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Breakfast sandwiches and signature green hot sauce from Heat Da Spot in Park View
Breakfast sandwiches and signature green hot sauce from Heat Da Spot in Park View
Deb Lindsey/For The Washington Post via Getty Images

Where to Grab an Essential Breakfast To Go Around D.C.

Biscuits, doughnuts, bagels, pupusas, tacos, and pastry tarts to start the day off right

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Breakfast sandwiches and signature green hot sauce from Heat Da Spot in Park View
| Deb Lindsey/For The Washington Post via Getty Images

With downtown office workers bound to desks at home during the COVID-19 crisis, many typically bustling ares have fallen eerily silent. Demand for power breakfasts at the Hay-Adams, sumptuous brunches at places like Blue Duck Tavern, and more hip, subversive early morning dishes at places like Unconventional Diner and A Baked Joint has certainly dropped. Many of D.C.’s favorite breakfast spots have adapted accordingly. From no-fuss bagels and schmear to East African ful madames to a Salvadoran spread, this map contains some of the top places around town offering breakfast to go.

A number of D.C. area restaurants have resumed dine-in service. However, this should not be taken as endorsement for dining in, as there are still safety concerns. The Washington Post is tracking coronavirus cases and deaths in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. More information can be found at coronavirus.dc.gov. Studies indicate that there is a lower exposure risk when outdoors, but the level of risk involved with patio dining is contingent on restaurants following strict social distancing and other safety guidelines.

This map is arranged geographically from north to south.

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A Place To Walk To

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This soul food truck-turned-restaurant brought Southern comforts to Hyattsville right before COVID-19 hit this year. It returned in June with shortened hours (starting 9 a.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. on Sundays). Destination dishes include shrimp and grits, chicken and waffles, jerk wings, and mac and cheese.

Chicken and waffles at a Place to Walk To.
Matthew McIntosh/A Place to Walk To

Tony's Place (Multiple Locations)

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This reliable neighborhood greasy spoon slings generous and well-priced portions of all-American standards like meat-eggs-toast combos, pancakes, omelets, grits, and home fries starting at 6 a.m. until late each day, and 9 a.m. on Sundays.

The Uncaged Chefs

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The no-rules soul food kitchen produces an all-day menu of over-the-top, Instagram-baiting brunch dishes inside food hall Savor at Studio 3807 (takeout or delivery runs 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday to Sunday). Chef Damian Brown, a Vidalia and Blue Duck Tavern alum, switches up the lineup all the time with creative eats like Cajun crab fries topped with crab cakes or fried lobster with Hennessy and Teddy Graham French toast. Its sophomore location in District Heights reopens this weekend.

This essential all-day cafe in Mount Pleasant has been shifting hours and menus a lot over these past months as they adapt to the changing pandemic landscape. The bakery and kitchen have a walk-up window open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday through Sunday. Use their online ordering system for morning pastries — think citrus Campari-glazed doughnuts, almond buckwheat financiers, and guava turnovers — in addition to yogurt parfaits, coffee, and bagel sandwiches.

Call Your Mother (Multiple Locations)

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The self-described “Jew-ish” deli in Park View now has four locations, including additions in Capitol Hill, Bethesda, and Georgetown. Coffee, wood-fired bagels, and seasonal schmears are available. Breakfast lovers go for their epic (and recently renamed) bagel sandwiches like the bacon, egg, cheese, and spicy honey Sun City, or the Gleneagle, filled with candied salmon cream cheese, cucumbers, crispy shallots, and seasonal greens on a za’atar bagel.

A bagel sandwich at Call Your Mother.
A bagel sandwich at Call Your Mother.
Rey Lopez/Eater DC

Heat Da Spot Café

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The list of breakfast items keeps going and going at Petworth’s welcoming Ethiopian-American cafe, with special attention paid to pancakes, waffles, and omelets. Make sure you squirt on some of its spicy green sauce. Its house special — scrambled eggs with a side of injera — is a best seller. All-day breakfast hours are 7:30 to 5 p.m. on weekdays and starting at 8:30 a.m. on weekends. Walk-ups are welcome, or call ahead or order online; delivery is also available via third-party apps.

