The Block in DC (Rose Ave Bakery & Pogiboy)

The runaway success of The Block in Annandale has spawned a version in Maryland and now in DC. The space in DC is tiny, and at the moment has only two active tenants along with a now dormant ice cream stand.

The big sensation is Rose Avenue Bakery which has developed quite the following with limited availability of their wares. In order to have access to the full range of pastries without waiting on line, people are reserving their pastries at 5pm on a Sunday evening for the following week. They are open to 2pm. The later you go, the shorter the wait but they start to run out. Can't go wrong, though I did not try any of the donuts.

I decided to walk in on Saturday, got there 11 minutes before opening, and I was 6th in line. I got out of there in 20 minutes of total waiting.

I tried a strawberry passionfriut kougin-ammin, 3 cookies (black sesame, matcha chocolate, and banana cinammon), a scallion bun, ensaymada (a bun covered with cream cheese and shredded cheese), and a chocolate eclair.

All were very well made, and I suppose my favorite is the scallion bun. Not at all like an Asian bun, it's a flaky, savory pastry. All cookies were excellent with the chocolate being very, very dense. The other two were more like butter cookies with limited flavor, but both divine. I also loved the ensaymada with its tangy coating. The chocolate eclair had a chocolate filling plus a chocolate ganache on top, so more like a triple chocolate eclair. Excellent quality.

Pogiboy is a modern Filipino burgers and bowls joint. A crab cake, a chicken burger and a few hamburgers. We tried two bowls: lechon kawali bowl and shrimp palabok noodles. Both very garlicky and delicious. The noodles were in a thick, bacon-y gravy with a bit too much salt, but delectable. A generous amount of shrimp, too. The lechon bowl is garlic fried rice with a generous amount of crackling fried pork belly, quite meaty.

Right now there is some inside seating with a few picnic tables outside. A good place to know about for a delicious, cheap meal.