REVIEW - Red Apron Butcher (D Street)

Red Apron Butcher has long (well, since 2013 anyways) been a staple for cuts of great quality meat as well as delicious small-batch charcuterie. However, when the people over at Neighborhood Restaurant Group (also responsible for the new Iron Gate in Dupont Circle and Bluejacket Brewery) opened up a new Red Apron on D Street in Penn Quarter, there was real excitement in this household. Two words: breakfast sandwiches. 

(Disclaimer: They're actually more Graham's thing - surprise - but I will certainly get out of bed for some decadent sandwiches on really good bread.)

This review is for Red Apron's weekend brunch menu but it absolutely has to be said that the same owner runs the delicious and hardcore meat-centric dinner place next door called The Partisan, which I will most definitely do a review of once I get clearance from my heart doctor to do a second visit - just kidding, kind of. During the day, Red Apron operates as a butcher shop/cafe and at night, the seating area is converted into the standalone Partisan. 

So to the meat and bread:

All of it is delicious and for other meat-lovers out there, it's pretty hard to make a decision on what to order from the Red Apron menu. There's a wide selection of sandwiches, all stuffed with carnivorous delights - pork pastrami, meatballs, Italian deli cuts, roast beef - you get the idea. 

Fall-apart-in-your-mouth meatballs on a hardy baguette, designed to hold up to the tomato sauce, salsa verde and grana padano. NBD.

Red Apron's Penn Quarter location is also unique in that its breakfast sandwiches come on Italian tigelle round flatbreads - they're kind of like a crispy English muffin. Apparently, chef Nate Anda had to import special molds to create the tigelle as they're not common here in the States. You can get these as part of your breakfast sandwich (choices range from "The Patriot." a relatively basic bacon/egg/cheese combination to the punchy "Buenos Dias", which comes with egg, chorizo, pickled onion, sour cream and oozing cheddar. Guaranteed hangover cure.) 

Protip: Don't forget to check out the daily specials - the Sunday special is some roast pork extravaganza with cheesy grits, which as many of you know runs in my blood. 

Food: 5/5 (I mean, look at it)
Drinks: 3/5 - no booze here but they do have a good selection of fun soft drinks, like Fever Tree ginger beer and San Pellegrino fruit fizzy sodas
Ambiance: Lots of wood and kind of dark, especially in the cafe seating area. Nice banquettes if you have a group. 

Jasmine says: A solid 4/5. I'd be there every day if I worked in that area. 

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