Artichoke dishes at restaurants near Arlington

No clue about Arlington, but the Woodmont Grill in Bethesda is part of the Hillstone chain and their signature appetizer is grilled artichokes. It's a higher-end chain but the artichokes are delicious.

Whole Foods sells artichokes already prepared and ready to go. They are excellent--the farm does the prep work and they are shrink-wrapped. Any artichoke lover would like these I assure you. They are found in the produce section, usually near the mushrooms and the prepped vegetables and fruit. They are nice sautéed and tossed with pasta.
It is also artichoke season so you may see whole artichokes, but even as an avid vegetable eater I find them a pain.

Restaurants usually do a lot to artichokes, which your friend may or may not find off-putting.

Artichokes have lots and lots of thick leaves growing from a 'heart.'. Once cooked, you pull the leaves off and scrape away the little bits of artichoke left on each leaf with your teeth. Most folks dip those leaves in melted butter and lemon before scraping. But it's not necessary. The leaves do not get eaten. Once the leaves are pulled away, you are left with the heart which is about the size of a kiwi, a nice chunk of edible artichoke that can be eaten as is (usually cut into pieces at this point) or prepared in some further way such as a spray of olive oil and broiled to make then crispy. Ultimately a single artichoke is not a lot of food despite the size of an artichoke.

I suppose you've gone this long without seeing an artichoke?

Thanks for the recipe, Ferret. I just bought two of them and will give it a try. I am more of a stew or steak cook, but it is worth a shot.
Valadelphia, thanks for the heads up on WholeFoods. If my cooking doesn't turn my friend against artichokes forever, I will try WF and see if she likes them.
Steve, I have had one, years ago, with melted butter, but I didn't cook it or see it cooked. Eating it seemed like a lot of work for an appetizer that was more butter flavor than "meat". I didn't like it, but if my friend does, I will try to make it work. I have also had artichoke hearts in salads and they were ok but not something I would search for.
Describing my ambivalence towards artichokes made me think of how for years I thought (cuisine not to be named for fear of my friends seeing this post) food was greasy and bland. I had it twice a year when I visited a friends house and she and her family cooked for us, so I thought that that was what all (un-named cuisine) food was like.
Then I went to another (un-named nation of said cuisine) families house for a picnic and the (un-named cuisine) food there was universally outstanding. Odd that.
Thinking I know that I don't like roasted artichokes after having a sum total of one of them is probably not the most logical thought process I have engaged in.

MAYBE NOT OF USE TO YOU NOW, ZIV, BUT I DO want to mention that The Italian Store in Arlington has in their deli case the marinated young artichokes with long stems (one eats the whole thing). These are essentially like the marinated hearts one gets in jars, but made fresh and are NOT OILY (so eating out of hand is the way to go).

PS, FWIW, the restaurant Luciano's in Oakton is owned/operated by a lovely Sicilian lady who is very accommodating. My point is, while its not near to Arlington, it might be a place that you could talk to the manager and inquire about a special order of, say, stuffed artichokes (as in a catering order). (Luciano's is the Italian that used to also live in Tysons mall near Lord and Taylor. Still miss it to this day. High Rents ran them out).