Washington DC - A surprise only to those who haven't tried it, the finest Indian food in the country seduces with its spices in a city that's home to just over 650 000 residents - and 2 000 restaurants.
Downtown, the most daring example of avant-garde cooking this side of the Atlantic is yours, starting at $250 (about R3 000) a head. And a 10-minute cab ride away awaits the spot Bon Appétit called the best new restaurant in the United States - not bad for a place that makes all but the First Family stand in line for a chance at a table.
For some of you, the aromas from all three kitchens linger right under your noses. Rasika, Minibar by José Andrés and Rose's Luxury, respectively, reside in Washington, the final stop on my national tour to determine the 10 best food cities in America, which I will rank later this month.
When I began the high-calorie survey, starting with Charleston, S.C., in April, I wasn't sure whether the city I call home would earn a place on the list. Now, having spent a week or more each in San Francisco, Chicago, Portland (Oregon), Philadelphia, New Orleans, New York, Los Angeles and Houston, plus a few other cities that didn't make the cut, I have no doubt that the nation's capital deserves to be on the roster. The sentiment springs from neighbourhoods that have recently blossomed into food destinations (Petworth, Shaw, H Street NE in the District of Columbia and the Mosaic District in Fairfax) and, this year alone, a flurry of impressive restaurant launches that have made headlines outside the Beltway.
Turn in your foodie badge if you haven't heard about the debuts of Convivial, the Dabney, Maketto and Masseria - served to Washingtonians by homegrown talent - or the two fresh suburban Chinese restaurants from cult chef Peter Chang. At the same time, established players are tempting diners with new tastes. After well-considered makeovers, the French-leaning Marcel's and the Asian-inspired Source, among other top brands, are performing at their peak.
Thrilling eats, at all price points and in all quadrants, are a large part of what makes Washington such an enticing food destination right now. Lucrative, too, with restaurants projected to ring up an astounding $3-billion in sales this year in the District alone. But our treasures aren't limited to what's on the plate.
Nowhere else, for instance, is there a José Andrés, hailed three years ago by Time magazine as one of the world's most influential people. (Name another chef who makes the country's best paella, teaches cooking at Harvard and races to trouble spots around the world to feed the vulnerable.) Only Washington has an Ashok Bajaj, the courtly, highly industrious owner of eight good-to-great restaurants, all of which he visits to greet guests every day, setting a sterling example for hosts across the nation. Johnny Monis is the lone chef of my acquaintance to ace both contemporary Greek and northeastern Thai with Komi and Little Serow, respectively. Worlds and price ranges apart, both restaurants enjoy four-star recognition. And in D.C.'s back yard, no less an authority than British wine maven Jancis Robinson has sipped Virginia wines and dubbed some “thrillingly good,” comparing the output of RdV Vineyards in Delaplane to the nectars of Bordeaux.
I'm including Washington on my list despite its singular disadvantage compared with the other cities I visited: Because I cover the District and its environs on a weekly basis, I'm as familiar with its weaknesses as its strengths. But this exercise has me more convinced than ever that many of those frailties - including our expense-account-steakhouse and “power lunch” obsessions - have more to do with an obsolete reputation and myopic reviews from national media than with reality. Some argue the city has no culinary identity; 15 years ago, the closest thing Washington had to a signature dish, according to The Post Magazine, was a half-smoke, famously featured at Ben's Chili Bowl on U Street NW. I counter that Washington, a mighty global metropolis, is a melting pot of well-seasoned ideas, and has been for a long time. (The finest Chinese restaurant ever in this country: arguably Sichuan Garden, the '80s-era showpiece staffed by Chinese master chefs.)
Washington will forever be linked to power and status, but the days when where you sat was more important than what you ate are blessedly long gone.
The chef credited with having put a fusty Washington on the food map, Jean-Louis Palladin, died too young at age 55 in 2001. He'd left France in 1979 - the youngest chef ever to win two Michelin stars - to helm a restaurant in the Watergate hotel. Right from the start, the rangy Gascon native had observers on the edge of their seats.
In a novel move at the time, when the chef of Jean-Louis couldn't find ingredients he liked, he introduced himself to conscientious farmers and growers, going on to sing their praises to his peers and having servers announce them as the sources of his delicacies. A Frenchman was swooning over American lamb and scallops! (Among Palladin's underlings was a 20-something cook named Eric Ripert, who went on to open what may be the most acclaimed seafood restaurant in the country, Le Bernardin in New York.)
