DC Weekend: Our Trip Report

[Kim Shook]

Time for our trip report. I had asked on this board for some advice on where to eat for our special weekend and wanted to report back on what we did. Thanks to everyone for the advice. We had a great time and ate some good food! Our wedding anniversary is March 20th and Mr. Kim is a big Barry Manilow fan (I am not). I decided that since he was in concert at the Verizon Center on Saturday, we could make a weekend out of it and have an early anniversary celebration. Mr. Kim’s best friend (another Barry guy) and his wife had their anniversary in January and so we decided to make it a foursome. Mr. Kim and I went up a day early so that we could have dinner with a dear friend that I went to high school with. We went up Friday night, 2/8 and stayed through Sunday afternoon. We had a really good time even though I started feeling bad on Saturday afternoon – came home and went to the doctor on Monday – I have pneumonia and have been on the couch in a semi coma since then. I am doing this report for a few minutes every hour and then collapsing again. So forgive if this is a bit disjointed! And I apologize in advance for the mostly crappy pictures. I haven't gotten the hang of the restaurant setting yet, I guess!

Since we had a few minutes after checking into our hotel (Hyatt – Crystal City) before the shuttle for the Metro came, we just went to their bar for a drink. We had an utterly fantastic bartender – Serena or Sabrina and she made the best Cosmopolitan I have ever had.

This ended up being a Cosmo weekend – it was the only drink I ordered all weekend and while all were good – hers were the best.

Friday we met a good friend at Cashion’s Eat Place. Thanks,busboy, for the recommendation. It is a lovely place and we were treated so well. The service person really took charge of us (in a nice way) and made us feel so welcome – like we were really guests in her place (I know its supposed to work like that, but it doesn’t always in real life). Sorry for my sketchy info here, we hadn’t seen our friend in so long that we were just talking up a storm and I had to kind of put this together after the fact and didn’t think to ask for a menu – actually, I forgot to ask for a menu anywhere we went this weekend. I’m lucky I remembered to take pictures during this meal. Mr. Kim and our friend had to keep reminding me. I forget to take even one picture of us with our friend . I didn’t think of this until the next day – too late. I guess that is the mark of really enjoying a good visit – having too much fun to remember to commemorate it !

I had the Jambon (aside – how do you pronounce Jambon?) Serrano w/ hot cheese-stuffed dates. This ham was fantastic. I think I actually preferred it to any proscuitto that I’ve ever had. And the cheese-stuffed dates were perfect – I just wish I remembered what kind of cheese they used! I also had the Chicory and baby green salad w/ pomegranate seeds and... some other stuff (sorry). Very good. I also had a Cosmo – ok, but no Serena!

Mr. Kim had the baby beet salad w/ baby greens, crème fraiche and white anchovies. He liked this a lot. His main was the pepper rubbed Bison rib-eye with a spicy sauce and Brussels sprouts au gratin. He said the bison was really good – very rich tasting and complex. The Brussels sprouts were the revelation of the evening. I will be trying to make this soon. They were probably the most delicious thing we ate all night (and everything else was great). Sliced thin, still slightly firm, nutty, rich cheese. MMMM.

Our friend had the sablefish. He enjoyed it very much. I didn’t taste, as I was getting very full, but it looked perfectly cooked.

We shared the Valrhona chocolate cake with ‘wet’ walnuts and Demera sugar ice cream. The cake was slightly warm and intensely chocolaty with out being truly dark. I am not a fan of wet nuts at all, but was glad to see that they resisted the call to ‘black out’ the cake with a fudge sauce or chocolate ice cream. The slightly brown sugar flavor of the ice cream went so well with the walnuts and cake.

Our friend lives in the area (I am very envious of that – I was never made to live in the ‘burbs – I’ve always gravitated to cities ) and has eaten at Cashion’s fairly often over the years. He says he has never been disappointed in a meal there. We weren’t either. A really good meal and a perfect place to have a real visit with an old friend that we hadn’t seen in too long. We never felt rushed on a Friday night, either! Then we went back to the hotel for another Cosmo before bedtime !

On Saturday, we just had the complementary breakfast at the hotel. It was surprisingly good. The breads were out of the ordinary as far as quality went, there were some nice soft cheeses on offer and the bacon and pork were outstanding – the bacon was so porky that it tasted more like fatback than restaurant bacon .

Lunch was at Mario’s on Wilson Blvd. in Arlington. I have been eating this stuff since before I was born – my mom used to have Mario’s cravings when she was pregnant with me! We had the usual – A ham, steak and cheese sub with pizza sauce, “slaw” (really just shredded cabbage) and mayo, fries (crinkle cut frozen – no ‘Whiz this time) and a cheese slice. The pizza and fries are crap, really – I grew up eating them so I guess it is a sentimental sense memory for me. But the subs are fantastic. The steak is actually shaved rib eye, the ham is good quality and the cheese is provolone.

We stopped by the Arlington Whole Foods (we aren’t getting one until later this year) for some treats and gifts: cookies, chocolates, cheeses for my little punk, Organic cheese popcorn, etc.

When we got back to the hotel, our friends who were coming from Richmond had arrived. We all went down to the bar for a drink (Cosmo #4, if you are keeping count – maybe I don’t have pneumonia – maybe I’m just seriously hung over – we gastric bypass patients are really sensitive to alcohol ). Then to Brasserie Beck for dinner. Beautiful place with a fantastic wait staff. Our server, Melanie, was perfect – attentive, friendly, concerned without being too present or fawning. I had the country pate with a pickled assortment – including onions, cornichons, etc. – very rough and rustic and delicious – I really wanted to finish this!! I ended with the salad frisee with lardoons, a poached egg and sherry vinaigrette. Perfect version. The egg just gooshed all over the salad, making my vinaigrette almost creamy. That probably sounds icky, but it wasn’t – it was perfect! Um…and I had another Cosmo.

