dine

In the space that formerly housed Cafe Deluxe, Planta offers a vegan menu.

PLANT PANACHE

Toronto-based Planta serves up flavorful vegan fare with flair in Bethesda

BY DAVID HAGEDORN

PLANTA

Overall Rating: B+

4910 Elm St., Bethesda, 301-407-2447, plantarestaurants.com

I’M A SUCKER FOR a refreshing libation and a good pun. So my pre-dinner Herb Your Enthusiasm cocktail, a delightful amalgam of Cointreau, chile-infused tequila, lime juice and herb syrup garnished with fresh pineapple, puts me in a good mood at Planta before I even taste the food. The vibe-y, plant-based restaurant, which opened at Bethesda Row in February, is the ninth location of 10 in a growing chain founded by restaurateur Steven Salm and executive chef David Lee in Toronto in 2016. They have four locations in Toronto, one in New York City (with a second one due to open), four in Florida and several others in the works, including one in D.C.’s West End later this year.

To accompany my drink, I choose two sushi offerings. For one, rectangles of pressed sushi rice topped with thin slices of avocado and miso glaze are torched to create char and caramelization. A smattering of black truffle on top pushes the bites into the realm of sublimity. For ahi watermelon nigiri, strips of watermelon flesh—cunningly dehydrated and draped over pressed seasoned rice—stand in for fish. The effect is stunning—the deep ruby fruit looks just like ahi tuna, down to its faint striations. A simple garnish—a tiny dollop of grated ginger on top—offers a hint of spiciness. Citrus soy dressing brushed on the melon adds umami to the sushi, but not enough to tip the scale from sweet to savory.

Salm embraced a plant-based lifestyle in 2016 after he watched Cowspiracy, a 2014 documentary that outlined the negative impact of animal agriculture on the environment. He directed the culinary team of his restaurant group (which Planta is now part of) to convert 25% of its menus to plantbased items, then teamed with Lee, an acclaimed restaurateur and chef in Toronto, to create Planta, which is 100% vegan. (So are materials used for the restaurants’ interiors.) Rather than proselytize as an activist, says Salm, he chose to create beautifully designed, hip spaces that offer innovative food that happens to be vegan.

FAVORITE DISHES: Avocado, beet and lime tartare; Torched and Pressed (avocado nigiri with miso and truffles); steamed-spinach-and-shiitake dumplings; carbonara pasta; California pizza (zucchini, avocado, arugula); Herb Your Enthusiasm cocktail; strawberry cheesecake with sour cherry compote.

PRICES: Appetizers: $6.25 to $18.50; Entrees: $20.25 to $25.95; Desserts: $7 to $14.

LIBATIONS: Planta has a well-rounded beverage program that includes six craft cocktails ($13.50), among them the Pink Flamingo (vodka, grapefruit juice, hibiscus, lime juice) and a mojito made with rum, mint, lime juice and berry kombucha; and three zero-proof antioxidant tonics ($11), such as the Matcha Mojito (Seedlip Garden 108, lime juice, matcha syrup, mint). There are also four cold-pressed juices ($10), including the Notorious OBG, made from fresh oranges, beets and ginger. The 23 bottles on the wine list (four sparkling, 10 white, nine red) range from $48 to $84, and the 13 wines by the glass are $12 to $16.

Cheesecake with sour cherry compote Above: “Crab” dip is made with hearts of palm, cashew mozzarella, dill and Old Bay remoulade, and is served with taro chips.

He has achieved that goal in Bethesda.

Alden Fenwick Design, based in Sag Harbor, New York, designed the 4,229-square-foot space, which seats 140 inside, including 15 at the bar, and 30 outside. Windows flood the restaurant with natural light. When front glass folding doors are completely open to the patio, there’s a breezy indoor/outdoor feel.

The decor has a Japan-meets-midcentury-modern-meets-Miami vibe. Settees upholstered in channel-tufted, light pink velveteen with a gray geometric pattern and faux-leather bench cushions harmonize with curved, wood-grained midcentury modern dining chairs, hunter green subway tiles in the bar and blush pink walls. Steel blue terrazzo flooring speckled with pink and copper in the bar juxtaposes with the bleached herringbone-patterned wood floors of the main dining area. Rafters are used cleverly as drop ceilings to hide ductwork. Wooden dowels surrounding support structures throughout the space render Doric-like columns modern. A back wall papered with a wild print of green fronds (it reminds me of Blanche Devereaux’s bedroom in The Golden Girls) adds a jolt of movement and color.

Several starters at Planta intrigue. Steamed-spinach-and-shiitake dumplings bathed in truffled soy sauce and hot chile oil and heaped with fresh cilantro leaves burst with flavor. Tempura-battered deep-fried broccoli “bang bang” florets in sticky chile peanut sauce are irresistible. For beetroot “tuna tartare,” cubed beets, pine nuts, chopped capers and sesame soy dressing are tossed together and molded into a neat cylinder topped with a layer of guacamole. The dish is pretty and delicious as is, but it can also be piled onto accompanying taro chips. (I don’t get the tuna billing; I’m

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The veggie-heavy California pizza is topped with a grilled lemon half.

