Coming Up: Street Snacks a la Furstenberg

Three years after he sold his popular Breadline downtown, Washington baker Mark Furstenberg is getting back into the retail business, this time with a 70-seat restaurant devoted to his current passion: street food from around the world.

The simply named G Street Food is expected to replace Ecco Cafe at 1706 G St. NW sometime in August.

Why street food? "I've been captivated by its ubiquity and variety," says Furstenberg (who, I should note, is a longtime friend of mine). Plus, street snacks are "always cheap. That's where we are, in a culinary way."

Reflecting the entrepreneur's travels to Singapore, Sweden, France and Canada, G Street Food will be open five days a week for breakfast and lunch. Its morning menu will feature both sweet and savory crepes, sticky buns and coffee cake; lunch will find flatbreads, a tartine of the day, an Asian soup of the day, dumplings and Swedish rye bread (for open-face sandwiches). There will also be a Montreal-style bagel -- "skinnier, smaller, faintly sweeter and crisper" than the New York version, says Furstenberg.

As at Breadline, he intends to be a regular presence behind the counter. "I really miss the day-to-day creativity of restaurant work," says the baker, who turns 71 in June. "Frankly, I'm a terrible consultant."

-- Tom Sietsema