The 5 best museum cafes in D.C.

Not to take away from Dorothy’s ruby slippers, Renoir’s “Luncheon of the Boating Party” or a cereal heiress’s manicured 25 acres, but some of Washington’s prized cultural attractions offer reasons beyond art and artifacts for lingering: food made from scratch.

Let me introduce you to some of the city’s best museum cafes — a handful of places that not only reflect the venues’ impressive collections but revel in good taste.

Eat at America’s Table Cafe

National Museum of American History

The 5 best museum cafes in D.C.

Part of the charm of waiting in any line in the cafeteria here is the display case leading the way to the food stations.

Scores of lunch boxes, spanning the 1890s to the 1980s, capture their evolution from simple metal pails used by factory and other workers to cartoon-colored containers doubling as billboards for school kids. Early containers included repurposed coffee and tobacco tins. Later lunch boxes reflected popular culture: a fascination with cowboys and space in the 1950s and 1960s, for instance.

Melinda Machado, the museum’s director of communications and marketing, says the display, which rotates the museum’s “hundreds” of lunch boxes, prompts nostalgia and invites “intergenerational conversation.”

Twenty cooks, led by executive chef Mollie Kaufmann, supply the multiple food stations with dishes that consider the season and take into account the spectrum of American tastes. A visitor can get burgers and chicken tenders, then, but why would anyone do so in light of all the interesting alternatives, including homey roast chicken, skin-on trout served with lemon wedges and a “walking taco”: a small bag of Fritos split open and heaped with chili, cheese and sour cream? The last item is featured at the Southwest Kitchen station, an idea from Kaufmann, who came aboard in February.

The salad bar is a varied and contemporary one; nice to see watermelon-tomato salad in the lineup. Periodically, the late Julia Child, whose home kitchen is displayed in the museum, gets remembered with selections including clafloutis, ratatouille and (oh la la) beef bourguignon. Like all the Smithsonian cafes on the Mall, this one is managed by Restaurant Associates.

Roasted chicken with lemon and thyme atop spring peas and fava beans with mint and lemon at Eat at America’s Table Cafe.

Sit near the window and you catch a view of the Washington Monument.

At peak season — now — the kitchen serves an average of 12,000 meals a week. (No problem for Kaufmann, previously the culinary operations manager at World Central Kitchen.) Any line tends to move quickly, though, and the cashiers are personable, popping their eyes along with those of a teenager when they see a small plate of fruit weighing in at $7 and taking the time to compliment another customer on their jacket.

Head for the tables for two near the windows, where the views take in the equally appetizing National Museum of African American History and Culture as well as the Washington Monument. Rooms with views tend to be spendy or out of reach. This one is a happy exception.

1300 Constitution Ave. NW. No phone. americanhistory.si.edu/visit/food-stores. Open 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily. Grilled items and entrees, $8 to $21; self-serve food, $20 a pound.

Bread Furst Cafe

Phillips Collection

Mark Furstenberg had no intention of expanding his popular Van Ness bakery, Bread Furst. A request from the Phillips Collection two years ago changed his mind.

As a little boy, his grandmother used to drive him from Baltimore to Washington in a green 1947 Oldsmobile to visit the District’s cultural attractions, tours that included the Phillips in Dupont Circle. “I couldn’t resist at least talking about the idea,” says Furstenberg, the 2017 recipient of the Outstanding Baker award from the James Beard Foundation, who RSVP’d “yes” to the invitation.

Thoughtfully, the Phillips lets visitors graze at the cafe without paying admission; diners get special pins at the entry to distinguish them from museum goers. Unlike at the bakery, dishes are made to order and brought to a table. Take your pick from a small dining room dressed in part with some of Furstenberg’s photographs of bread from his travels or an outside patio and tables shaded by big umbrellas. Also different from the bakery: Customers can pair an order with beer or (canned, respectable) wine.

This is a generous kitchen. Some dishes — the delicious Middle Eastern dips, a torta packed with chicken adobo, queso fresco and lime-y cabbage — are so bountiful, you’re tempted to pull over another faux marble table for support. Order the ham sandwich (and you should), and lunch enough for two follows: a baguette split in half, spread with good butter, a suggestion of Dijon mustard, and a slice of cheese that doesn’t get in way of the star, heritage ham.

Some items, like the quiche, are unique to the cafe. Nutmeg-laced custard, diced ham and a buttery crust add up to a role model. Of course you want a cookie; ginger molasses calls my name (over and over, so I buy bags over singles). Of the cakes, carrot cake impresses us with its warm spices and restraint with sugar.

Those who like their sweets on the savory side will appreciate the fruit-and-nut bread, so dense with the advertised ingredients that a lot of people take half home, says Furstenberg, who encourages them to eat the rest with a spread of cheese. The cafe also stocks loaves of the bakery’s popular rustic sourdough, multigrain and olive levain.

Soups are crammed with flavor and reflect the season. Already I’m looking forward to the return of the cafe’s homey chicken noodle soup, a cool-weather selection.

Good news for hungry culture vultures: The baker, 87, just renewed his contract with the Phillips for another three years. I see more (fab) grilled cheese and mushroom sandwiches in my future.

1600 21st St. NW. 202-387-2151. phillipscollection.org/cafe. Open 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Sandwiches and salads, $15 to $17.

Merriweather Café

Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens

Reuben sandwich with house-cured corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and Russian dressing at Merriweather Café.

