About Restaurant Openings Around DC
A guide to the newest places to eat and drink.
My Little Chamomile. Alley behind 3210 Grace St., NW.
Green Almond Pantry has become a destination for its simple seasonal Turkish-Mediterranean plates, standout focaccia, and dreamy almost-flourless chocolate cake—but so far they’ve only been available for lunch and takeout. Tonight, chef-owner Cagla Onal opens a neighboring sit-down restaurant called My Little Chamomile, hidden in a Georgetown alley, offering her homestyle cooking and a small selection of wines at dinner.
My Little Chamomile is a riff off the nickname that Onal’s mother once gave her 14-year-old daughter: “my little yellow chamomile.” The restaurant is also an homage to the kind of unfussy, comforting cooking with quality ingredients that Onal learned from her mom. “I always say, what you read on my description on the menu, that’s what you get. I like that kind of food—just like your mom tells you. You have cabbage and meat, so you get just cabbage and meat.”
The 42-seat restaurant—with custom millwork and a walnut-and-brass bar—will display a wide array of salads and mezze, from chicken with walnut sauce to smoked eggplant. Onal is particularly excited about artichokes stuffed with herb rice. “You can eat the leaves,” she says. “That’s what I’m dreaming about here. People all hands-on and using lots of napkins.” And while you won’t find her famous focaccia for now, she will serve other breads, like hand-pulled borek or lavash for dipping and eating with salads.
Onal loves seafood and says it was killing her to put it in takeout containers at Green Almond Pantry. Here, she’ll offer whole grilled branzino and plenty of anchovies when in season—a staple of the Black Seaside where she grew up. Other dishes “from Mom’s kitchen:” a braised lamb with creamy smoked eggplant, and manti—mini dumplings with yogurt and spiced butter sauce.
Sweet end notes include a pistachio-studded chocolate-ganache cookie cake and shredded phyllo dough with walnuts and syrup. The drink menu is also simple to start: two Turkish wines by the glass and a handful of bottles and beers. Eventually, Onal will expand to brunch too.
“I get, like, very emotional about this place,” Onal says. “I hope I can give the feelings that I wanted to people.
Jessica Sidman covers the people and trends behind D.C.’s food and drink scene. Before joining Washingtonian in July 2016, she was Food Editor and Young & Hungry columnist at Washington City Paper. She is a Colorado native and University of Pennsylvania grad.
