Photo by Flickr user ep_jhu.
By DCist contributor Josh Kramer
I’m a former Cheesemonger and Cheese Specialist, including at Penn Quarter’s Cowgirl Creamery, which closed at the beginning of the year. I look for something special when I order a cheese plate, and I think these are the five best cheese menus in the city. Three are new and also offer retail counters in neighborhoods away from downtown, which is an encouraging development toward enriching the city’s food scene.
RIPPLE
Ripple (3417 Connecticut Avenue NW) might be best known for their grilled cheese bar. This Cleveland Park restaurant, I’m happy to report, actually uses artisan cheeses from their cheese menu for the sandwiches. They even have a “don’t make it gross, please stop at 2 cheeses” option. Check out their new fall menu here. They have good, domestic cheeses that reflect the leaps and bounds made by American cheesemakers in the last 15 years. Check out stinky, washed-rind Dorset from Vermont and bright, crunchy Estero Gold from California.
Price: $5 each / 3 for $13 / 5 for $18
LUPO VERDE
This Italian restaurant on 14th Street differentiates itself with a separate cheese and charcuterie counter handsomely decorated in an old-world style. Lupo Verde’s (1401 T Street NW) cheese menu focuses on Italian cheeses, and they were even rumored to be planning to adopt a sheep. They have Italian cheeses I’ve never seen in D.C. before, like Raschera, a cow-goat blend almost like a slightly firmer Taleggio. Also worth trying is Castelmagno, a crumbly, typically cow’s milk cheese that sometimes has natural blue veining.
Price: 3 for $13 / 5 for $18
SONA CREAMERY AND WINE BAR
Despite opening nearly a year ago, Sona (660 Pennsylvania Avenue SE) has not yet made any cheese onsite in Eastern Market. (That will change soon.) They do, however, have one of largest and most diverse retail selections of cheese, which is available for in-house plates. They have unusual options like the smoked, raw-milk Spanish Basque sheep’s milk cheese Etxegarai (pronunciation here), which is a little like Manchego. There’s also Quicke’s Vintage Cheddar, a nuanced and internationally prized traditional English farmhouse cheese. It’s a real eye-opener compared to what we usually think of as “cheddar.”
Price: 3 for $18 / 5 for $27 / 10 for $50
RIGHT PROPER BREWING
It makes so much sense that this Shaw brew pub would have its own retail cheese counter at the end of the bar. Right Proper (624 T Street NW) has a nice mix, with particular attention to the subtlety of certain domestic cheeses. Your experienced monger/bartender can guide you in pairing your cheese with house-made brews, including half pours. One favorite is Landaff from New Hampshire, styled after Duckett’s Caerphilly from Wales, with buttery and mushroomy flavor and incredible, semi-soft texture. Also great is local goat’s milk cheese Ashed Log from Greencastle, Pa.
Price: 3 for $18 / 5 for $25
PROOF
My favorite cheese menu in the city belongs to Proof (775 G Street, NW) in Penn Quarter. A years-long wholesale relationship with neighboring Cowgirl Creamery fostered a strong and informed program that complements the wine-centric fine dining restaurant. Two of their cheeses — Torus, a fragile young goat’s milk ring, and Scharfe Maxx, an intense Swiss-German alpine style — are rarely seen outside of New York City. The list is near perfect except for a few popular, but industrially-produced cheeses: Cambazola, La Tur, and St. Andre, which can usually be purchased at Costco. They could easily be trimmed from what is already a large, diverse cheese selection.
Price: 3 for $13 / 6 for $25
