a taste of the good life, part one
Aug. 2nd, 2004 01:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kismet09On Thursday last week, Tim and I, in honor of DC's Restaurant Week, headed to the 1789 restaurant for a $30.04 per person dinner. This promptly turned into a $145 dinner, but it was worth the expense.
The restaurant is in Georgetown, which was fun for its scenery from the car, since we never really travel to that part of DC. I like driving through new and interesting places, checking out the storefronts and the residential architecture, knowing that I can see another state across the river, even when I never get out of the car. Parking was free valet, which is nice in that area. Dress code is also jacket required -- Tim wore his dark green suit and a tie, and I wore a little blue, knee-length swingy dress and my Charlotte shawl, in its official public debut. In fact, I was weaving ends in as we drove to the restaurant. It still needs a final blocking, but it looks pretty finished the way it is.
The restaurant is named after the year in which G'town was founded, and has actually been around for 45-ish years, in a 100+ year old building. It had a comfortable feel to it, with a gas lamp post in the entryway, and lots of old china and other memorabilia. While we were waiting to be seated, we wandered into a room full of old horsey stuff -- I pointed out the different kinds of bits mounted on the wall (pelhams, snaffles, twisted-wire...) to Tim.
We sat at a nice corner booth, in adjoining corners, which allowed both of us to look out into the restaurant. The silver was Reed Barton and had a great weight to it - we're big fans of heavy flatware. The menu may have been somewhat abbreviated, but there were still plenty of choices. Lots of seafood in the appetizers, which didn't do much for me (or Tim), 8 or 10 entrees, and 5ish desserts (or optional cheese tray). A couple of the entrees and the cheese course had surcharges, but they were reasonable as well. The wine list was pretty extensive, with choices by the glass, half bottle and bottle.
The meal started with an amuse-bouche of gazpacho. I tasted it, even though I'm not much of a gazpacho person, and it definitely had an intense flavor -- I was doing okay until I hit a big piece of cilantro, and then Tim got to finish it. We split a half bottle of Louis Jadot white (I can't remember if it was an unoaked Chard, or another white), which was recommended by a pretty knowledgeable but probably younger-than-us server, who apparently has over 200 bottles at home, some of which live in a wine fridge (unless she was making it all up for effect, but really, she sounded sincere). The bread was a wonderful foccacia, and we had to make sure to not fill up just on bread.
For dinner, Tim had a salad with blue goat cheese, baby tomatoes, celery, walnut raisin croutons, and balsamic (and maybe something else that I'm forgetting); the vegetarian sampler entree, which included a potato/artichoke puff pastry thing, a goat cheese flan, beets, peppers, onions, and a bunch of other vegetables; and the cheese plate (fruits, warm bread, a virginia sheep's milk, a blue, and maybe a goat cheese). I had a mixed green salad with mustard tarragon dressing and fried shallots; sesame-encrusted salmon in a miso broth with rice, gingered beets, mushrooms, bok choy, and seaweed; and the vanilla bean creme brulee. and Tim had a black muscat with the cheese course, out of which I stole sips.
All of my food, plus Tim's puff pastry which I sampled, was very tasty. The presentation was good, the flavors fit together and were quite intense, but not overpowering. The service was friendly and efficient, and they did the thing with brushing crumbs of the table that makes me happy. So, overall, it was quite the lovely dining experience.
The restaurant is in Georgetown, which was fun for its scenery from the car, since we never really travel to that part of DC. I like driving through new and interesting places, checking out the storefronts and the residential architecture, knowing that I can see another state across the river, even when I never get out of the car. Parking was free valet, which is nice in that area. Dress code is also jacket required -- Tim wore his dark green suit and a tie, and I wore a little blue, knee-length swingy dress and my Charlotte shawl, in its official public debut. In fact, I was weaving ends in as we drove to the restaurant. It still needs a final blocking, but it looks pretty finished the way it is.
The restaurant is named after the year in which G'town was founded, and has actually been around for 45-ish years, in a 100+ year old building. It had a comfortable feel to it, with a gas lamp post in the entryway, and lots of old china and other memorabilia. While we were waiting to be seated, we wandered into a room full of old horsey stuff -- I pointed out the different kinds of bits mounted on the wall (pelhams, snaffles, twisted-wire...) to Tim.
We sat at a nice corner booth, in adjoining corners, which allowed both of us to look out into the restaurant. The silver was Reed Barton and had a great weight to it - we're big fans of heavy flatware. The menu may have been somewhat abbreviated, but there were still plenty of choices. Lots of seafood in the appetizers, which didn't do much for me (or Tim), 8 or 10 entrees, and 5ish desserts (or optional cheese tray). A couple of the entrees and the cheese course had surcharges, but they were reasonable as well. The wine list was pretty extensive, with choices by the glass, half bottle and bottle.
The meal started with an amuse-bouche of gazpacho. I tasted it, even though I'm not much of a gazpacho person, and it definitely had an intense flavor -- I was doing okay until I hit a big piece of cilantro, and then Tim got to finish it. We split a half bottle of Louis Jadot white (I can't remember if it was an unoaked Chard, or another white), which was recommended by a pretty knowledgeable but probably younger-than-us server, who apparently has over 200 bottles at home, some of which live in a wine fridge (unless she was making it all up for effect, but really, she sounded sincere). The bread was a wonderful foccacia, and we had to make sure to not fill up just on bread.
For dinner, Tim had a salad with blue goat cheese, baby tomatoes, celery, walnut raisin croutons, and balsamic (and maybe something else that I'm forgetting); the vegetarian sampler entree, which included a potato/artichoke puff pastry thing, a goat cheese flan, beets, peppers, onions, and a bunch of other vegetables; and the cheese plate (fruits, warm bread, a virginia sheep's milk, a blue, and maybe a goat cheese). I had a mixed green salad with mustard tarragon dressing and fried shallots; sesame-encrusted salmon in a miso broth with rice, gingered beets, mushrooms, bok choy, and seaweed; and the vanilla bean creme brulee. and Tim had a black muscat with the cheese course, out of which I stole sips.
All of my food, plus Tim's puff pastry which I sampled, was very tasty. The presentation was good, the flavors fit together and were quite intense, but not overpowering. The service was friendly and efficient, and they did the thing with brushing crumbs of the table that makes me happy. So, overall, it was quite the lovely dining experience.