The Torched and Pressed is avocado nigiri with miso and truffles.

satisfied with them as beets.) One dish designed especially for Bethesda—“crab” dip—is wide strips of cooked fresh hearts of palm baked with creamy cashew mozzarella and dill and served hot with Old Bay remoulade and taro chips. I love the richness and flavor here, but “dip” is a misnomer. The strips can’t be spread on a chip and have to be eaten with a fork and knife, which I’m happy to do.

For entrees, don’t miss the spaghettini carbonara: perfectly al dente noodles and chopped “bacon” made from tempeh and mushrooms (it has the texture and smokiness of jarred bacon bits) swathed in a creamy, spicy coconut milk-based sauce and topped with almond-based “Parmesan.” (I’d be just as content to consume this carbonara as the meatbased one.) Planta’s burger is a thick, seared-then-baked patty (black beans, quinoa, lentils, mushrooms, chickpeas and herbs) gussied up with the works: lettuce, tomato, raw onions, dill pickles, yellow mustard, vegan mayo and queso sauce. The bun can’t contain the wonderfully sloppy mess, so just go with the flow—consider the crispy truffle fries that come with it a reward for your effort. The California pizza, with a thin, slightly chewy crust, is summer on a plate: zucchini strips, tomatoes, raw red onions, arugula, basil pesto, cherry peppers and thick slices of avocado drizzled with chili oil and crowned with a grilled lemon half.

There is no dessert menu at Planta; servers recite the options to you. The major components of a brownie sundae with soft serve vanilla ice cream (that tasted like coconut) and hot fudge do not live up to my non-vegan expectations in the texture and flavor departments, so it’s not my thing. Cheesecake with sour cherry compote is a better way to go. Dessert may not be the strong point at Planta, but everything else is. Not that it should matter, but all the carnivores who accompanied me to Planta say they’d return enthusiastically. n

BY DAVID HAGEDORN | PHOTOS BY DEB LINDSEY

SILVER LINING

SMOKY, MEATY REDOLENCE FILLS the air of the parking lot of Captain’s Market on MacArthur Boulevard in Cabin John as I and many others wait in front of a retired mail truck for our orders of Silver and Sons Barbecue. Chef Jarrad Silver, a 32-year-old Bethesda native and Kensington resident, debuted the truck in March, after having it gutted and reoutfitted to his specifications with a gas-and-wood-powered smoker, fryer, flattop griddle, range and food warmer. He sells at the market on Wednesdays and Saturdays and at other Montgomery County locations (he posts them weekly online) on Thursdays and Fridays.

“It’s my take on barbecue, combining my Jewish background and Middle Eastern cuisine. It’s not kosher but is pork-free,” Silver says. He uses billowy, homemade challah rolls baked in his Rockville commissary kitchen for sandwiches and serves them with “mains” and platters; pickled vegetables are also included. The hickory-smoked mains, available by the pound/rack/bird (in half or whole), are beef brisket encrusted with salt and five kinds of peppercorns ($15/$28); lamb shoulder that has been marinated in garlic, ginger, cumin and fennel seeds ($17/$32); short ribs that have undergone a seven-day pastrami brine ($17/$32); citrusbrined chicken ($12/$22); homemade merguez (North African lamb and garlic sausage, $17/$32); baby back beef ribs ($32/$50); and pastrami-spiced mushrooms ($14 for 8 ounces). The mushrooms and all the proteins except ribs are also available as sandwiches ($12).

Sample side dishes ($5) are Napa cabbage and chickpea slaw; potatoes roasted in chicken fat and spritzed with lemon juice; mac and cheese; and smoked beets. Three sauces—one ketchup-based, one vinegarbased and one mustard-based—are available. Desserts are smoked walnut baklava ($5), s’mores Rice Krispies treats ($5) and delectable babka bread pudding ($8).

Silver started cooking at 15 (while a student at Bethesda’s Walt Whitman High School) at his cousin’s restaurant, pie-tanza, in Arlington, Virginia, which specializes in wood-fired pizza. He returned there as a manager after graduating with a fine arts degree from Pennsylvania’s Juniata College in 2010. He wanted to make changes, but the family was happy with their successful business the way it was, Silver says. He wound up with a server’s job at D.C. restaurant Graffiato (now closed) and became interested in cooking. He would come in during the day and ask the cooks to let him help in any way possible in order to soak up knowledge and improve his skills. He rose up fast in that company’s restaurant group, which had several establishments in its portfolio. He left in 2018 and became chef of Birch & Barley but was laid off from that restaurant’s company in October 2020 because of the pandemic.

