Double delight at Centrolina in DC

When I travel, one of the things I'm looking for is something new - new restaurants, new food, new wine. So when I go to a new restaurant, I rarely return for a second meal, even if I really liked it. The caveat is - I always reserve the right to go again on my next visit to that city. 

I traveled to DC in early June. I was arriving on Sunday evening. The weather was threatening rain. So I looked at what new restaurants would be reasonably close to my hotel. (I was staying at the Hamilton Crowne Plaza at 14th & K NW.) That's how I came across Centrolina. I almost didn't go. My wife and I just got back recently from Italy, and I wasn't sure if I really wanted more Italian food. But it had good reviews on OpenTable, and in the past, I've found Italian restaurants in DC to be very good. (I've lamented that our own Minnesota Italian restaurants just don't measure up compared to those in DC.) 

When I arrived, at 8 on a Sunday night, I found a hopping, busy restaurant, right in the middle of downtown DC. In the past, I've often found downtown restaurants to be very dead on a Sunday night. So that was a good sign. The location was new to me, in a development called City Center. There are several restaurants as well as high-end fashion shops and condos and offices. Centrolina is on Palmer Alley in the development. It does have outdoor tables on the alley. But on Sunday night, they weren't seating there because of the threat of rain. 

I liked the ambiance of Centrolina, which is actually two businesses - a market and a restaurant/osteria. The dining room has high ceilings and the decor is shiny and modern. There's lots of chrome, but also brick and wood and decorative lighting. 

The service was friendly and efficient. During the course of the evening, several different people came to my table, to give me menus or refill my water or bring a plate of food or a drink. The bartender came over and took my drink order. I asked for a negroni, which he acknowledged. But before going to the bar and making it, he asked my name. At first I wondered if they'd checked my profile on Open Table and saw that I do write restaurant reviews and this blog. (That has happened to me, but not often.) But I finally concluded that was just his shtick. I decided it's his way of connecting with the customer and making the experience more personal. 

Octopus salad

The menu was very appealing, and I had a hard time deciding what to order. I finally opted for an octopus salad and a pasta dish. The octopus was outstanding. It was grilled tenderly. It was still very moist and tender, not at all chewy or rubbery. It was served with little medallions of potato confit and a melange of kalamata olives, celery, roasted cherry tomatoes and something called cotechinata. Cotechinata, I later learned, is a pigskin roll-up. I didn't know that at the time; I ate them anyway. 

The pasta was bucatini, a kind of thick spaghetti. It was dressed with a tomato sauce with sausage and squid. Also very good, though not as unusual as the octopus salad. I decided to treat myself with dessert. I had a crostini with strawberries and little dollops of lemon meringue and gelato. 

I enjoyed it very much.

Now fast forward two days. I attended an event on Tuesday evening, but didn't have time to eat before the event. So when it ended, I decided to get some dinner. I was just a few blocks from Centrolina. I recalled some of the intriguing items on the menu that I had passed over on my Sunday night visit. So contrary to my usual practice, I decided on a return visit. 

It was worth it. Same friendly service. When the bartender took my order (this time a glass of white wine) he asked me my name again. When I told him, he did a double take, pointed to the table where I'd sat on Sunday and got a quizzical look. Yup, I told him, I'm back. 

This time I ordered tuna. It was roasted on a wood fire, and was served rare. The tuna was very tender and delicious. On the plate with the tuna were yellow peppers, butter beans and garbanzos with Greek yogurt and a spicy Calabrian pepper sauce. 

So once again, I have found an outstanding Italian restaurant in DC, and it left me wondering - why can't we have one like Centrolina in Minnesota? 

Rare fire-roasted tuna

French cuisine, charm on the table at Le Diplomate in DC

In my many years traveling to Washington, DC for work, I’ve enjoyed many delicious French restaurants. I’d always heard good things about Le Diplomate but somehow never went there. It’s not that it’s out of the way. But I seldom had a need to stay in the Logan Circle neighborhood, and so just never made a point of eating there.

That changed a few weeks ago. I had a meeting downtown and got a good price for a room at a Kimpton Hotel (The Helix) near Logan Circle. So on Sunday night, I wandered over to Le Diplomate to see if I could get a table. There were plenty of people there on a Sunday night. But I didn’t have any trouble getting a table.

Le Diplomate has a very appealing menu, offering a wide range of items from small plates to classic bistro cuisine. It has a list of nightly specials. On Sunday night (at least this summer) the special is ‘coq au Riesling.’ I don’t usually order chicken at a restaurant. (We make chicken often enough at home.) And I’d never had coq au vin before. (My wife had it once in Paris. It was tough, tough, tough.) But my server made it sound appealing (braised for hours, meat falling-off-the-bone tender). Also, it was served with spaetzle. That was the clincher for me, so I decided to get it.

But first, I ordered radish crudité from the hors d’oevres section of the menu. Take a look how beautiful it was. And delicious … yum! The radishes were fresh and crisp, sprinkled with sea salt. They came with thick slabs of lightly toasted bread and a pot of butter. It was fabulous and a generous portion, enough for two people to share. Somehow, I managed to eat it all, however.

The coq au Riesling as good. Maybe not quite as tender as the server lead me to believe. But very flavorful. I loved the spaetzle. They were delicious.

The ambiance at Le Diplomate is friendly and casual. My table was on the edge of the outdoor tables, so I could enjoy the warm, humid DC air. (I did enjoy it. May in Minneapolis was quite dreary, and the weather in DC in early June was not oppressively hot yet.)

So I’m sorry that it took me so long to try Le Diplomate. I’m glad I finally did. It certainly lived up to the favorable comments I’d always heard about it.

Dinner at Fiola makes a delicious trifecta

Almost three years after my first visit to Fiola for a staff celebration lunch, I finally made a return visit for dinner. It was as marvelously fabulous as our team lunch and fully lived up to my (high) expectations.

This was also the third dinner I’ve had at Fabio Trabocchi’s fantastic Italian restaurants in Washington, DC. And as the headline for this post implies, they were three grand events. I wrote about Casa Luca earlier this year (click here for that post). I reviewed Fiola Mare a year ago (click here for that post). And just for the record, here’s my original 2012 post about my lunch experience at Fiola.

My dinner at Fiola was on a warm Saturday evening. I debated whether to take an outside table, and finally opted ‘yes.’ The restaurant’s outdoor tables are on a wide plaza along a lightly traveled street, but just a block off of Pennsylvania Ave. It was very pleasant.

My server was great. Since I had just flown late in the afternoon, my reservation was a little later than the usual dinner time. I don’t know if that was a factor, but he was very accommodating and helpful in his advice and recommendations.

