The Chesapeake Room, Barracks Row

Posted on December 8, 2010 by Don

For quite a while, Belga Cafe had a toehold on “Best of Barracks Row,” but my recent experiences have me favoring The Chesapeake Room.

During this frigid week, nothing can be more satisfying than ‘Tis The Season ($9), a piping hot cup of house clove rum, Domaine de Canton Ginger Liqueur, hot apple cider, and a dash of cinnamon. It’s exactly what you want when you come in from the cold.

Mussels in restaurants have gotten extremely expensive, and the ones here are no exception. New on the December menu, the Steamed Maine Mussels ($9) offer only a dozen, but the mussels themselves are excellent, and the custardy sauce with a butter and lemon bite is just perfect with a good, tart glass of white wine. The bread, unfortunately, is neither soft enough to soak up the sauce, nor good enough to have on its own, so it just sort of sits there in a little pile.

The House Smoked Berkshire Pork Chop ($25) is double cut, cooked to a perfect medium-rare, and served with an astounding butternut squash-cauliflower purée, seasonal vegetables (squash, etc.), and finished with a pomegranate glaze. It’s a great dish that’s worth every penny.

If you don’t want to spend $25 on an entree, you can do just fine spending $15. Get the Wild Boar Stew – braised boar with root vegetables, served over mashed potatoes with hot gravy around the rim. Imagine a best-case scenario for this dish, and that’s exactly what you’ll get.

A friend also had the Bison Burger ($13), and although I didn’t try it this time (I did last time), it was hand-formed, ample, hearty, and served with Cabernet onions, white cheddar, and house-made ketchup on a ciabatta roll (not to mention a mound of hand-cut fries).

I’ve raised The Chesapeake Room to the number one position in the South Capitol Hill portion of the Dining Guide (available to participating donrockwell.com members, and customers of dcdining.com only).

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The Sweetest Chef, Fairfax, VA

Posted on December 7, 2010 by Don

I’ve been to The Sweetest Chef (an obvious pun on The Swedish Chef?) twice in the past couple of weeks now. On the first visit, a sub-par tuna salad sandwich left me uninspired to return. And yet, I did.

Honestly, I’m not even sure how to classify this little place – it does a little of this, a little of that, but not a lot of anything. It has free wifi (and a couple free computers to use) and serves crepes, sandwiches, pastries, ice cream, and coffee (and, importantly, it’s not Starbucks).

And it has Boba Milk Tea ($3.50), probably from a mix, but refreshing all the same. Now that I’m thinking about it, I don’t think I’ve ever finished all my bubbles.

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Shorty’s Deli, Fairfax, VA

Posted on December 7, 2010 by Don

You can tell there’s a Latino influence at Shorty’s Deli from the outside – the handwritten sign saying desayuno Latino was enough to get me in the door.

The vast majority of the menu here reads like typical, strip-mall deli fare, with two exceptions: there are a lot of homemade soups, and some of the handwritten items point towards El Salvador.

I was told there would be a ten-minute wait for my two Pupusas Revueltas ($1.90 each), and that’s exactly what I wanted to hear because they were formed, then grilled, to order. Served with the standard twosome of curtido and mild salsa, these are the only pupusas I can think of in downtown Fairfax.

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Acadiana, Mt. Vernon Square

Posted on December 6, 2010 by Don

It was a bitter cold night in the city, with restaurants closing early all over town because DC was a dead zone. And it was just a perfect night to think back a few years to this article I wrote about Bourbon.

Other than Bourbon (the bar), Acadiana has the best list in town. Scott Clime is stretched thin these days, but he still maintains this thoughtful, well-organized selection of America’s beverage.

The diner can choose from several categories (small batch, rare & selected, etc.), and even put together a prix fixe tasting flight. I chose a flight from the Single Barrel category ($11 for 3), all three from the Willett “Greenhorn” series: 3 year #1 (123.2 proof), 4 year #1 (121.1 proof), and 4 year #2 (122.8 proof). The subtle differences between them were remarkable, and worthy of thoughtful sipping, switching, and being fully plugged in.

I’ve been to Acadiana numerous times in the past, and have heard the Louisiana Seafood Gumbo ($21) was quite good, but I’d never had it before last night. Made with jumbo lump crab, shrimp, crawfish, oysters, redfish, and mahatma rice, it was even better than I expected, and absolutely perfect as a foil to these small batch Bourbons.

