Charlie Palmer Steak

[sara]

Going to Charlie Palmer Steak in two weeks...has anyone been? What to order?

[vengroff]

I haven't been, but would love to hear about it. Please post a report after you go. A friend of mine who works on the hill say it has become an instant favorite of the lobbyist crowd. I'm not sure if that is good or bad....

Order steak, of course!

One other thing, they have an all-American wine list. They hired a guy to travel around the country to try to find at least one wine from every single state. I don't know if he's got them all yet, but he has found an Alaskan berry wine of some sort.

[sara]

No problem-I will report (the dinner is the 16th).

One of our group is actually a lobbyist--perhaps the reason this place was chosen. Also, definitely chosen for the wine list--we are having a sort of wine dinner, a Zinfandel tasting of sorts. Apparently CPS lets you bring two bottles w/no corkage fee-- so we'll start w. that and then move onto the wine list.

[vengroff]

That's great news about the corkage waiver.

CP was smart about choosing a location. It's now the closest fine-dining restaurant to the Senate. The address is on Constitution, but the entrance is actually a block up Lousiana on the side of the building. They also have access to a space on the roof for private functions.

[awbrig]

One other thing, they have an all-American wine list. They hired a guy to travel around the country to try to find at least one wine from every single state. I don't know if he's got them all yet, but he has found an Alaskan berry wine of some sort.

Utah would be tough. Real tough.

[vengroff]

Utah would be tough.  Real tough.

Utah's first winery opened in 1989.

At least according to the Castle Creek Winery web site in Moab. Nothing like a cool glass of Utah Chardonnay after a long dusty day of mountain biking.

[awbrig]

Allison just told me that Castle Creek is the only winery in Utah. She wishes I would have asked her before my last post! She should know, she grew up in Moab...

Edited June 1, 2003 by awbrig (log)

[Mark Sommelier]

Charlie Palmer Steak was reviewed this weekend in the Washington Blade. Here is the link:

http://207.202.17.55/2003/5-30/arts/dining...orrycharlie.cfm

[Mark Sommelier]

Had lunch there today. Gorgeous place, very moderne. Interesting lunch menu with many choices beside steak. Chilled Pea soup with crabmeat and lemon foam was good. It needed salt for my taste. I didn't care at all for the crab gratin. Too gummy with bread, not crabby enough. The steak was perfect. Nice size dry aged rib-eye for lunch (@10 oz.) - perfectly marbled, juicy, nutty flavor. All the sides were well prepared, too: fresh morels, great steak fries, jumbo asparagus. We tinkered with the eWineList for a while. Cool idea. Very easy to navigate. Its a tablet computer, although they have a printed version handy for those mystified by computers. The service was knowledgeable and gracious. Old time Washingtonians will recognize maitre d' Martin from the Jockey Club.

[jparrott]

Is it true that it's no corkage for american wines and $25 for non-american wines? I saw the mention of corkage fee earlier, but I also heard the above rumor elsewhere.

[Mark Sommelier]

Is it true that it's no corkage for american wines and $25 for non-american wines?  I saw the mention of corkage fee earlier, but I also heard the above rumor elsewhere.

This is true. You can bring 2 bottles of domestic wine with no corkage. Imported wine is $25 a bottle. What's that about?

[Fat Guy]

That's a new one on me. I guess they want to encourage folks to drink domestic wine.

[vengroff]

That's a new one on me. I guess they want to encourage folks to drink domestic wine.

They are across the street from the Senate. In that market, patriotism sells.

[Fat Guy]

Freedom Corkage.

[jparrott]

Is it $12.50 if you bring Hyde de Villaine?

Maybe there ought to be a checklist.

Start at $10

All new oak? If yes, subtract $5, if no, add $5

Parker 92+? If yes, subtract $5, if no, add $5

Current release year? If yes, subtract $5, if no, add $5

French? If yes add $20 and you can only get a veggie plate, if no, subtract $5

"Gobby"? If yes subtract $5, if no, add $15

No thanks.

Edited June 13, 2003 by jparrott (log)

[Mark Sommelier]

jparrot say:

Is it $12.50 if you bring Hyde de Villaine?

Maybe there ought to be a checklist.

Start at $10

All new oak?  If yes, subtract $5, if no, add $5

Parker 92+?  If yes, subtract $5, if no, add $5

Current release year?  If yes, subtract $5, if no, add $5

French? If yes add $20 and you can only get a veggie plate, if no, subtract $5

"Gobby"? If yes subtract $5, if no, add $15

No thanks.

I detect gobs and gobs of sarcasm here.

PS: I love HdeV!!

Edited June 14, 2003 by Mark Sommelier (log)

[jparrott]

I give that retort only 89 points.

[Mark Sommelier]

I give that retort only 89 points.

89 points! Sentenced to the close-out bin.

