Ruthie’s All Day (Again), Arlington, Virginia

I mentioned in my report on Smokecraft that it was our first stop of the night. Ruthie’s was next. And last.

I’ve reported on Ruthie’s all Day a couple of times here, and here. It’s definitely a top spot in the Washington area. Ruthie’s was one of only six places I listed among the Best Barbecue places in the Washington area. I went again, this time with barbecue guru Sean Ludwig of the NYCBBQ blog and the Smoke Sheet. We went to Ruthie’s right after our Whole Lotta Barbecue platter at Smokecraft. (Do not try this without expert supervision.) I suspect that we are the only two people ever to go to a second restaurant after ordering the Whole Lotta Barbecue platter.

Sean and I hadn’t eaten everything on the platter — I had a bag of of leftovers in my car — but we’d eaten a lot. A whole lot, or at least I had. And by this time it was after 9:00. But Sean was only in town for a flying visit, and he naturally wanted to try Ruthie’s. I’m always more than happy to go there, so to Ruthie’s we went.

Ruthie’s is such a nice place, attractive inside and out. And they do a remarkably broad range of dishes oh so well. Sean and I sat outside in their large shaded patio and discussed the menu. I jumped all over the Brunswick stew.

If you’re going to get Brunswick stew, you’ll need cornbread.

But what else? Their brisket is excellent, but Sean didn’t want to test it at an atypical hour. Ah! Wings! We hadn’t had wing number one all evening!

And how about some macaroni and cheese? Indeed! And Brussels sprouts. Sure!

So how was it? The Brunswick stew was delicious. Ruthie’s adds some smoked sausage, a genius move. Adding smoked sausage is usually a genius move. You can see that the Brunswick stew was on the thin side. It could have used some more vegetables, some butter beans, especially, to be a proper stew rather than a soup, but the flavor was terrific. And the cornbread! The cornbread! My heart be still! This has to be. … it is the best cornbread in the metro area. Made in a cast iron pan, as all cornbread should be, it arrived hot and fragrant and, really lovely with the butter melting over it. Show me a better in the area. I challenge you.

The wings came with ribbons of celery — that’s what those are. I guessed that the ribbons might be leeks based on their appearance, but celery certainly makes sense. I still can’t see how they got such wide flat strips from celery. The wings came with a choice of sauces — Buffalo, white, blue cheese, and ranch. The sauces were very good, as were the wings themselves.

Sean started in on the Brussels sprouts while I seem have focused on the macaroni and cheese. It happens. It was good church dinner macaroni and cheese, and I loved it. Sean reported that the Brussels sprouts were excellent, much smokier than the sprouts at Smokecraft, and they also had that salty, tangy flavor of the fish sauce used on many Southeast Asian recipes. That intrigued me, so I had a taste. Sean was right. These were top-notch sprouts, better than Brussels sprouts have any right to be.

As a grand finale, or coup de grace, we got some butterscotch pudding. I think Sean photographed it. I was slipping into a food coma. I did muster the strength of will to try some and, thus energized, try some more. And some more. This was some good pudding.

My good friend, Dan Kenney of the Coach4aday blog, suggested I write some posts about midnight snacks. It was after 10:00 pm when we trundled out. That’s about as close as I’m likely to come to a midnight snack. But whoever and wherever you are, you owe it to yourself to go to Ruthie’s All Day. Just read my first two posts, linked above. I certainly will be going back. I still haven’t tried their biscuits or their greens or their duck, among other things. Head to Ruthie’s. It’s a great place to eat on multiple levels. I hope to see you there.

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