The Avenue, Chevy Chase, Washington, DC

Nancy and I went back to the Avenue recently, this time with Nancy Breul. You’ve met Nancy Breul, our Senior Correspondent for South Portland, Maine, where she and Jon, DC expatriates, live and dote on their two preternaturally perfect grandchildren. Nancy stayed with us for an evening during a flying visit to the breakfast group and sundry other groups. The Nancys went to an early movie at the Avalon after which I strolled up to join them for another dinner at the Avenue.

We had a drink and a chat and split an order of the Avenue’s excellent DC rolls (egg rolls stuffed with cheese steak and a very good peppery cheese sauce). Now fully focused, we proceeded to the serious business of ordering. Nancy B. ordered the Harvest salad with teriyaki steak.

The steak had been sliced, and if I hadn’t used my camera for another minute or two you’d have been able to see that the steak was cooked medium rare, as ordered. In addition to the greens and apples, the salad featured candied pecans, cranberries, and goat cheese. It was a good salad and you never go wrong with an Avenue salad. 

Nancy T. ordered the salmon,

which, as you can see, sat atop broccolini over mashed potatoes. That’s a honey mustard glaze on the salmon. Now, Nancy is an expert on salmon. She orders it a lot, and she was very pleased with the Avenue salmon. It was cooked precisely as ordered, “just through,” and had a good flavor, as did the broccolini and the nice smooth potatoes.

Usually, I like to get a burger at the Avenue. Their burgers change from time to time but always are excellent. Eater recently picked the Avenue’s as the #1 burger in Washington. Much as I love their burgers, and their fries, I’m often looking for something a bit lighter than burgers and fries. The demands of the Blog are strenuous, at least in terms of putting strain on my belt, and I can no longer eat with abandon. Sigh. And I’ve finally accepted, grudgingly, that skipping the bacon on a burger is not enough.

I often order the steak salad, but this time I decided to try their shrimp tacos.

The tacos were good, and I’m sure I’ll get them again, at least when a cheese burger is not an option. The shrimp were fresh and nicely cooked — you’ll note some caramelization – and the cabbage and the crema were just right. For my side, I chose the green beans.

I had eaten half or more of them before I remembered to take a picture, and the picture doesn’t catch the caramelization on many of the beans. The Avenue green beans are roasted and tossed with butter, and they could hardly taste better. I usually blanch beans for a minute, dry them, and toss them in a pan with some olive oil and garlic. Beans are good that way, but the Avenue’s are better. Much better.

All in all it was a wonderful dinner, yet another one at the Avenue. It’s a good place and a good neighbor, a very community-oriented restaurant. They have live music every Wednesday night at 8:30 — we could use more places with live music — and they make sports tournaments and holidays special. Plus the Avenue is on three levels, and it is an excellent place for community events. There used to be table service on all three levels and various specials events, but with today’s labor force issues, we can only hope that the Avenue, as well as many other local businesses, will return to full speed soon.

Meanwhile, stop by the Avenue for a burger or a steak salad, or maybe some salmon or shrimp tacos. And don’t ignore the rest of the menu.

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