[jparrott]

And five bucks extra corkage at Charlie Palmer Steak

[sara]

Hi

I had dinner at CPS last night w/ four friends. Overall, I'd say the restaurant is beautiful, but a bit on the too-large side; the service was attentive, but occasionally absent-minded; the food was generally of high quality, with some notable flaws; and the wine list was substantial, but isn't full of great, interesting choices (at least in terms of red wines).

Some details:

We brought 4 bottles of zinfandel (this was a plan):

2001 Seghesio Zinfandel Alexander Valley San Lorenzo

2001 Seghesio Zinfandel Sonoma (this was a mistake)

2001 Jackass Vineyards Martinelli

1999 De Loach OFS Russian River Valley

The waiter poured three at once, and the latter Seghesio last, after we finished the 1st three. The wine service was impeccable, with one exception: The corkage fee was never discussed or mentioned. The wine list (both the electronic and printed versions) states "Corkage fee: Domestic, no charge, Other, $25." No mention of the 2 btl limit (We had heard about this, but figured on being reminded/told if it was true). The entire meal went by, no mention. We got the check, no charge for the extra 2 btls. We charged the meal, and it was only when our credit receipts came that we saw they had added $50 for the 2 btls--what pissed us off is that they never came by with a corrected receipt and apologized for the omission-- instead, they added it, charged our cards, and never mentioned it. Then, when we were puzzling over why over receipts were around $67 ($336/5) instead of $57 ($286/5), they sent 3 waiters over to ask if there was a problem--clearly, they came as a team expecting us to be pissed, which we were. Obviously, we didn't argue the charge, just their manner of presenting it.

Anyways, that unpleasantness aside--here's what we ate:

Amuse bouche--chicken pate w/ foie gras center (this was the best thing we ate all night--like a fancy chicken salad)

Appetizers: Chopped salad w/ blue cheese and pancetta ($9); Seared Octopus ($11); Chesapeake Blue Crab Gratin ($15). I had the gratin, it was too much filler, not enough crab, as previously noted. The octopus looked oddly compressed, but good, and unfortunately I didn't grab a taste quickly enough.

Entrees: 2 veal t-bones ($31 each), 1 double pork chop ($26), 1 porterhouse ($63). I shared the porterhouse--it was good, not great. I tasted the pork, that was great.

Sides: fries ($5), morels ($12), broccoli rabe ($5). Fries were terrible, morels ok, rabe was awesome.

Dessert: Creme Brulee ($7) served 3 ways including lavender and ginger--very good. Chocolate plate w/ a caramel tart, raspberry coulis, etc.($7). This was honestly pretty boring.

I also had a nice glass of Dr. Konstantin Frank, Johannisburg Riesling Semi-Dry NY 2001 at the bar when we arrived--I really liked that.

The waiter pushed a $34/glass of dessert wine (can't recall what it was) but we didn't bite. They do have that lovely Andrew Rich Ice Wine at $10/glass, but other than that the consensus at the table was that the winelist (which we spent a lot of time looking at) really didn't have many interesting wines. They are still building the list tho, so we'll see what happens after they're opening a couple more months.

Service--I went to the ladies room, left my napkin on my chair, and when I returned it was entirely gone! Odd...Other than that, I just felt we were a bit over-attended, and the corkage incident was unpleasant.

Overall---it was a fine experience, but not good enough to go again anytime soon.

[vengroff]

Thanks for the report, sara. That was great. Did you try out the electronic wine list gizmo? If so, did you find it useful, gimmicky, both, neither?

[sara]

We did try out the gizmo (well, we being the 4 men I was with--I never got to try it!) but didn't like it. It turned itself off too quickly when you weren't using it, it was apparently hard to manipulate and hard to read. The waiter noticed the problems my friends were having w/ it, and brought over the printed version, he said for "the over 40 crowd" (which I found hilarious, as I am 26, my friends 31, 39, and 50). Unfortunately, the list was 6 weeks old (from when they opened) and hadn't been updated--so it didn't match the electronic list perfectly.

In my perfect world, we don't need electronic wine lists--we just need enough lists for the table. I can't stand fighting over the darn list, and as a woman the list is hardly ever handed to me first.

[Mark Sommelier]

Good review, Sara.

I thought the eWineList was a little too much, also. Its heavy and the interface I felt was somewhat awkward. The odd thing, we had lunch in a private room - 3 of us had a wine tasting with about a case and a half of wine. They brought us the eWineList to look at. They left it in the room. We came on the late side of lunch, so the shifts changed and we were turned over to the "closer". The wine gizmo would have been very easy to pocket by more unscrupulous people than I.

[John W.]

Tom's review here

[vengroff]

They should put an HTML front end on their wine database so that people can preview it on the web before they come in. They must have a database back end that supports their tablets; they just need a new front end on it. It shouldn't be to hard to build.

They could even let you select a bottle, enter your credit card, and ask them to decant it so it's ready for you to drink when you arrive for dinner.