The Sugar Toads are not a skinny jeans-clad hipster band opening at the 9:30 Club Saturday night. Rather, they’re starring down the street (and down an alley) on the menu of Rogue 24’s new spring menu. Chef R.J. Cooper goes local and gets creative all in one dish with the Best Thing on the Menu: Sugar Toad/Oyster/Nettles/Seaweed.

Sugar toads are actually northern puffer fish native to the Chesapeake Bay, and in recent years they’ve been elevated to a delicacy. If a fried delicacy is hard to wrap your head around, you haven’t tried R.J. Cooper’s blowfish bites. Unlike in Japan where puffer fish (known as fugu) require a special license to slice and serve, these green-eyed ugly mugs are harmless.

Moments before the sugar toads arrive at your table, you are equipped with medical forceps, the perfect utensil for dunking fish sticks into gourmet green goop, or for playing a jumbo-size game of Operation.

Like many modern chefs, R.J. Cooper plays with texture just as much as he plays with flavor. So prepare yourself for a 24-course journey through crunchy, fluffy, gummy, foamy, gritty and beyond.

Rogue 24 is just one example of the recent trend of restaurants asking diners to put the menu away and put their meal in the hands of the chef.  And at Rogue 24, you’re in good hands.

FOR A LIMITED TIME: WIN DINNER FOR FOUR

You and three friends can win a 24-course dinner at Rogue 24 – one of DC’s top 100 restaurants 2013. All it takes is a tweet and/or signing up for the Monthly Menu. The link will be released later today  (6/17) through our friends at local blog PoPville. Click here to learn more and enter the drawing.