“He made my career,” says another institution, Phyllis C. Richman, who covered the dining landscape as food critic for The Washington Post for nearly 24 years, from the nouvelle cuisine era to the dawn of the locavore movement. “He put me on a different playing field.” In a 1985 review of the establishment, she praised the restaurant thus: “If Jean-Louis were in Paris, New York or Tokyo, its star would shine no less brightly.” During the Reagan administration, word had it that the White House sent out for the restaurant's passionfruit sorbet.
Veteran Washington baker Mark Furstenberg recalls “a freshness to the menu” at Jean-Louis at the Watergate: ingredient-based food and high-style arrangements before those notions were popular. “He loved life so much,” says Furstenberg. “And he gave other people a lot of fun.” Another of Palladin's talents was bringing together colleagues, young and old, from across the spectrum. “He created a fraternity of chefs,” remembers Ann Brody, an excutive tastemaker at the late Sutton Place Gourmet. “He wasn't competitive with them.”
After his Washington jewel closed, in 1996, Palladin blazed yet another trail when he opened Napa in the Rio Suite Hotel in Las Vegas - the first world-class chef to see potential amid casinos in the desert.
The master's influence lives on at the James Beard Foundation, which offers grants in his name to help working chefs learn about ingredents at their source.
Washington loves its liquids, no surprise for a city stocked with nearly 200 foreign embassies, a penchant for home entertaining and “a high-stress environment,” says restaurateur Todd Thrasher, who notes that his audience tends to change, as administrations can, every four years. A fluids pioneer best known for introducing the speak-easy PX in Alexandria almost a decade ago, he's poised to open a contemporary tiki bar and rum distillery on the redeveloping Southwest waterfront in 2017.
When it comes to wine, drinkers don't have far to go to sip some local prizes. In less than 45 minutes, Washingtonians can find themselves in some of the best vineyards in the country, in Virginia - “closer than San Francisco to Napa or Sonoma,” teases chef Andrés. In an email from across the pond, Robinson, the wine authority, writes, “I love that the Virginia wine industry enjoys such enthusiastic local government support and find it difficult to think of a parallel anywhere - other than the Chinese province of Ningxia!”
We knock back the hard stuff with gusto, too. The data miners at Yelp, the online review site, report a 76 percent increase in the number of cocktail bars in Washington, based on consumer and business posts, in just the past two years. (On a recent Wednesday night, reports Thrasher, his 30-seat PX shook and stirred a record-breaking $6 000 worth of drinks.) Three of the city's more personal watering holes are block mates in Shaw owned by Derek Brown, a leader in the classic cocktail movement: Mockingbird Hill, a slip of a sherry-and-ham retreat; Eat the Rich, emphasising seafood; and Southern Efficiency, touting whiskey and lunch-counter fare. “My brain, my stomach, my heart,” says Brown, distinguishing the trio. Compared with bar scenes in other cities, he says, “we punch above our weight class.”
That dripping noise? It's probably coming from one of Washington's top-quality roasters, including Qualia in Petworth and Vigilante in Hyattsville, plus shops and baristas whose wares and skills would look at home on the West Coast.
If You Go...
Bakeries and coffee shops
Bread Furst
4434 Connecticut Ave. NW
202-966-1300
breadfurst.com
If you're looking for the city's best baguette, muffuletta or loaf made with ancient grains, you'll find it near the Van Ness Metro stop at longtime baker Mark Furstenberg's tidy, yeast-perfumed storefront, also the source of meals to go and designer pantry staples.
Compass Coffee
1535 Seventh St. NW
202-838-3139
compasscoffee.com
Created by two former Marines and Washington-area natives, Compass Coffee features nine light-to-dark blends roasted in state-of-the-art equipment. A neighborly vibe infuses the joint, which offers a community bookshelf along with its espressos.
Praline Bakery
4611 Sangamore Rd., Bethesda
301-229-8180
praline-bakery.com
A combination cafe, market and bakery, Praline whips up textbook examples of croissants, macarons, tarts and more in a cheerful environment.
Vigilante Coffee
4327 Gallatin St., Hyattsville
301-200-3110
vigilantecoffee.com
Home base is in Hyattsville, Md., in a pleasing, light-filled roastery and cafe, but the excellent coffee from owner Chris Vigilante, who sources single-origin beans, is also poured at Eastern Market on weekends.
