Do you want to know the truth? The best part of getting paid to eat--discovering a great restaurant--also tends to be the most conflicting part of the job. Because as soon as I finish writing about a restaurant I like, be it a source of good fish and chips or a temple of high food fashion, I feel compelled to shift gears and start looking for the next Place You Should Know About. Between exploring what's new and keeping tabs on what's been around awhile, there is little time for returning to a favorite restaurant just for fun.
This is not the way anyone but a food critic should eat. My advice to most of you is to collect a handful of restaurants you like, and to cultivate a relationship with them; when you get to know the menu, and the staff becomes familiar--when a place begins to feel like an extension of home--you can't help gaining more pleas-ure from the experience.
No wonder I look forward every year to reporting for this dining guide: It's a chance to flip through my food diary and revisit all the restaurants I've come to admire. Starting in the spring, I drew up a long list of places to check out and began the sometimes agonizing process of elimination as I dined all over the map. Despite a difficult year for the industry--economically and emotionally--it was a thrill to see some chefs performing better than ever, and a disappointment to discover that a few old reliables aren't so reliable these days.
Restaurants come in all shapes and sizes. A storefront with bare tables and paper napkins can't possibly compete with a dining room that spends thousands of dollars a month just on fresh flowers. So I judge places based on what they promise and how well they deliver on that. If I'm spending $10 for dinner and the service is slow, well, I'm less likely to care than when I'm paying triple digits.
What follows is not a list of "bests," but a list of preferences--my preferences. For without having eaten in every single Thai, French or Ethiopian restaurant in the area, it would be difficult and perhaps unfair for me to proclaim a No. 1 Thai, French or Ethiopian restaurant. Instead, I share with you the names of places I tell my friends and family to go, or where I'd choose to spend my own money. To me, each one makes the Washington area a better place to eat.
Do I keep secrets? All the time. The famous chef who makes his own wine at home and pours it for special guests in his restaurant can relax; the health department won't get your name from me (although it tried). The "secret sauce" drizzled over the house specialty at a beloved neighborhood restaurant--a recipe revealed to me by its creator if I promised not to tell anyone--will remain a secret, too.
In good conscience, though, I cannot withhold a good dining tip. Here, then, are some suggestions to keep you busy until next fall. Consider them pages torn from my little black book.
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Equinox
A lot of chefs claim to buy locally and cook seasonally, but you wouldn't necessarily know that from some of the generic brown food I encountered around Washington this past summer, even as the farm markets were bursting with fresh inspiration. No wonder I wanted to order everything in sight at Equinox my last meal there. Dinner started with a treat from chef Todd Gray's kitchen: two tiny white spoons, one of crab and chervil, the other of diced tomato and watermelon, a few bright bites to whet each diner's appetite. Just about everything was of the moment; the hardest part was deciding what not to order. On the appetizer list, a fragile tomato-and-zucchini tart, crowned with greens and circled in a light pink roasted-tomato cream, competed against a red and yellow beet salad garnished with a miniature grilled goat cheese sandwich. When the entrees arrived, I felt lucky that we'd ordered the salmon, whose robust flavor reminded me of Seattle, gilded with sweet corn sauce, and the roast poussin, sprinkled with the fluffy salt known as fleur de sel and cushioned by meaty chanterelles and tender spinach. Happy to be eating this spare, thoughtful and delicious food, I barely noticed how plain my surroundings were (Equinox has always looked a little underdressed). But the staff is so smart and so caring, such true believers in what they're feeding you, that all I can do is look the other way--at the fine wine in my glass, a perfect side dish, or one of pastry chef Lisa Scruggs's quietly inspired desserts.
818 Connecticut Ave. NW (near I Street). 202-331-8118. Open: for lunch Monday through Friday; for dinner daily. All major credit cards. Entree prices: lunch $16 to $24, dinner $22 to $31.
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Where to go for...
Bisteeya: Taste of Morocco (3211 N. Washington Blvd., Arlington; 703-527-7468)
serves this classic, phyllo-covered pie two ways: filled with ground chicken,
egg and almonds, or with fish, squid, vermicelli and fresh coriander. Both are
$12.95--appetizer enough for two--and both are habit-forming. In Morocco, diners
plunge their fingers into the steaming bundles, tearing off bites to eat; here,
you're allowed to use a knife.