Breakfast sandwiches and signature green hot sauce from Heat Da Spot in Park View
Breakfast sandwiches and signature green hot sauce from Heat Da Spot in Park View
Deb Lindsey/For The Washington Post via Getty Images

Cafe Spoken

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Tucked inside The Line hotel, this new all-day spot from Erik Bruner-Yang follows the template of the kissaten shops that serve coffee and Western-influenced comfort food all over Japan. Highlights off its breakfast menu (7 a.m. to 11 a.m.) include an oatmeal mushroom congee and a rice bowl that comes with grilled fish, soft eggs, pickles, and herbs. Grace Street Coffee supplies beans for cups of drip coffee brewed in a siphon system.

A Japanese breakfast bowl with grilled fish, soft eggs, rice, pickles, and herbs  from Cafe Spoken
A Japanese breakfast bowl with grilled fish, soft eggs, rice, pickles, and herbs from Cafe Spoken
Cafe Spoken/Facebook

the DINER

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Adams-Morgan favorite The Diner only offers weekend breakfast for now, but the breakfast favorites like huevos rancheros, fried chicken and French toast, and the buttermilk pancakes are still there.

Florida Avenue Grill

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Open since 1944, Florida Avenue Grill claims to be the oldest soul food restaurant in the world. It’s certainly one of the oldest in D.C., and it’s a go-to for breakfast favorites served all day. Try their three-egg omelet that features American cheese, Monterey Jack, bacon, sausage, onions, green peppers, and jalapeños. It’s served with apples, home fries or grits and toast, and a hot biscuit or a corn muffin. Shortened hours for takeout during reopening are 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. from Friday to Sunday. Patio seating is also available.

Vice President Biden Highlights Importance Of Raising Minimum Wage
Then Vice President Joe Biden talks with Florida Avenue Grill owner Imar Hutchins after visiting the restaurant in 2014.
Win McNamee/Getty Images

Keren Cafe & Restaurant

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This Adams Morgan favorite serves Eritrean breakfast all day, dishing out bowls of fava bean ful and scrambled eggs mixed with Eritrean spicy tomato sauce (silsi). Order via phone or online for takeout and delivery (10 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily).

Habesha Market and Carry-Out

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This Ethiopian market and restaurant full of steam table selections opens at 8:30 a.m. for breakfast every day. Habesha offers a few American options like scrambled eggs and oatmeal, but skip that and go for Ethiopian fare like kinche (a savory cracked wheat dish), ful medames (stewed fava beans), or a breakfast combo that combines scrambled eggs with dishes like beef stew fir fir.

Butter Me Up

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HalfSmoke, the sausage-centric bar and restaurant in Shaw, created this breakfast sandwich pop-up (8 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily) as an option for carryout and delivery during the pandemic. Panorama Bakery in Capitol Heights, Maryland, supplies the rolls for a menu of eight breakfast sandwiches stuffed with everything from turkey sausage and bacon to buttermilk-brined fried chicken, Beyond’s beef substitute, and linguica. There are also mimosas, bloody marys with pickle juice, and coffee from Buna on Georgia Avenue NW.

An Easy Like Sunday breakfast sandwich from HalfSmoke
An Easy Like Sunday breakfast sandwich from HalfSmoke
HalfSmoke [official]

The Royal

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Takeout breakfast (10 a.m. to noon) at this LeDroit Park cafe full of Colombian influences includes biscuits with preserves and fermented chile butter, guava pastries, yogurt bowls, and several excellent arepas. Order takeout or delivery online.

