MAHA diners are fueling a bone marrow boom in D.C.
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A diner digging into bone marrow at Butterworth's on Capitol Hill. Photo: courtesy Hawkeye Johnson
Marrow is hot. Tallow is trending. Bone luges are back. D.C.'s "clean eating" MAHA diners are taking nose-to-tail to the next level.
Why it matters: Trump's first term was all about well steak and fast food — largely divorced from local dining — but MAHA's unprocessed obsession is popularizing whole-animal trends and driving sales on odd-bits.
Zoom in: At Capitol Hill's haute MAGA hangout Butterworth's, chef Bart Hutchins blows through some 500 beef bones a week for best-selling roasted marrow.
- It's Steve Bannon's go-to order, Hutchins tells Axios. VIPs like Marco Rubio get it compliments of the kitchen. Nigel Farage and other Brit Breitbart journos are eating it up, too.
- Patrons like a Port bone luge to "soak up the beefy, fatty flavor," Hutchins says.
What they're saying: "Before, the audience for offal was Berkeley hippie types who knew about Alice Waters. Now it's right-wing staffers," Hutchins says. "I tell my staff, we're a success if we sell more head cheese than cheeseburgers — and that's happening naturally here."
- Hutchins has long pushed offal on reluctant diners. Now, bones mean bank. "It's buzzy. If you describe something with 'collagen,' it's poised to move for a certain economic class."
The big picture: Chefs' whole-animal focus — more sustainable and economical — is compounded by wellness obsessives touting the health and beauty benefits of bone broth and "sipping collagen."
- Add in RFK Jr.'s war on seed oils and ultra-processed foods and you have diners going nose-to-tail, fat-to-bone.
Between the lines: Blue Duck Tavern's roasted bone marrow began as a W. Bush-era obsession. Today, "We can never take it off [menu]. People come in just for that," food and beverage director Jean-Claude Plihon tells Axios.
- The West End restaurant sells around 5,500 marrow dishes annually — roughly 210 pounds of bones a week.
Like with other old-is-new-again crazes, traditionalists are caught off guard.
- "I had no idea, but I'm glad everyone is into it," Hai Le, the butcher turned chef behind Bloomingdale's new PhoXotic, tells Axios. Le brews intensely flavored bone broths and packs bowls with tendon, shank and marrow.
- "I have people coming in asking for pho broth as a daily dose for their skin."
Meanwhile, beef tallow is becoming even more popular — an unlikely combination of beauty trend and right-wing fad touted by MAHA influencers as the anti-seed oil.
- "I didn't carry it two years ago, and now we're flying through cases," a rep for Baltimore wholesaler Fells Point Meat tells Axios.
- Naturally, tallow is the frying fuel of choice for Georgetown's new club Executive Branch, co-founded by Donald Trump Jr.
The intrigue: The only frozen tallow fry in the U.S. market is Rockville-based Jesse & Ben's. Co-founder Jesse Konig took the popular fries from fast-casual Swizzler in Navy Yard, reengineering them for shoppers with avo oil or grass-fed tallow. They've blown up in a year, and now:
- Stock them in 1,500 stores nationwide, including Whole Foods and Sprouts.
- Use 15,000 pounds of tallow per month.
- Run 24-hour production to keep up with demand.
What they're saying: "The movement toward less processed foods is a big part of it," says Konig of the success. "It's top of mind in the culture right now."
- He doesn't see it as a MAHA fad. "It feels like all sides of the aisle. There are people who go down the rabbit hole of tallow and raw milk. Others just like the way it tastes — and taste always wins."
Editor's note: This story has been corrected to reflect that Jesse & Ben's stocks their tallow fries in 1,500 stores nationwide (not 1,500 Whole Foods).