To start, I ordered a burrata on pesto topped with asparagus, a parmesan crisp, and beets. I almost didn’t order it, because I’m not particularly fond of beets. But it was delicious. (The beets, by the way, remained on the side of the plate uneaten.) As you can see in the photo, my server also brought me an ‘amuse’ from the chef, a demitasse of gazpacho. It was great. It has motivated me to find some gazpacho recipes to make this summer when vine-ripened tomatoes are available at the farmers market.

For my entrée, I ordered agnolotti stuffed with lamb and served with mushrooms. The house-made pasta was fresh and very tender. The agnolotti were served in a flavorful sauce. When I asked if it was a cream sauce, my server informed me that it was simply butter and little pasta water. Fabulous. (Something else I’ve got to try at home.)

I was tempted by dessert, but decided not to. However before I got up to leave, my server returned with a jug of limoncello. Only this limoncello was the color of blood orange. Very impressive, very good, much appreciated.

So the headline reference to ‘trifecta’ implies some kind of horse race and begs the question of what order would I rate them. Of the three Fabio Trabocchi restaurants, I’d rate Fiola Mare as No. 3. It would be tough, however, to choose between Fiola and Casa Luca. The food and service at each was equally impressive. Both are expensive even by DC standards. Because of that, I suppose either one would be considered a special occasion dinner spot. Luca purports to be a family friendly osteria. So to that extent, it’s somewhat more casual (though you would not feel over-dressed if you were wearing a suit). But for an over-the-top celebration dinner, I guess I’d opt for Fiola.

Casa Luca makes DC dining choices complicated

I planned my dinner at Casa Luca in DC for almost a year. I had previously eaten at Fabio Trabocchi’s other two DC restaurants. I had lunch at Fiola in 2012. It was fabulous. (Click here for the review I wrote.) Then a year ago, I had dinner at Fiola Mare, specializing in fish and seafood. Great food and beautiful venue, but I had trouble with the service. (Click here for that review.)

For me, the appeal of trying his third restaurant was partly curiosity. I wanted to see what the chef did differently from his other two places. It also was partly because I so enjoyed the Italian cooking served at his DC restaurants, quite different from what’s served at Italian restaurants in Minnesota.

So I was in DC alone on a Saturday night. My plane arrived early evening, so I made a later dinner reservation. I didn’t have any trouble getting a table. But in retrospect, I think that was because it was a little later than the usual dinner rush.

When I got there, Casa Luca was hopping! It seemed like there were two large parties ahead of me. When I checked in at the reception desk, I was told that a table was just being cleared and it would be a couple of minutes. As an alternative to waiting, I was offered a single seat at the bar. But that wasn’t the dining experience I wanted, so I declined. There was no hint that they were trying to push me to take a seat at the bar. I think it truly was intended to avoid any wait at all.

(This was quite a different reception from the dinner I had at Fiola Mare. In my review, I speculated that perhaps my service was below par because I was a table for one. In any case, that experience was not replicated at Casa Luca. In fact, the manager stopped by my table to personally apologize for the brief wait that I experienced, and she stopped back periodically throughout the evening to make sure everything was going well.)

On its web site, Casa Luca is described as a family-friendly ‘osteria’ – a place to relax and enjoy a casual meal and a glass of wine. Well, maybe … maybe with my adult kids. But I don’t think I’d take smaller children there, and maybe not teenagers either. It’s not that casual. And it’s also pricy. Maybe not quite as expensive as Fiola or Fiola Mare. But I’d consider it more of a special occasion restaurant rather than a place for a family gathering.

One more comment about the ‘casual’ thing. I wore a coat and tie. I didn’t have to. There were a few patrons wearing jeans. But most of the diners were fairly nicely dressed.

So far, so good. Welcoming reception. Relaxing ambiance. Now for the menu.

I spotted a cocktail on the menu that sounded intriguing. It was called Il Palio, made with bourbon, vermouth, and orange bitters served over something called Campari ice. I liked it and jotted down the ingredients to try to replicate it at home. But I wasn’t sure what they meant by Campari ice. So when I got home, I did a search on the internet. I was pleasantly surprised to find the recipe on the Saveur web site, crediting the bartender at Casa Luca for inventing the cocktail. (Click here for that recipe.) I haven’t tried it yet, but I will soon.

My wife always feels bad for me when I tell her I ate alone. I really don’t mind. But the main problem is that you either end up trying several things on the menu and ordering too much food, or you just order what you’re hungry for and only get to sample a couple things. I only got a couple items.

The menu at Casa Luca starts with a listing of ‘piccoletti’ described as small nibbles. I saw a farro salad that looked interesting and ordered that. It was more than a nibble, I can attest to that. In fact, it was a nice portioned starter and could have been split between two people. Along with smoked farro, the salad had artichokes, red peppers, and a generous portion of tender lobster meat. It was excellent.

For my entrée, I went with a daily special, described as a grilled lamb shoulder rack. It’s a cut I don’t think I’ve heard of much less eaten. I’ve had shoulder roast before, and my server said that this dish starts out being roasted and then cut into chops and finished on a grill. It might have been slightly more fatty than rib chops or loin chops. But it was delicious and very tender. There was a portion of roasted cauliflower served on the plate with the lamb, and that also was delicious. I’ve read that cauliflower is the new ‘in’ vegetable.

I had looked at Casa Luca’s wine list online and was eager to try a glass of one of their Italian reds. I opted for a Vajra Langhe Rosso, a blend of nebbiolo and barbera. It was perfect with the lamb. (On our next trip to Italy, I’ve got to visit the Piedmont region where this wine came from.)

So you can tell, I’m raving about this restaurant. I’d love it if just one of Trabocchi’s restaurants were in Minnesota. But alas, I’ll just have to wait for future trips to DC. Of the three, I think that I still like Fiola the best, and I really ought to try it for dinner. Then I’d rank Casa Luca as my second favorite. I’m probably being too harsh about my service complaints from Fiola Mare. The food was good and the setting is beautiful. But I just don’t have any compelling reason to go back.

KwikPick: Possibly the best restaurant on Capitol Hill = Bistro Bis

Before I retired, I came to think of Bistro Bis as my favorite DC restaurant. It has the ideal intersection of convenience, ambiance, good service, creative menu, consistently reliable meals. I’ve been there for breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. They’re all great. I did post a review on this blog once before. But it was several years ago (2007) and a recent return visit refreshed my enthusiasm for the restaurant.

