Kinkead's An American Brasserie, Washington, D.C.

One of my friend John's business appointments over on the Hill cancelled/didn't materialize Friday, so we used that hole in his schedule as an opportunity to lunch with him again. He wanted to go somewhere in Foggy Bottom, so we chose Kinkead's An American Brasserie, a place he used to use regularly when he was living in D.C. doing **CLASSIFIED**, working for the **CLASSIFIED**. I always enjoy Kinkead's, especially since they are noted for their fresh seafood selections and raw bar, and with all of us being good little Roman and/or Anglican Catholic boys, fish on Friday is always a good thing.

Kinkead's has an interesting restaurant configuration, since they are located in a sort of mini-mall just east of the GWU campus that was largely constructed by covering the alleyway between lines of row houses. That puts the main dining rooms in a number of oddly shaped spaces on different levels, plus they have set up an "outdoor cafe" seating area in the covered mall area in back. It's nice sitting out there with a lot more space than inside, but it can have its challenges, since any carts or baskets going up and down the rough floored walkway create a terrible racket that temporarily halts conversation.

While Robert and Ryan got iced tea, John got beer (surprise! LOL) the name of which I did not catch since he was at the other end of the table. I had the house chenin blanc white wine. Laurent wanted a mojito, but they didn't have any fresh mint leaves at the bar, so he let the bartender create something special for him. He ended up with a tall highball with lime, Grand Marnier, white rum, and I suspect some sweet and sour mixer, garnished with a half orange slice.

Laurent started with the chef's selection soup, a dark lobster bisque topped with croutons made from brioche bread and a little snipped parsley. He nearly licked the bowl clean, so I trust it was adequate.


I got a sampler of a half a dozen raw oysters on the half shell. While the delivering waiter didn't say and I forgot to ask, usually that means one of each, which according to the menu included Dabob Bay and Sunset Beach oysters from Washington State, Caraquet and Malpeque from Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton from Nova Scotia, and Coromandel Bay from New Zealand.


Ryan ordered a little artisanal cheese platter. For some reason, it never came, and we waited and waited for it. A waiter from another table drifted by, so Ryan mentioned it to him, and eventually, long after everyone else had finished their first course, the cheese made its appearance. That was unfortunate, since of all the appetitizers ordered, that was the one that took the longest to eat and savor! As, I presume, a gesture of apology, our waiter brought us all another round of drinks on the house.

Anyway, the cheese plate was lovely. I sampled tiny bits of the two ripe cheeses, and enjoyed them both. In the photo here, the cheese at 10 o'clock is a Fleur des Alps cow milk cheese from France. At noon is Ubriaco Prosecco, a semi-soft from Italy made by soaking the young cheese in Prosecco wine must, and at 2 o'clock is my favorite, Isle of Mull, from Scotland. Along with the cheeses, they served raisin bread, apples slices, blackberries, raspberries, miniature champagne grapes, and a couple of pieces of dried fruit and nut loaf, one with prunes and the other with figs.


At last the main courses arrived. I looked carefully to make sure that they hadn't been sitting under a heat lamp for half an hour whilst they dealt with the errant cheese plate, but everything looked fresh, and mine, at least, tasted very good without being cold or dried out. Robert and Laurent were rebels, not ordering seafood in a seafood restaurant. Robert had the grilled garlic braised shortribs that I thought looked exquisite (he sat next to me). The shortribs were presented on a bed of parsnip purée and sauced with a Guinness beer "jus," then accompanied by French round carrots and shallots roasted in cardamom butter.


Laurent picked the salad of duck confit and thick, grilled bacon, with marinated red cabbage, Yukon Gold potatoes, celery remoulade (some long julienne of lightly pickled celery root), and ample crumbled goat cheese.


John had tuna carpaccio, very thinly sliced raw tuna served with a shaved fennel and arugula salad, a black bean relish, fresh gratings of parmesan cheese, and lime wedges. While I expected the tuna to be on top of the salad, it was presented with the salad on top.


Ryan had the grilled swordfish, prompting reminiscences of him eating swordfish during his high school prom. The swordfish was a very thick, almost cubic, square that looked moist and nicely done, and was moistened by being placed atop a lemon rosemary olive oil emulsion. It came with a baked cherry tomato and basil compote they called a confit and some threads of zucchini that looked to have been dipped in tempura batter and sprinkled with grated parmesan cheese before deep-frying.


I had a wonderful slab of Arctic char, a fish that is closely related both to salmon and trout, with an appealing rose colored flesh. The fish was crusted in walnut and horseradish before baking and then was presented on a mirror of sherry and beet sauce that was rich and complex, with notes I couldn't quite identify. It came with panned spinach and garlic, little carved carrots, roasted cauliflower, and an absolutely delicious cauliflower flan. I was quite pleased, and Robert, who ordinarily doesn't like cauliflower, liked the cauliflower flan.


The dessert menus came in the same type brass folders as are used for the main menus, an interesting theme that is carried forward into the restrooms, where "brass" tiles are embedded in the border designs on the walls.

Desserts were fun. Laurent picked the warm pecan tart and butter pecan ice cream served on a boat-shaped plate drizzled with crème anglaise.


Ryan had the molten bittersweeet chocolate cake with caramel ice cream (plus an extra scoop!). I don't think you can quite tell in the photo, but they wrapped a thin strip of chocolate loosely around one of the ice cream balls.


