Bistrot Lepic, Georgetown, D.C.

Happy New Year 2007!

Such a happy new year we had last night at Bistrot Lepic in Georgetown! Matt and I were lucky enough to be able to get a table for the late seating at the bistro, and we had a great time with wonderful food and lots of good champagne.

The chef created a lovely five course prix fixe menu at a surprisingly reasonable cost (I've spent the same amount here for two courses and a glass of wine), although I suspect that reservations were granted mainly to the "regulars" of the restaurant, hence the price was a thank you for frequent patrons.

What made things difficult was the fact that several of the courses offered multiple options, all of which sounded wonderful, and it was quite hard to decide what to get. By coincidence, it turned out that Matt and I ended up ordering all the same things!

We started with the salad of lobster medallions, fresh artichoke hearts, green beans, and shallots, all tossed with a mix of European style greens and tossed in a classic herbed vinaigrette. They were generous with the lobster and artichoke. The French haricots verts beans gave a nice beefiness to the salad, and there was just enough bitterness to the curly endive in the greens to balance out the flavors.



Next we had a Grey Goose lemon granite. This was an interesting lemon ice served swimming in Grey Goose vodka in a small wine glass rimmed with large green Pernod-scented sugar crystals. Pernod, of course, is the greenish, anisette/licorice-flavored liqueur that was created as a substitute for absinthe when absinthe became illegal in the early part of the twentieth century.



Our main course was exquisite. We selected the seared filet of venison served on a confit of zucchini, fennel, saffron, raisins, and lemon, and drizzled with an intriguing red wine sauce perfumed with chocolate. Not quite a molé, the sauce accented the venison and didn't over power the flavor. And speaking of the venison....it was melt-in-the-mouth tender, certainly some of the best venison I've had in the District in the past two years.



Our final two courses were both assortments. First, we had a cheese plate with four cheeses: a Savoie beaufort, an Auvergne roquefort, a Normandie camenbert, and a Pays Bisque petit basque. They were served with thin slices of French bread and walnuts, apple slices, and butter.



Dessert was an assortment of miniature French pastries. We had a little chocolate eclair, a wedge of pear tart, a fresh fruit tartlet, and an interesting profiterole filled with pumpkin ice cream, the plate being garnished with cigar-rolled shavings of chocolate, fresh mint, and dustings of confectioner's sugar and cocoa.



Naturally, we had some nice French wines to go along with our meal. Matt played sommalier for us and selected a Chateau les Amouruses Cote du Rhone for our first course and a Louis Latour Bourgogne chabis for our main course. Both wines were quite good, but Matt got them backwards, with the red wine for the lobster and the white wine (which would have been exquisite with the lobster, by the way) for the venison in red wine sauce. LOL...that's what I get for letting a Durham man pick the wines. ;-) With dessert was a Heidsieck Monopole Brut rosé champagne (rosé sparkling wines continue to be very vogue this season).

Our great waiter started coming by after we finished eating to refill our champagne glasses with whatever he had in hand at the time, most usually a very nice Veuve Fourny et Fils Premier Cru Brut. At midnight, he brought around more champagne for our New Year's toasts, and they broke out the party hats, noise makers, and streamers.

Twas a very happy new year, and I hope everyone will have a healthy, happy, and prosperous 2007!