Red Apron Butcher is a meat-lovers’ heaven and I gave up meat for lent. So, understandably, I was a little hesitant to check out their newest location at 709 D Street, NW. But then the tweets and instagram posts starting coming in. About their tigelles breakfast sandwiches, their scones… and their macarons. Now I had to go 😉
Red Apron Butcher’s latest location in DC’s Chinatown is its third and largest to date
Tiffany MacIsaac, executive pastry chef for the Neighborhood Restaurant Group, not only bakes all the bread for Red Apron’s lunch sandwiches, she also bakes pastries for the shop, including scones, a raspberry jelly filled beignet and macarons. What makes the scones and macarons special is that they’re made with lard from pigs butchered at the Red Apron commissary.
It took me a few visits to finally get my hands on some of the macarons. They seem to be quite popular and run out pretty quickly… in the meantime, I tried some of Red Apron’s other offerings. I loved the scone, and loved the raspberry jelly filled beignet even more.
The tigelle has yet to win me over, perhaps because I was limited to trying the lone vegetarian offering, “The Aristocrat,” made with ricotta, honey, smoked pine nuts, and gala apple. A tigelle is basically a skinny Italian style English muffin made with lard and pressed in a special iron that imprints a pretty pattern on the bread. At Red Apron, chef Ned Anda actually substitutes the lard with olive oil, though he still puts in a little bit of pig fat inside each sandwich. It makes a delicate, but not filling, little breakfast sandwich. The tigelles with meat sounded a lot more enticing and I can’t wait to try those, in about 19 days and 13 hours… but who’s counting.
The Aristocrat, the lone vegetarian tigelle on the menu, is served on a cookie tray .
Finally, I got my hands on three macarons: a bright purple peanut butter and jelly, a Nutella and the infamous Oreo macaron, made with whipped lard and honey.
From top to bottom: peanut butter and jelly, Nutella and Oreo.
The Oreo macaron from Red Apron Butcher in Chinatown
The Nutella macaron was more chocolate-y than Nutella-y and all were a bit on the dry side. Though I’m glad I tried them, I probably won’t rush back to buy more. But I will definitely return to Red Apron Butcher and its now open adjoining restaurant The Partisan to eat my way through chefs Nate Anda and Ed Witt’s offerings and menu. And get more beignets. That beignet was good!
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