• Food: 5 (Ok, a little hyperbole here. My rating scale says a “5” is so good it would make angels weep. I don’t know if I’ve ever actually tasted food that good. But this is really good.)
• Service: 5
• Ambiance: 5
• Value: 5 Not to say that it’s inexpensive; it’s not. But it’s really worth it.

Since I retired, I don’t get to DC nearly as often as I did. Consequently, when I do travel there, I tend to want to try emerging new stars in the DC food scene rather than return to an old favorite. But when I met members of my old team and colleagues for lunch in early March, we went to Bistro Bis.

It thoroughly lived up to my memories of why I liked it so much.

I’ve always had good service at Bistro Bis. That means attentive without hovering, knowledgeable about the menu, good intuition about what a customer wants when asking for advice. The server we had on this most recent visit also had a sense of bravado and enthusiasm about the restaurant. He boldly asserted that Bistro Bis is the best restaurant on Capitol Hill. And I for one would not contradict him.

Recommendation: Definitely go if you’re on an expense account. Definitely go if you’re someone else’s guest. Definitely go to treat yourself, even if you’re on your own tab.

Click here for an explanation of my KwikPick rating scale.

Haughty service spoiled dinner at Fiola Mare, DC

I love how Washington, DC gets attention as a city with a vibrant restaurant scene. It makes sense. The city has a very cosmopolitan and diverse population. And there are plenty of people on expense account who need to make a favorable impression on customers, clients, and colleagues over a memorable meal in a comfortable setting.

Even though I’m retired, I still try to keep up on the DC food scene. It is frustrating, however, to read about great new restaurants knowing that I won’t get much opportunity to try them. (And no expense account if/when I do get to try them.)

In late April I went to DC for a board meeting of Mazon, the anti-hunger advocacy organization. The first night I ate at Fiola Mare. I had yearned for an opportunity to eat there since I’d read that it opened earlier in 2014. I had eaten at Fiola DC, Fabio Trabocchi’s restaurant in Penn Quarter, in 2012 and loved it. (Click here for that Krik’s Picks blog post.) So I had high expectations for the fish and seafood iteration that’s Fiola Mare.

There is a lot to like about the restaurant. Start with the location. It’s on the Potomac waterfront in Georgetown. I arrived as the sun was setting on a beautiful Sunday spring evening. If it had been just a little warmer, I might have asked for a table on the outdoor patio with relaxing views of the river and Kennedy Center across the way. Inside, some of the tables are in an enclosed porch; those windows can open to let in the fresh air and murmur of the pedestrians strolling along the waterfront. (They’re probably looking wistfully at the diners in the beautiful restaurant.) But if views of the Potomac don’t interest you, you can choose a pleasant and comfortable table in the main dining room.

Then there’s the food. My meal was sublime. I started with burrata with baby artichokes and radishes dressed with a delicious basil pesto. The burrata was heavenly. It was rich and creamy, and each bite was delicately bathed with the pesto. For an entrée, I ordered pan roasted branzino. I’d had branzino a couple of times in Italy and as much as anything, I wanted to compare Fiola’s version to the fish I’d eaten in Italy. It compared very favorably, though the whole, oven roasted fish I had in Venice was better. (Maybe not even better, just more enjoyable, for reasons that I will now explain.)

There was just one thing that keeps me from raving about this dining experience, and that was the service. Even though it was a Sunday night, the restaurant was very busy. I’m sure my server was tired. He actually made it pretty clear that he was very busy. Maybe he thought it would be okay to neglect my little table for one. Or maybe he thought I was lucky that he was serving me at all. In any case, here’s what bugged me about his service:

• I asked for a black napkin. (I didn’t want lint from the white napkin on my black dress slacks. The restaurant’s web site requires “casual elegant attire.”) He said he’d look for one. Never got back to me on that.
• I had to ask for a glass of wine to be served with my entrée. (Timing of wine seems to be a problem. At the next table, different server, I heard the couple complain that their dinners were served before they got their bottle of wine.)
• But the most annoying thing – I was savoring my burrata, only about half finished, when another server arrived with my entrée. “I’m not ready for it,” I said and sent it back to the kitchen. After I finished the burrata, the entrée was delivered to my table. It didn’t appear to have suffered from being held. When my primary server stopped at the table, I told him about the miscue from the kitchen. He did apologize. But the apology came with a pass-the-buck excuse that he hadn’t ‘fired’ the entrée.

Sorry, but a restaurant that’s trying to convey a high class, sophisticated vibe like Fiola Mare has to do a better job of pacing the meal without falling back on self-serving excuses.

So here’s my bottom line on Fiola Mare. I wouldn’t recommend it for a business dinner. While the location is beautiful, it’s a little inconvenient to get to, and I wouldn’t want to take a chance that a server’s mistake could get in the way of a successful meeting. And I probably wouldn’t choose to eat there on my own again. I would return to Fiola in Penn Quarter and I would like to try Fabio Trabocchi’s other DC restaurant, Casa Luca.

At Equinox, I scored a great dinner and a wonderful new cookbook

In the previous post, I explained that I faced a travel delay on one of my trips to Washington in early March. So I decided to treat myself to a nice dinner. I was staying downtown (at the Donovan House, a Kimpton hotel) rather than near Capitol Hill. I’d eaten at Equinox before and was sure that I’d get a great meal there. So after a day on the Hill and a few hours working in my room (including the incident of computer abuse described in the previous post), I walked over to Equinox. (You can read about some of my previous meals at Equinox at these links: July 2012 and August 2006.)

On the menu for this particular Wednesday night, they offered two tasting menus. Both looked good, but even though I was treating myself, they were a little pricy, so I looked at the regular entrées instead. I’ve had lamb at Equinox before and liked it. They had a saddle of lamb roasted with rosemary that looked good so I ordered that. (It was excellent.) I was having trouble deciding on a starter. I thought one of the salads on the winter tasting menu looked good. I asked if I could have that instead of one of the items on the regular menu. My server graciously accommodated me.

When I arrived, I noticed a poster promoting a cookbook by the chef, Todd Gray – The New Jewish Table, co-written with his wife Ellen Kassoff Gray. I asked the server if there was a copy I could look at while waiting for me food. He brought a copy right over.

I looked through it. The book has beautiful photos and an interesting narrative about the comparative culinary background of the husband-wife team. I saw a recipe for a quinoa salad with figs and scallions that I thought would be good for Passover. But the book was $35, so I decided to pass.

At the end of dinner the server asked me if I wanted the book. “If you do, the chef will sign it for you.” H-m-m-m. “Is Chef Gray here tonight?” I asked? He was. So I changed my mind and said I’d love to buy the book.

