Tucked away in the Park Hyatt hotel, Blue Duck Tavern is an upscale restaurant with American fare made from seasonal ingredients.
Since it opened in 2006, Blue Duck Tavern has secured itself as a reliable, tasty brunch spot. Just minutes from campus at 1201 24th St. NW, the Michelin-starred restaurant is in high demand, so you’ll need to make a reservation before you can indulge in this dish of the week.
The restaurant boasts huge glass windows, letting light flood in and brighten the room of sleek dark wooden tables. The space also has an open kitchen layout, so you can watch dishes being made before your eyes or take a peek at the extensive wine list in its floor-to-ceiling wine cellar.
Breakfast and dinner are served daily, while lunch is served Monday through Friday. On the weekends, the restaurant swaps lunch for brunch. The brunch menu has options at a lower price point than the dinner menu and offers both breakfast and lunch items, making it a perfect way to try the restaurant – even as a cash-strapped college student.
When you’re ready to dig in, you’ll want to split starters among the table like the heavenly jumbo lump crab cakes ($16) topped with lobster aioli and smoked trout roe. Blue Duck Tavern’s pecan sticky buns ($12) are served warm and are sure to be fought over by family or friends.
Blue Duck Tavern tackles traditional breakfast like pros, including their pancakes ($19) topped with macerated cherries and pistachio brittle. More hearty entrees include the BDT brunch burger ($12), an open-faced burger loaded with garlic aioli, red onion, butter pickles and raclette cheese, topped off with a sunny side up egg.
However, the dish that will keep you coming back to Blue Duck Tavern time and time again is their hot-fried chicken biscuit ($20).
The dish is built atop a light and flaky biscuit, serving as a canvas to a dollop of cole slaw and fried chicken with a sunny side up egg perched on top. The crunchy skin of the fried chicken and the runny egg yolk are absorbed into the biscuit, marrying the plate’s different flavors together.
The coleslaw, mixed with vegetables like carrots and red cabbage, adds a palatable crunch to the dish, while also cooling down the subtle heat from the spices of the chicken.
On its own, the fried chicken is crunchy on the outside with an almost unbelievably juicy interior at first bite. While the dish is served with hot spices and house hot sauce, the fried chicken’s heat is not overbearing and instead packs the perfect punch.
Lastly, the sunny side up egg placed on top adds to its already appealing presentation, so you can quickly snap a brunch photo before scarfing down the whole dish.
Next time you’re looking to treat yourself – or need to entertain parents in town for the weekend – head to Blue Duck Tavern and indulge in a hot-fried chicken biscuit.
