Bistrot Lepic, Georgetown, D.C.

It's been way too long since I last was in Paris, and days like today make me miss it even more. What prompted this little bit of nostalgia? Lunch.

We lunched today at Bistrot Lepic, an absolutely wonderful little bistrot in upper Georgetown named after another bistrot in the Montmartre area of Paris. Tucked into a narrow rowhouse building, the dining room is on the ground floor with a wine bar upstairs. It has a nice, comfortable feel much like neighborhood bistrot in Paris.

They went all out on their Restaurant Week menu. Some ten entrees (appetizers), nine plats (main courses), and the entire dessert tray (dessert) were available options, and they all sounded so delicious it was hard to pick just one from each category. The end result was a lovely luncheon worth far more than the $20.06 R.W. price. Where to start, where to start?

Drew started with a glass of Domaine Berthet-Rayne Chateauneuf-du-Pape 2004 that had been recommended by our waiter. It's summer, so I decided to go with a cool glass of Provence Colombo Rosé de Côte Bleue 2005, a nice little rosé (rosés are very vogue in Europe this summer). Ryan drank tap water.

The meals were fun, but, alas, of all times for my camera to run out of battery, it ran out as I was trying to photograph the third entree! I'l just have to be more descriptive about the rest of the dishes, I guess.

Drew made some delicious choices. He began with the pied du cochon désôssé et croustillant. This was a boneless pig's foot gently flattened then fried until it was crusty. The menu said it was being served with an onion sauce, but what came with the dish looked very much like mustard to me. He said the dish was very flavorful and rich with the gelatin and natural fat of the pig's foot. Next he had les rognons de veau à la moutarde that he thought were wonderful. His plate had three big rosettes of mashed Yukon gold potatoes arranged in a clover shape with small, braised veal kidneys in a Dijon sauce poured around the mounds of potatoes. He loved the delicate, smooth texture of the veal and their delicious, mild flavor. For dessert he chose the genoise du fondant chocolat, a little individual warm chocolate cake with melted chocolate fondant inside presented on a mirror of crème anglaise decorated with a squiggle of raspberry coulis. I think he liked it a lot.

Not everyone was so enthralled with lunch, as Ryan seemed pretty bored with his meal. He chose the gazpacho au sorbet au concombre, a soup I'd originally chosen but then switched to something else so we're be eating different things. This soup was an intriguing cold tomato soup with a scoop of cucumber sorbet floating in it garnished with some snipped parsley. I thought it looked and smelled pretty good, but he only ate half of it. Then, he moved on to the truite grillée avec sa julienne de legumes et sauce carotte, which was a grilled rainbow trout with carrot sauce and a mound of sautéed julienned vegetables. His dessert was a fresh blueberry tart, and again, he ate only half of it.

I was quite pleased with my meal, though, and found it both delicious and creative. I whetted my appetite with la terrine de betterave et fromage de chêvre, and I wish the camera hadn't run out of batteries at this point so you could see a clearer picture. They took slices of cold stewed beet and layered it into a tower alternating with soft chevre goat cheese. For presentation, they cut out a little wedge from the round and arranged it on the side, and the entire terrine rested on a big wad of mesclun greens in a balsalmic dressing. A piece of crunchy melba toast garnished the plate. After that auspicious begining, I next nibbled upon le foie de veau Provençale, some absolutely melt-in-the-mouth calf liver sauteed in butter and splashed with Jerez vinegar, topped with capers, black olives, and garlic. A big squiggle of mashed potatoes ran across the plate supporting a bouquet of little French haricots verts (very thin French green beans) and the liver rested on and around the potatoes and green beans. The haricots verts were, naturally, al dente, and I appreciated the fact that the mashed potatoes were plain and natural without a bunch of flavor additions that might have distracted from the wonderful liver. I did a little individual peach tart in a pâte sucrée crust; they microwaved the tart to warm it, which, of course always ruins fine pastry and the bottom crust ended up being soggy, but that was the only demerit I gave the meal.

Ryan ran off right after dessert, so Drew and I stuck around to chat as he lingered over coffee. He also gave us our Kody Pose for the day.



I can't wait until my next visit back to Bistrot Lepic. It's certainly cheaper than flying to Paris, and every bit as good!