In a world where anything’s possible, you can try food from a former Noma chef smack dab in the middle of the grocery store.

The last consecutive Thursday and Friday of every month, chef Travis Olson gets to go bonkers designing a playful and hyper-local menu for 10 guests inside Glen’s Garden Market, a stone’s throw from Dupont Circle. We snapped Travis explaining how he made freshly churned cultured butter, which accompanied the first course. 

Even though there were dishes like duck egg and pork belly on the multi-course tasting menu, Travis joked that the most expensive dish was actually the Kurihikari rice dish. The rice is Japanese in style, but dry-farmed at Next Step Produce in Maryland. These precious grains were served alongside sugar snap peas with a splash of elderflower vinegar butter sauce. Every ingredient came from a special place and carried a story. Nothing was plated without purpose.

Glen’s Garden Market is the brainchild of Danielle Vogel, whom we snapped after dinner with Travis. She’s a fourth generation grocer and the store is lovingly named after her late father. Danielle is detail-oriented and has thought of just about everything to keep her store environmentally responsible. “Actually, I call it environmentally progressive,” she tells us. There are showers for staff to encourage them to bike to work and the freezer is thoughtfully positioned inside the walk-in to conserve energy.