Bread basket

[noamb]

I’ve had a surprisingly hard time figuring out which DC area (most relevantly for me the Virginia side) have good bread and butter, either free or as a bread basket you can order. I thought I’d turn to your collective wisdom. Bonus for places that aren’t too expensive.

Carlyle in Shirlington has a decent one, from Best Buns. I’ve also heard good things about the Wharf in Alexandria, but the actual food is more expensive than I had been looking for. 

P.S. If I missed an existing thread, sorry, but I couldn’t figure out how to restrict my search to this board, or otherwise to the DC area.

[Kibbee Nayee]

According to my daughter, the bread offered at Patty O's in Little Washington is top notch, but that's probably not what you're looking for with respect to travel and ease of scoring a reservation.

I'm not a fan of the Great American Restaurant Group, but if you are, they have solid bread baskets and will refill them if you request.

You're right about Best Buns, and they provide the bread for most of the GAR restaurants too, but I would try their in-house menu in Arlington. 

Del Ray Cafe also comes to mind.

This is the kind of question that would be ideal for one of Sietsema's Wednesday online chats.

And a slightly different slant on your question is the warm pita bread served at all Lebanese and Levantine restaurants, so as to serve as a scoop for most of the foods. The piping hot pita basket at Lebanese Taverna hits the spot every time, but don't forget Me Jana in Arlington and Zenola in Vienna, among quite a few others. At Zenola, there is a warm disk at the bottom of the basket to keep the bread warm throughout the meal.

(When Jon Krinn was at Clarity in Vienna, and 2941 and Inox before that, you could rely on his father's bread baking to be extraordinary. Wherever Krinn ends up you can be sure that the bread service will be quite good.)