For: brews and high-end pizza
444 W. Broad St., Suite I, Falls Church, 703-942-6840; madfoxbrewing.com.
Andrew Dixon knew to keep the bitterballen on the menu, which has been an appetizer at Mad Fox Brewing Company since its launch.
This Dutch snack poses in American clothes, as a béchamel sauce cloaks ground beef before a fryer takes over. Sized bigger than a golf ball, each bite reveals a creamy, meaty center only enhanced with a dunk into the accompanying, and ultra creamy curry mayo.
The new chef, finding solace after the closure of the high-end French restaurant Michel, quickly changed menu items as soon as he on-boarded in the Falls Church kitchen this March.
By September, half the menu will taste different, a switch already apparent in his Deep South version (hat tip to his wife’s family) of a ketchup-vinegar-beer-based barbecue sauce, smothered over braised beef brisket.
Pizza turns into cocktail party nibblies, matching a tame bleu cheese with (too large, too few) chunks of fig and an artistic drizzle of balsamic vinegar.
Better yet is the understated ode to carbonara, where a cream-spiked onion sauce lays the base for yolky fried eggs and thickly diced bacon. The restraint on a scattering of mozzarella cheese proves just right.
(September 2012)
