Duke's Grocery — Restaurant in Potomac

Giving Duke’s Grocery Potomac 4.5 stars. For only being open for less than two months, they seem to have their act together. My sister and I had an early dinner on a Saturday evening. We had 4.30 reservations so the place was a little quiet when we arrived. We spent quite a bit of time there and the bar area was packed by the end of our time there. I was surprised when I saw that this location of Duke’s only has an average rating of 3.8. I have eaten at the Dupont location and have always been happy with the food and the service. Once I started reading the reviews I was no longer surprised.

For some reason, the public seems to feel like restaurants should be perfect when they open their doors. There are a lot of moving parts to a restaurant and sometimes you won’t know what needs to be addressed until you start serving the public. I really feel like there should be a way for restaurants to delay receiving reviews until they have been open for 6 months.

Now to the experience. MJ, one of the bartenders, took care of us for most of our meal and she was amazing. She touched our table with water in a timely fashion and she was beyond personable and engaging. Not only was she on top of things in terms of service, she also asked our thoughts on what could be addressed. When MJ went on her break, Noelle, who also worked the bar, seamlessly filled her shoes and took care of us.

The food: we shared the caesar salad, caramelized onion dip, and the wings with buffalo sauce. Entree was the proper burger with fries. Tip for whoever orders the onion dip, mix it at the table to make sure the caramelized notes are better distributed throughout the dip. We loved the vinegar level on the wings so would definitely return to those. I am also a big fan of the furikake on the salad. The proper burger was delicious and the beef was flavorful. I saw a few complaints about the beef and I have to wonder if those people know what good beef tastes like. I only have one note on the beef and that is to add a little more salt before it hits the heat. When we ate at the Dupont location, they didn’t have fries on the menu so this was our first experience with Duke’s fries. There are absolutely no complaints there. They were soft and fluffy on the inside while being crispy on the outside. We did let both MJ and Noelle know that the dessert, sticky toffee bread pudding, could use some work. It being a bread pudding was fine but there was a bit of a miss on the sticky toffee part of it. It could use more of the richness and dates found in a sticky toffee pudding. Between the two of us we had 5 drinks, 4 of those being cocktails. The pickly gin martini, the tequila cocktail and the mezcal cocktail (with a little less mango puree) were winners. Don’t order the espresso martini. I only ordered it to have with dessert and it is not on the menu so probably not a specialty of a joint modeled after a British style pub. I am looking forward to seeing more beers on the menu.

Overall a very good experience and I am glad that one of the DC joints I enjoy moved to the suburbs. I just hope the MoCo residents are able to keep this location open. Parking is also...

Ah, brunch at Duke’s Grocery in Potomac. You know, there are moments in life, fleeting and unassuming, that unfold with a level of elegance so rare, one must simply pause, lean back in a well-worn leather booth, and savor the scene. This, my friend, was one of those moments.

🚙 Navigating the winding roads of Potomac’s leafy corridors, one might assume you’re heading to an undisclosed rendezvous, not a brunch spot. But tucked just beyond the bends is Duke’s Grocery, a place that doesn’t demand attention, it earns it, quietly and irrevocably.

🍽️From the moment I stepped inside, I felt the deliberate hush of a sanctuary. Dark wood-paneled walls, subtle lighting, the kind of atmosphere that whispers, “You’re safe here. Let us feed you.” And feed us they did, with precision and grace.

👧 Emily, our server, who greeted us not with the tired cheer of the typical brunch host but with a warmth that felt lived-in, earned, was a marvel. Not overbearing, not aloof. Just present. And in a world bursting with artifice, that’s rarer than a truffle in April.

🍔 Now, let’s talk about the Duke’s Wagyu burger. A revelation in restraint and richness. The kind of dish that doesn’t shout, it seduces. Each bite was a passport stamp in a decadent journey, a subtle nod to craft, patience, and a cook who cares.

🍔 Along with it, also came the Proper burger. Oh, dear. Medium rear, layered with arugula, pickle, onion, and that spicy dipping sauce for the sweet potato fries? Exquisite. It didn’t just elevate the burger; it elevated the conversation around burgers. One wonders, with a sigh and a sip of something chilled, why other establishments haven’t followed suit.

🕖 Service was uncanny, almost as if the kitchen anticipated our desires before we voiced them. The food arrived swiftly, as if it had been waiting just for us. That, my friend, is orchestration.

In the end, Duke’s Grocery isn’t merely the best brunch in town. It’s a message: that craftsmanship still matters, that flavors should tell stories, and that a winding road through Potomac is, occasionally, the start of something wonderful.

Highly recommended. Not because it’s trendy. But because...

Understand this place is new, but the wait staff and host team were not friendly and inattentive. We got seated and it took 20 minutes to be acknowledged by anyone and be given water. Super disappointing. There were maybe 5 tables occupied when we were seated and plenty of wait staff. Thank you to Avi who was day 3 on the job and took the initiative to recognize no one had checked on us after being seated. He said it was a miscommunication and no one was assigned the table so he’d take care of us. Again, good on him, but communication is really important. We were forgotten and not checked in on until the end. It’s fine. They’re doing their best I guess. The food was meh, okay. Not as good as I anticipated with all the rave I’ve seen about this place. The mussels were sandy and gritty, disappointing but it happens- the broth had minimal flavor. The burgers were fine, but honestly I could go across the street to five guys for a more flavorful burger. The buns the burger comes on were probably the star of the show though. The fries were pretty good- at least they have that going for them too. Sweet potato fries were soggy, but the sauce they come with was good and light.

The place is dark, and really loud for not being super busy- must be the low ceilings and lay out. Prices are decent for being in the village. As a fellow foodie I probably wouldn’t return. As a new business in a competitive area, they need to get the wait staff in better shape or they won’t...