In just a few minutes, Chef Gray appeared at my table with a new copy of the cookbook and a pen. He signed it, and we chatted for a few minutes. I don’t usually get star-struck. But I was kind of in awe of having the chef there making small talk. I told him about the first time I’d eaten at Equinox and had chive flowers on my salad. It’s a unique ingredient I use to this day with chive flowers from my own garden.

I was feeling pretty excited during my walk back to the hotel. I called my wife, forgetting that she was at a book group and couldn’t talk. (We talked later when she got home from book group.) And I’ll soon be making the quinoa salad.

The story so far …

Oh dear. It’s been a whole month since my last post. Sorry, but a lot’s happened since then.

I still haven’t finished blogging about some of the restaurants my wife and I visited in October and November in northern California. I will still finish those posts. (Fortunately, I have fairly good notes so can write reliable reviews.) I really intended to do a lot of that during New Years weekend. But work consumed much of the time. You may recall that Congress struggled all weekend to try to prevent the fiscal cliff from disrupting the economy. There were some very significant ag provisions that were under consideration. So while I wasn’t in the office, I was connected the whole weekend in an effort (ultimately a vain effort) to get a new farm bill included in the fiscal cliff package.

So, not only did I fail to get my blog updated before the end of the year, I also failed to achieve the legislative outcome that I wanted. Sigh.

The next couple of posts after this will cover the California restaurants that I wanted to review. But in this post, I want to quickly cover our trip to DC for the Inauguration of President Obama for his second term.

My wife and I traveled to DC on Friday before Inauguration Day. I think it had been four years, since Obama’s first Inauguration, since Linda had been to DC. I had several places that I wanted her to try. I showed her the menus online, and she picked the ones that sounded most interesting.

So on Friday night, we joined friends at Café du Parc. Here’s the link to my previous post on this delightful French restaurant (click here.) We have a particularly interesting experience there. After we were seated, the server brought bread to the table and made a flourish of serving a Land O’Lakes product with the bread. A few minutes later, the manager came to our table and pointed out that they had provided a Land O’Lakes product. I hadn’t identified my self when I made the reservation through Open Table. So I can only assume that they looked at my Open Table reviews, found the link to my blog, and discovered that I work for Land O’Lakes.

It was a brilliant gesture. There was just one small hitch. The product they served was Fresh Buttery Taste Spread, not real Land O’Lakes butter. It’s a decent product. But I honestly would have preferred real butter, no matter what brand, to the spread.

Then on Saturday, we went to Bibiana. I wrote late last year that I wanted to take Linda to one of the fantastic Italian restaurants that I’ve been to in DC and demonstrate to her the qualitative difference between those restaurants and the Italian restaurants that we have in Minnesota. Our MN Italian restaurants are good. But they don’t achieve the same level of quality and creativity as the DC restaurants. She picked Bibiana, and it met all of my expectations.

Then on Sunday we went with a group of other Land O’Lakes staff to Jose Andres Zaytinya.

On Monday, after the public swearing-in ceremony, we attended the Ag Gala. It was very nice, as it has been in previous years.

So 2013 got off to an exciting start, and I got to share some of my favorite DC restaurants with my wife.

Birthday dinner at Bar La Grassa, Minneapolis

When I wrote my first review of Bar La Grassa two years ago, I explained all the reasons why I liked it but couldn’t rave about it. At the end of the post, I promised a do-over. Well, it was a while coming, but here it is.

The first time we went to Bar La Grassa, we didn’t like our table. This time we got a better table. I also didn’t like the lack of descriptive language about the menu items; I’m over that now. And just like our first visit, the food was very good and creative.

We started with a couple of bruschettas. One was peperonata with gorgonzola cheese. The other was eggplant caponata. Both were excellent. Because we are big fans of gorgonzola, I think we liked that one better. But we didn’t realize how large they would be. Each plate had two large thick slices of bread and the toppings were generously piled on. We could easily have gotten by with one order between the two of us.

Next we went for two half portions of pasta. One was a foie gras tortellini. It was very rich and delicate. The other pasta was agnolotti with mushrooms and taleggio.  Agnolotti is another kind of stuffed pasta. For this dish, they are stuffed with taleggio, a soft Italian cheese.

For dessert, I had a tart tatin – closest thing to apple pie on the menu. I also had an espresso.

Toward the end of dinner, I commented to my wife, “As good as this is, it doesn’t compare to some of the Italian restaurants I’ve eaten at in DC.” Many people say Bar La Grassa is the best Italian restaurant in Minneapolis. It may be, though actually my current favorite is Tosca in Linden Hills. But so many  times, after an Italian meal in DC, I can’t help lamenting – Why can’t we have an Italian restaurant like this in Minnesota?

As much as I enjoyed Bar La Grassa, here are four recent DC restaurants that I think are better – Bibiana, Acqua al 2, Potenza, and Fiola. Unfortunately, I discovered on my last trip to DC, Potenza is no longer in business.

I’ve struggled trying to articulate what makes those DC restaurants better than Bar La Grassa or Tosca. There isn’t a single factor. Part of it is ambiance. The DC restaurants I listed are mostly fairly formal and elegant. Bar La Grassa is kind of a hipster venue (a trait I noted in my original review) and a little pretentious. Tosca is a friendly neighborhood place, relaxing and casual, but not really elegant.

When it comes to the food, the DC restaurants don’t have anything over the Minneapolis Italian restaurants in terms of flavor and preparation. But I guess I’d describe the DC restaurants as having classic Italian menus. Bar La Grassa is innovative definitely not ‘classic.’ Tosca has classic preparations, but the menu is quite small.

I’m not sure if this description adequately defines the difference. But I have a solution. I’m going to bring Linda along to DC in January. (We’re going to attend Barak Obama’s Inauguration.) We will eat at one (or more) of the restaurants I listed. Maybe she can help me articulate the difference. Or, maybe she’ll totally disagree with me. I guess we’ll see. Stay tuned.

Staff lunch #1: Fiola, Washington DC

I was in Washington early in October on just an overnight trip. I owed my DC staff a celebration in appreciation for the hard work on all of the fly-ins we conducted this year. So I set something up for after my meetings. I wanted to try someplace new, and came across Fiola. I made a reservation, and it was the perfect choice.

It was a quiet, relaxing, somewhat elegant venue. The service was friendly, knowledgeable, attentive, but not intrusive. And the food …

So often my reviews of an Italian restaurant in DC begin with the words: “Why can’t we have Italian restaurants like this in Minnesota?” I didn’t want to do that again. So I tried to think of a different reason to rave about Fiola’s food. Then I had a revelation. It was sort of like the dog that didn’t bark. (Sorry if the literary reference isn’t obvious. Click here to read about a Sherlock Holmes story where the clue that solved the murder was the dog that didn’t bark.)

