conducive to everyday eating.
TAKEAWAY: Early kinks in the cooking will hopefully have been ironed out by now.
7945 MacArthur Blvd. (in MacArthur Plaza), Cabin John, 301-312-6737
COMINGS & GOINGS
> Big news for the former Roof Bethesda, the area’s short-lived rooftop bar and restaurant at the corner of Norfolk and Cordell avenues. Robert Wiedmaier’s RW Restaurant Group is taking over the two-story space this spring with a substantial renovation. The restaurant group also operates Mussel Bar & Grille and Wildwood Kitchen in Bethesda, Brasserie Beck in Gaithersburg, and other successful local eateries.
> It’s official: Mike Isabella, the former Top Chef and Top Chef All-Star contestant and owner of several restaurants in the District and Virginia, is opening Kapnos Kouzina at the corner of Woodmont Avenue and Hampden Lane in Bethesda this summer. Isabella told Andrew Metcalf of Bethesda Beat, Bethesda Magazine’s daily online news briefing, that the restaurant will feature Greek comfort food—including braised and slow-cooked dishes, like “what you grow up with when you live in Greece as a kid.” Isabella expects diners at the 160-seat, earth-toned eatery to spend about $40 each.
> Meanwhile, at 4733 Elm St., Gusto Italian Grill will take over the former Kraze Burgers space, likely in May. The fast-casual concept, another ethnic twist on the Chipotle format, will feature Italian burritos, salads and pasta that diners customize. …Also expected in May is the opening of the second location of The Grilled Oyster Co., the popular Potomac restaurant owned by Valerie and Rick Dugan. The restaurant will be at the corner of Wisconsin and Newark avenues in Northwest Washington, D.C. …More imminent is the March opening of Barrel & Crow, featuring mid-Atlantic regional cuisine in the former Freddy’s Lobster + Clams space on Cordell Avenue in Bethesda.
> Also in Bethesda, Boloco, the Boston-based burrito chain, closed its Bethesda Row location Jan. 1. P.F. Chang’s, at the nearly empty White Flint Mall, shuttered a few days later. And No. 82 Steak Out in Rockville Town Square closed Jan. 16, and Bethesda’s PizzaPass closed in early Feburary.
