A few years ago my brother and his wife were fantasizing about opening a restaurant that just serves beer and bread. I thought of that tonight while sitting at Birch & Barley with a goblet of beer and a board holding pretzel rolls, bacon and sage buns, and raisin cinnamon bread in front of me. That was just the start of an absolutely delicious meal at this newish addition to the dining scene on 14th Street near Logan Circle. The list of beers -- their specialty -- is long, but the dinner menu is short, with half a dozen each of starters, pastas and flatbreads, and main courses, selected with the season in mind. We started with the Arctic char tartare, which was as delicious as it is fun to say, prepared with yuzu gelee, ginger, and basil, and served with light sesame crisps. For main courses, I had a perfect dish of four of five small slices of venison loin served with braised red cabbage, potato puree, and cipollini. My friend's crispy wild striped bass, with baby fennel, artichoke, sunchoke, and olives was also delicious. We rounded out the meal with a side of maple glazed brussels sprouts, which complimented the venison very well, though some might find a bit too sweet. We were sorry to be too full for dessert, because it was very tempting. The dessert menu is not on the website, but from memory the options included some kind of crazy good sounding french toast item with a bacon ice cream or something on the side that the server raved about (and yes, I said bacon), spicy carrot cake, a chocolate and peanut butter tart with malt ice cream, and a platter of (presumably) tiny desserts including their variation on a Hostess cupcake. Birch & Barley is not inexpensive; main courses range from $16 for a "brät burger" to the venison, which clocks in at $30. But worth it.
The restaurant is beautifully decorated and convivial but not loud. We were led toward the back and feared we were being seated in Siberia, but it turned out that on the other side of the copper-colored columns behind the bar, which you can see above, is an open kitchen -- so we had a view of the action behind the scenes, as well as the action in the front of the restaurant. Our server was tremendous. Here's an example: He helped us choose from the lengthy beer list (which includes five cask beers, which are hard to find), and I took his suggestion for a dark Belgian beer (I think it was the Gouden Carolus) to pair with my venison. Just before they brought out the appetizer he swept in and gave me a small glass of a lighter beer, concerned the dark beer would overwhelm the fish. Wow.
Thank goodness Birch & Barley takes reservations, because it's already very popular, and Tom Sietsema said on a recent chat that the Washington Post will be running a review of it next Sunday. Make a reservation now (you can do so on opentable) if you want to try it out. If you just want to drop in, you might get lucky and get a seat at the small bar downstairs. (We're already plotting to do that for dessert one night.) Or, if it's really beer on your mind, and you'd like a more casual (and less expensive) experience, head upstairs to Churchkey, where the emphasis on quality and quantity of beers remains the same, but the menu includes small bites, flatbreads, sandwiches, and salads. I took a peek tonight about 6:30 and it looked like every seat in the spacious room was taken -- I can't imagine how crowded it is on weekends. But my friend, who's been many times, said they've always managed to find a seat with a little patience.
Two unrelated bonus points: the restaurant is only a couple of blocks from the Studio Theater, and they serve
brunch all day Sunday.
Birch & Barley/Churchkey
1337 14th Street, NW
(between N St. and Rhode Island Ave.)
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 567-2576
Image from opentable.com.
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