Bars
Barmini by José Andrés
855 E St. NW
202-393-4451
minibarbyjoseandres.com
Had Willy Wonka been a mixologist, this neighbor to Minibar would have been his liquid laboratory. While embracing the classics, the drinks list revels in surprises: blue elixirs that turn purple, coupes animated by liquid nitrogen, and an aquavit-propelled Ticket to Phuket, garnished in part with a pipette filled with Thai chili tincture, for upping the heat. A flight of the latest fashions, spread over two hours in a futuristic lounge, costs $60.
Southern Efficiency
1841 Seventh St. NW
202-316-9396
whiskeyhome.com
Local drinks maven Derek Brown calls this, one of his three themed bars in Shaw, “my heart.” Its focus? Whiskey - including a draft Vieux Carré - and Southern eats. Research shows a Sazerac makes a great companion to a grilled pimento cheese sandwich.
2 Birds 1 Stone
1800 14th St. NW
(no number)
2birds1stonedc.com
Bar director Adam Bernbach not only dreams up his five or so weekly-changing drinks, including a punch du jour, he also sketches them on the menu at 2 Birds 1 Stone, an underground watering hole whose Asian-style snacks - spicy cashews, shrimp-and-pork spring rolls - come from the adjoining restaurant, Doi Moi.
Restaurants
Bad Saint
3226 11th St. NW
(no telephone)
badsaintdc.com
What began as a pop-up recently morphed into a no-reservations (again?) Filipino restaurant, a cocoon of a dining room in Columbia Heights where the go-to dishes include a spiky tangle of sweet potatoes and freshwater shrimp.
Convivial
801 O St. NW
202-525-2870
convivialdc.com
The fizzy new American cafe from French chef Cedric Maupillier lives up to the promise of its name, with medium-size plates (vs. small ones) and such novelties as lamb tongue moussaka and boudin noir ravioli.
The Dabney
122 Blagden Alley NW
202-450-1015
thedabney.com
One of the most-anticipated arrivals of the year, the Dabney returns Charlottesville native Jeremiah Langhorne to the mid-Atlantic, where the former chef de cuisine of McCrady's in Charleston hopes to call fresh attention to the region. Bring on the Surryano ham, and break out the RdV wine!
Del Campo
777 I St. NW
202-289-7377
delcampodc.com
Chef Victor Albisu's lusty salvo to his Cuban dad and Peruvian mom, Del Campo uses smoke and char to lend intrigue to much of the meaty menu - cocktails included. You don't have to like meat to eat well, however, as evinced by Lima-worthy seviches and roasted pumpkin risotto set off with sage and goat cheese.
Enat
4709 N. Chambliss St., Alexandria
703-642-3628
enatrestaurant.com
The Amharic name translates to “mother,” an apt description for the homey Ethiopian cooking offered in this 30-seat restaurant, where the top seller is the beefy kitfo drenched in clarified spiced butter. Devotees of the dish know to ask for it uncooked, or “tirre.”
Fiola
601 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
202-628-2888
fioladc.com
Its younger sibling in Georgetown, Fiola Mare, gets more attention and counts a Potomac River view, but the elegant original in Penn Quarter deserves a shout-out for some of the most rococo Italian food, and pampering, anywhere.
Garrison
524 Eighth St. SE
202-506-2445
garrisondc.com
Capitol Hill has a winner in chef Rob Weland, whose American cooking captures the season along with his knack for interesting combinations, foremost with vegetables. Picture a fall salad composed with radishes, heirloom apples, sage and tangerine “lace”; or mushrooms made sublime with avocado, thyme and jalapeño.
The Inn at Little Washington
309 Middle St., Washington, Va.
540-675-3800
theinnatlittlewashington.com
Not all of Washington's monuments are in the city proper. Take Patrick O'Connell's dream of an inn near the Blue Ridge Mountains, unparalleled in this country for its witty cooking, entertaining service and over-the-top decoration. The staff takes its fun seriously: The cheese cart is a cow on wheels, and it moos.
Jaleo
480 Seventh St. NW
202-628-7949
7271 Woodmont Ave., Bethesda
2250-A Crystal Dr., Arlington
jaleo.com
One of the brightest stars in the constellation of celebrity chef José Andrés, the festive Jaleo sets the bar for tapas in the United States. Spring for salt cod fritters, chorizo wrapped in fried potato and noteworthy paellas.
The Washington Post