I’m sipping on an aptly named Mountain View Martini of gin, grapefruit juice and sparkling wine as streaks of pink, lavender and orange fill the summer sunset sky over Sugarloaf Mountain. The scenery is on full view through the large picture windows of the Comus Inn’s dining room. Below, on the restaurant’s lower level, people are hanging out at the Vanish Farmwoods Brewery craft beer garden listening to a band that’s finishing its last set. Kids are running around on a vast expanse of lawn while my husband and I savor a pot of plump Prince Edward Island mussels steamed with vermouth, cream, shallots and tarragon. This entree, from the Inn’s American-meets-French-meets-gastropub menu, served with French fries and Dijon mustard-laced mayo, is perfect for sharing as an appetizer.
The Inn, a farmhouse that dates to 1862 and is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, sits on 5.26 acres in Dickerson, in Montgomery County’s Agricultural Reserve. Its previous owner, Doug Yurechko, bought the place in 2019, remodeled the event space that had been operating there and reopened it as a restaurant and beer garden in October 2020. He sold the property in December 2023 to restaurateur brothers Eric and Ian Hilton, whose H2 Collective portfolio includes Chez Billy Sud in Washington, D.C., and Cafe Colline in Arlington, Virginia; Steve Ryan, who co-owns Solace Outpost brewery with Ian Hilton; and Jonathan Staples, owner of Leesburg, Virginia-based Vanish Farmwoods Brewery. The group reopened the Comus Inn in April. The beer garden includes a taco bar named El Segundo.
The Inn’s chef, Joseph Richard Tiernan, 32, who lives in Rockville, met Ryan while working for him as a line cook at Blackfinn Ameripub first in Bethesda, then in Merrifield, Virginia (both are now closed). Tiernan was the chef at Dominion Wine and Beer in Falls Church, Virginia, when Ryan tapped him for the Comus gig.
The bistro menu’s terse wording, a listing of dish ingredients, undersells what shows up. “Smoked fish rillette” (the menu leaves off the “s” of the plural noun rillettes, a fancy French term for a kind of pâté) is billed as “horseradish, dill, trout roe, Old Bay crisps” but in fact is a delightful spread made with salmon and Arctic char from the Faroe Islands, a Nordic island group known for its superlative seafood. Tiernan smokes and flakes the fish, blends it with labneh, housemade horseradish and orange pearls of trout roe, and puts the rillettes in a mold to form a neat disk that he garnishes with crispy fried shallots and black-and-white sesame seeds. A hint of hickory kisses each delightful bite that I pile onto the Old Bay-dusted housemade potato chips that accompany it.
Tiernan presents a nice rendition of arancini, fried risotto balls stuffed with smoked mozzarella and resting on marinara sauce with drizzles of basil oil. His Scotch egg, a nod to the British pub fare of his Blackfinn Ameripub days, is a standout: A breaded, deep-fried medium-boiled duck egg is enrobed with housemade pork sausage enhanced with caraway seeds and Vanish lager. (Tiernan gets the pork from the market at Dickerson’s Deere Valley Farm.) The halved egg, its luscious yolk exposed, rests on a flavor-packed gribiche sauce, a rich vinaigrette made with chopped cornichons, capers, tarragon and hard-boiled eggs.
Tiernan took inspiration from a Camden Yards concession stand for a large, soft, Bavarian pretzel halved horizontally, sandwiched with tasty Maryland lump crabmeat dip, topped with cheddar cheese and baked. It’s a good idea with a faulty execution—there’s too much pretzel, and the dip isn’t sufficiently warmed through. Better to bake the dip and cheese in a crock until bubbly and present the pretzel on the side for dipping.
