Vidalia, Washington, D.C.

One seeking rain should never ask me for an Indian rain dance. That's just not one of my areas of expertise. My friend Robert, however, is the harbinger of hail, the prince of precipitation, and the ranger of rain. Every time I eat out with Robert it rains, from the very first time we dined in Friendship Heights when it rained so hard that the umbrella-less Robert ended up soaking his cochlear implant and being unable to hear and understand me that afternoon to tonight's expedition when www.weather.com assured me that there was no rain whatsoever in tonight's forecast. As I walked to the restaurant tonight and noticed the ever-so-slight occasional droplet of rain, I should have listened to my inner voice and gone back home to grab an umbrella, cause by the time we were done dining, those droplets were actual big raindrops; my hair was a wreck by the time I got home!

Regardless of the weather outside, though, things inside Vidalia were quite sunny and pleasant.

Vidalia, of course, is the ever-popular "Southern" cuisine restaurant that takes old Southern standbys and makes them into wonderfully gourmet dishes. It's a great place for a couple of Southern boys on Derby Weekend; Robert and I had been here last January when the weather was cold, the wind was brisk, and the rain was icy.

In honor of this weekend's Kentucky Derby, we started dinner with a round of mint juleps. Robert, who'd already had half a dozen of them yesterday at the Round Robin Bar at the Willard Hotel, declared that Vidalia's version was far superior, and he ended up drinking three of them tonight with his dinner! They were, I have to admit, rather tasty; I'm usually not a big fan of bourbon, usually only using the Wild Turkey with which they made the juleps not for drinking but for cooking when I make bourbon balls, pecan pie, or bread pudding whiskey sauce. Nonetheless, the juleps helped us relax a bit as we made the difficult decisions as to which of the delicious items on the menu to order.



After we ordered, our waiter brought us little espresso cups full of wild mushroom soup as an amuse bouche. I wish I'd known he was going to do that, since I'd have ordered a different appetizer instead of a soup. It was all good, though, so I didn't really mind.



Robert started his meal with a sweetbread appetizer he declared very good. Then he had a lovely plate of three Shenandoah lamb ribeyes lightly grilled and presented with some spicy lamb sausage, a garlic fritter, sunchoke purée and shoots, red pepper sauce, and a smoked paprika lamb jus which the waiter poured over the dish tableside. For dessert, to match his mint juleps he ordered the chocolate mint julep, an interesting combination of chocolate ganache and bourbon mint sorbet.







I had the sweet pea soup for my starter, which had a little mold of pea puree in the center with crème frâiche, bacon, and pea sprouts. A tasty shrimp and grits plate made up my main course and bits of spinach and sweet onion ragout rested in the center of the yellow corn grits. My complaint? For $29.75 with only four shrimp, they could have afforded to give me a few more of those delicious grits. I also had the chocolate mint julep for dessert. With my main course I drank a glass of Spanish white wine and with dessert I had grapy red muscadelle; the waiter selected my wines and I'd asked him to write down their names and vintages for me, but he never did that, so I can't tell you exactly what I drank. While Robert was ordering and drinking his third julep (two would have put me away for the night, cause those silver cups were big!), I had a coffee and cream.





Robert is always such a charming conversationalist that time just flies by. He's very astute and well-read, which totally belies the fact that he's from Arkansas. LOL The Arkansan in him does, though, give him his Southern charm. And, we also got to talk a little political business. I'll be looking forward to our next dinner party.