Ted's Bulletin (Multiple Locations)

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Ted’s Bulletin serves one of D.C.’s most reliable — and large — breakfasts. Their contactless pickup breakfasts continue to satisfy. In addition to their substantial à la carte menu of American staples, the “Ted’s Brunch At Home Package” includes scrambled eggs, home fries, choice of meats, pancakes or French toast, and four Ted’s tarts. Breakfast is available all day.

Republic Cantina

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The cafe menu (9 a.m. to 2 p.m.) at this tiny, well-appointed Tex-Mex cantina in Truxton Circle includes breakfast tacos stuffed with smoked brisket, migas, or carne guisada inside soft, stretchy flour tortillas. There’s also avocado toast, iced horchata lattes, and a variety of Czech-style kolaches. Order takeout online, and reserve a spot for weekend brunch on the patio via Resy.

Unconventional Diner

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Colorful Mt. Vernon Square favorite Unconventional Diner does takeout brunch every day, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and Friday through Sunday starting at 9 a.m. Their creative, vegetarian-friendly comfort food includes their excellent blueberry pancakes with vanilla mascarpone and sweet potato shakshuka.

Blue Duck Tavern

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Elegant American breakfast and brunch restaurant Blue Duck Tavern is back. Takeout is available each day from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m., with weekend brunch from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Breakfast choices include deluxe avocado toast, s’mores French toast, and their well-known short rib hash with poached egg. The restaurant recommends ordering the day before, especially for early orders.

Blue Duck Tavern [Official]

El Rinconcito Cafe

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The narrow, Sal-Mex cafe near Mt. Vernon Square has helped customers nurse many hangovers over the years with hearty breakfast plates. The desayuno tipico is a Salvadoran breakfast composed of an egg scramble filled with tomatoes, peppers, and onions; a helping of refried beans; fried plantains; crema; crumbly Salvadoran cheese, and avocado, and two thick tortillas. All that comes for just $11.95, or $14.50 with the addition of Salvadoran chorizo. El Rinconcito also offers a huevos rancheros plate for under $10 ($12.50 with chorizo). It’s never too early to order a pupusa, either. Order takeout online starting at 10:30 a.m.

Pupusas and curtido at El Rinconcito Cafe
Pupusas and curtido at El Rinconcito Cafe
Bill O’Leary/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Mercy Me

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The new, “Sorta South American” cafe from the owners of Call Your Mother features wood-fired bagels with a Latin bent, breakfast tacos full of Venezuelan avocado salsa from executive chef Johanna Hellrigl, and pastries like guava-filled, sugar-dusted croissants or pineapple empanadas from Camila Arango, who owns Pluma by Bluebird bakery near Union Market. Order from the West End breakfast counter for pickup or delivery online.

Mercy Me is selling breakfast tacos and Call Your Mother bagels Mercy Me [official]

A Baked Joint

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Baked + Wired sister shop A Baked Joint has gained a fast following in Mt. Vernon Triangle. Its generous biscuit sandwiches are a big reason why. A Baked Joint serves breakfast every day from 8 a.m. well into the afternoon. The sweet and savory oatmeals are also a good bet, and so are toasts from its bakery. The restaurant has an unexpectedly large, sophisticated tea menu, too.

View this post on Instagram

brunch to go

A post shared by abakedjoint (@abakedjoint) on

Astro Doughnuts & Fried Chicken (Multiple Locations)

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Head to Astro Donuts and indulge in a breakfast doughnut sandwich: fried chicken or eggs served on a savory donut or biscuit with a variety of add-ons and sauces. Customers can also pick up fresh, individual doughnuts like classic glazed, maple bacon, or PB&J. Get some tots with it.

Yellow the Cafe

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This new daytime cafe resides in a canary-colored private dining room inside Albi, chef Michael Rafidi’s wood-burning Middle Eastern restaurant in Navy Yard. The mix of high-end, fine dining techniques and traditional Levantine flavors continues at the bakery with breakfast pita sandwiches full of smoked labneh, harissah bacon and cheese croissants, and morning buns spiced with ras al hanout. Breakfast starts at 8 a.m., and weekends bring on urfa chile-spiced bagels and shakshuka. Order takeout online.

