Union Market DC
Last month a good friend of mine was in town from Korea, and since we’re both food lovers, I suggested we meet at Union Market. Union Market is a gourmet food hall located near the NoMa-Gallaudet metro station in Northeast DC. With over 40 local vendors, some of which are rotating pop-ups, there is something for every palate.
We started our food adventure by doing a lap around the food hall. With ramen, dosas, bao, grilled cheese, crepes, quiche, and many, many other delicious options, we had a difficult choice ahead. We eventually opted for Ethiopian food from Gorsha and a trio of bao from Bun’d Up. We were able to grab a couple seats, where we shared our food finds and caught up on life.
Then, it was time for some dessert. We circled back to B. Doughnut, where we got pandan cream-filled doughnuts. Filled doughnuts are often a gamble – they can be a bit too sweet and too heavy. But, these had just the right amount of sweetness, a hint of vanilla from the pandan, and were incredibly light. Perfection! To accompany our doughnuts, we got tea and a pour over from Peregrine Espresso.
On our way out, we grabbed two smoothies (with extra ginger!) from South Block Juice. So necessary as we encountered the DC summer heat and humidity.
More recently, one of the besties and I met up at Union Market for one more dinner before I had to leave DC. We dined at Bidwell, one of the full-service restaurants. Bidwell’s motto is “responsibly sourced” and in keeping with that, the restaurant gets many of its ingredients from the aeroponic roof-top tower garden atop Union Market as well as from neighboring local vendors. The menu boasts cheese, charcuterie, oysters, a range of shareables, wood oven pizzas, and more traditional soups, salads, and entrées.
We started with gorgeous Hawaiian Tuna Nachos. I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect as kale chips were playing the role of the nacho, but it was very satisfying. Each of the nachos were a perfect bite of kale chips, guacamole, ahi tuna, and spicy mayo.
For our entrées we ordered Homemade Fettuccine with Shrimp and a Clam Jam pizza. With the pizzas you can choose from four different types of dough: the double zero (a naturally low gluten dough), charcoal (activated charcoal is added to the double zero dough), gluten free (chickpea and rice flour), or vegetable (zuchinni, yellow squash, parsley, semolina flour, garlic, rice flour). The default dough is the double zero, which was perfectly fine for me. Topping the dough were top neck clams, rooftop kale, Benton’s bacon, bechamel sauce, and mozzarella. Beautiful and delicious!
For dessert we opted to find something from one of the other Union Market vendors. We decided on a sweet crepe, butter pecan ice cream from Trickling Springs Creamery, and pour overs from Peregrine Espresso (as you can tell, I really like their coffee!). We finished up our desserts just as the market was closing. Another delicious end to a Union Market food adventure.
Union Market
1309 5th St NE
Washington, DC 20002
(301) 347-3998