Pastry chef David Guas celebrates his native New Orleans at this quirky-cool cafe in Arlington’s Courthouse neighborhood. No matter the time, we start with a round of tender buttermilk biscuits, slathered with cream cheese and pepper jelly. If it’s lunch, we dig into a classic two-fister muffuletta, filled with Italian cold cuts and chopped-olive salad, a smoky andouille sausage cradled in a split-top bun, or a BLT elevated with thick, smoky Benton’s bacon and oven-cured tomatoes. But we might like the place best on weekend mornings, when you can pair some of the area’s truest and tastiest grits with a Creole-spiced Bloody Mary. Don’t forget the bakery cases, which hold pralines and cookies such as the Dat-O, a super-sized riff on an Oreo that itself makes this seven-year-old standby a destination. Also good: Arm Drip sandwich (a roast-beef po’ boy); deviled eggs.
