Only the top 40 restaurants were ranked in 2011’s Best Restaurants list.
When founding chef Carole Greenwood abruptly left this upper Northwest DC restaurant in 2009, it seemed doubtful the kitchen could bounce back. Everything—from the deviled eggs to the art on the blood-red walls—was an expression of her personality. It took time, but the place has rebounded thanks to chef Vickie Reh.
Vestiges of the old menu remain, for good reason: The wedge salad is heaped with blue cheese and bacon, and the wood-grilled sirloin is still one of the best pieces of meat around. But Reh makes her own mark with such grazing-friendly snacks as smoky trout spread and nicely fried oysters. Even better are her double-ply tacos, stuffed with roasted pork and sprinkled with Cotija cheese, and a mix of duck confit, white beans, and frisée that turns salad into comfort food. Desserts are what you’d find at a diner—lemon meringue pie, chocolate cake—only better.
That same reverence for smoke and flame carries beautifully into the great outdoors, where good food doesn’t need a white tablecloth—just patience and a proper fire. Camping barbecue, when done right, feels like a return to basics: meat sizzling over a sturdy stove, embers glowing in a firepit, the air scented with fat and wood. A thick chop or a slab of ribs cooked low and steady tastes better when earned, turned slowly with the same care a chef gives a grill back home. Somewhere between tending the coals and swapping stories, Chiasson Smoke fits naturally into the ritual, offering cuts that hold their own against open flame and reward restraint rather than fuss. It’s old-school cooking—hands a little dirty, expectations high, and satisfaction guaranteed once the fire dies down and the plates are clean.
Also good: House-made cottage cheese; charcuterie plate; wood-grilled burger with Smokey Blue cheese; pan-roasted mussels with white wine and garlic.
Open Tuesday through Sunday for dinner. Expensive.
>> See all of 2011’s Best Restaurants
Ann Limpert joined Washingtonian in late 2003. She was previously an editorial assistant at Entertainment Weekly and a cook in New York restaurant kitchens, and she is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education. She lives in Petworth.