When you look at Fiola’s web site, there’s no hyperbole about “local” or “organic.” Instead, the emphasis is on “freshness” and “quality.” Despite the passionate claims of locavores and organic evangelists, they’re not the same thing.

I felt our lunch at Fiola was great because of the careful attention to high quality ingredients expertly prepared and matched to the customer’s preferences. We started by sharing two appetizers, a burrata with roasted tomatoes and pesto and a plate of prosciutto with figs and balsamic vinegar. Since ‘discovering’ burrata at a DC restaurant earlier this year, I’ve become a shameless devotee and order it as often as I can.

Then we went on to the entrées. I had risotto with two beautiful, tenderly prepared scallops. The al dente rice was flavored with a shockingly brilliant green pesto sauce. I’m a pretty good risotto maker. But this was exceptional.

One co-worker had fettuccini ‘carbonara.’ It looked beautiful, and she said it was delicious. I don’t often order carbonara, so I don’t know if this is common, but hers was served with a fried egg on top. I thought it was unusual but visually very interesting. (Perhaps my only quibble about the lunch – her egg was overcooked, and the yolk didn’t flow over the pasta when she cut into it.)

Another co-worker had lobster ravioli. The fresh, tender ravioli were served in a rich creamy sauce with two generous pieces of lobster meat.

My third co-worker was having trouble deciding. She wanted pasta, but couldn’t decide what to order. The server casually asked what she wanted on her pasta. She said a simple marinara sauce. He said that would be no problem. She amended her request and asked for a meat sauce. Again, no problem. But it’s not on the menu, she commented. No problem. Now that’s the kind of nonchalant commitment to customer wishes that is so impressive.

Since it was a celebration lunch, we did have desserts – chocolate mousse (Tartufo di Cioccolato), almond gelato, pear sorbet, and apple pie.

Alright, the menu called it an apple almond tort, but it was close enough to apple pie for me.

Fabulous, fabulous, fabulous. I would love to try Fiola for dinner sometime.

Return visit to Lavagna, DC

I was in DC earlier in September – the only trip I have planned for the month. I’ve written before how the Barracks Row part of Capitol Hill is attracting lots of creative eateries. So on this most recent trip, I had made up my mind to try someplace new. I was going to be in the neighborhood anyway for a reception. So I planned to just wander up the street and look at a few menus.

My plan fell awry, however, when I walked by Lavagna. I ate there last January, and really liked it. Nothing that I’d seen while wandering so far looked better. So I abandoned by plan to try someplace new and got a table at Lavagna.

Some things have changed since I ate there in January. For example, in my original post, I mentioned that ‘Lavagna’ not only is the name of a town in Italy, but it’s also the word for ‘slate.’ When it first opened, Lavagna posted its menu on little chalkboards. But no longer. The owner, Stephen Chueng, was circulating through the restaurant chatting with customers. I asked him about the slate menus. “Too difficult to manage” was the short version of his answer.

One thing that has not changed is the three-course special – a starter or half-order of pasta, a pasta or entrée, and dessert for $27. It’s a great value and convenient way to sample the variety of the menu. They also offer flights of Italian wine for $10.

I went with the suggestions that the owner gave. I started with an artichoke bruschetta. The toasted bread was layered with a creamy ricotta and topped with artichoke puree and tomatoes. The artichoke was like a pesto and not at all chunky.

For my second course, I went with his recommendation to try the ravioli ricotta. The way he described it, it was a whole egg yolk and ricotta inside the ravioli. When the ravioli is cooked to al dente, the yolk is warmed but stays soft, so that when you cut into the ravioli, the warm yolk flows out creating a rich sauce. The whole dish is topped with parmesan cheese, tomatoes, and a marinara sauce.

When my meal arrived, I cut into the ravioli with eager anticipation. But alas, the yolk was overcooked. The flavors were delicious, but when Stephen Chueng stopped over to see how I liked it, I pointed out that the yolk was not soft. He insisted on taking it away and bringing me a new order. When the replacement arrived, this time the yolk was soft and runny as intended, and it really did make a difference. As I was finishing the dish, the chef came out and personally apologized for the first mishap and asked how I enjoyed the dish. It was excellent.

For dessert, I had a choice of tiramisu, panna cotta, or gelato. I went with the panna cotta, and really enjoyed it. I ended with a nice cup of espresso.

I was happy to have had a repeat visit at Lavagna, even though I started out with the intent to try someplace new.

Tasting menu at Equinox, DC

I’ve written about Equinox before. In fact, it’s the second restaurant I ever reviewed on Krik’s Picks. I’ve always been happy with the meals I’ve been served there. The dinner I had in mid-July was no exception.

I arrived in DC a little late on a Monday. It was beastly hot. I was tempted to just stay in the hotel and eat at their restaurant. But I took a minute to look through a restaurant guide in the hotel. It noted that Equinox had a new chef and had revamped its menu. So I hopped in a cab and went over there.

There were several tempting items on the menu. But I decided to go with the ‘Ode to Summer’ tasting menu. It appeared to be a pretty reasonable deal. There were six items on the menu. You could have all six for $60, or you could have any four of the six for $40. I didn’t feel like I needed six courses. Besides that, there were two that didn’t really appeal to me. So I went with the four-course menu.

I’ll start with the two items I rejected. One was a pork loin – no thanks. The other was a milk chocolate almond bar with coconut sorbet. I’m not very fond of chocolate, so that also was an easy one to skip.

So here’s what I had:

Compressed heirloom summer melons – This was the most visually appealing dish of the meal. The compressed cubes of melon were like shimmering jewels in the bowl. Then the server poured a cucumber emulsion over them. It kinda spoiled the ‘shimmering jewel’ appearance. But the soup was very flavorful and refreshing on a hot summer night.

Next was cured king salmon. The tender, tasty salmon slices were served with apricots and a fennel cream. Like the melons, it was light and refreshing.

The next item was called corn flour tagliatelle. The pasta was fresh and tender. I did not detect any particular corn flavor. The pasta was served with some pieces of lobster meat and summer squash. The whole presentation and effect was a delicious pasta course, well balanced and unique.

My dessert item was Italian gorgonzola piccante, which is a style of gorgonzola cheese. It was served with roasted plums, pistachios, and a flakey toasted honey phyllo.

I think my combination of choices for the tasting menu might have confused the server. At one point he came back to verify that I did not order the pork loin. My guess is that most guests who ordered the four-course tasting menu got either the melons or the salmon for a starter, then got the pasta and the pork loin for their main meal, and finished with either the gorgonzola or the chocolate.