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Champion Billiards, Shirlington, VA

Posted on December 6, 2010 by Don

At some point, you have to teach your son have to play Nine-ball; what you don’t expect is to lose two out of three games.

(And I’m GOOD, darn it. No, really! I AM!)

I was playing Nine-ball here twenty years ago, several times a week, and remember the food as being surprisingly good for a pool hall; I would go out of my way to come here for breakfast.

The selection of beers here is marginal, but I did at least find a poor example of a Paulaner Oktoberfest on draft ($4.59); the victor enjoyed a Diet Coke ($1.99).

Champion Billiards has a fairly extensive menu that’s typical of a flat-top based operation, as well as a bunch of bad draft beers, flat-screen TVs, and now, the noisiest possible gym attached to it – the echoing thump of an exercise class led us both to believe the parking garage (below) was on the verge of collapse, and that our lives were in peril.

Buffalo Wings ($7.99 for a pound) were ordered hot, with ranch dressing, and were just not good; the quality of the Nine-ball itself ($12.60 per hour for two) was about the same. He got lucky. He did. Twice.

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Goldberg’s New York Bagels, Silver Spring, MD

Posted on December 6, 2010 by Don

I’ve now had bagels at the Silver Spring Goldberg’s New York Bagels three times, and they’ve been, in order: decent, great, and mixed.

But when they’re great, they’re great, and out of two Plain Bagels I tried from a half-dozen ($5), one was great (and still warm). And that’s the one I topped with some of their addicting Olive Cream Chese ($7.29/lb), made with both green and black olives; the second one was only in the “decent” category, and was topped with their less-interesting Lox Cream Cheese ($8.59/lb) – and just because the lox is more expensive than the olive, trust me when I say: Get the olive!

Tim Carman wrote a good historical article entitled “The Goldberg Variations,” but the biggest variations I’ve seen at Goldberg’s have been in the performance of their bagels.

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Sol de España, Rockville, MD

Posted on December 5, 2010 by Don

Think the area’s best tapas are at Jaleo or Estadio? You may want to rethink that …

Dani Arana, who spent three years as Chef de Cuisine at Taberna del Alabardero, now owns this restaurant with Daniela Jamarillo, and although the selection of tapas is limited, it’s still easy to put together an entire meal out of them.

A warm basket of somewhat disappointing, par-baked bread really needs olive oil, salt and pepper to wake it up. My young dining companion had a Diet Coke ($2.95, but with refills), and when I asked about the wines by the glass, our server told me they were offering a Chardonnay and a red Rioja.

“A red sounds good,” I said. “Is it a Crianza?”

“No, it’s a Rioja.” I blinked. “It’s Tempranillo,” he added. Whichever Rioja it was, it was a darned good one, and only $8.95 for a generous fill, probably over five ounces. Even though this is “just” a house wine, if you like Rioja, you’ll really like this.

An armada of tapas followed:

Falda Moruna con Patatas ($9), Croquetas de Gambas ($9), and Chorizo al Horno ($9) were all great; Gambas al Ajillo ($9) was good (still boiling in the clay pot); and a nightly special of Arroz de Toro ($9, “creamy” rice with oxtail) was merely decent.

I asked our server if he thought five tapas were enough, and he said they were really recommending the Jamon de Serrano y Manchego special, and that we should try it.

“How much is it?” I asked.

It was $15.50.

The Crianza gaffe was funny; but when I’m ordering multiple plates of $8-9 tapas, it seems like it would be good form to mention a $15.50 item without having to be asked. Regardless, we got it anyway, and it was first-rate jamon and manchego.

And, as we were waffling about splitting either the chocolate or the passion fruit cake ($6.95 each), our server was kind enough to offer to combine both onto one plate, so all was redeemed, and we walked out two very full, very happy campers.

Sol de España: remember it the next time you’re looking for great tapas.

(And the fish entrees I saw coming by looked extremely tempting.)

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Z-Burger, Glover Park

Posted on December 5, 2010 by Don

It finally happened: I found a “non fast food” burger that’s as bad as a fast food burger.