Yellow in Navy Yard combines French baking techniques with Middle Eastern ingredients
Pastries full of Middle Eastern ingredients from Yellow in Navy Yard
Scott Suchman/For Yellow

Bob & Edith's Diner (Multiple Locations)

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Bob & Edith’s stayed open 24 hours a day before COVID-19. Now, this old-school diner still operates between the generous hours of 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., with takeout breakfast available all day. Expect standard two-egg breakfasts with meat and the usual sides, plus hot cakes and omelets.

Bob & Edith’s Diner [Official website]

A Place To Walk To

This soul food truck-turned-restaurant brought Southern comforts to Hyattsville right before COVID-19 hit this year. It returned in June with shortened hours (starting 9 a.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. on Sundays). Destination dishes include shrimp and grits, chicken and waffles, jerk wings, and mac and cheese.

Chicken and waffles at a Place to Walk To.
Matthew McIntosh/A Place to Walk To

Tony's Place (Multiple Locations)

This reliable neighborhood greasy spoon slings generous and well-priced portions of all-American standards like meat-eggs-toast combos, pancakes, omelets, grits, and home fries starting at 6 a.m. until late each day, and 9 a.m. on Sundays.

The Uncaged Chefs

The no-rules soul food kitchen produces an all-day menu of over-the-top, Instagram-baiting brunch dishes inside food hall Savor at Studio 3807 (takeout or delivery runs 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday to Sunday). Chef Damian Brown, a Vidalia and Blue Duck Tavern alum, switches up the lineup all the time with creative eats like Cajun crab fries topped with crab cakes or fried lobster with Hennessy and Teddy Graham French toast. Its sophomore location in District Heights reopens this weekend.

Ellē

This essential all-day cafe in Mount Pleasant has been shifting hours and menus a lot over these past months as they adapt to the changing pandemic landscape. The bakery and kitchen have a walk-up window open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday through Sunday. Use their online ordering system for morning pastries — think citrus Campari-glazed doughnuts, almond buckwheat financiers, and guava turnovers — in addition to yogurt parfaits, coffee, and bagel sandwiches.

Call Your Mother (Multiple Locations)

The self-described “Jew-ish” deli in Park View now has four locations, including additions in Capitol Hill, Bethesda, and Georgetown. Coffee, wood-fired bagels, and seasonal schmears are available. Breakfast lovers go for their epic (and recently renamed) bagel sandwiches like the bacon, egg, cheese, and spicy honey Sun City, or the Gleneagle, filled with candied salmon cream cheese, cucumbers, crispy shallots, and seasonal greens on a za’atar bagel.

A bagel sandwich at Call Your Mother.
A bagel sandwich at Call Your Mother.
Rey Lopez/Eater DC

Heat Da Spot Café

The list of breakfast items keeps going and going at Petworth’s welcoming Ethiopian-American cafe, with special attention paid to pancakes, waffles, and omelets. Make sure you squirt on some of its spicy green sauce. Its house special — scrambled eggs with a side of injera — is a best seller. All-day breakfast hours are 7:30 to 5 p.m. on weekdays and starting at 8:30 a.m. on weekends. Walk-ups are welcome, or call ahead or order online; delivery is also available via third-party apps.

Breakfast sandwiches and signature green hot sauce from Heat Da Spot in Park View
Breakfast sandwiches and signature green hot sauce from Heat Da Spot in Park View
Deb Lindsey/For The Washington Post via Getty Images

Cafe Spoken

Tucked inside The Line hotel, this new all-day spot from Erik Bruner-Yang follows the template of the kissaten shops that serve coffee and Western-influenced comfort food all over Japan. Highlights off its breakfast menu (7 a.m. to 11 a.m.) include an oatmeal mushroom congee and a rice bowl that comes with grilled fish, soft eggs, pickles, and herbs. Grace Street Coffee supplies beans for cups of drip coffee brewed in a siphon system.