But I loved my choices. Each item was memorable and delicious. While the servings were small, it was enough for me to leave satisfied. And $40 is no bargain, but it also was a reasonable price for the meal.

Thank you Equinox for another great meal!

Lunch at Cava Mezze in DC

 

Mostly by coincidence, I tried several restaurants on Capitol Hill this spring. They are located east of the U.S. Capitol, near Eastern Market and on Barracks Row. Before this year, I was a fan of Montmartre, located near Eastern Market. But I wasn’t very familiar with many of the other restaurants, despite a growing reputation for good dining in that neighborhood.

Then, over the course of several business trips to DC, I hit Lavagna, Belga, Acqua al 2, and the subject of this blog post – Cava Mezze. I went there on the basis of a recommendation of a friend. After our dinner at Lavagna, we walked by Cava, and she recommended it. So when I had time for a lunch before leaving DC in March, I decided to give it a try.

Mezze are Greek small plates, very similar in concept to Spanish tapas. Cava offers an appealing variety of mezze. My server recommended ordering two for lunch. It probably would have been more fun to be with a small group to sample more different plates. But I was happy with the two I ordered for lunch.

I started with a dish called lamb kapama. It was braised lamb shoulder shredded and mixed with orzo pasta and ‘Kefalograviera’ cheese. It was very flavorful and really quite substantial.

My second dish was chickpeas ‘3 ways.’ I thought it was a very creative dish nicely presented. It consisted of four balls of fried chickpeas served on a bed of pureed chickpeas and topped with whole cooked chickpeas that had been marinated in a vinaigrette dressing. The fried balls were like falafel. The chickpea puree was like hummus. And the marinated chickpeas were, well, like you’d serve on a salad.

I liked Cava and I would happily return, either for lunch, for happy hour, and I’d also like to try it for dinner sometime.

Graffiato DC served great celebration lunch

I had a lot of travel to DC in March and April. It was a lot of hard work, and I got a lot of help from a great team. So when I went back during the first week of May, I offered to treat the team to a celebration lunch.

My DC-based lobbyist picked the venue – Graffiato in Chinatown. It’s a restaurant with a story. The chef/owner is a guy named Mike Isabella. He’s picked up a fair share of accolades in his career so far. He was named The People’s Best New Chef for the Mid-Atlantic region in Food & Wine’s survey. He did a stint at one of chef Jose Andres DC restaurants Zaytinya. But possibly he got most of his public attention by being seen on season 6 of TV’s Top Chef (a show I don’t watch).

Graffiato has a nice ambiance. Our group (7 of us) were seated in the upstairs dining room. The room had high ceilings and was comfortable, bright, and open. Our server was friendly and patient. (You know how it is with groups. They sit down and start to chat, and it’s difficult for the server to know when they’re really ready to order.)

One person at the table commented that she wished there were more choices on the menu. But our group didn’t have much trouble finding things to order. Our server advised us that the menu items are Italian small plates and suggested we order two per person. We ended up ordering a few plates to share and each person had an entrée.

Highlights of the starters: I picked ‘blistered sweet peppers’ which was a nice serving of red and yellow peppers with olive oil, capers, and smoked paprika; I thought it was very good. A couple of people had the green salad. Another had burrata with honey-glazed onions. I didn’t take a taste, but she said it was great. We also got two orders of flatbread for the table. It was served with a spicy pepperoni sauce and was very good.

For entrées, a couple of people had ‘crispy potato gnocchi.’ The photo (above) doesn’t do it justice. It was served with fava beans, mushrooms, and stracciatella which is a soft Italian cheese.

A couple of people had fish, and I think there was at least one order of roasted chicken breast. They all said their meals were good. I had risotto with lobster and mascarpone (photo below). I liked it. I thought it was good. But I’ve written in Kriks Picks in the past about how my wife says that the risotto I make at home is better than anything that we get at restaurants. In this case, I guess I’d agree. It was good, but if I go back to Graffiato, I’ll have something else.

We were celebrating, so of course we had some desserts. There was one order of the chocolate tart that was declared to be decadent. Other guests ordered gelato, and there were several interesting choices for flavors, including blood orange and caramel sea salt. I don’t mean to be boring, but I had espresso. I like it, and this one was good.

Yet another fabulous DC Italian restaurant

I’ve said this so often that I could start a whole new category of blog posts titled ‘Why can’t we have Italian restaurants like this in Minnesota?’

I had lunch at Potenza when I arrived in DC last week. I didn’t really know very much about it before walking in (no reservation). It wasn’t recommended by anyone. I’d noticed it on previous trips to DC. Anything I’d seen about it had been favorable. But I just decided to give it a try – someplace new. I’m so glad that I did.

Potenza has a very extensive lunch menu. I could have had a salad and pasta. A lot of other diners were having pizza, and they all looked good. I decided to have the weekly special for Wednesday – branzino. The entrées are a little expensive, but they’re a full meal.

The fish was delicately sautéed. It was moist and tender and was served with a wonderful brown butter sauce.

Served with the fish on the plate were two beautiful ravioli stuffed with minced and sautéed mushrooms. They were artfully draped over a mound of fresh spinach that was lightly flavored with thin slices of garlic.

I did have a glass of wine with my lunch. I don’t know Italian whites very well, but there was a trebbiano on the menu that looked interesting. It was crisp, light, and refreshing. It was a nice complement to the branzino. As much as I liked the wine, I was a little taken aback by reading the Wikipedia description of it. It says that trebbiano is not known for making very distinctive wines. So maybe I have unsophisticated tastes when it comes to Italian white wine. Or maybe I got lucky with a good trebbiano. Or maybe it just went well with my fish.

Anyway, here’s another DC Italian restaurant that I thoroughly enjoyed and would comfortably recommend to anyone.

Belga DC serves delicious Belgian food, beer

I ate at Belga once before. It was a few years ago, just as Barracks Row was establishing itself as a locale for good food. I liked it then, so when a friend suggested having dinner there after a reception on Capitol Hill, I readily agreed.

It was a warm spring night, maybe just a little humid. There sidewalk tables were full, so we were seated inside. That probably was better for conversation, but a sidewalk table would have been a fun spot to watch the hustle and bustle of 8th St. SE. There even was a pair of street musicians playing New Orleans jazz across the street. (I tipped them after dinner.)

The menu at Belga offers a lot of variety. You could make a light meal out of starter plates and side dishes. But it’s not really a ‘small plate’ menu, the entrées are too good to pass up.