An entree I overlooked on my first visit to Comus because of its lackluster description turns out to be a stunner called, simply, “Local Mushrooms.” Tiernan buys shiitake and blue and yellow oyster mushrooms from Happy Farm in Dickerson and sautes them with leeks, butter, garlic, mushroom stock and sherry. They’re served in a gratin dish over a slice of grilled sourdough spread with goat cheese. Break the sunny-side-up egg perched on top and let the yolk turn the juices into a luxuriant sauce the bread sops up. This carnivore finds the vegetarian dish’s meaty, earthy, umami-rich fungi flavors thoroughly satisfying. My pescatarian side appreciates the Faroe Islands salmon, roasted perfectly to medium (the server asked for my required doneness, and the kitchen obliged), offered with tomato and corn risotto and lobster sauce. There’s ratatouille on the plate, too, but it gilds the lily and could be omitted in the name of restraint.
Another winning dish is the butterflied, crispy, batter-fried Vermont quail served on a cheddar cheese waffle. Chili honey garlic sauce lends sweetness and spice to this clever version of chicken and waffles; charred, al dente broccolini helps alleviate carb guilt.
Hamburger cravers will be thrilled by Tiernan’s smashburger, two 4-ounce Roseda Farm Black Angus beef patties, sharp cheddar cheese, tomatoes, red onions, pickles and mayo- and ketchup-based Marie Rose sauce on a potato roll. It’s a four-napkin exercise in pure pleasure, and the fries, though frozen rather than freshly cut, are good quality and crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside.
Speaking of napkins, an interesting phenomenon takes place at the Inn. The early evening seating is full of families with kids and toddlers, and therefore has a casual vibe. But when the tables turn, well-dressed adults, including many couples clearly on dates, fill the room and the restaurant feels more genteel, with men at several tables even pulling chairs out for female companions. That makes a peeve of mine—nice restaurants using paper napkins—stand out even more. Having servers resilver tables from a cloth-lined tray is a nice touch of service that seems kind of ridiculous when we diners have paper napkins teetering on our laps.
The decor of the restaurant, which seats 110, is simple and rustic, wisely relying on the surfeit of windows to let the stunning views be the artwork. Gray paisley fabric-covered padded walls help soak up noise. Wooden floors, as one expects in a 19th-century farmhouse, are charming.
The Inn’s desserts are simple but well executed. Silken creme brulee spiked with orange liqueur comes with a delicate, ultra-buttery shortbread cookie that almost upstages it. Honey cornmeal cake with strawberry sauce and lavender syrup is dense but creamy, as if it’s the offspring of polenta and cheesecake. Don’t overlook the housemade sorbet. The one I sampled, made with peaches from Dickerson’s Lewis Orchards and blood oranges, is a refreshing coda to a pleasant supper in the country.
The Comus Inn
23900 Old Hundred Road, Dickerson; 301-349-2015; thecomusinn.com
FAVORITE DISHES: Smoked salmon rillettes with trout roe; country fried quail with cheddar cornmeal waffle; sauteed local mushrooms with fried egg on grilled sourdough; smashburger and fries; honey cornmeal cake with berries
PRICES: Starters: $11 to $19; Entrees: $18 to $45, most in the $20s; Desserts: $6 to $12
LIBATIONS: The Comus Inn’s beverage list includes six craft cocktails ($14 to $16), four draft beers ($6 to $8) and five bottled beers ($7 to $9). The 31-bottle wine list features Old World and California wines and Maryland vintages, among them a Windridge sparkling rosé from Germantown ($110) and a Sugarloaf Mountain Vineyards chardonnay ($48). The offerings are eight sparkling ($48 to $340), three rosés ($48 to $68), eight whites ($48 to $64) and 11 reds ($48 to $170). There are 18 wines by the glass ($12 to $17). Fortified wines by the glass are a Fonseca Bin 27 port ($14) and a port-style blend ($17) from Black Ankle Vineyards in Mt. Airy, Maryland.
SERVICE: The young staff is attentive and makes up for what they lack in experience with affability and a desire to please.
This story appears in the November/December 2024 issue of Bethesda Magazine.