Mr. Kim had the leek and potato soup. Very good. The leeks were very assertive without tasting ‘strong’. I don’t know how it happens, but I often find that with leek and potato soup the dullest component (potato) seems to over shadow the liveliest (leek) – not this one. It was great and green tasting! He also had the braised lamb shanks with white beans - incredibly tender lamb, and the beans were so good - really silky and creamy! Mike and I shared an order of frites with mayo trio – curry, sun dried tomato and roasted garlic – very good!

One of our friends had a salad and the Shrimp Croquettes. She liked the salad fine, but not the shrimp. The sauce was overwhelmingly hot – no warning on the menu at all. And she didn’t care for the texture of the shrimp. I tasted them and thought that they were very good. Just a real essence of shrimp taste. They were similar to the texture of shrimp toast – a little spongy. But with no fillers at all, so I don’t know what other kind of texture you would expect. Shrimp is spongy – not flakey like crab and I think that she was expecting a crab cake kind of thing.

Our server was wonderful about it and offered to replace it with something else very quickly and apologized profusely and, of course, it was taken off the bill. I really believe that our friend was just in one of her moods that night and wasn’t going to like anything. She was totally grossed out by my meal. And said so (she didn’t taste it, just looked). Our other friend had the grilled beef steak with Cognac Sauce and potatoes – the menu said frites, but these were different – almost an au gratin with crispy cheese on top. Really good – he was still talking about his meal the next morning.

Then we went to the concert – very, very fun. As I said, I am not a huge fan, but he is such a showman that it really doesn’t matter, you have a good time. And I don’t care how cool you think you are, I defy anyone who grew up in the 70’s to sit at a Barry Manilow concert and not know the words to every freaking song he does!! Only food note here was that we all agreed that we wished that Verizon Center had concession people who came down into the stands during concerts - the soft serve that the ladies in front of us were getting up to get looked pretty good, but we were too lazy to get up.

After the concert we went back to the hotel for drinks. Ah..yep, I had another Cosmo !

Sunday morning Mr. Kim and I had an early breakfast at the hotel again and then all four of us went to Vermilion in Alexandria for brunch. This was a big success with everyone. Thanks to monavano for the recommendation. I had the Greek yogurt with fresh and dried fruits, granola and honey. So good – everyone loved this – even the ones who aren’t usually yogurt fans! I also had the crispy VA oysters with shaved celery and gala apple slaw and tangy dressing. The oysters were sweet and lightly crusted, but the slaw was truly wonderful. This is another thing that I am going to try to duplicate at home – we all loved this, too! (I didn’t have a Cosmo ).

Mr. Kim had the hanger steak with porcini dusted fries baby greens and house made steak sauce. These were all good, though I couldn’t taste the porcini on the fries.

Our friends had the eggs and latkes (great version) and the butternut squash soup drizzled with balsamic and sprinkled with toasted pumpkin seeds.

They brought a basket of lovely, moist mini muffins to the table. They were carrot, coconut and raisin.

We wandered around Old Town with our friends for a little while showing them the Torpedo Factory, some dog goody store – I should have taken pictures here – the goodies looked like fine pastries! The wife hadn’t ever been to Old Town and wanted to see some of it. They went back to Richmond early afternoon and Mr. Kim and I wandered a little more. We stopped at Scoops on King Street for a frozen custard which felt so good to my increasingly sore throat and head.

Please notice the lovely frozen custard and ignore the puffy faced, fuzzy haired, needs-a-dye-job, sick-but-apparently-not-too-sick-for-ice-cream broad !

We also stopped at a fairly new candy store around the corner from Ramsey House called Candie’s Candy. Mostly wrapped bulk penny candy type stuff. Primarily salt water taffy. Not great and too expensive (I grew up on Dolle's Salt Water Taffy from Ocean City and Pony Tails from Chincoteague so I guess I’m spoiled) – still, we bought too much. I think we were hungry. And it was so windy and cold – we were glad just to get in the warmth!

We had an early dinner at Eamon’s on King Street. We shared fish and chips. The fish is cod and was delicious. Looking back, the theme of the weekend seemed to be Cosmos and potatoes. We had them with almost every meal! And these chips were the best potatoes that we had all weekend. Thick, crisp outside and fluffy inside. Just perfect!

Mr. Kim had a Club Rock Shandy to drink (tasty and non-alcoholic – I was feeling really awful by then and we knew that he was driving home) and I had a Ballygowan – Irish water (meh – tasted like water).

We also got a bag of Jelly Babies

Well, that’s it - we meandered on home, thanks to Mr. Kim. I was a zombie by the time we got onto the Beltway! Thanks so much to everyone for all your help! We had a great time!

[monavano]

Kim, wow!- what a great report especially in light of your pneumonia (please feel better soon). I'm so happyyou enjoyed Old Town and Vermillion. Scoops is a really great friendly place- it's my favorite.

I've never heard of Mario's in Arlington and I HAVE to try their cheesesteak (OK-steak and cheese )

Love the photos-Thanks!

[dinwiddie]

Glad you liked Beck's, it is one of my favorite places in DC. Great food and great service, and if you are a fan of Belgian beer, THE place to go.