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Bar Ivy’s top-tier bread service pairs miso butter with foraged bread.
Scott Suchman for Bar Ivy

In the Butter Board Era, D.C.’s Bread-and-Butter Game Is on the Rise

A dozen exciting takes on the classic pairing 

by Emily Wishingrad
View as Map
Bar Ivy’s top-tier bread service pairs miso butter with foraged bread.
| Scott Suchman for Bar Ivy
by Emily Wishingrad

The TikTok-induced “butter board” craze recently rekindled lots of at-home romances with the creamy condiment. But like many trendy recipes spread across social media, the fall food fad may have already come and gone.

One thing’s for sure, however: Bread and butter will always go together like, well, bread and butter. Cheffed-up takes on the timeless combo are on the rise at Michelin-rated restaurants, all-day cafes, bakeries, and even cocktail bars around D.C. Here are some unique and unexpected carbs and smooth spreads to marry with your meals.

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Eater maps are curated by editors and aim to reflect a diversity of neighborhoods, cuisines, and prices. Learn more about our editorial process. If you buy something or book a reservation from an Eater link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics policy.

Honey Butter Rolls with Honey Butter at Honeymoon Chicken

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Add a side of honey butter to the salt and chive-sprinkled honey butter rolls at this local poultry parlor. At its brick-and-mortar in Petworth and ghost kitchen in Bethesda, the buttered-up rolls accompany buckets of crispy chicken and sides like mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, and slaw.

4201 Georgia Ave NW, Washington, DC 20011
(202) 983-5010
(202) 983-5010

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Einkorn Focaccia with Plum Butter at Tail Up Goat

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Ancient wheat species einkorn is the grain behind the focaccia at Adams Morgan’s Michelin-starred spot, while late-season plums shine in an accompanying buttery spread. The bread and butter is one of the starter snacks on the restaurant’s new four-course tasting menu. A full-size focaccia is available a la carte, alongside plum butter and whipped lardo.

1827 Adams Mill Rd NW, Washington, DC 20009
Focaccia and plum butter make the perfect pairing at Tail Up Goat.
Tail Up Goat

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Biscuits with Fermented Chile Butter at Royal 

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Biscuits come with a buttery kick at this cute all-day fixture in LeDroit Park. The fermented chile butter accoutrement to the morning menu’s biscuit gets its bright orange hue from fresno chiles. The peppers ferment for two weeks with garlic and shallots before they’re blended and folded with butter and sea salt. The biscuit also comes with a sweeter condiment in the form of a seasonal preserve (currently blackberry). 

501 Florida Ave NW, Washington, DC 20001
(202) 332-7777
(202) 332-7777
Royal’s fermented chile butter and biscuits.
Julep PR

Also featured in:

Le Diplomate

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Stephen Starr’s French hot spot welcomes diners with a big display of living-leavened loaves that are sliced and sent out as assorted bread baskets for two. Simple saucers of lightly-salted butter served at room temperature are designed to compliment, not overshadow, the beloved baskets. Starr’s tiny Bread Alley facility in the Union Market district also supplies daily carbs to nearby St. Anselm.

Pepe, 1601 14th St NW, Washington, DC 20009
(202) 332-3333
(202) 332-3333

Also featured in:

Seasonal Bread with Vegan Butter at Oyster Oyster

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A vegan butter and seasonal bread make up one of the eight courses on this Michelin-starred restaurant’s tasting menu. The sustainable spot in Shaw creates the butter from marigold flowers, sunflower seeds, and confit garlic. Chef and bread buff Rob Rubba rotates his carb creations with the seasons, looping in vegetables like golden beets, leaks, turnips, ramps, and squash blossoms. 

1440 8th St NW, Washington, DC 20001
Chef Rob Rubba rotates his bread recipes with the seasons.
Oyster Oyster

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Ube Brioche Rolls with Ube Butter at Rose Ave Bakery

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Royal purple ube brioche rolls, paired with an equally-vibrant ube butter, is a menu staple at this modern Asian bakery inside D.C.’s Block food hall. Eater DC’s 2021 Bakery of the Year is known for its soft and fluffy pastries with creative flavors like strawberry passion fruit, pandan coconut, and matcha chocolate. The downtown bakery will soon move to a larger space in Woodley Park.

1110 Vermont Ave NW, Washington, DC 20005

Kenny’s Super Famous Cornbread with Honey Butter at Little Chicken

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Midtown Center’s boozy new chicken shack serves a rotating list of seasonal butters (currently hot honey butter) with its cornbread. Add the Southern comfort classic to a crispy chicken tray or sandwiches with punny names like “Cluck Norris 2.0” (lettuce, mayo, pepper jelly, hot house sauce).