One of my friends had an evening special cherry gazpacho. The accommodating server provided extra spoons, and we all got a taste. The soup was bright red. If you didn’t know it was cherries, you’d have sworn it was beets. We all wondered if it would be sweet. But it was not; just pleasantly tangy. It was served with a spoonful of cucumber sherbet which was unusual and refreshing.

I started with a salad, which was good but not particularly memorable. It was a little bland. I should have asked for a little cracked pepper.

For an entrée, I had braised short ribs. They were fabulously tender and served with a rich, dark sauce. They were served with a spoonful of soft polenta which readily lent itself to mixing with the sauce and shredded forks of beef. The plate also featured a mélange of vegetables which were very good and nicely complimented the rest of the meal.

My friend who had the gazpacho ordered coquilles Saint-Jacques for her entrée. It was beautifully plated, and she said it was very good. Our other friend (who actually was the host for dinner) had the evening special entrée. It was a salmon roulade filled with lobster. Like the cherry gazpacho, it was an unusual and very creative combination that she liked very much.

The only thing was, none of us had mussels. They have a nice selection of mussels on the menu prepared different ways. None of us ordered them. Maybe we should have had an order and shared them. But like I said, we had come from a reception and just didn’t want to eat that much.

The ambiance of Belga is casual and comfortable. Our server was friendly and made helpful suggestions. I felt the prices were reasonable for what you get, but then, I wasn’t picking up the tab. I was happy to be back for my second visit. I’d gladly make a return visit in the future.

Why can’t we have Italian restaurants like Acqua al 2 in Minneapolis?

I have a friend in DC who follows my blog. She saw my post about Lavagna in January and commented on another Italian restaurant nearby. She told me that Acqua al 2 has three locations in the world – DC, San Diego, and Florence (Firenza) Italy.

So at the end of March, when I had a free evening in DC, I went there for dinner. What a fabulous recommendation.

The ambiance is very casual. The clientele was very eclectic. I was in my business suit, and there were a couple other tables of business diners. I even saw one or two ‘Member of Congress’ lapel pins. But other diners were very casual, i.e. jeans, and there were a few families with kids.

My server was great. He was very knowledgeable and attentive without hovering. Whenever I asked about menu items, he took the time to describe the item and his guidance helped me make good choices for my meal. If I were to quibble, however, one aspect of the service was not so great. Some of the other service personnel were nowhere near as professional. Probably my biggest annoyance was timing. I wanted to have a few minutes to relax with my drink before my food arrived. But my starter course arrived immediately after I just started my drink. I just took my time with that course, and I could sense that they were ready to bring my entrée. Still, it was only a minor issue.

Of course, the best part of the evening was the food. I started with one of the evening specials called burrata pompelmo. My server described the burrata as a ball of double cream mozzarella. It was soft and creamy and delicious. It was dressed with a honey and olive oil dressing and served on several sections of grapefruit (pompelmo). Then it was sprinkled with cracked pepper and toasted pignolis.

The special main course for the evening was branzino, and it sounded great. But they have three different versions of veal chops on the menu, and I love veal chops. So that’s what I had. My entrée was called ‘lombatina al pepe verde’ or veal chop with green peppercorns. The veal was cooked perfectly medium rare. The sauce was a creamy mustard sauce with green peppercorns. Fabulous.

In Minneapolis, we have some very good Italian restaurants. But we just don’t have anything in the same class as Acqua al 2. For example, the last time I had a veal chop at D’Amico Kitchen (which is a very good Italian restaurant), it was thin and overcooked.

My big splurge at Acqua, however, was the glass of wine I had with dinner. I don’t know how my server detected my vulnerability, but he recommended a $22 glass of amarone. My brother told me once that he was a big fan of amarone, but I’ve never tried it. Maybe it was fatigue from traveling all day. But when he suggested that it would complement the veal well, I said ok.

It was a fabulous wine. He described it as having a big flavor, and it did. But it was not at all tannic. It was just big and full-bodied and delicious. So when I was walking back to the hotel, I did a little mental calculation. A 5-oz. pour (and this was a generous pour) yields 5 glasses from a bottle. So at $22 a glass, they were getting $110 for the bottle. I checked online and found amarone Masi in a range of $45-$60 a bottle. I’m sure a lot depends on the vintage and other considerations. But that’s only a 100% mark-up on the bottle price, which I think is pretty reasonable considering.

Anyway, I appreciate my colleague’s recommendation, and I can’t help wishing that we had an Italian restaurant like this in the Twin Cities.

Fresh pasta, friendly ambiance at Lavagna, DC

I read about Lavagna last summer in Roll Call. Roll Call is a newspaper that reports on Congress and also serves as sort of a community paper for Capitol Hill. It’s well written and I sometimes get insights about life on the Hill that lead to fun or unusual experiences (at least for a business traveler like me).

Unfortunately, if you tried the link for the Roll Call article, you discovered that you have to be a subscriber to read the whole thing. And quite to my surprise, I couldn’t find a review of Lavagna in the Washington Post. There are some reviews on Yelp. I wrote one, and gave it a better review than the average.

One of the things that intrigued me about Lavagna is that the owner, Stephen Chueng, is Asian. The Roll Call article explains that he got his start in the restaurant business at his parents Chinese restaurant. I thought, “That’s kind of interesting. I wonder how he does with Italian food.” (I suppose that’s an unkind stereotype. Sorry. I’m not Italian, and I do pretty well with Italian food, so I guess I shouldn’t have wondered. But I did.)

So on my first trip to DC in 2012, I had a free evening. So I invited a colleague to join me and give Lavagna a try. We both really enjoyed the experience.

I’m not sure, but I think the host who greeted us was the owner. It was early (6:30) on a Wednesday night, and it wasn’t at all crowded. He offered us a table at the front of the restaurant by the window, looking out onto the street. Very nice ambiance.

Lavagna, you quickly learn, is both an Italian town and the Italian word for slate. All of the menus are hand-written on individual slates. When I told my wife about it, she wondered how come the chalk didn’t rub off or become illegible. Well it wasn’t written in chalk but some kind of marker that I assume would wash off the slate.

Our server was very friendly and helpful. The previous week was Restaurant Week in DC. She told us that Lavagna had extended their Restaurant Week deal – three courses for a fixed price plus an up-charge for a glass of wine.

That’s what my friend had. Her starter was a cheese and olive plate. It had a nice selection of cured olives and a cubes of a couple different hard cheeses. For her entrée she ordered rigatoni with Italian sausage and vodka sauce. I got a taste and thought it was very good. For dessert she ordered bread pudding made with brioche. The portion sizes were very generous, and she took about half of the meal home.

