Jetties is a beach-themed sandwich shop that offers seaside-inspired soups, sandwiches and salads all year long.
There are two GWorld-accepting locations down the street from the Mount Vernon Campus in Foxhall at 1609 Foxhall Road NW and in Foggy Bottom at 1921 I St. NW. Complete with a pale blue ceiling, wood deck floors and colorful images of people playing at the beach, you can only find this single-floor tropical oasis in D.C.
The Jetties located on Foggy Bottom is open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays and exclusively offers lunch food. To order in-store, you can fill out a brightly colored order form – there’s one for sandwiches, one for salads and one for kids – and slip it to the cashier.
I stopped by the Foggy Bottom Jetties between classes at about noon to find many people on lunch break from their jobs. Pining for a taste of Thanksgiving, I skimmed the menu to surprisingly find a “Nobadeer” sandwich ($11) packed with roasted turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and mayo on sourdough bread.
The sandwich is evidently named after the Nobadeer beach in Nantucket, M.A., like many other sandwiches on the beach-themed menu including egg salad Great Point ($10) the hot, Italian-meat-filled Quidnet ($11) and the tuna salad Madaket ($10.50). Jetties itself is the name of a Nantucket beach.
The sandwich came wrapped in Jetties-brand paper, similar to how a parent wraps their kid’s lunch sandwiches. It was cut down the middle and looked like a mash of Thanksgiving leftovers on mayo-moistened bread, presented with a mass of turkey wedged between smeared stuffing and cranberry sauce.
The turkey and stuffing transport gave a punch of Thanksgiving flavor, and the white bread coated with cranberry sauce made me feel like I was eating at home. The thick stuffing and cranberry sauce offer deliciously competing flavors that ultimately melt in your mouth, and the hint of mayo combined with the sourdough and turkey give the sandwich some extra sauce.
The veggie-filled stuffing is not very salty but with its hummus-like consistency is a crucial part of the sandwich, acting as another sauce to mix in with the mayo and cranberry sauce. Jetties’ menu did not advertise the sandwich as hot, but the roasted turkey was served warm.
GW students can receive a free medium-sized fountain drink, which is usually about $2.75, with their purchase. I picked up a lemonade iced tea and added some of the restaurant’s hand-cut lemon wedges. I’ll admit, the overall price on-face for a sandwich and drink was a little distasteful – which is typical for food in D.C. – but the high-quality ingredients and low-cost drink help to justify the cost.
If you’re looking for some more traditional options, Jetties also offers a vegetarian Sconset Sandwich ($11) with hummus, the Long Pond Salad ($13) complete with egg, scallion and turkey and the Maryland Crab Soup ($4.50 for a small, $6 for a large), among a running list of seaside meals. You can also make-your-own sandwich, which is $8.95 for adults and $7.75 for kids.
If you miss the beach and can’t wait for Thanksgiving, the “Nobadeer” sandwich won’t disappoint.
