The smaller Prairie Lookout Cafe at the other end of the park has a more limited but similar menu. Located on the second floor of a museum outbuilding, this light-filled dining room is starkly modern with large windows, graphite gray tables and chairs, and a menu that nods to Israeli, Eastern European Jewish fare, and kosher items along with Americanisms like Dove Bars. There's also hummus, available in a pita or on a Mediterranean-style salad with olives and feta. No credit cards. The basement dining room is dark and small, but the cafe at the Phillips Collection serves some of the town's most interesting museum food.
Salads make good use of fresh greens, and sandwiches have been freshly made and delicious.
In winter, there's even a cassoulet. The cafe at the National Museum of Women in the Arts already has proved its charms and should be even better after renovations, which were to be completed by August. If you're looking for nothing more than a hot dog and soft drink between museum stops, plenty of lunch trucks park around the Mall. Or if you're on the Mall's east end, try the cafeteria in the Library of Congress' Madison Building. You'll enjoy the view from the sixth floor, and the food is good and fairly priced.