2009 Fall Dining Guide

By Tom Sietsema
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, Oct. 18, 2009

Scrapple? Made with goat? For dinner? No one could accuse Nate Waugaman, the new chef of this 12-year-old American restaurant, of churning out carbon copies of what everyone else is cooking. One night's soup might swirl together black-eyed peas, okra, mild sausage and corn, and float a crouton on top for some crunch. Sheets of thin, house-made pasta are layered with grilled summer squash and pureed acorn squash, then drizzled with subtle honey butter, for a free-form lasagna. A pork chop is juiceless, but it comes with tomatoes that taste of the garden and with fingers of fried, chili-ignited eggplant -- both sides so good you wouldn't mind eating them as a main course. This interesting food is ferried to the table by young and eager servers who are deft at navigating the narrow corridors and snug spaces of a onetime bungalow in Rockville, painted in fruit-bowl colors and roomier if you count the front and rear patios. A quibble: The kitchen seems scared of the salt shaker. It shouldn't be. But that scrapple ("breakfast for dinner," our server jests) is terrific, faintly crisp and set off with a sunny egg and a dab of tomato marmalade. And the fun runs through dessert, the best choice for which is a rich chocolate-peanut butter bombe arranged on its plate with a perfect marshmallow and golden peanut brittle. The (dinner) bill is sweet; it comes with chocolate truffles.