Union Market DC

Hidden away in a less-traveled corner of DC is the Union Maket, a Mecca of foodie goodness.  Similar to Cleveland's Westside Market, it has a farm stand and a couple meat counters, but with an emphasis on prepared foods and plenty of places to sit down and eat.

We celebrated the feast of the seven fishes prior to Christmas Eve with a dozen Virginia oysters from Rappahannock Oyster Bar and a Vietnamese sour fish soup with tamarind from the Toki Underground pop-up.

Toki Underground sets up shop serving one soup every day from 8 am until they run out.  They also had some delicious BBQ pork bao.

Red Apron Butcher, of last week's burger fame, has their home store here with a slightly different menu and a bar with draft beers and draft cocktails. The glorious meat case has the same intimidatingly huge cuts of meat, housemade charcuterie, and sausages as the Merrifield location.

A lot of places were closed for the holiday; we went on the Monday before Christmas and the market is ordinarily closed on Mondays: notably DC Empanada and Takorean (both of which have food trucks), and Buffalo&Bergen which boasts of cocktails and phosphates with a new school touch. I'll have to go back to check those out.

The market has non-edible foodie stuff: Salt&Sundry, which carries tableware, cookbooks, bar tools, and other giftables. There's also the amazing knife store, DC Sharp, but more on that later...

The Best Burger in the 'Burbs

I like my burgers how I like my coffee: freshly ground.

No, I obviously haven't had every single burger in the DMV (DC-Maryland-Virginia, so named for its perpetual car-park-style traffic). But I have had the best burgers Chicago has to offer (Edzo's and Au Cheval), and it is by those standards that I judge future burger greatness.

I bestow the honorific upon Red Apron Butcher, a boutique butcher shop located in the Mosaic Center in Merrifield, VA, for its attention to detail, simplicity, and quality meat. I apologize for the horrendous picture, but pictured above is their bacon burger ($10) made from ground beef and ground bacon. It's topped with boozy, beer-braised onions, American cheese, and the genius "island sauce". Though I kind of hate the name - "island sauce" conjures up images of crusty old salad dressing bottles loitering in the door of the fridge - it's actually a means of controlling the proportions of mayonnaise, ketchup, pickles, and possibly onion for swift and exact burger dressing; one condiment that hits all necessary notes in one fell swoop. The bun is pillowy and yeasty and unlike any other. If I had one criticism it'd be a lack of texture; everything is decadently gooey.

Their Red Apron Original ($10) is topped with cheddar instead of American cheese. They let the cheese melt over the patty and begin to crisp up on the griddle, resulting in deliciously crunchy edges (no issue with texture in this burger). It's then topped with the same island sauce, shredded iceberg (more texture), onions, tomato, and pickles. All their meat is sourced "from animals that are sustainably raised, without antibiotics or horomones and certified humanely treated." I also assume that since they are a butcher that they grind their meat as as freshly as possible. No gimmicks. No fried eggs (as good as those may be).

You can order fries separately ($3) and while they don't showcase the creativity that the fries at Edzo's do, they are fried in aged beef fat .

If you think that $10 is too much for a burger sans frites, check out this blog on the argument for the $10 bowl of pho and make the appropriate transpositions.