A Vietnamese street food classic comes inside on Capitol Hill.
Researching the city’s best coffee shops tends to mean riding a caffeine high tempered only by a steady stream of mediocre pastries, inexplicably made in-house when perfectly wonderful bakeries could supply far better wholesale for half the effort. Which meant that by the time I reached Phê, the über-cool Capitol Hill Vietnamese matcha shop and café, I leapt at the chance to change things up. As tempting as the banh mi selection was (with pork, vegan, and halal lemongrass chicken options), I ordered the xôi mặn—literally salty sticky rice—to offset the dessertlike signature banana pudding matcha latte.
The Vietnamese street food staple appears elegant and petite, a bowl of artfully composed toppings over seasoned sticky rice. But the heft of the rice and the many types of meat make it plenty filling as a meal, particularly when combined with, say, a Phê phở—coffee with condensed milk and phở spice cream.
How many types of meat, you might wonder, is “many?” Well, there’s a tangle of blushing xá xíu pork (similar to Chinese char siu or BBQ pork), echoed by the deeper red of Chinese sausage. There is pâté, and a pile of thinly sliced Vietnamese-style ham (chả lụa), squiggled with orange hot sauce. The brown of the chicken meat floss is dwarfed by the brightness of the omelet-like ruffle of eggs, and two precise rounds of cucumber, supplying greenery and crunch.
Phê earned its reputation and endless lines through the care and color on display in its extravagant matcha drinks. But it was the care and color put into a comforting bowl of rice on a quiet weekday morning (with no line whatsoever) that made it clear that, beneath its trendy street cred, Phê is serious about what it does.