Bistrot du Coin, Washington, D.C.

Who speaks French around here? My French is awful—I only speak enough French that with my Okie accent I can convince the waiters in Paris that they really do know how to speak English. My question is, what is the difference between "bistro" and "bistrot"? I know that they both mean bar/café, or something of that sort, but when is something a "bistro" and when is it a "bistrot"? Is it a gender question? Socioeconomic question? Preference of the owner question?

Well, the source of this burning question was last night's late night supper with my friend Steven, who had me meet him at Dupont Circle at 11 p.m. and then graciously took me to Bistrot du Coin. The crowds had thinned out by that point and we were able to be led straight to a table.

Bistrot du Coin is a wild place. Part bar, part restaurant, it's always lively and noisy—very noisy. It attracts a very young, hip crowd and it's often full of young couples, especially drunk young women who paw all over their men in a way best reserved for the hotel room. The high ceilinged space rocks not only with loud, happy crowd noise, but with popular music played at a loud, deafening level. One can never say the place isn't festive!

As we perused the menu, staff brought us a basket of thick slices of French bread and water in a wine bottle. Where some restaurants have daily specials up on a chalkboard, the chalkboard specials at Bistrot du Coin were for various wines of the day, both by the glass and by the bottle. We ended up ordering a carafe of one of the house wines, a Lyonnais red Cotes du Rhone 2002, which was light and versatile.

Steven started with the tartiflette savoyarde, a tasty and hearty gratin made of potatoes, roblochon cheese, onions, and intensely flavorful bacon.



For his main course, he had the casserole de lapin aux spätzle a creamy rabbit, mushroom, and vegetable stew with Alsacian spätzle. He let me have a sample of his stew, and it was absolutely divine! In fact, it was so good that when one of Steven's friends called (this is what he gets for talking on a cell phone in the middle of a restaurant!), I sneaked my bread over to his casserole dish to sop up a bit more of that delicious cream sauce!



I finally got to try the salade de magret de canard fumé et seché, a salad with smoked duck and grilled scallions, which I've always wanted to try on previous visits, but thought it was too big to do along with a full meal. It was worth the wait. There was a perhaps too small amount of French-style bitter salad greens covered with slices of duck "proscuitto" and the grilled scallions. Then, around the edges of the plate was a dice of smoked duck meat with diced bits of roasted onions and carrot that offered an explosion of flavor. I found myself using my fork to track down every last morsel of the duck.



For dessert, we split a pyramide d'abricot de chocolat, an exquisite creation with chocolate mousse around an apricot jelly enrobed in chocolate ganache and garnished with chocolate shavings, dried apricots, and an apricot sauce. Along with the pyramid, Steven ordered us a couple of glasses of Clairette de Die et Muscat sparkling wine, a perfect choice since the wine was light, slightly sweet, and had essences of apricot, exactly matching the pyramid.



While the proprietors and regulars of Bistrot du Coin are not so happy about it, I rejoice at the newly-in-force smoking ban in restaurants here in D.C. Smoking is a huge, nasty tradition in France! Now that I don't have to worry about coughing from the smoke and leaving the place with my clothes smelling like an ashtray, though, I'm looking forward to a lot more visits to endulge in the delicious foods at Bistrot du Coin.