1100 15th St NW, Washington, DC 20005
(202) 989-0292
(202) 989-0292

Also featured in:

Bread Service with Salted Pepper Jelly Butter at Dauphine’s 

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Midtown Center’s opulent, New Orleans-styled eatery surrounds salted pepper jelly butter with a medley of assorted loaves during dinnertime bread service. Jelly, nestled in a crater of butter, is made from a reduction of green and red bell peppers, jalapenos, vinegar, and sugar. Guests can slather the jammy butter on buttermilk biscuits, baguettes, and sweet potato brioches.

1100 15th St NW, Washington, DC 20005
(202) 758-3785
(202) 758-3785
Salted pepper jelly butter accents a bread spread at Dauphine’s.
Vinh Le

Also featured in:

Bread & Butter(flies) at Allegory 

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The bread-and-butter offering is a microcosm of the playful wonder that defines this lobby-level speakeasy tucked behind a wall of books. The artsy, literary-themed cocktail bar serves its smoked onion brioche rolls with a quenelle of “everything” spiced butter, from which garlic chips protrude to create the impression of butterfly wings. 

1201 K St NW #1, Washington, DC 20005

Also featured in:

Foraged Breads and Hawaiian Rolls with Miso Butter at Bar Ivy 

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Miso butter makes a prominent appearance at Clarendon’s West Coast-chic newcomer. For weekend brunch, homemade Hawaiian sweet rolls are the conduit for the umami-forward spread, and for dinner, the butter is paired with a weekly-changing bread made from ingredients foraged by chef Jonathan Till. 

3033 Wilson Blvd Suite 115R, Arlington, VA 22201
(703) 544-8730
(703) 544-8730
Bar Ivy’s thoughtful bread-and-butter plate.
Scott Suchman for Bar Ivy

Also featured in:

Bread Basket with Seasonal Butter at Sonoma Restaurant & Wine Bar

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This Capitol Hill eatery and bar pairs a bountiful bread basket with a seasonal butter selection. The current spread — a honey garlic brown butter — can be slathered across homemade focaccia, cheddar biscuits, rolls, and gougeres.

223 Pennsylvania Ave. SE, Washington, DC 20003
(202) 544-8088
(202) 544-8088
Sonoma’s warming bread basket.
Sonoma Restaurant & Wine Bar

Also featured in:

Sorghum Butter at Stomping Ground 

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This Del Ray shop that’s known for its doughy, bountiful biscuits makes a sorghum butter to slather on its baked goods. The Southern spread gets its subtle sweetness from sorghum cereal grass. Add a dollop to a biscuit, banana bread, or scone.

2309 Mt Vernon Ave, Alexandria, VA 22301
(703) 567-6616
(703) 567-6616

Also featured in:

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Honey Butter Rolls with Honey Butter at Honeymoon Chicken

4201 Georgia Ave NW, Washington, DC 20011

Add a side of honey butter to the salt and chive-sprinkled honey butter rolls at this local poultry parlor. At its brick-and-mortar in Petworth and ghost kitchen in Bethesda, the buttered-up rolls accompany buckets of crispy chicken and sides like mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, and slaw.

4201 Georgia Ave NW, Washington, DC 20011
(202) 983-5010
(202) 983-5010

Einkorn Focaccia with Plum Butter at Tail Up Goat

1827 Adams Mill Rd NW, Washington, DC 20009

Ancient wheat species einkorn is the grain behind the focaccia at Adams Morgan’s Michelin-starred spot, while late-season plums shine in an accompanying buttery spread. The bread and butter is one of the starter snacks on the restaurant’s new four-course tasting menu. A full-size focaccia is available a la carte, alongside plum butter and whipped lardo.

1827 Adams Mill Rd NW, Washington, DC 20009
Focaccia and plum butter make the perfect pairing at Tail Up Goat.
Tail Up Goat

Biscuits with Fermented Chile Butter at Royal 

501 Florida Ave NW, Washington, DC 20001

Biscuits come with a buttery kick at this cute all-day fixture in LeDroit Park. The fermented chile butter accoutrement to the morning menu’s biscuit gets its bright orange hue from fresno chiles. The peppers ferment for two weeks with garlic and shallots before they’re blended and folded with butter and sea salt. The biscuit also comes with a sweeter condiment in the form of a seasonal preserve (currently blackberry). 

501 Florida Ave NW, Washington, DC 20001
(202) 332-7777
(202) 332-7777
Royal’s fermented chile butter and biscuits.
Julep PR

Le Diplomate

Pepe, 1601 14th St NW, Washington, DC 20009

Stephen Starr’s French hot spot welcomes diners with a big display of living-leavened loaves that are sliced and sent out as assorted bread baskets for two. Simple saucers of lightly-salted butter served at room temperature are designed to compliment, not overshadow, the beloved baskets. Starr’s tiny Bread Alley facility in the Union Market district also supplies daily carbs to nearby St. Anselm.