A Japanese breakfast bowl with grilled fish, soft eggs, rice, pickles, and herbs  from Cafe Spoken
A Japanese breakfast bowl with grilled fish, soft eggs, rice, pickles, and herbs from Cafe Spoken
Cafe Spoken/Facebook

the DINER

Adams-Morgan favorite The Diner only offers weekend breakfast for now, but the breakfast favorites like huevos rancheros, fried chicken and French toast, and the buttermilk pancakes are still there.

Florida Avenue Grill

Open since 1944, Florida Avenue Grill claims to be the oldest soul food restaurant in the world. It’s certainly one of the oldest in D.C., and it’s a go-to for breakfast favorites served all day. Try their three-egg omelet that features American cheese, Monterey Jack, bacon, sausage, onions, green peppers, and jalapeños. It’s served with apples, home fries or grits and toast, and a hot biscuit or a corn muffin. Shortened hours for takeout during reopening are 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. from Friday to Sunday. Patio seating is also available.

Vice President Biden Highlights Importance Of Raising Minimum Wage
Then Vice President Joe Biden talks with Florida Avenue Grill owner Imar Hutchins after visiting the restaurant in 2014.
Win McNamee/Getty Images

Keren Cafe & Restaurant

This Adams Morgan favorite serves Eritrean breakfast all day, dishing out bowls of fava bean ful and scrambled eggs mixed with Eritrean spicy tomato sauce (silsi). Order via phone or online for takeout and delivery (10 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily).

Habesha Market and Carry-Out

This Ethiopian market and restaurant full of steam table selections opens at 8:30 a.m. for breakfast every day. Habesha offers a few American options like scrambled eggs and oatmeal, but skip that and go for Ethiopian fare like kinche (a savory cracked wheat dish), ful medames (stewed fava beans), or a breakfast combo that combines scrambled eggs with dishes like beef stew fir fir.

Butter Me Up

HalfSmoke, the sausage-centric bar and restaurant in Shaw, created this breakfast sandwich pop-up (8 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily) as an option for carryout and delivery during the pandemic. Panorama Bakery in Capitol Heights, Maryland, supplies the rolls for a menu of eight breakfast sandwiches stuffed with everything from turkey sausage and bacon to buttermilk-brined fried chicken, Beyond’s beef substitute, and linguica. There are also mimosas, bloody marys with pickle juice, and coffee from Buna on Georgia Avenue NW.

An Easy Like Sunday breakfast sandwich from HalfSmoke
An Easy Like Sunday breakfast sandwich from HalfSmoke
HalfSmoke [official]

The Royal

Takeout breakfast (10 a.m. to noon) at this LeDroit Park cafe full of Colombian influences includes biscuits with preserves and fermented chile butter, guava pastries, yogurt bowls, and several excellent arepas. Order takeout or delivery online.

Ted's Bulletin (Multiple Locations)

Ted’s Bulletin serves one of D.C.’s most reliable — and large — breakfasts. Their contactless pickup breakfasts continue to satisfy. In addition to their substantial à la carte menu of American staples, the “Ted’s Brunch At Home Package” includes scrambled eggs, home fries, choice of meats, pancakes or French toast, and four Ted’s tarts. Breakfast is available all day.

Republic Cantina

The cafe menu (9 a.m. to 2 p.m.) at this tiny, well-appointed Tex-Mex cantina in Truxton Circle includes breakfast tacos stuffed with smoked brisket, migas, or carne guisada inside soft, stretchy flour tortillas. There’s also avocado toast, iced horchata lattes, and a variety of Czech-style kolaches. Order takeout online, and reserve a spot for weekend brunch on the patio via Resy.