Z-Burger was one of the places I’ve avoided, simply because there can only be so many calories in a day, and because everyone I know who has tried it said it was awful. Well, they were right.

Z-Burger’s menu cleverly says the food is “made fresh daily,” and that their “potatoes are fresh cut … always fresh, never frozen.” But they never come out and say what they do with their ground beef.

A plain old single Hamburger ($3.39) was ordered with nothing on it since I wanted to see no masquera. I paid, walked back and watched the grill cook pull a paper-topped burger out of a drawer, and throw it down onto the grill. The sound it made was not a “plop,” but more of a “clang.”

The burger was small and thin to begin with, but once it had fried for awhile, the cook proceeded to take his spatula and mash it down as flat as he could, so that 1) it would cook faster and 2) any remaining juices would flow out of the patty. I was not asked about doneness, but there was no doubting that this was going to come out very quickly, and also be cooked to well-done.

He slapped it on a bun, put it into a bag, and handed it to me. Sure enough, it was as anticipated: a fast-food quality burger despite being cooked to order. Substantially worse then Five Guys or Elevation Burger; worse even than Burger King – it was a piece of tough, thin leather on a bun. For $3.39? Really?

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Blue Ridge, Glover Park

Posted on December 4, 2010 by Don

Barton, we hardly knew ye!

Blue Ridge has undergone a remarkable transformation from a serious restaurant into a noisy beer hall.

Although they advertise that they offer “seasonal, locally sourced Mid-Atlantic cuisine,” you should come here with modest culinary expectations. If you’re lucky, you’ll get a good shrimp and grits or roast chicken, but Blue Ridge has pretty much become Hamburger Central.

However, lovers of American microbrews will revel in Blue Ridge’s selection. They feature 12 of them on draft, as well as 110 in bottle (as of last night). The selection, I believe, is 100% American, and is organized extremely well on the menu.

A draft of Great Lakes Brewing Company’s Christmas Ale ($6) weighed in at 7.5 ABV (Blue Ridge lists the alcohol content of all its beers), and had an odd, unpleasant note of peppermint in the nose. From bottle, a Weyerbacher Slam Dunkel Weisenbock had a touch of that Belgian banana thing going on, but I had to try it because I also ordered the Slam Dunkel Burger ($12), served with a half-pound of Shenandoah beef, applewood smoked bacon, and Vermont cheddar. All burgers and sandwiches come with house-cut fries, lettuce, tomato, red onion, and pickle.

The burger itself could have been good, but it was ordered medium-rare and cooked medium-well. The mound of well-fried fries was better than the norm.

So how much has this restaurant transformed into a bar? At 9:30 PM on a Friday night, the dining room had 6 people in it, the bar had 25, and surprisingly, the patio out back had 4, all of whom were breathing frost.

The burger condiments consisted of a bottle of ketchup and mustard, served in an empty six-pack of Flying Dog Raging Bitch Ale.

Two extremely drunk girls to my left coerced a relatively sober girl to my right to take a shot, and the bartender happily joined them.

And was that Frank Morales I saw? He used to be cooking here, but recently took a job at L’Academie de Cuisine. Perhaps he’s still consulting, or perhaps he was just enjoying one of Blue Ridge’s many American microbrews.

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Proof, Verizon Center

Posted on December 3, 2010 by Don

Is the bar at Proof ever not crowded? Between bar manager Adam Bernbach, sommelier Sebastian Zutant (*), GM Michael James, and the dynamic duo of Sarah and Ashley, it’s easy to see why people flock here.

It was impossible to resist the House Made Egg Noodle Tagliatelle with Burgundy Black Truffles ($16 (**), and I’m glad I didn’t, because coupled with its Hen-of-the-Woods mushrooms and Parmesan, it was as earthy, old-world, and soul-satisfying as any pasta you could imagine.

Sound good? Imagine it paired with a Red Burgundy – the brambly 2004 Domaine du Château de Chorey Beaune 1er Cru “Domaine de Saux” ($18 for 6 ounces), its maturing tannins cruising in tandem with the Parmesan, and amplifying the earthy tones of the dish.

(*) Congratulations, you two!

(**) Don’t expect the King’s truffles at this price; the last time I had fresh-shaved Burgundy truffle was at Marcel’s a couple of weeks ago, and it was a $35 supplement. Ouch!

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