Thing 12: Georgia Brown's, Revisited

I think everyone gets really excited for restaurant week, and then is hit with a number of disappointments, from bad service to small portions to soggy tarts.

So I would like to add a quick note here that Georgia Brown's really does restaurant week right. My hat is off to you, Georgia!

First of all, the food is quite good, and the portions are tremendous. I ordered blue-cheese- stuffed, bacon-wrapped dates, which were really delicious in their salty sweet richness. As far as bacon-wrapped dates go, these were rivaled only by those at Jaleo, and Jaleo deep fries theirs, so they have an unfair advantage. I was served with eight dates wrapped in bacon. Eight. I ate three. Like I said, huge restaurant week portions.

For my entree, I ordered the classic fried chicken. It was a tremendous plate of food, two huge chicken breasts fried to golden, crispy brown with a smoky brown gravy, a scoop of mashed potatoes and a heap of collards slow-cooked with bacon. It was all delicious. I especially attacked the collards, and I needed the waiter to box the second piece of chicken and a good bit of the potatoes for my lunch the next day.

Finally, for dessert there were two options: an orange-infused chocolate mousse and a strawberry shortcake. On the waiter's recommendation, I went for the chocolate mousse. The mousse itself was delightful, rich and creamy, dense and with an edge of orange. It came served in an orange-honey sauce which I wasn't fond of, but no matter. I just pushed the sauce over and dug into the thick chocolate sphere. Again, I could only finish half of it with all the delicious food from the two previous courses sitting happily in my belly.

Our service was prompt, attentive and polite. Our waiter was happy to answer questions, make recommendations and was not the least bit put out that we were ordering from the restaurant week menu. Our meal took about an hour and half, a nice relaxed pace but not slow at any point, and certainly not rushed.

I think restaurants that do a good job of restaurant week, both food and service, should be recognized and patronized both during and after the promotion, so head over! For $30, you actually get two meals out of it -- dinner and the next day's lunch -- and an enjoyable meal in a lively atmosphere.

Thing 56: 15 ria

Many things came together yesterday that allowed me to eat a three course lunch at 15 ria on a Wednesday.

1. The Cap Lounge (and thus, my office space) was on fire, and so I was working from my home.
2. It's restaurant week, and three course lunches are only $20 at participating restaurants.
3. It was H-O-T, and 15 ria is actually nearest restaurant to my front door. 50 feet, tops.

I had never been to 15 ria, mostly because it is normally a bit too pricey to justify eating there often, and also it's in a Doubletree Hotel, which is strangely off-putting. Prejudiced? Yeah. But when the Boyfriend and I go out in the neighborhood, we generally frequent Stoney's for price, atmosphere, convenience, and super grilled cheese.

But what the heck! I can spare $20 on a place to try it out, right? So I headed over around 1:30 when I knew it wouldn't be too busy, and requested a table for one.

The dining room is trying very hard to not look like the dining room of a Double Tree Hotel. It ends up looking a little bit like the high school prom instead, but it's definitely an improvement over, say, Corduroy. There is a lot of two-toned satin draped over most walls, creating an iridescent bronze and purple effect, with small framed mirrors lined horizontally across each wall. The chairs are hotel chairs -- nave blue with a funny polka dot pattern -- but they are deep and comfortable. The dining room is fairly small and not too noisy. I could easily eavesdrop on my neighbors, so I don't recommend this restaurant if you are divulging state secrets.

The service was incredibly gracious. You hear a lot of horror stories from restaurant week, of cranky, mean waiters being overworked and significantly under tipped with the prix fixe price point, but my waiter was nothing but kind, attentive and very good natured. Although I was eating by myself, he never made me feel bad about, and was eager to make sure my experience was a good one. Maybe too eager -- he asked me if I'd like a drink or a glass of wine even before I'd been given a menu!

Unfortunately, I did not think the food lived up to the high level set by the service. It wasn't bad, but I wouldn't go so far as to say it was great. It was very run of the mill cooking, nothing that I would necessarily crave or go back for. I started with the cold cantaloupe and mint soup.


