Bubbie’s Plant Burgers, a plant-based, kosher-certified idea, serves burgers, fries, and different Americana-influenced dishes close to Dupont Circle. Its founders, chef Margaux Riccio and common supervisor Shaun Sharkey, got here up with the idea after efficiently operating Pow Pow, one other plant-based quick informal eatery with Asian influences. Bubbie’s operated as a pop-up for a 12 months inside Rock & Roll Resort earlier than the music venue shut down in March 2020. A month later, Bubbie’s opened its area on M Avenue NW, first as an incubator for it and different ideas and is now a takeout restaurant.
Riccio developed a extreme dairy allergy early in her culinary profession. She didn’t wish to sacrifice her love for appetizing meals, and thus the plant-based idea was born. She’s since based Vertage, a cheese firm that makes use of no animal byproducts. Vertage provides their cheeses to a number of native eating places, together with Cielo Rojo, Teaism, Name Your Mom, Uprise Bagels, and Andy’s Pizza.
Bubbie’s menu is completely plant-based, however nonetheless meant to please a meat eater’s palate. “Our employees aren’t vegan. After I create a brand new menu merchandise, it won’t make it on the menu if they don’t prefer it,” Riccio says.
The shop’s exterior is white brick with a big decal of their emblem within the window. A blue and white signal is beneath it with a breakdown of their menu. Inside, browse the menu on the self-serve kiosk, subsequent to a show case with a number of bottles and canned drinks. In case you select to dine in, there are a few bar seats close to the bay window.
The menu consists of sandwiches, massive salads, sides, and sweets. Most of those might be ready gluten free, with both gluten-free buns or a special breading.
Sandwiches are the highest vendor, with the tofu-based chick’n sandwiches being the preferred. Cooks marinate the tofu in spices and a vegan hen bouillon, giving the tofu the flavour of actual hen. It’s then breaded and deep fried earlier than being assembled into completely different sandwiches on toasted bread. Get a basic fried chick’n sandwich, garnished with pickles, Bibb lettuce, and sliced tomatoes. There’s additionally Nashville scorching chick’n sandwich: The fried chick’n is soaked in a spicy scorching sauce, topped with southern-style coleslaw, and served on Texas toast.
Riccio’s favourite sandwich is the agave mustard fried chick’n. The hand-battered chick’n is smothered in a candy and savory mixture of mustard powder and agave syrup. It’s topped with coleslaw and hand-cut pickles, and served on a gentle roll. Mustard is my least favourite condiment, so I used to be stunned how a lot I beloved this one. Consider a honey mustard sauce with extra pure sweetness and fewer mustard. It was a bit of sticky, which is ok by me, since I already can’t eat a sandwich while not having a number of napkins. Extra importantly, it tastes JUST LIKE CHICKEN! Identical with its texture.
Bubbie’s makes their very own beet patties for his or her burgers. Uncooked beets are shredded, then combined with dehydrated and floor garbanzo beans that act as a binder. It’s then seasoned with garlic, onions, and varied spices and fashioned into quarter-pound patties earlier than grilling. In case you don’t wish to be that adventurous, the beet patty might be swapped for Inconceivable meat.
Full disclosure: I hate beets. They style like filth. With that in thoughts, it didn’t cross my thoughts that I used to be consuming one in every of my least favourite greens. I ordered mine as their Single Bubb, topped with oat-based American cheese and the signature sauce, a spin on thousand island dressing. I additionally felt inclined to prime it with their plant stomach bacon. It’s manufactured from tofu blended with seitan, a savory, high-protein meat substitute manufactured from wheat gluten.
Can’t have a sandwich with out a facet of fries, amiright? Choose both common or candy potato, served with ketchup and yum sauce. There are additionally buffalo fries, which embrace their chick’n tossed in a gentle buffalo sauce. It’s piled onto the fries, drizzled with ranch sauce, then topped with cashew blue cheese crumbles and sliced scallions. The chick’n-to-fry ratio was excellent, and there have been simply sufficient sauces that the fries didn’t get soggy.
Extra sides are onion rings, chick’n nuggets, fried drumsticks tossed in your sauce of selection, creamy potato salad, macaroni salad with peppers and Parmesan cheese, and slow-cooked baked beans. There are additionally jalapeño poppers, with 5 per serving. Cashew cream cheese is combined with bacon bits and stuffed into jalapeño peppers. Then, cooks bread the peppers in panko, deep fry them, and drizzle them with a little bit of candy grape jelly sauce. This candy and spicy combo was impeccable. The cream cheese tamed down the warmth of the peppers, and the sauce gave it the flavour bomb I didn’t know was lacking in my life.
Fulfill your candy tooth with a hand-spun milkshake or soda float, made with house-made oat milk ice cream. Bubbie’s sells three-packs of vegan, gluten-, and peanut-free cookies from the woman-owned bakery Partake. For a heat dessert possibility, take into account the sugar sticks. Candy potato fries are dusted with numerous powdered sugar. It’s accompanied with three sauces served on the facet—peanut butter drizzle, chocolate tahini, and a balsamic butter sauce. Bruh … get these. It’s like a connoisseur funnel cake, however more healthy as a result of it’s candy potatoes (is what I’m telling myself).
Breakfast can also be out there Fridays by Sundays till 4 p.m. Seize a toasted bagel with cream cheese or a breakfast burger. Sandwiches have do-it-yourself plant-based eggs, American cheese, and breakfast meats, served on biscuits, bagels, or English muffins. Bubbie’s will open their second location in early 2023, the place there might be a broader brunch menu on the weekends.
“I like that we take the time to create our proteins, cheeses, and sauce in-house,’ Sharkey says. “I consider us taking the time provides to the home-style vibe that’s evoked within the identify, and the varieties of meals we serve.”
Whether or not you might be dwelling a plant-based life-style, seeking to take a fast break from the meat-eater weight loss plan, or simply wish to be #FakeHealthy, Bubbie’s Plant Burgers is the place to be for a fast meal. Don’t consider it being a vegan eatery, although. It’s simply rattling good.
Bubbie’s Plant Burgers is positioned at 1829 M St. NW. Hours are Monday by Thursday, 11 a.m. to eight:30 p.m., and Friday by Sunday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Pickup and supply orders might be positioned on-line, or in individual on the kiosk.
