It's a pity that I'm glossing over some of the finest restaurants in Washington, DC with a perfunctory nod, photo proof I ate there (if available), and a glib line about finely-crafted food. The trouble is, I can't say much more about some of these restaurants than they were the setting of a fine evening, good conversation and I believe, in all cases, excellent dessert.
Why am I writing about them now? Because they are the last bastions of the Washingtonian Top 100 list for 2010. The Top 100 I have been operating off of since 2011. This means that I can now say I documented my finish of my Top 100 (well, two years later than expected). I finished the list sooner--I'm not exactly sure when but I think sometime around the time I visited the Inn at Little Washington--but I have never written these stalwarts up until now and thus, never have proved that I have visited them. But this labor of love--or rather this labor of extensive calorie consumption, credit-card-points-getting, or highly-sophisticated-palate-developing--is over. (But please read on.)
What about the last one, Citronelle? What is the status of their extensive renovations? Will the blog ever experience Michel Richard's cuisine at his iconic Georgetown restaurant? News reports from last October suggest that the hotel in which Citronelle was situated is being converted to condos, stymying any last hope of finishing the list. I have waited patiently--even took a cooking class offered by a Michel Richard acolyte--but I close the book on 2010. Hello, 2014.
This was a very serious restaurant. It's underneath its sister restaurant, Kotobuki, an early checked-off restaurant on the Top 100. Diners remove their shoes in the entryway and sport slide-on slippers and stow purses and coats in wooden cubical seats. There's very little room to be spared and while the atmosphere is severe, the food has its own voice.
This voice, however has drifted away in the passage of culinary time--I vaguely remember a lovely soup, fresh fish, and raw cuts of tuna--because the staff cowed me into not taking photos (well, not explicitly). Photo-taking seemed forbidden in such an austere environment, so I only snapped a few at the end. Like, the dessert and tea end, below.
There's even fewer memories of this one: I went with friends Dotti and Stavros and we somehow took no photos. Instead, we downed a few bottles of really delicious red wine, ate steaks with lots of older couples in furs, and found the whole experience nice, but a bit stifled. Possibly explaining the no photos thing again.
1789, situated in an old house in Georgetown, is one of the most romantic restaurants on the Top 100 and I went with a girlfriend. We dished on the worthless men we were dating at the time and were startled at what a lovely time we had in such a romantic locale. It was an exquisite dinner.
We started with a shot of soup--something delicious--nibbled on fresh bread, and eyed other diners from our corner table.
I can only guess that my appetizer was burrata, with figs and pomegranates. I do remember thinking at the time that my photos did not do the dish justice.
I photographed one of these fine dishes even though it was my esteemed platonic date's. She didn't mind but I don't remember what she--or for that matter, I--had. 1789 still has a lamb and pork ravioli on the menu, though, suggesting an endearing consistency. It was tasty.
Dinner was again, something memorably exquisite but forgettably comprised. I don't remember most of the details but it was a lovely night and an admirable Top 100 dinner.
I saved the best (overlooked) entry for last. Tosca was part of my turning-30 extravaganza (farther away now than I'd like to admit). I started with a $20 glass of Bordeaux...
Then a tomato and burrata salad...
My friend Christine and I, of course, had multiple other courses: I, ravioli, and she, risotto.
Christine had a beautiful dessert and I ordered a ridiculously involved cheese plate.
We capped off the night with cookies...
...And I cap off off the Top 100 with a hearty cheers. On to 2014!
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