Washington DC Restaurant Week, 2004

[DonRocks]

Rumor has it that a party of four dined at a Very Expensive Restaurant that was not participating in Restaurant Week, finished their meal, received a check for several hundred dollars, and then proceeded to demand that each meal be charged at the Restaurant Week price.

Can anyone confirm this tawdry story?

[John W.]

No. I can confirm that a Ewok Village based place kept copies of EVERY possible restaurant week guide at the host stand, stating very cleary that the restaurant in question was not participating for dinner.

Edited August 5, 2004 by John W. (log)

[Chef Shogun]

So yeah, now that it's over (With a few voluntary exceptions), how'd it go? Diners: Good meals? Chefs and restaurant types: Good weeks? Anything crazy happen? Need closure here!

[bilrus]

I was four for four with dinners at Yanyu and Corduroy, lunch at Colvin Run and brunch at Bistro Bis.

[iamthestretch]

I ended up making it 7 for 7 and gaining a roughly equivalent number of pounds in the process. But I didn't have a single bad meal and it was totally worth it.

All the boring day-by-day details are back up the thread, but it broke down as:

Mendocino, lunch.

Butterfield 9, lunch.

Poste, lunch.

Melrose, dinner.

Signatures, lunch.

Yanyu, lunch.

Bombay Club, dinner.

Taking unfair advantage? Probably. But five of those places were new to me, and I'll definitely now go back to each. In the meantime, I've already steered friends to a couple of them, which semi-validates the marketing objective, right? Anyway, while it's clearly unfair to compare lunch to dinner at +1/3 of the cost, the one place I'd queue up overnight if necessary to get back into was Melrose. Place I most wish I'd wandered into years ago: Yanyu/Mendocino (tie). Place I'm most likely to skive off to to get drunk on half-price wine on the next quiet Friday afternoon that comes along: Signatures. Who says RW isn't a learning experience for all concerned?

[chicagowench]

I can verify that a family of 5 came into Citronelle on the Saturday of RW and was shocked, shocked I tell you to discover the restaurant was not participating in RW. They were also rather taken aback by the lack of a children's menu (though the restaurant did quite well in punting).

We were the happy drunks at the next table over.

We had to cancel our RW reservations at Tosca for various family reasons (man!) but did have brunch at Bistro Bis. So very good- we too loved the quiche, and their hollandaise was excellent on the eggs benedict.

[Nadya]

A quick report on two other RW experiences over the past two weeks.

Last Saturday two girlfriends and me dined at 1789. First, let me just say that the first floor dining room is gawgeous in that Old-World fireplace-and-dark wood style that is rather unconvincingly imitated by most bed and breakfasts on the East Coast (and England, too, for that matter.) We made our reservations about 10 days in advance, and the room looked full when we sat down.

We were seated with no wait at all. The menu selections were quite generous – the only items that called for surcharges were cheese plate on the appetizer list and lamb and sirloin on the entrée list. Our waiter was charming, and we decided we liked him even before our second glasses of wine arrived.

I went with seafood selections for both starter and main course. My soft-shell crab was very nice – served tempura-style with sesame vinegar dipping atop some sort of sprouts (two other ladies opted for greens – someone had to). For main course, I had Summer Gathering – a concoction of scallops, crab and lobster with sweet corn and potatoes in saffron broth. It was beautiful, especially the scallops – incredibly juicy and sweet-tasting, cooked perfectly. Two other choices at the table were, predictably, lamb and beef. Lamb got thumbs-up from my Scottish-born and raised friend, who said it’s the best she had in Washington. Beef received similar accolades, and I had a bite of both, and JUICY was the word of the night. Is there another way of saying “juicy”? My thesaurus feature seems to be disabled.

We finished quite amiably by way of a peach crisp, a chocolate thing and a melba. Much fun has been had by all, to the tune of $60 per lady with tax, wine and tip. By the way, I think 1789 must be one of the few places where "career waiters" can still be seen - one of the guys in the dining room must have been eighty, at least.

The night rolled along in Mie and Yu – but I’d rather not talk about that.

Last Friday, it was Butterfield 9 with another girlfriend (it’s not what you think). We started at the bar with inimitable Spencer, who plied us with bubbly by the glass. I was convinced, yet again, that research skills are an underestimated virtue. What I mean is that when you know the owner of the place (who I never met before) is called Umbi Singh, and when the gentleman who escorts you to the table looks middle-aged and is wearing a turban, it’s only natural to say to him as a wild guess, why, how are you, Mr. Singh? Much smiles, compliments, and a purrrfect banquette for two ensues.

Starters: crab cake for her and seared duck breast for me. They were out of crab cake and offered a soft shell crab replacement, which she happily took. The waiter was smooth and obliged us by offering Spanish conversation classes tableside…all that I recall were amor, pasion y muchos besos. I also think I received a proposal of marriage at the end of the meal. Both appetizers were very good, cooked lightly and unfussy.

Entrees were pork chop for me and rack of lamb for her. Pork is usually not my first choice, but I loved mine – came with barley salad, peaches and cherries, overall taste is hearty and down-home good. Her lamb was a bit on the fatty side for my taste, but she loved it.

My dessert was amazing. I am a chocoholic, and by definition it makes me sad to see good chocolate misused – this was not the case here. A little chocolate cake with almost molten-cake filling of dark chocolate, cinnamon flavor and a scoop of heavy cream on top. Wish that licking of plates was okay in fine dining places. It caused me unbearable sadness to see that it is not offered on the regular dessert menu.

We finished at the bar, right where we started. At this point we were pretty tipsy and let it be known that it was my birthday! Darling Spencer obliged by witty conversation and a flight of port and wouldn’t take our money! I think I want to marry Spencer instead of our waiter (who was very good, and smooth, just not my type.)

A bit of gossip gleaned from Spencer, who bartends at New Heights as well: Bobby Beard, formerly of Pesce, has left New Heights last week. He was executive chef there for maybe a couple of months, and apparently it didn’t work out. Will keep an ear out for more developments.

All in all, two delightful experiences of great food, wonderful ambience and charming service – at very little money. RW rocks!