“What’s good, quiet and won’t break the bank?”

I hear a variation of that question every week, always wishing I had more answers. So you can imagine my excitement when I took a break from smelling the roses — orchids and more — on the sumptuous grounds of Hillwood for lunch earlier this month. If you need a pause that refreshes, the light-filled dining room set off by a peaked ceiling is where you want to land. (The cafe’s seating extends to a tented area and includes space for private events. My preference is for the dining room dressed with scooped chairs, wood floors and a sage-green and gray-blue palette.)

Jazz plays in the air and sometimes on the plate. Witness a recent salad of creamy burrata and pickled strawberries and a salmon entree splayed on a bright red pepper sauce and framed in a garland of fava beans, tomatoes and other vegetables. The menu forces tough decisions. Will it be the herbed crab salad sparked with lemon or the coronation chicken salad, whispering of curry and punctuated with slivered almonds? I ask my dining companion to get one so I can order the other, then ask to share. On the heartier side, there’s a respectable Reuben sandwich offered with a field of thick potato chips.

Lunch customers at Merriweather Café.

Order the crudités — an eye-catching assortment of snap peas, asparagus, endive and carrots served with a creamy feta dip — and you hear the light crunch of fresh vegetables as you eat. (A sound check of 68 decibels translates to easy conversation.)

The menu, created and executed by the Constellation Culinary group, nods to the estate’s collections. The home of Marjorie Merriweather Post includes two ceremonial chairs from Queen Elizabeth II’s 1953 coronation, hence the chicken salad, while the occasional appearance of borscht is a hat tip to the late heiress’s collection of Imperial Russian art, including jeweled Fabergé eggs.

4155 Linnean Ave. NW. 202-686-5807. hillwoodmuseum.org/cafe. Open 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Salads, sandwiches and entrees, $19 to $27.

Mitsitam Native Foods Cafe

National Museum of the American Indian

Fry bread taco at Mitsitam Native Foods Cafe.

While fry bread slathered with refried beans and offered with a choice of toppings is the No. 1 seller at Mitsitam Native Foods Cafe, executive chef Alexandra Strong wants visitors to see the breadth of the American Indian experience.

Which explains the Peruvian chicken on her summer menu. Strong, a native of Puerto Rico with ties to the Taíno, indigenous people of the Caribbean and Florida, sounds proud as she describes taking whole chickens, brining them for five days in onion, garlic, peppers, sour oranges and soy sauce before roasting. It’s a routine and a recipe fact-checked by a Peruvian cook on her staff, she wants you to know.

Strong, the former top chef at the Senate and World Bank, has cooked for some demanding audiences. Her menu at Mitsitam, which translates to “let’s eat” in the native tongue of the Delaware and Piscataway tribes, promotes indigenous food from the Western Hemisphere, elevating certain dishes. Note the stripes of cilantro crema on the enchilada stuffed with beans, corn and peppers. Seek out the chili made with shredded bison and finished with shredded lettuce, tomato and jalapeños. Accessorize a plate of fish with two of my favorite side dishes here: nutty wild rice tossed with carrots and scallions and a crisp sweet potato cake veined with corn and onion.

Chef Alexandra Strong.

Looking out at the waterfall from Mitsitam Native Foods Cafe.

A square of corn pudding tastes reminiscent of carrot cake, thanks to warm baking spices, nuts and currants. A dollop of cranberry chutney balances the flavors. (I appreciate the accents here and there, including the dried cherries cooked in balsamic vinegar atop the fish.)

Mitsitam is one of the most restorative meal breaks on the Mall, a detail aided and abetted by ribs of wood in the airy dining room and a curved picture window framing a small waterfall. “Let’s eat” and chill.

Independence Avenue SW and 4th Street SW. 202-633-6644. americanindian.si.edu. Open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. Grill items and entrees, $9 to $24.

Sweet Home Café

National Museum of African American History and Culture

Gospel Bird Platter with biscuits, mac and cheese, and collards from the Sweet Home Café.

The lines in this sprawling underground cafeteria are longest at the station serving golden fried chicken, a dish that pulls you in with its aroma and later makes you wish you ordered double.

Veteran D.C. chef Ramin Coles tweaked his mother’s recipe, and it’s finger lickin’ good. Eleven herbs and spices and a splash of buttermilk account for the flavor of the brined bestseller. Mac and cheese and collard greens make fitting sidekicks. The latter is nicely seasoned with fresh onion, garlic and mustard and demonstrates the chef’s desire to embrace all appetites. The collard greens are vegan.

Fried catfish — steamy, moist and gently crisp — is the chicken’s equal and a chance to share the fact Coles has worked for some of the city’s top seafood specialists: chefs Jeff Black and the late, great Bob Kinkead. Keep your eyes peeled for shrimp and grits, an occasional catch, in other words. And say yes to something sweet and Southern, foremost the nutmeg-scented sweet potato pie and pretty peach cake topped with real whipped cream.

The warm-toned, 400-seat cafe is an inclusive dining destination. Past food stations have played up Ethiopian and Haitian cuisines and the recipes of celebrated Black chefs including Leah Chase. (Check out its website for updates.) May featured lemongrass chicken with pickled papaya, a delicious combination prepared by the cafe’s lead prep cook, Chantrea Ouk, in celebration of Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month. More of that, please — the dish and the recognition.