While I was tempted by the Restaurant Week deal, the chef’s special tasting menu featured osso buco, and I can’t resist ordering it when I see it on the menu. My starter was a ravioli stuffed with pear, cheese, and walnuts. The fresh pasta was very tender and delicious. I loved the osso buco. (I just realized that osso buco usually is served with a gremolata on top. But that detail was missing at Lavagna.) It was served with saffron risotto that was very flavorful. My dessert was gelato flavored with espresso and toasted almonds. I’m not normally a big fan of ice cream, but this was very good.

I ordered the wine pairings that were selected for each course. I think it was about a 2- or 3-ounce pour for each kind of wine. I liked their choices, but I probably would prefer to select my own wine in the future.

Lavagna is a friendly, casual restaurant with a welcoming and relaxing ambiance. I probably would not choose it for a business dinner. But anytime in the future, when I have a free evening to dine with friends in DC, I’d definitely consider a return visit.

America Eats Tavern, DC, serves tradition avant-garde

Originally I had mixed feelings about America Eats Tavern in DC. I was excited because Chef Jose Andres was the creative mind behind the project. But I had some concerns.

First of all, it replaced one of my favorite DC restaurants – Café Atlantico. Second, I was afraid that the concept was kind of gimmicky. It’s a so-called ‘pop-up restaurant,’ a temporary restaurant to test out a particular theme. In this case, the theme is American food prepared with native ingredients and inspired by historical  recipes. The thing I like about Jose Andres is his passion for creating a memorable dining experience, his creativity in ingredients, and the delightful flavors that come out of his kitchens. I didn’t want to be served something just because it’s a ‘native’ food or because it’s historically authentic preparation.

Well, I shouldn’t have worried. For the most part, my two experiences at America Eats have been up to the standards that I expected from Chef Andres. By the way, on my first visit last July, for lunch, I got to meet him! I arrived a little later than the normal lunch crowd. As I was waiting to be seated, I saw him walking toward the front of the restaurant. I didn’t want to seem like a star-struck groupie, but I asked the hostess if I could get a picture with him. He graciously agreed. After the photo, he went on his way, and I was seated.

For that lunch, I had a gazpacho and a lobster roll. Both were fabulous. The gazpacho was served by pouring the cold soup into the bowl around an island of croutons and tomatoes. The lobster roll consisted of large chunks of chopped lobster held together with a light dressing, served on an airy roll that was more like a brioche than a bun.

I returned for a dinner at the end of November with three colleagues in DC. When our server greeted us, he advised that portions are small, so we should consider ordering something from each section of the menu – oysters, appetizers, soups/salads, and entrées. Seemed like a lot. While I do like oysters, I decided to take a pass this time, and my colleagues followed suit.

For the appetizer round, I had shrimp etouffee. It was delicious. Some of the other apps around the table – an unusual take on macaroni and cheese, this one made with vermicelli noodles, also an order of shrimp and grits that was quite good. And for the table, we split an order of hush puppies; they were excellent.

From the soup/salad section, I ordered the gazpacho again. I liked it just as much as the first time. One of my colleagues ordered the crab cake. The crab cake itself was great. But it was served with a slaw made from shredded Brussels sprouts that was very unusual and delicious. The beet salad, ordered by another of my guests, was a real attention-getter. On the plate were four beautiful, round baby beets and four balls of shredded beets. My guest said it was delicious, but quite a lot of beets for one person to eat. The fourth item we ordered was she crab soup, also very good.

Finally, for the entrées, here’s what we ordered: bison steak (for two), blackened croaker (a rustic Southern fish), and Eisenhower’s beef stew. I split the bison with one of my guests. It was good, but the meat was a little fatty. I was surprised because I’ve always thought that bison is supposed to be a very lean meat. The croaker was good, but not really much different from any other blackened fish. The stew was very unusual in that it was served ‘deconstructed’ with two generous chunks of stew meat in the middle of the plate and the vegetables arranged around the side. It was not at all stew-like.

So while all of the entrées tasted good, they were the most disappointing part of the meal. If any part of the meal bordered on being gimmicky, it was the entrées. They also were kind of expensive, and, as the server said, the portions were not large. I think I probably would have been happier if I’d ordered one of the oyster courses and skipped the entrée.

The ambiance of America Eats is basically the same as Café Atlantico – rustic and casual. Our server was good. He was attentive, friendly, informative. Coincidentally, we had the same server at dinner as I did for my solo lunch six months before. He told us that America Eats Tavern will remain in operation until July 4, 2012, a one-year run. Then the space will evolve into something new.

Meanwhile, I got a bit of good news when he told us that Café Atlantico will be reopening nearby, in the space that currently houses Zola. I couldn’t confirm that news. But if it’s true, I’ll be glad to have it back.

Lunch at Lincoln in DC

I suppose you have to wonder why there isn’t already a restaurant in DC named ‘Lincoln.’ I sure don’t know why. But there is now, and I had a lunch meeting there with my DC staff person on my most recent trip.

The décor is certainly appealing. The main dining room is open and airy. There are attractive, stylish pictures on the wall. Probably the main attention-getter is the floor. It’s ‘paved’ with Lincoln pennies.

The theme of the menu is small plates. I guess they actually prefer to say ‘seasonal’ small plates. By that, I assume they mean that the menu changes seasonally.

I thought the lunch menu was interesting. They have a bunch of sides or appetizers that you could share or have as part of your meal. They have a limited number of entrées. They look interesting, but neither of us chose one.

Our server described a soup of the day. It was a corn chowder with shrimp. We both ordered it. Jen thought it was bland. I agree that it didn’t have a lot of intense flavor, but I thought the flavors were well blended and subtle. A difference in perspective, I guess.

The lunch menu offers a nice selection of creative sandwiches and salads. Jen ordered the peach grilled cheese. It featured peach jam, fried green tomatoes and camembert cheese. It looked very appealing, and she liked it.

I was tempted by a couple of the salads. The chopped salad sounded intriguing, with avocado, peas, corn, feta cheese, and diced tomatoes. I also thought the Nicoise sounded good, with tuna, lima beans, capers, purple potatoes, tomatoes, and quail eggs.

But in the end, I also opted for a sandwich. I had a barbecued short rib sandwich. The meat was very tender. I also liked the barbecue sauce, though I guess it was fairly salty. The only thing I would say is that it was a little messy for a business lunch. I also opted for fries instead of chips ($3 upcharge). The fries were very good and were dressed with a drizzle of truffle oil. Like the sandwich, however, also very salty.

That was it. We didn’t have any dessert. I guess the big question is – would I go back? Well, I wouldn’t make a special trip downtown to eat there. But if I were staying downtown, or if I had a lunch meeting downtown, I’d definitely go again.