About DC Restaurant Openings
A guide to the newest places to eat and drink.
Sook. 1346 T St., NW.
Rose Previte closed her globe-trotting 14th Street restaurant Compass Rose after 11 years in May. In its place comes Sook, a more casual all-day cafe, market, and wine bar. While daytime pastries and coffee have been available the last few weeks, the evening menu debuts tonight with playful comfort foods that span from a classic grilled cheese to potato chip “nachos” loaded with prosciutto, olives, cornichons, and parm. Khachapuri—the cheesy, buttery Georgian flatbread that Compass Rose turned into a sensation when it first debuted—is now served all day.
“The city is suffering right now,” Previte says. “We want comfort and we want affordability.”
Previte has since relocated Compass Rose to Los Angeles, where she recently opened Maydan Market, a 10,000-square-foot food emporium that includes an outpost of Maydan along with stalls for other Califonia-based restaurants. Sook was among the concepts that Previte developed for LA, and she felt the market and cafe would be well-suited to the small DC rowhouse where Compass Rose resided. “A little of it was just the practicality of not having to create a new concept every single time,” Previte says. She added on an evening wine bar menu because “of course, it’s me, and I love wine.”
At Sook DC, Previte is partnering with Sashi Jayatileke, who recently lost her job at USAID after 14 years. The longtime friends first met in Moscow while they were both living abroad. “She’s like, ‘You know what? I’m realizing my cohort of friends, who had this horrible thing happen to them unexpectedly, needs a place to gather,'” Previte says.
To that end, Sook will be a place where neighbors can bring a laptop or meet up with friends for a coffee or pastry in the jewel-toned, greenery-filled space. The morning menu includes standard espresso bar drinks (with beans sourced from DC-based Lost Sock Roasters) plus creations like a fig-leaf latte or ginger-tamarind espresso tonic. Pastries come from SakuSaku Flakerie, but you’ll also find a bacon-egg-and-cheese sandwich on milk bread as well as a Lebanese breakfast with za’atar flatbread, feta, cucumbers, and tomato.
Around 3 PM, everything switches over to the evening menu. The few Middle Eastern touches include Syrian seven-spice chicken wings with Lebanese-style salsa verde (or mumbo sauce), a chopped salad with labne ranch, and French fries with garlicky toum and zhough (both condiment recipes come from Maydan). At the same time, there’s also a standard smash burger, an Italian hoagie, and a BLT.
The drink menu centers on an expanded selection of natural wines and some “esoteric” bottles, like a Slovenian amber wine or a sparkling Greek option. You’ll also find a selection of spritzes—plus an espresso martini. “I can’t have this whole big new espresso machine, and not give you an espresso martini,” Previte says.
The space also serves as a market offering spice blends from Maydan, including its ribeye rub and dukkah, the nutty condiment that’s paired at the restaurant with halloumi. Other products span from an unfiltered Lebanese olive oil to smoky tahini imported from Iraqi Kurdistan. Bonus: Sook is also a bottle shop, and all the wines will be available to purchase at retail price and take home.
Jessica Sidman covers the people and trends behind DC’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.
