Villa Yara

Villa Yara at 2815 M Street NW is a Mediterranean restaurant on the lower M Street commercial block, adjacent to Taj of India at 2809 and in the section of M Street that runs from the Key Bridge approach toward the main Georgetown commercial cluster. The Lebanese and Mediterranean focus at Villa Yara serves the Georgetown M Street dining market with the mezze culture, the grilled meat tradition, and the wine culture of the Eastern Mediterranean.

Lebanese cooking, which is the Mediterranean culinary tradition that Villa Yara’s menu draws most directly from, is organized around the mezze table: the array of small dishes that begins the meal and that can constitute the entire meal if enough varieties are ordered. The hummus, made from cooked chickpeas with tahini, lemon juice, and garlic; the baba ganoush, the roasted eggplant prepared with the same tahini base as the hummus; the tabbouleh, the parsley salad with the fine-grain bulgur wheat, tomato, and lemon; the kibbeh, the ground lamb and bulgur croquette that the Lebanese kitchen has developed in dozens of variations; and the labneh, the strained yogurt served with olive oil and dried mint, are the preparations that define the Lebanese mezze table.

The grilled meat tradition that follows the mezze in the Lebanese restaurant sequence covers the kafta, the ground lamb or beef skewer mixed with onion and parsley; the shish taouk, the marinated and grilled chicken; and the lamb chops that the Lebanese grill has always produced as the premium option. The flat bread that accompanies the Lebanese meal, baked in the wood oven or on the griddle, is the vehicle for the mezze and the accompaniment to the grilled meats.

Hours run from 11:30am most days and noon Sunday. The Lebanese restaurant tradition in Washington DC is sustained by the large and established Lebanese-American community that has been part of the Washington metropolitan area since the early twentieth century immigration waves. The Lebanese community’s long establishment in the Washington area has created both the customer base for the Lebanese restaurant and the supply infrastructure of Lebanese grocery importers and producers who supply the mezze ingredients that the restaurant requires. The lower M Street address at 2815 gives Villa Yara a position between the Key Bridge approach and the main M Street commercial cluster, serving the dining population that uses the lower M Street restaurants for the casual dinner and the neighborhood meal. The wine list at a Lebanese restaurant that takes its wine program seriously draws on the Lebanese wine tradition that has developed significantly since the Bekaa Valley producers began marketing their wines internationally in the 1990s. The Chateau Musar, which has been the most internationally recognized Lebanese wine since Serge Hochar introduced it to the broader wine market, represents the Lebanese wine tradition at its most distinctive: the Bordeaux-influenced red blend that the Bekaa Valley’s altitude and temperature produce is unlike any other wine in the world. Hours run from 11:30am most days and noon Sunday.