Pendleton Carryout: Coming in Hot

Just a few weeks ago, and seemingly overnight, Pendleton Carryout Co. (PCOC) opened its doors – er, door? A bright but unassuming little pop up off the beaten path in Alexandria, Pendleton is anything but ordinary. As stated on its website, Pendleton Carryout Co. is “an incubator and accelerator for emerging culinary concepts and a 'test market' opportunity for established brands who are considering a home in Virginia.” The description goes on to explain that they will have an “exciting rotation of 3 to 4 different food concepts bringing their own flavor and style ... via carry-out or delivery.”

The menu is currently showcasing the culinary stylings of three brands - or "concepts" –

Sliced: Serving Roman style pies and slices by weight (. They use non-GMO milled flour and hand stretch their dough. All their sauces are made in-house. Note: Every Saturday they feature a “Parker Gray” pie with fresh ingredients picked from Del Ray farmers market – a nod to the Parker Gray neighborhood in which PCOC resides. Sliced’s PCOC menu currently includes:

• Cheese Pizza ($3.50)
• Pepperoni Pizza ($4.00)
• Home Style Pizza ($4.00)
• Burrata Pizza ($5.00)
• You can also BYOP – build your own pie but this applies to Whole pies only; once cheese included in the base price. ($14.00)
• Sausage Meat Patty (sausage, scallions, smoked Gouda and Mozzarella wrapped with a turmeric dough) ($8.50)

Laoban Dumplings: Laoban describes itself as “expand[ing] on the classic Chinese dumpling with new flavor combinations, modern twists, and heaps of fun”. Three types of dumplings are currently on the menu, plus a Chinese-style squash salad. Note: They use responsibly sourced ingredients.

• Livin' on the Vedge Dumplings: Bok Choy, shiitakes, scallions and Chinese chili crisp ($9.50)
• Beijing Pork Dumplings: Berkshire Pork, Napa Cabbage, Scallions, Garlic, and Ginger ($9.50)
• Ginger Chicken Dumplings: Free range, hormone-free chicken, ginger, scallions, and a hint of honey. ($9.50)
• Squash Salad: Chinese-style roasted butternut squash ($3.00)

Killa Cakes: Local bakery, Killa Cakes, is a different kind of bakery, paying particular attention to design and artistry. The current offering at PCOC includes:

• Atomic Brownie: Brown butter chocolate chip cookie layer, topped with crushed oreos, topped with a fudge brownie layer, chocolate ganache and sprinkles. ($4.50)
• Coco Loco Cake (Slice): Chocolate Malt Cake, topped with a dark chocolate sauce, brownie batter buttercream, topped with cookie crunch. ($7.50)
• Snack Attack Cake (Slice): Potato chip cake, topped with chocolate stout sauce, dulce de leche buttercream, and pretzel crack. ($7.50)
• Killa Confetti Slice (Slice): Confetti cake, topped with a cake batter ganache, white chocolate buttercream, topped with blondie bits ($7.50)

After weeks of walking past the turquoise and purple spot, we decided to give it a try. We used the Door Dash app to place our order and unfortunately the app had not updated to include selections from Killa Cakes. But, we helped ourselves to some steamed ginger chicken dumplings, the squash salad and one slice of each pizza. Everything was delicious.

I’ll start with the pizza. There are a lot of good pizza places in Alexandria these days but Sliced’s pizzas are different and have a certain je ne sais quoi. The pepperoni, for one, is LOADED with pepperoni cut in pieces covering every inch of the square, as opposed to whole circles laid out randomly. The burrata was my favorite, not entirely sure why though! Like I said, there was just something about it! Highly recommend.

The dumplings were also really good and the squash salad was a nice complement. No complaints or criticisms here other than to say we wish there were a few more options in the way of add-ons to make a dumpling meal more complete – maybe fried rice, some kimchi, or a cucumber salad? Regardless, I can’t wait to try the other flavors and also get a few of those dumplings fried rather than steamed.

And you can bet Killa Cakes will be part of that inevitable next order as well.

Enjoy!