Like waking a hibernating bear, waking a dormant stomach causes violent growls that can only be silenced by Cuban sandwiches and 20 minutes of gentle patting. Ward off vicious appetites with today’s Groupon to Rabbit Salad and Grill in Arlington. Choose between the following options:
- For $15, you get dinner for two (up to a $31.50 total value).
- For $15, you get lunch for two (up to a $31.50 total value).<p>
Dinner and lunch include the following for each diner: * An entree (up to a $12.50 value each) * A cupcake (a $3.25 value each)<p>
The creative head chef at Rabbit Salad and Grill, Katsuya Fukushima enlists locally sourced ingredients to concoct gourmet salads and handcrafted sandwiches, which complement decadent cupcakes from Red Velvet Cupcakery. The beet salad utilizes every part of its eponymous vegetable, mixing sliced raw beets, pickled beet stems, and diced cooked beets with arugula and breaded-goat-cheese croquette. Grilled-to-order flank steaks and chicken breasts vie for taste bud attention with artisan sandwiches, such as the cuban, which parades across tongues with a troupe of braised pork shoulder, deli ham, and dill pickles sprinkled in dijon-aioli confetti. Like staying up late, Croque Monsieur paninis—shrouded in prosciutto, swiss, and béchamel—contrast sweet children’s classics such as hot peanut butter and jellies or an affinity for footie pajamas.
A sweet-tooth-satiating bonus, gourmet cupcakes from Red Velvet Cupcakery round out epicurean excursions. Tongues curtsy for the Southern Belle, a signature cupcake dressed in whipped cream cheese, the standard costume of Scarlett O’Hara. Dining duos absorb morsels of the peanut-butter cup, a chocolate-buttermilk cake laced with chocolate chips and topped with a creamy peanut purée. Meanwhile, the cookies ‘n’ cream cupcake, blended with cookies ‘n’ cream pieces and garnished with more cookies, charms cookie lovers with a delightful texture and poems it claims were written with them in mind.
Red Velvet Cupcakery
One cupcake looks much like another, which is why Red Velvet Cupcakery's pastry chefs pay such careful attention to what makes them different: the ingredients. Even before a Red Velvet customer takes a bite, they'll probably smell the presence of European butter, Valrhona chocolate, Maldon sea salt, local dairy products, French-style buttercream, and accents made from 24K gold leaf.
That difference was tasted by Washington Post Express, which concluded that Red Velvet's devil's-food cupcake "is sinfully satisfying" with its rich buttermilk cake topped with Valrhona bittersweet-chocolate ganache. It likewise hailed the red-velvet Southern Belle's whipped cream-cheese frosting as "simple, elegant, and too scrumptious for words." To ensure fresh cupcakes—and to keep their wastebaskets available for crumpled-up paper during "writer's block" montages—Red Velvet donates each day's remainders to local shelters and nonprofit organizations.
Reviews
I freaking LOVE this place. Everything I've ordered so far has been amazing.
Lakila T., Yelp, 9/13/11
The staff was truly delightful.
Crista C., Yelp, 8/4/11
Tips
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“Bday Cupcake!”
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“Great Cupcakes!!!”
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“Try their vegan cupcakes (awesome, said our family's vegan) and don't miss the peanut butter cupcake!”
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