Mark and Orlando's, Washington, D.C.

What started off as a trip for a quick "sustenance" meal that quickly began to spiral downhill as restaurants were too crowded and we passed them by landed us in unexpected places tonight for an unexpectedly interesting and great meal. I went with my friend ####, who specifically demanded that he/she not be mentioned by name in this post, and after walking all over the area, where we landed was Dupont Circle at a fairly new restaurant called Mark and Orlando's.

Mark and Orlando's occupies the main floor of an old row house on P Street just around the corner from where I used to live when I was doing my D.C. internship years ago. The dining room is small, seating only thirty-two at tightly packed tables. Decor is rather eclectic with plain white walls, a few art works that looked as though they might be for sale, and a bunch of copper molds and utensils all the way across the top of one wall. A short service bar is located under the stairwell and the kitchen has a large pass-through opening visible to the whole dining room. Windows were on two walls and in one windowless segment was a small wine rack.

The menu was rather short with only limited appetizers and main courses, including very few vegetarian items (no main courses) and no entree salads, both of which are unusual for D.C. For some reason, I was expecting a salad and sandwich kind of restaurant, but I was totally off base with that perception; main course dishes were in the mid- to upper-$20 range and demonstrated unexpected creativity and quality.

#### started with a glass of Italian pinot grigio from the short list of by-the-glass wines, then he/she had a very interesting appetizer: the goat cheese grits. They made cheese grits with goat cheese and herbs, formed it into a thick hamburger patty shape, and fried it; it was served on a bed of large-cut pickled cabbage slaw with a large leaf of frisée as an edible garnish. #### liked it.

For our main courses, #### selected the diver scallops with risotto and asparagus and I had the grilled caesar salad. The scallops were large and plentiful, and #### quickly ate them all; I noticed he/she ate most of the risotto but not all. My caesar salad was quite a surprise. I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting, whether I was thinking the menu had accidentally left the word "chicken" out of the name or if I'd just have yet another traditional caesar salad, but it certainly was not was I anticipated. They grilled and cooked an entire head of romaine lettuce. The cooked lettuce rested on a layer of dry croutons with dollops of caesar dressing on either side and little mounds of grated parmesan cheese. Surprisingly enough, the salad was actually quite good, and the grilling process imparted a completely new and different flavor to the lettuce.




For dessert, #### had the blueberry financier, a warm spice cake filled with fresh blueberries and garnished with a large dollop of freshly made whipped cream, and a glass of Landauer sparking wine to wash it all down. I opted for the artisanal cheese plate, which featured chevre, aged gouda and a Butternut (?) blue served with dried apricots and water crackers.

During the meal, we could see co-owner Mark working the tables and supervising the dining room and co-owner Orlando in the kitchen.

While we obviously couldn't taste everything on the menu, we were struck by the wonderful looking items we saw going to tables near us. Mark and Orlando's definitely is going to warrant a second trip.