It was time for an American break amidst all of our international food during D.C.'s Restaurant Week, and what better place to do it than at The Capital Grille. Yeah, it's a franchise (about two dozen places nationally), but they have a dry aging technique for their beef that makes this one of the best steakhouses in town, something that's confirmed both by their prices and by their popularity with the lobbyists and powerful of D.C. The dry aging is such a big deal that they have an aging chamber right in the front of the restaurant with windows affording views both from the street and the maitre d' stand of dozens of large roasts and sides of beef engaged in the aging process.
The D.C. restaurant is located on Pennsylvania Avenue in view of the Capitol down in the National Archives neighborhood. On our arrival we were cheerfully welcomed by the hostess and staff and led quickly to our table in one of the smaller dining rooms towards the back of the restaurant. The walls of our dining room were glass shelves holding hundreds of bottles of wine. The regular menu—a big thing about two feet tall—reflected their commitment to wine with the two internal pages being devoted, in small type, to their extensive wine list.
Edward chose their traditional New England clam chowder as his opening course. He has long considered himself a connoisseur of clam chowders, and found this version to be quite good.
Meanwhile, I tried their yellow tomato gazpacho, which I thought to be adequate, though not particularly spectacular; yellow tomatoes always have a lower acid level than do red ones, so a yellow tomato soup would require the addition of something for "zip" or acid like extra lemon juice; the Capital Grille version was not particularly "zippy."
We both chose beef for our main courses. Edward did the hangar steak with truffled chive mashed potatoes, and it seemed to please him.
I had a grilled sirloin steak salad. They brought me a big platter of mesclun greens on top of which was a very large piece of medium-rare grilled steak. The flavor and texture of the steak was remarkable; I found it quite tender, rich, and juicy, and it was an unusually high quality piece of meat for a salad. Some pieces of new potato were included in the mix as a bit of a surprise. There also were a couple of tomato wedges on the plate that I expected to be the usual throw-away hydroponic things, but these tomatoes were actually ripe and had flavor!
Desserts were not quite so spectacular. While Edward liked his cheesecake with fresh strawberries, I was less than impressed with both desserts, especially my key lime pie. All of the desserts were in little individual pastry shells which I thought tasted commercial. Now, I've lived in Miami, Fla., before, so I have a good deal of experience with key limes and key lime pies. Today's version, while pleasant for what it was, could have used more lime juice and I would have liked to have seen a taller filling. Capital Grille garnished their key lime pie with chopped pistachio nuts and on the side had a dollop of (real) whipped cream garnished with a twisted slice of fresh lime (though not a key lime).
The service was very efficient and professional. I was particularly impressed that when our soups and main courses were delivered by different staff members, they were given to the correct person without having to ask; yet, when our waiter himself brought our desserts, I was amused that he got them backwards. It's always nice, though, to go to a professionally run restaurant with service that is complete, speedy, and yet not rushed.
Some evening, if I can ever find someone with an expense account, I'd love to go back to the Capital Grille for a full dinner and a big steak. The wine list looks enticing as well, especially since we didn't have the opportunity to drink today during the middle of the work day. Now, I just have to go meet some lobbyists.
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