It was delicious, as a dessert. Unfortunately, it was my appetizer. It was really sweet, with no salty, sour or spicy accents to counter balance it. It was really just cantaloupe pureed with mint, and it would have been delicious with a scoop of vanilla ice cream in the center. As it was, it greatly improved with a nice shake from the salt and pepper shakers, desperately in need of balance from the heat and the salty. Imagine the possibilities with a drizzle of chili oil, a squeeze of lime, or some cubes of feta or a grilled halloumi cheese.

My second course was a blackened ahi tuna with wasabi mashed potatoes, baby bok choy and a soy ginger sauce. I'm not entirely sure where it fits into the overall theme of this "contemporary American cuisine" restaurant, but it was definitely the best of my three courses. The tuna had a delicious, salty crust and was topped with some sea vegetables, the baby bok choy was not overcooked and still had a bit of crunch to it, and the wasabi mashed potatoes were powerful enough to hurt my sinuses! (To me, that is a complement. If you are sensitive to heat, you would not enjoy these, but to me they were my favorite thing from the entire meal. They made my eyes water a bit!).

Finally, for dessert, I ordered the fruit tart. If you know me at all, you know I take pastry very seriously, and this was a hugely disappointing course for me. I'm pretty sure this tart came from Whole Foods or some other commercial bakery. There was nothing local or seasonal about the fruit (kiwi, pineapple and, sigh, canned mandarin orange?) and the crust was soggy, as though it had travelled quite a distance. As an avowed sweet tooth and dessert snob, this tart made me sad. Actually, it made me miss the cantaloupe soup, which would have been a lovely, refreshing end to my meal.

I lingered over my soggy tart, eagerly reading my book and slowly sipping the glass of pinot grigio I'd ordered (three courses and wine? How very Euro of me!). When the bill came, it was for less that $30, which I can certainly appreciate. But would I go back and eat at full price? Doubtful. Maybe to enjoy those mashed potatoes and the very nice waiter.

And then it was back across the back alley 50 feet to my apartment, sweating the whole way. And to think, there was a time when I was looking forward to summer in DC.

So that is my first restaurant week experience so far. I'm headed to Georgia Brown's tonight and then Sushi Ko on Friday. Enjoy your restaurant week, and stay cool!

Note: New! The DC365 City Guide! Available here and also linked to on the right side of the page. Hopefully, this will be a quick and easy way for you to reference things you've read about, and find them by activity or neighborhood.

Thing 55: Capital Fringe

I have been thinking and thinking, for over a week now, on how to blog about fringe.

Part of the problem is that this year I didn't like the only show I saw and in a roundabout way I am connected to the producers, so I feel I need to tread lightly.

Then again, saying glowing things about something I didn't like much is a really bad way to lose the trust of those half a dozen of you who read this blog regularly. (Oh, I'm being modest. There are at least of dozen of you out there. Hi, Mom!).

So, here we go: regardless of how good or bad the show you get to see is, the Capital Fringe Festival makes DC a better place to live and visit.

Haven't fringed yet? Well, sadly, because it took me so darn long to mull this entry over, this year's festival has come and gone. You will need to wait until the Capital Fringe Festival 2008 to dive in and experience it for yourself. And it's worth doing, even when the show(s) you see isn't very good, or the theater isn't actually a theater but a church with no air conditioning, or it is a one man show starring a man with no business starring in a one man show. Live theater makes makes this city better. Supporting local theater companies, actors, dancers, puppeteers, singers, directors and artists is an important part of living in a vibrant urban area. Nurturing a fledgling arts festival, only in its second year and with the promise of so many more years of silliness and beauty and spectacular successes and failures is such a worthy way to spend an evening and $20.

Capital Fringe is modelled after the mother of all fringe festivals, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. I have never been, but I do know someone who worked it one year, and it is basically a literal and figurative orgy of arts. For three weeks every August, all manner and types of alternative theater set up shop in every crevice of Edinburgh. According to wikipedia, there were 261 venues last year and over one million tickets sold.

Well, Edinburgh has had 60 years to get to its level of madness. Capital Fringe just wrapped up its second year and already can boast 120 arts groups putting on more than 500 performances in 30 venues over 11 days. 19,000 tickets sold! For a town whose main hobbies include politics and bureaucracies, we do pretty good.

So next year, take a chance. Buy a festival pass and see as much theater as you can, or just close your eyes and point to one show and see what happens.