Ellē

Elle occupies a former 1940s bakery on Mt Pleasant Street, and it has kept the building's logic: bread and pastry in the morning, then a room that gradually becomes a restaurant. It opened in early 2018 from Lizzy Evelyn, founder and pastry chef, and her husband Nick Pimentel, who came from Bad Saint and Room 11 - two of the more serious rooms in the city at the time. The reputation was built on the baking and on vegetable-forward, inventive cooking rather than on a signature dish, and the recognition followed: a James Beard Best New Restaurant semifinalist nod in 2019, Bon Appetit naming it a Top 50 Best New Restaurant in America in 2018, and the Michelin Bib Gourmand every year from 2021 through 2025, alongside repeated placements on Washingtonian and Time Out best-of lists.

What makes it genuinely useful for someone not drinking is the shape of the day rather than only the drinks list. A room that serves good coffee at eight in the morning and a proper dinner at eight at night is a different proposition from a bar that opens at five, because it can be a morning, an afternoon or an evening without any of those requiring a decision about alcohol. On the drinks themselves, Resy's January 2025 roundup of DC bars with superb zero-proof cocktails noted that this popular cafe and restaurant offers unique non-alcoholic cocktails, wine and beer. The two named builds are the Root Awakening - watermelon shrub with Aperitivo Bianco NA, lemon, sumac and club soda, which uses the shrub's vinegar edge where a spritz would normally use bitterness - and the Pendennis Punch, made with black tea, pomegranate and bitters. Behind them sit low-ABV beers and alcohol-free wines including J&H Funkelwurtz sparkling.

Practical notes. Elle opens at 8am every day. Monday and Sunday it closes at 3pm, running as a bakery and lunch room only; Tuesday through Saturday it continues to 9pm with full dinner service. Mount Pleasant is a residential neighbourhood rather than a nightlife strip, which is part of the appeal - the room is quiet enough to talk in, and it is a short walk from Columbia Heights Metro.