Washingtonian Magazine
100 Best Restaurants, 2006
Just minutes form the strip malls on Rockville Pike, this lovingly renovated post office turned restaurant is an oasis of countrified charm: a front porch for summer dining, freight trains clacking by, and a casual vibe that's a fitting backdrop for the menu of comfort classics.
Black Market isn't the most refined or flashiest of biggest of Jeff and Barbara Black's four restaurants. But it's the most likable and satisfying. Smart touches abound: Panko-crusted oysters come with a lemon-herb aioli; black-bean soup is topped with a corn-poblano relish; a bowl of creamy scallion grits gets a boost from spicy-sweet New Orleans - style barbecue shrimp; a hardwood-grilled hanger steak is ramped up by a complex chimichurri; a rockfish is jolted to life by a stew of cockles, chorizo and spinach.
More down to earth but no less rewarding are the Black Market burger with crispy onions and the pizzas - especially the Bianca with caramelized onions and garlic. Also not to be overlooked os the frozen chocolate-toffee crunch cake for dessert.
Reservations Are Accepted For Dinner Every Evening, Monday - Sunday.
Washingtonian Magazine
100 Very Best Restaurants, 2005
Sitting in the retro-stylish dining room of Black Market Bistro, you feel a million miles from the city. Garrett Park, an enclave of Victorian houses between Kensington and Rockville, has old-time rhythms. People still pick up their mail at the post office, and freight trains roar through several times a day. The Bistro is also a place to get a great hamburger, thin-crust pizzas, and good Modern American cuisine. During the day folks stop in for coffee and home-baked scones, muffins, and cookies from the market nestled in one corner.
Signature dinner plates include New Orleans?style barbecue shrimp over scallion grits; Southern chicken breast with arugula and shaved Parmesan; salmon with a Lebanese salad of crunchy pita, tomato, and cucumber; an attractive antipasto platter; and specials like duck confit with white beans. Breads and desserts are made in-house. Most notable is the daily cake--sometimes chocolate fudge, sometimes chocolate espresso--displayed on a cake stand at the bar/counter. A no-reservations policy can mean waits, though when the weather turns warm, the tables on the porch help the cause.
Washington Post Magazine
By Tom Sietsema
Sunday, January 23, 2005
The meal was just what I was looking for after fighting rush-hour traffic: flank steak and buttery whipped potatoes, the rosy beef slathered with a garlicky green herb sauce and crowned with lacy onion rings. That and a glass of shiraz were as soothing as a bedtime story.
The small dining room where I was sitting was a true comfort zone, even if my friends and I did have to wait 20 minutes for a table on a weeknight. Old-fashioned light fixtures, buffed wood floors, a counter set with fresh cookies -- Black Market Bistro looks as if Restoration Hardware and Mayberry's Aunt Bee had put their heads together to come up with a cozy space for supper. Halfway into my entree, though, the sides of the building shivered, and what sounded like the Polar Express overtook the hum of conversation. Strangers looked at one another in confusion; regulars to the restaurant merely smiled in recognition. Another freight train was rumbling by, over tracks just yards from the restaurant's front door. The train quickly passed. Diners returned to their food and "So, you were saying . . ."
This vignette is brought to Garrett Park by restaurateurs Jeff and Barbara Black. If their names aren't familiar, their other dining rooms should be. The husband and wife made Rockville a better place to eat with Addie's, which offers a bungalow setting and imaginative American cooking, and made Bethesda a more appealing destination with the seafood-themed Black's Bar and Kitchen. Black Market Bistro opened in this leafy residential neighborhood in September, but it is not the couple's youngest business: Yet another tribute to the family name -- Black Salt -- set sail on MacArthur Boulevard in Northwest Washington last month. Full Review
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