Washington Post food critic Tom Sietsema writes that the recently opened Mount Rainier wine bar at 3300 Rhode Island Ave. features “a menu that highlights the spice route of yore.”
The owners of the freshly minted Era Wine Bar in Mt. Rainier don’t sound like your typical restaurateurs. Michelle Grant comes from the technology sector and her husband, Ka-ton Grant, is an engineer/physicist. “I always wanted to do something outside my training,” says Michelle. “To explore my passion,” adds the D.C. native and grape nut.
Visitors will find 45 wines by the glass and a global roster of dishes (tandoori wings, lamb sliders) in what was once a sewing machine factory. Grant says she was aiming for “old-world characteristics and new-world charm” in the 60-seat dining room, which is outfitted with comfortable leather chairs, broad marble tables, Mexican tiles and clay wine pots from the former Soviet republic of Georgia.
Grant, whose parents are from Zambia, has trained two cooks to follow family recipes or directions for dishes she fell in love with on her travels. Hence, a menu that highlights the spice route of yore, and snacks including spicy, beef-filled samosas that Grant originally made in-house but now buys from Swahili Village in Beltsville. “They taste most like my family’s,” she says of the hot pockets accompanied by tamarind and green chile sauces. Cheese and charcuterie plates come in a trio of flavors: American, Italian and French. Spain is well-represented by a zippy stew of chickpeas, crushed tomatoes and slivered garlic infused with smoked paprika; Morocco gets name-checked by a tender chicken tagine, laced with saffron and bedded on fluffy couscous. Grant likes to pair the last dish with a crisp white wine from Croatia, Malvazija. (The list focuses on small producers from beyond the usual regions.)
Era is reaching out to its neighbors in ways large and small. Wines can be explored in three-, six- and nine-ounce tastes or glasses. A “king’s table” in the restaurant’s cellar can accommodate parties of up to 16. And Grant, who has an 18-month-old daughter named Leila, was thinking of new moms when she placed a chair in the restroom.
3300 Rhode Island Ave., Mt. Rainier, Md. 301-235-3788. erawinebar.com. Open for indoor and outdoor dining. Small plates and bowls, $9 to $24.