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Unconventional Diner

Colorful Mt. Vernon Square favorite Unconventional Diner does takeout brunch every day, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and Friday through Sunday starting at 9 a.m. Their creative, vegetarian-friendly comfort food includes their excellent blueberry pancakes with vanilla mascarpone and sweet potato shakshuka.

Blue Duck Tavern

Elegant American breakfast and brunch restaurant Blue Duck Tavern is back. Takeout is available each day from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m., with weekend brunch from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Breakfast choices include deluxe avocado toast, s’mores French toast, and their well-known short rib hash with poached egg. The restaurant recommends ordering the day before, especially for early orders.

Blue Duck Tavern [Official]

El Rinconcito Cafe

The narrow, Sal-Mex cafe near Mt. Vernon Square has helped customers nurse many hangovers over the years with hearty breakfast plates. The desayuno tipico is a Salvadoran breakfast composed of an egg scramble filled with tomatoes, peppers, and onions; a helping of refried beans; fried plantains; crema; crumbly Salvadoran cheese, and avocado, and two thick tortillas. All that comes for just $11.95, or $14.50 with the addition of Salvadoran chorizo. El Rinconcito also offers a huevos rancheros plate for under $10 ($12.50 with chorizo). It’s never too early to order a pupusa, either. Order takeout online starting at 10:30 a.m.

Pupusas and curtido at El Rinconcito Cafe
Pupusas and curtido at El Rinconcito Cafe
Bill O’Leary/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Mercy Me

The new, “Sorta South American” cafe from the owners of Call Your Mother features wood-fired bagels with a Latin bent, breakfast tacos full of Venezuelan avocado salsa from executive chef Johanna Hellrigl, and pastries like guava-filled, sugar-dusted croissants or pineapple empanadas from Camila Arango, who owns Pluma by Bluebird bakery near Union Market. Order from the West End breakfast counter for pickup or delivery online.

Mercy Me is selling breakfast tacos and Call Your Mother bagels Mercy Me [official]

A Baked Joint

Baked + Wired sister shop A Baked Joint has gained a fast following in Mt. Vernon Triangle. Its generous biscuit sandwiches are a big reason why. A Baked Joint serves breakfast every day from 8 a.m. well into the afternoon. The sweet and savory oatmeals are also a good bet, and so are toasts from its bakery. The restaurant has an unexpectedly large, sophisticated tea menu, too.

View this post on Instagram

brunch to go

A post shared by abakedjoint (@abakedjoint) on

Astro Doughnuts & Fried Chicken (Multiple Locations)

Head to Astro Donuts and indulge in a breakfast doughnut sandwich: fried chicken or eggs served on a savory donut or biscuit with a variety of add-ons and sauces. Customers can also pick up fresh, individual doughnuts like classic glazed, maple bacon, or PB&J. Get some tots with it.

Yellow the Cafe

This new daytime cafe resides in a canary-colored private dining room inside Albi, chef Michael Rafidi’s wood-burning Middle Eastern restaurant in Navy Yard. The mix of high-end, fine dining techniques and traditional Levantine flavors continues at the bakery with breakfast pita sandwiches full of smoked labneh, harissah bacon and cheese croissants, and morning buns spiced with ras al hanout. Breakfast starts at 8 a.m., and weekends bring on urfa chile-spiced bagels and shakshuka. Order takeout online.

Yellow in Navy Yard combines French baking techniques with Middle Eastern ingredients
Pastries full of Middle Eastern ingredients from Yellow in Navy Yard
Scott Suchman/For Yellow

Bob & Edith's Diner (Multiple Locations)

Bob & Edith’s stayed open 24 hours a day before COVID-19. Now, this old-school diner still operates between the generous hours of 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., with takeout breakfast available all day. Expect standard two-egg breakfasts with meat and the usual sides, plus hot cakes and omelets.

Bob & Edith’s Diner [Official website]

Related Maps