Pepe, 1601 14th St NW, Washington, DC 20009
(202) 332-3333
(202) 332-3333

Seasonal Bread with Vegan Butter at Oyster Oyster

1440 8th St NW, Washington, DC 20001

A vegan butter and seasonal bread make up one of the eight courses on this Michelin-starred restaurant’s tasting menu. The sustainable spot in Shaw creates the butter from marigold flowers, sunflower seeds, and confit garlic. Chef and bread buff Rob Rubba rotates his carb creations with the seasons, looping in vegetables like golden beets, leaks, turnips, ramps, and squash blossoms. 

1440 8th St NW, Washington, DC 20001
Chef Rob Rubba rotates his bread recipes with the seasons.
Oyster Oyster

Ube Brioche Rolls with Ube Butter at Rose Ave Bakery

1110 Vermont Ave NW, Washington, DC 20005

Royal purple ube brioche rolls, paired with an equally-vibrant ube butter, is a menu staple at this modern Asian bakery inside D.C.’s Block food hall. Eater DC’s 2021 Bakery of the Year is known for its soft and fluffy pastries with creative flavors like strawberry passion fruit, pandan coconut, and matcha chocolate. The downtown bakery will soon move to a larger space in Woodley Park.

1110 Vermont Ave NW, Washington, DC 20005

Kenny’s Super Famous Cornbread with Honey Butter at Little Chicken

1100 15th St NW, Washington, DC 20005

Midtown Center’s boozy new chicken shack serves a rotating list of seasonal butters (currently hot honey butter) with its cornbread. Add the Southern comfort classic to a crispy chicken tray or sandwiches with punny names like “Cluck Norris 2.0” (lettuce, mayo, pepper jelly, hot house sauce).

1100 15th St NW, Washington, DC 20005
(202) 989-0292
(202) 989-0292

Bread Service with Salted Pepper Jelly Butter at Dauphine’s 

1100 15th St NW, Washington, DC 20005

Midtown Center’s opulent, New Orleans-styled eatery surrounds salted pepper jelly butter with a medley of assorted loaves during dinnertime bread service. Jelly, nestled in a crater of butter, is made from a reduction of green and red bell peppers, jalapenos, vinegar, and sugar. Guests can slather the jammy butter on buttermilk biscuits, baguettes, and sweet potato brioches.

1100 15th St NW, Washington, DC 20005
(202) 758-3785
(202) 758-3785
Salted pepper jelly butter accents a bread spread at Dauphine’s.
Vinh Le

Bread & Butter(flies) at Allegory 

1201 K St NW #1, Washington, DC 20005

The bread-and-butter offering is a microcosm of the playful wonder that defines this lobby-level speakeasy tucked behind a wall of books. The artsy, literary-themed cocktail bar serves its smoked onion brioche rolls with a quenelle of “everything” spiced butter, from which garlic chips protrude to create the impression of butterfly wings. 

1201 K St NW #1, Washington, DC 20005

Foraged Breads and Hawaiian Rolls with Miso Butter at Bar Ivy 

3033 Wilson Blvd Suite 115R, Arlington, VA 22201

Miso butter makes a prominent appearance at Clarendon’s West Coast-chic newcomer. For weekend brunch, homemade Hawaiian sweet rolls are the conduit for the umami-forward spread, and for dinner, the butter is paired with a weekly-changing bread made from ingredients foraged by chef Jonathan Till. 

3033 Wilson Blvd Suite 115R, Arlington, VA 22201
(703) 544-8730
(703) 544-8730
Bar Ivy’s thoughtful bread-and-butter plate.
Scott Suchman for Bar Ivy

Bread Basket with Seasonal Butter at Sonoma Restaurant & Wine Bar

223 Pennsylvania Ave. SE, Washington, DC 20003

This Capitol Hill eatery and bar pairs a bountiful bread basket with a seasonal butter selection. The current spread — a honey garlic brown butter — can be slathered across homemade focaccia, cheddar biscuits, rolls, and gougeres.

223 Pennsylvania Ave. SE, Washington, DC 20003
(202) 544-8088
(202) 544-8088
Sonoma’s warming bread basket.
Sonoma Restaurant & Wine Bar

Sorghum Butter at Stomping Ground 

2309 Mt Vernon Ave, Alexandria, VA 22301

This Del Ray shop that’s known for its doughy, bountiful biscuits makes a sorghum butter to slather on its baked goods. The Southern spread gets its subtle sweetness from sorghum cereal grass. Add a dollop to a biscuit, banana bread, or scone.

2309 Mt Vernon Ave, Alexandria, VA 22301
(703) 567-6616
(703) 567-6616

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