Little Food Studio — Restaurant in Washington

Big energy and positive vibes surround this little cafe in Petworth. Once you pass the "Black Built. Black Owned. Black Baked. Black Brewed" sign in the window, you're swept away by music jamming, staff dancing and the smell of pastries baking. There's no better way to start your morning in Washington, D.C.

After years working in D.C.'s food scene, owner Danielle started her own food studio out of a small green brick building on Upshur Street NW where competition is tough. However, she carved out a unique piece of the restaurant pie brewing coffee and baking sweet and savory pastries in the morning and sandwiches for lunch.

For breakfast, they have sweet and savory options and some items that combine the two like the break pudding muffin with vanilla and fennel. The balsamic tart cherry scone is sweeter whereas the pancetta scone is savory. The sausage roll combines fennel and sage in a pork filled pastry.

They have a full espresso bar with flat whites, lattes, cortados and any other coffee drink you can imagine.

The service isn't service, it's family. They treat everyone with respect and welcome you as family.

Little Food Studio serves good food, brews great coffee and leaves you...

I worked in the Petworth area temporarily and finally got over to Little Food Studio in the spring. While I kept forgetting to write a review, I haven't forgotten how excellent they were. When I arrived, I was unsure of what to order and, letting the person at the register know I was caught between two options (Lynne and Ellen), they suggested I try their most popular sandwich (Ellen). The staff was friendly and clearly approached the food assembly with a lot of care. The love of good food there is so, so evident. Once I got the sandwich and retreated to my break area, ooh boy! What a sandwich. Like I said, I'm still thinking about it months later. The ingredients were fresh and flavorful, the balance of the sandwich ingredients was great, and the portion was quite large (you might consider saving half for a later meal). LFS's menu is a little unique without feeling super adventurous, so it's a great lunch option if you're tired of same-old, same-old. I highly...

Heard the good reviews and decided to try it out on an early Saturday morning shortly after open. My wife and I got 2 palmiers, a scone, a danish, and a lemonade.

The good: Not busy around 9am on a Saturday, no wait. The lemonade was really good, with the basil addition countering the acidity. The scone was quite good, with really good flavors and texture.

The bad: Small store that requires one at a time, I can see how this will get crowded, tight, and uncomfortable when it’s even semi busy. The palmiers were tiny, hard, and honestly kind of stale. Not much flavor when you compare to Tatte or something similar. The danish was so underwhelming, the flakey crust had zero flavor and the cheese itself was so bland; even the blueberries had almost no flavor.

I don’t think this cute little shop lived up to the culinary hype and I didn’t get a chance to try their lunch sandwiches, so I might come back for those, but I wouldn’t come back for...