Tim Ma, the restaurateur who has brought the D.C. region a number of restaurants over the years — starting with Vienna’s tiny, humble Maple Ave and most recently including Chinese-American carryout Lucky Danger — has added another spot. Any Day Now, a casual all-day restaurant in Navy Yard, opened for breakfast earlier this summer and just began serving dinner Friday.
Ma’s personal style blends the cuisine of his Chinese American heritage, ‘90s American childhood, and a modern approach to dining. When it opened in June, Any Day Now gave the classic egg and cheese breakfast sandwich a Chinese twist: Rather than a bagel or English muffin, scallion pancakes bookend the sandwich.
“For breakfast, we go with a singular focus of scallion pancake breakfast sandwiches, we want to excel at one thing,” says Ma. The restaurant added dinner service on July 21.
Making the popular sandwich is no easy task. Traditionally the pancakes are made by hand with a laminated dough that is rolled out, coiled and squished repeatedly to get the layers. To do it at scale at the restaurant, the team spent more than a month trying out different techniques, finally landing on an approach using a pasta maker to achieve the layers.
To assemble the sandwich, crispy scallion pancakes are made fresh on the griddle, eggs made rich and unctuous with cheese and milk and steamed the traditional Chinese way are piled on, and then it’s finished off with a dousing of lo mein-flavored mayo reminiscent of takeout. The sandwich, served with bacon, sausage, or kimchi (all made in house) are served with a chili crisp soy sauce for dipping.
They have been a huge hit: Some days the cafe makes over 100 an hour and they frequently sell out. While the sandwiches are the only hot breakfast made to order, you can get a Red Rooster coffee or a chai to go, or pastries such as croissant or a cinnamon roll, in the morning as well.
For dinner, Any Day Now chef de cuisine and partner Matt Sperber takes Ma’s themes and adds in refined versions of the classic greasy spoon fare of the diners in his home state of New Jersey, on, as well as touches of his mom’s native Puerto Rican dishes along the way.
That means snacks such as adobo spiced plantain tots (a reimagined version of tostones) served with green goddess dressing. General Tso’s, an American Chinese staple, is reinterpreted as fried chicken skins with an orange glaze and sesame seeds; and oxtail tagliatelle is a mashup of Taiwanese noodle soup and birria tacos, flavored with five spice and topped with ricotta salata. Sperber puts a spin on a diner-style tuna melt that manifests as tuna tartare with smokey blue cheese and toasted sourdough.
“We are a casual eatery, but are marrying all of my experience and inspirations with Tim’s vision and expertise,” says Sperber. “A lot of layered flavors and techniques are in our dishes”.
Large plates feature chicken and waffles, that is, Korean fried chicken served with a Japanese okonomiyaki (stuffed omelet)-inspired waffle alongside homemade barbecue sauce and white miso-ranch dressing. According to Ma, this dish is a great representation of the Any Day Now concept.
“This is the first dish we talked about when conceptualizing Any Day Now, and it made it all the way,” Mas says. That layering of global influences is also apparent in the spare ribs that come with a plum guava barbecue sauce; and eggplant katsu curry with rice and pickles.
Of course, the hit scallion pancakes make it to the dinner menu as well, manifesting as the bun for a cheeseburger with pickles, tomatoes and “special sauce” as well as a snack plate featuring torn pancake bits as the vehicle to scoop up whipped yuzu ricotta spread that is topped with chili crisp.
“A lot of our dishes have familiar flavors with a bit of mystery behind it,” Ma says. “It may not immediately register but the sense of connection and nostalgia are immediate.”
A handful of small plates round out the dinner menu, including a cheffed up “fancy omelette” with truffle and caviar; cucumber salad with lamb merguez and house made feta; and chinese broccoli with XO sauce. For dessert, there are slices of cake that are also sold at the bakery counter, including coconut custard, double chocolate, and yuzu curd pie, among others.
Prices at the casual eatery range from $8-10 for snacks, $22-34 for large plates, and average $18 for small plates.
For drinks, beverage director and general manager Ryan Ward has put together riffs on cocktails from the ‘80s and ‘90s. “Sex Pistol #5” is a take on a Cosmo with sumac-infused sake, pomegranate and citrus; and the classic tequila sunrise is interpreted as the “Stone Ocean” featuring tequila, clarified orange juice and Luxardo boba made in house. An assortment of beers and wine is also available. Cocktails and glasses of wine average $15-$17.
The spacious interiors at Any Day Now, which replaced Erik Bruner-Yang’s ABC Pony, have been designed with both grab-and-go customers as well as those who intend to park themselves at the cafe for hours. The space’s 60 seats provide a wide variety of options — bar seating, booths, small tables, bigger tables, low level lounge chairs — and the entire restaurant is bifurcated to provide a multi-use experience, shifting from a cafe with a walk-up counter vibe to full service restaurant and bar in the evening. (Any Day Now also has access to the building’s roof for private events.)
During the day, natural light pours into the space giving it an airy aesthetic, and it’s typically lively with a number of customers on their laptops. White neon lit “Any Day Now” signage in a modern, bubbly font with a logo that evokes cartoon eyes greet customers and passersby. The idea was to create a welcoming and “chill” place, Ma says.
Any Day Now is located at 2 I St. SE and open 7 a.m.-3 p.m. daily, with dinner served Thursday-Monday, 5 p.m.-10 p.m. Reservations for dinner are available via OpenTable.
