Wonkette
The Tabard Inn is one of DC’s oldest and most historic hotels, with a simple yet elegantly decorated restaurant set to one side. (There is also an outdoor patio area). The Tabard Inn’s small dining area usually has a noisy crowd during brunch, the only real detraction from what is one of the best brunches in town.
Tabard Inn is perhaps best known for its homemade doughnut — a warm, cake-y and delicious treat that comes with a side of homemade vanilla whipped cream. At $1.50 each, no Tabard Inn brunch is complete without a few doughnuts for the table.
Tabard Inn has an extensive seasonal menu and all of the dishes I’ve tried were excellent.
The savory tart of the day consisted of lump crab meat, spinach and Gruyere, and came with a side of fresh mixed greens. The tart was a thick slice with large visible pieces of crab; the crusts were nicely crisp and the middle soft.
Another highlight was the smoked fish plate, which came with a large portion of house-smoked salmon and bluefish, with frissee, caper berries, crostini, and homemade crème fraîche. The salmon in outperforms the smoked salmon you’d find at virtually any other place in the city.
Other excellent dishes were the frittata with tomatoes and goat cheese, and a lobster and brie omelet. The coffee was strong and rich, and the wait staff brought individual cream servers with each coffee, which was a nice touch.
Overall, this a great choice for brunch. You must get a reservation several days in advance if you want to go on Sunday. Saturday brunch is less crowded.
Tabard Inn, 1739 N St. NW, Washington DC 20036, (202) 833-2668.
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In other news:
LOVER’S HUSBAND ALLEGES ENSIGN, SANTORUM COVER-UP
The Hill
July 10, 2009
…
Hampton initially reached out to Fox News urging the network to report the affair, but Ensign admitted to it before news outlets made it public. In an interview that aired Thursday, Hampton accused ex-Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), a Fox News contributor, of leaking word of his letter to Ensign.
A phone call to Santorum’s assistant at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and an e-mail to Santorum’s personal account were not immediately answered Friday morning.
….
******
Rick, we are so disappointed.
— The ethics gods.
Yummy. I love their brunch. I love their drinks. I love the Tabard Inn. Shall we have a Wonkette party there?
At the risk of being banned, I must inquire. Has Ken Layne just been demoted (promoted?) to restaurant critic?
Shouldn’t this be in the Wonkabout section? That is unless there’s a twist ending where a GOP House Representative tearfully admits he had an affair with the egg white scramble.
Damnit! The post was on the main Wonkette page. It really was! My joke is ruined! Ruined! Oh what a world, what a world……
Wait — was Ken Layne in DC this past weekend? Or did he take advantage of some fancy government stimulus program that airdrops fancy brunch selections to remote desert locations to be feasted on by acid-crazed reclusive desert-tortoise photographers?
rambone: Ah, never mind, I see that the byline has been corrected. Damn you, Internet, and your ephemeral ways. Now everyone will think that I’m the one who is insane.
SayItWithWookies: Oh he was probably inking his book deal to walk the “western Appalachian Trail.”
rambone: Oh, crap.
rambone: The tip-off should have been that there no was report of buttocks sex in the girls room.
NoWireHangers: Oh, dear. You’re saying that wasn’t melted goat cheese in it? Now I think I’m going to be sick.
“Best brunch” is an oxymoron. I’ve been in DC for two years now and the brunch thing still mystifies. Will someone please explain this to a non-southern person who prefers to eat breakfast and lunch separately?
ForTheTurnstiles: Southerners like the eat breakfast and lunch separately as well. Brunch is just a convenient way for them to sneak in an extra meal so they can remain pleasantly plump .
It’s almost as if they want to adopt the hobbit lifestyle of consuming 7 meals per day.
So, in a way, I guess you can think of southerners as great big hobbits. Giant, fat, redneck, GOP-voting hobbits. Basically, take everything that is adorable about hobbits and invert it and you have a southerner.
Please let me know if you have any other questions, and I’ll do my level best to pull something out of my tuckus.
Don’t go there. I went there on a date and here I am 25 years later, married, 2 grown kids, a house in the burbs and a fulltime job. That is what brunch at the Tabard Inn leads to- beware!
rambone: Tuchus(back of the throat sound in the middle there)