Call Your Mother’s Cute New Peanut Butter Brand Uses a World Cup Country’s Nuts

Andrew Dana and Daniella Moreira, the co-owners of hit bagel brand Call Your Mother Deli, have another trick up their sleeve. Meet One Trick Pony, their new line of vegan peanut butter made with nuts from Moreira’s native Argentina. After taste testing different types of peanut butter on trips to the World Cup-competing country—which included their 2021 wedding in Córdoba—the culinary couple got the idea to shake up the mass-produced world of “Jiffs and Skippys” with a recipe free of additives like sugar or palm oil. Each tub ($8) is made with roasted Argentinian peanuts and a dash of Patagonian sea salt. One Trick Pony is available online and on shelves at all seven Call Your Mother locations around the DMV. The butter also joins CYM’s menu, slathered across select select sandwiches and baked goods. Varieties include Silky Smooth, Kinda Crunchy, and Unsalted for dogs—including the owners’ furry baby Reuben.

Snouts & Stouts is coming to Shirlington

Arlington’s Green Valley neighborhood will welcome a huge indoor dog park and bar called Snouts & Stouts next August. The 11,000-square-foot warehouse site (2709 S. Oakland Street) is currently home to New District Brewing, which means the local brewery’s future remains unclear. Snouts & Stouts plans to start construction in the spring; take a rendered tour here. Dogs require a membership ($365 per year), per its site, but humans can enter for free. Doggy daycare and boarding are also in the mix. The Fido-friendly area is also home to Arlington County’s biggest outdoor dog park.

Tacos and wraps take root in College Park

College Park’s luxe new apartment building Aster will welcome a pair of fast-casual chains in the new year (4400 Calvert Road, College Park, Maryland). Bandit Taco will open its fourth location in the DMV—and its first in Maryland—at the foot of the flashy complex. Charlottesville-born Roots Natural Kitchen, which has 11 locations from Virginia to Pennsylvania, will also make its Maryland debut on-site. Trader Joe’s is already open.

District Made Spirits

One Eight Distilling scratches its name

Around since 2015, Ivy City’s pioneering spirits company One Eight Distilling is now District Made Spirits. CEO Alex Laufer hopes the rebrand clears up market confusion between One Eight Distilling, District Made Spirits, and Untitled. The product is still the same, made with local heirloom grains, but now categorized under a “Core Spirits Series” (vodka, gin, barrel-rested gin, bourbon, and rye) and “District Made Untitled Series” (experimental small-batch brands).

D.C. is home to two of the world’s top Italian restaurants

A pair of Michelin-rated restaurants in D.C. are among the “50 Best Italian Restaurants in the World,” per 50 Top Italy’s newly released ranking for 2023. That includes Penn Quarter’s Fiola (No. 5) and Union Market district’s Masseria (No. 12). Masseria’s chef Nicolas Stefanelli was in Milan to accept the award at the ceremony at the Excelsior Hotel Gallia, Piazza Duca d’Aosta. See the full list here.

A new D.C. membership group grants last-minute seats and free apps

Growing restaurant group KNEAD Hospitality + Design just debuted a membership program ($150 per year) that guarantees last-minute reservations at any of its eight area spots like Mi Vida, The Grill, The Gatsby, and Succotash. Knead Reserve perks include free appetizers during each visit, bonus gift cards, and access to pop-ups and events. Members can text or call a “Reserve” concierge within an hour’s notice to lock in a table for groups up to four (or more).