General Info

The new Darrah's Cafe in Fort Washington offers a unique alternative to the same old fast food and chain restaurants in their neighborhood with a focus on fine dining with strictly made-to-order food. In fact, the Darrah family aims for their restaurant to be "recognized as one of the finest dining facilities in the metropolitan area," said Todd Darrah, who runs it with his wife, Susie, and daughters Shuxian and Susie. The Darrahs bring nine years of restaurant ownership experience to Fort Washington. They opened the cafe four months ago, after purchasing the building and "acknowledging the need for this kind of affordable yet fine-dining establishment in the community," Todd Darrah said. Although the dining room has white tablecloths and cloth napkins, customers can try anything from a tuna sandwich to filet mignon, and "nothing on the menu exceeds $22 or $23," says Darrah. Nightly specials offer different choices, like seafood platter or prime rib cuts on Friday and Saturday nights, but many menu choices like chicken pot pie or the family-recipe rotisserie chicken are popular too. Most important is the fact that everything is fresh as can be! There are no cans in the kitchen or frozen vegetables used. There are no heat lamps to keep cooked food hot, and not even a microwave. "It's just a really unique restaurant," says Darrah. "The best thing about it is the made-to-order food service."