That’s when he came up with the idea for Silver and Sons. During the pandemic,

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Left: The offerings from Silver and Sons Barbecue include chicken and mac and cheese. Below: Chef Jarrad Silver

he’d make barbecue in his parents’ Bethesda backyard, where his son and his sister’s three kids could be outdoors and together. “That’s when I started thinking about doing the barbecue thing as a business from home. I wanted to create a concept that would turn into something after the pandemic, a Jewish Mediterranean barbecue place and market,” says Silver, who is looking to supplement the truck with a brick-and-mortar takeout space in Bethesda. (He and his 2½-year-old son, Charlie, are the sons of Silver and Sons. Silver’s parents pitch in. Silver’s wife, Alex, is an E.R. nurse practitioner.)

Silver began selling in early 2021, and the business started gaining traction by March through word of mouth. He would sometimes take his smoker to a neighborhood where organizers coordinated their neighbors to order and support the nascent business, which then outgrew being a home-based operation. That’s how the truck came about.

The alluring aroma of my order—the $45 sampler platter including a quarterpound each of lamb, chicken, ribs and merguez, plus slaw, mac and cheese, bread pudding and s’more treats—makes the drive home torturous, but the pleasure I experience at home once I dig in makes the wait worth it.

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KNOTTY BUT NICE

The options at The Pretzel Bakery at Cabin John Village include salted pretzels and pretzel bombs (spherical Nutella-filled pretzel rolls topped with cinnamon glaze).

I GRAB A BOTTLE of yellow mustard and carefully top a warm, salted soft pretzel with squiggles of it at The Pretzel Bakery, a Capitol Hill-based eatery that opened its second location—in Potomac’s Cabin John Village— in April. A first bite takes me back instantly to my early childhood in Philadelphia when my mother, born and raised there, introduced the treat to my siblings and me as a mandatory rite of passage. That combination of carb-y warmth, saltiness, malty sweetness and acid proved to be soul-satisfying.

The bakery’s menu features warm pretzels (salted, everything or cinnamon-glazed, $2.50); everything pretzel-encased Hebrew National beef hot dogs, $6; pretzel bombs (spherical Nutella-filled pretzel rolls topped with cinnamon glaze, $3); breakfast sliders (bacon, scrambled egg and cheddar cheese on an everything pretzel roll, $3.75); and calzones (filled with mozzarella, ricotta and Romano cheeses and either roasted red peppers or pepperoni, $8.50). Dips, such as beer cheese, cream cheese and Nutella, are available for $1. Gulden’s Spicy Brown and French’s Yellow mustard are offered for free. The business is the brainchild of Silver Spring resident Sean Haney, who co-owns the 800-square-foot establishment with Chad Anthony, who lives in Potomac. Haney had come to D.C. in 1998 to work for Marriott after earning a bachelor’s degree in hotel management from Penn State University. Working 80-hour weeks drained the love of the restaurant business from him, and he went to work for an IT firm, where he met and became friends with Anthony. He showed Anthony a business plan he had written for a pretzel shop, and Anthony thought it was a great concept. They opened The Pretzel Bakery in a 400-square-foot space on Capitol Hill in 2012, selling 700 pretzels on the first day from a Dutch door. In 2016, they relocated to a 1,700-square-foot space up the street. “Coming from Philly, you miss the creature comforts of home. Pretzels for me were that,” Haney says. “The first stop I’d make visiting my parents was to get some pretzels.” He decided if he couldn’t find them in D.C., he might as well make them himself. He experimented over and over, finally coming up with the winning dough (flour, salt, yeast, sugar and water) that he handrolls and shapes into twisted pretzels that rise overnight in the refrigerator before being boiled briefly and then baked.

Haney and Anthony had been looking for a second location for eight years. They chose the Cabin John Village space because Haney, who frequented the shopping center, knew it to be busy. They signed with Edens, the landlord, in April 2021. “Grab-and-go is what we do,” Haney says, “and that is pandemic-proof. Our pretzels already came in brown paper to-go bags.” The space has no indoor seating. There are two small benches in front of the store, perfect for a soft landing.

The Pretzel Bakery, 7961 Tuckerman Lane (Cabin John Village), Potomac, 301-242-3539, thepretzelbakery.com

restaurant & COMINGS GOINGS

Two vendors have been announced for Commas food hall, which is planning a summer opening in Silver Spring: Gaithersburg-based DMV Empanadas and Trini Vybez, which specializes in Trinidadian fare.

Thai food chain Tara Thai closed its location at rio in Gaithersburg temporarily early in the year, but never reopened and is now permanently closed. Restaurateurs Jackie Greenbaum and Gordon Banks, who own Quarry House Tavern in Silver Spring, announced plans to open a steakhouse in that location by the end of the year. The owners of Amalfi Ristorante Italiano announced on Facebook that they are looking to relocate later this year out of Montgomery County after 45 years in Rockville and that they are selling “both the building and for the right price even the Amalfi name, including all of our recipes.”

Also in Rockville, Baronessa Italian Restaurant closed in April.

Lahinch Tavern and Grill in Potomac’s Cabin John Village closed in May. n

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