Z&Z – Manoushe Bakery, Rockville, Montgomery County, Maryland – John Tanner’s Barbecue Blog

I continue to chip away at the New York Times’ list of the 25 Best Places to Eat in Washington with a trip to Z&Z-Manoushe Bakery in Rockville. It sits at 1111 Nelson Street and in many ways it’s a lovely setting. Woodley Gardens Park is across the street, backed by a stream and woodlands. Z&Z itself sits in a small shopping center one down from Carmen’s Italian Ice, and the two share an inviting shaded outdoor seating area where the laughter and happy chatter counter the hum of traffic on nearby I-270. It really is a pleasant setting.

Inside there’s a tiny counter where a smiling employee takes your order. As you order you share a corner with containers of baklava and various seductive dips, so you might want to wear blinders.

The lynx-eyed among you will not miss the glossy strip on the customer’s outfit. That’s part of his graduation robe which bore the words, “First Generation.” That was very nice indeed, heartwarming, really. Z&Z was founded by the Dubanneh family. They immigrated to the US in the 1980s and Issa, the paterfamilias, started a restaurant — fried chicken, I believe. After some decades the second generation founded Z&Z. The name refers to “zayt,” the Arabic word for olive oil, and “za’atar,” a spice blend born in the Levant. To complete the restaurant’s name, manoushe is a whole wheat round flatbread with a puffy outer ring surrounding a crisp center. Think Neapolitan pizza, and indeed manoushe is sometimes referred to as “Lebanese pizza.” Such cross-cultural references naturally cause arguments (which came first, pizza or manoushe?) much like “Who invented barbecue?” Of course, people have been cooking large meat over wood coals since the dawn of time, and crisp bread with a puffy ring appeared shortly thereafter. The good folks at Z&Z approach life with a sense of humor,

and while the sons run the show, Issa keeps a close eye on who works the hardest and the smartest.

I arrived never having had a manoushe. I was familiar with za’atar, which burst into my consciousness on my first trip to Opal where the star of the evening was a dish of carrots with za’atar. “Carrots the star?” you ask as you wonder if I’m dangerous. Yes, carrots. I ran down to Shemali’s the next day and bought some Za’atar.

Never having had a manoushe, I asked them and, on the advice of the cashier, ordered a “cocktail,” half za’atar and half cheese. Za’atar is a mix of spices, perhaps sumac, cumin, and coriander, and herbs like oregano, marjoram, and thyme, and also sesame seeds. There are myriad combinations, and a particular mix will include some but not others of those and, who knows, perhaps other seasonings. Here’s my cocktail.

Some foods don’t look like much until you’ve eaten them, and then they’re gorgeous. As you can see, the za’atar was layed on with a trowel, and it was the za’atar side that was fragrant with an underlying sweetness — a delicious, big mouthful of flavor. On the other side, a three-cheese blend cheese was applied with a generous hand, so all in all the manoushe was very filling. See the puffy rim of the bread? A+. The bread inside the rim was very thin but solid enough to hold up under a pretty heavy load of cheese.

I alternated bites between the two sides and soon found the borderland where cheese and za’atar overlap was very good indeed. it’s a delicious combination, and toward the end I tried folding the two sides together, and that was a big hit. I saved some of the rim for last. Wonderful.

Z&Z’s menu offers nine manoushe varieties. Here’s the Lahm bi Ajeen with ground beef, onion, and peppers — and unspecified spices that another patron — a regular — had ordered.

You’ll notice that Z&Z adapts traditional ingredients to local tastes, so there’s a pepperoni pizza-like manoushe made with sujuk instead of pepperoni and drizzled with a hot honey made with Aleppo peppers (which once saved an otherwise disastrous meal for me.) This is a menu that you want to explore.

The New York Times hit the nail on the head when it picked Z&Z for its 25 best list. It has so much to offer on so many levels. I strongly recommend that you try it. And let me know who gets chosen as the next Employee of the Month.

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