Caesar Salad: It's one of the best shows playing at MCI Center: the
$9 Caesar salad tossed at Nick & Stef's (601 F St. NW; 202-661-5040). Prepared
tableside (at dinner only), it starts with virgin olive oil, egg yolk, lemon
juice and red wine vinegar whisked with Dijon mustard, garlic, minced anchovies
and Worcestershire sauce. In goes Parmesan cheese, too, followed by romaine
leaves and hearts. Crisp, cool and punchy, it's my kind of prelude to a great
dry-aged steak.
Choucroute: A marriage of juicy sausages, smoked pork loin, apples,
caraway seeds and tangy sauerkraut--there are few better ways to welcome cold
weather than with this strapping Alsatian signature (say shoo-KROOT). L'Auberge
Chez Francois (332 Springvale Road, Great Falls; 703-759-3800), where the basic
four-course dinner costs $47 to $54, has served a lusty choucroute seemingly
forever.
Doughnuts: Based on a White House recipe for rolls, the high, tender,
yeasty and butter-rich doughnuts baked by chef Frank Ruta of Palena and sold
at the Amernick bakery (3313 Connecticut Ave. NW; 202-537-5855) are available
only after 11:30 a.m. and only on Fridays and Saturdays. Sprinkled with sugar
or topped with a powdered sugar glaze, they sell for 99 cents apiece. Their
elusive flavor? A bit of orange zest in each batch of dough.
Dosa: Think of it as a burrito by way of India. Made from a batter of
lentils and rice, it's a thin, crisp pancake wrapped around your choice of fillings,
the most popular of which at Amma Vegetarian Kitchen (344-A Maple Ave. East,
Vienna; 703-938-5328) is potatoes mashed with cumin and onion. Sambar--a souplike
partner of vegetables--and coconut sauce turn this snack ($3.99) into a savory
feast.
Grilled Cheese: There are grilled cheese sandwiches and then there are
"super grilled cheese" sandwiches ($6.50). Make mine a super, and make it at
the brown Formica counter of the lovably scrappy Stoney's (1307 L St. NW; 202-347-9163).
American cheese, tomatoes, bacon and onions--"You got to get it with red onions,"
a manager insists--are placed between slices of thick white bread and warmed
to a gentle crisp. Just make sure you ask to swap the industrial french fries
for the house-made coleslaw.
Ice Cream With a Twist: Forget butter pecan. If you want to take a walk
on the wild side, consider York Castle Tropical Ice Cream (9324 Georgia Ave.,
Silver Spring; 301-589-1616). Owned and run by a Jamaican family, this small
storefront scoops up ice cream in such nontraditional flavors as papaya, lychee,
soursop, peach in summer, pumpkin in fall, and Guinness, the last potent enough
to warrant an ID check. The price: $2.33 a scoop, $3.95 a pint.
Meatloaf: During peak theater season, downtown's Star Saloon (518 10th
St. NW; 202-347-6333) sells up to 100 orders a week of its oh-so-homey meatloaf
($11.95 at lunch, a buck more at night). Served in soft, soothing 12-ounce portions,
it comes to the table with nicely sauteed vegetables, a heapin' helpin' of mashed
potatoes and a demi-glace enriched with whipping cream.
Mezze: A spread of Middle Eastern appetizers is the best way to experience
Bacchus, with modestly charming locations in Washington (1827 Jefferson Place
NW; 202-785-0734) and Bethesda (7945 Norfolk Ave.; 301-657-1722). Choose from
among thick yogurt, strewn with walnuts and brightened with mint; chopped fresh
spinach with lemon and coriander; bullet-shaped lamb kibbe in sweet-tart pomegranate
sauce; deep-fried smelts--you could try one of these appetizers a day for a
month and still not run out ($3.25 to $8.25 at dinner).
Steamed Crabs: Eating steamed crabs in the city is like wearing Bermuda
shorts to the opera: It's all wrong. That's why, when the mood strikes, you'll
find me at the convivial Harris Crab House (433 Kent Narrows Way N., Grasonville;
410-827-9500) on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Four sizes of crabs are typically
available, and they're lightly dusted with spices that sting the lips but don't
detract from the sweet meat. Prices, based on availability, run from $27 per
dozen for mediums to $72 per dozen for jumbo crabs.
Tuna Tartare: You'll find this appetizer all over town, but nobody presents
it in quite so clever a package as the roaringly popular DC Coast (1401 K St.
NW; 202-216-5988). Here, for $13 at dinner, glistening diced raw tuna is splashed
with a mixture of coconut milk, jalapenos, ginger and fish sauce. Decorated
with slivers of lime, red onion and cilantro, it shows up in (move over, Gilligan)
a coconut shell. It's at once sweet, crunchy, cool, zippy . . . and irresistible.--T.S.