I had a very interesting dessert on the apple theme. The base dessert was a crumble-topping cobbler of Granny Smith apples. In a separate dish sat a scoop of ice cream (I thought it tasted like vanilla, though the menu says it was supposed to be cinnamon) crowned with a very thin slice of candied cinnamon apple. Then to finish the combination, I had a tall shot of hard apple cider.



Robert, still bravely adhering to his diet, had coffee. Unfortunately, the rather inattentive service of the meal continued to rear its head, as he was never offered a refill, and could never get a waiter's attention during the entire dessert course until it was time for the check.

I don't know why the service was so poor yesterday, since we were not the only tables in the "outdoor" cafe area, the inside restaurant was not that busy, and it wasn't late in the lunch service period at all (we arrived about 12:30—early for us!). A restaurant of Kinkead's fairly lofty price point should have much more attentive and impeccable service, but these lapses were failures that would have marred even a low-end dining experience.

Nonetheless, the food was excellent, and the company superb. Thanks again for lunch, John!

Mourayo, Washington, D.C.

Our friend John from Beverly Hills is in town for a few days, so we took him to lunch yesterday at Mourayo, a "contemporary" Greek restaurant north of Dupont Circle.

Naturally, we had to start out with beer. John loves beer. I don't know why. Must be his Lambda Chi background. Didn't some Lamb Chop alumnus country western singer do a song about the beer keg in the closet or some such? I think that's all Lamb Chops do is drink beer. Anyway, John wanted Greek beer, and they had two offerings, a mild lager called Keo (which was actually from Cyprus) and a hoppier, slightly more bitter lager called Aris.

John and Laurent split a garides saganaki for a first course. This was a plate of fried shrimp in a tomato and feta cheese sauce arranged around a mound of sautéed julienne of fennel.


Ryan had the poughi, a "beggar's pouch" of phyllo dough encasing a manouri cheese and roasted pepper filling.


I had the soup of the day, a seafood stew in a lobster broth. I particularly enjoyed my soup, since it had lots of seafood in it, plus a very rich, almost buttery taste.


There were so many delicious sounding entrees, it was hard to make a selection. John chose the kotopoulo me hilopites, a big bowl of Greek style egg noodles with chicken and tomato sauce.


Ryan had some football-shaped meatball stewed in tomato sauce and served with riced potatoes dusted with chopped parsley and asparagus spears.


Laurent had a particularly interesting looking cold seafood sampler platter. There were sardines, anchovies, clams, mussels, shrimp, diced octopus, and I don't know what else.


I got the hirini e prasines elies, a very good dish of diced pork tenderloin tossed with mushrooms, olives, and almonds simmered in white wine and served over orzo (rice-shaped pasta). It was quite filling, and I loved the melange of flavors.


They had lots of fun options for dessert. Even though we were already nicely stuffed, we ordered some anyway. John got the melon balls with lemon sorbet doused with ouzo (a nasty Greek liquor that reeks of licorice). Ryan didn't get anything and sampled other things.

Laurent got a phyllo dough bowl filled with yogurt and fresh strawberries, then drizzled with thyme-scented honey. I had something called " galaktoboureko," a citrus-flavored custard baked in between layers of phyllo dough and served warm.


It's always a pleasure dining at Mourayo, even if I do always get seated at the same window table every time I go in to eat. I like the clean, contemporary look of the dining room, the sailor suits on the waiters, and the interesting menus.

Saki, Washington, D.C.

After our little visit to La Fourchette Tuesday evening, we were walking back towards the Metro stop when Laurent decided he wanted another drink. After discussing the fact that he had never had a Sapporo beer before, we went in to Saki, a sushi bar also on the First Tuesday restaurant list.

Things started off innocently enough. We each ordered a Sapporo (it's a type of strong, lager-style Japanese beer), and it came in bottles instead of the oversized silver bullet cans. Laurent started chatting up our comely waitress (pictured above) and eventually succumbed to her wiles, and decided he wanted a little bit of food. Well, with the First Tuesday special, for just a tiny bit more money, both of us could get a lot of food, so he decided we would have a second dinner. LOL


The special menu was a little different here. We each got a bowl of miso (fermented soybean paste) soup, then a tray of sushi rolls to split, and then a big bowl of green tea ice cream to share. The special also included a vase of hot sake. The sushi included a saki maki roll (crab, avocado, tuna, salmon, and unagi sauce) and a lasagna roll. No, the lasagna roll wasn't Italian, it was said merely to look like Italian lasagna. They took crispy tempura shrimp and topped it with a spicy crab salad that was all then put into a toaster oven and further crisped on top with a few passes of a culinary blow torch. The sushi was quite good and had a nice, fresh flavor.


So, the food was good, but that wasn't why we were there. After beer and sake, Laurent wanted more, so he had the waitress make him something. She came up with this great big, oversized martini glass full of mostly cold sake and a little grenadine that she called a "Cherry Blossom." There are a few pictures of Laurent with his Cherry Blossom below. She also fixed him a mai tai (above) and then later a concoction that was mostly Grand Marnier and a splash of cranberry juice.

Laurent is such a wild party boy. After a couple of cocktails, I induced him to eat a whole, great big wad of wasabi—that green grated Japanese horseradish that'll take off your head with just a tiny whiff—and not only did he eat it all, but he masticated for quite some time!

Meanwhile, Laurent kept talking and flirting with the waitress, and even got her MySpace and Facebook names! So, we had a pleasant experience at Saki. I suppose we'll have to go back again sometime if only for Laurent to continue flirting with that pretty girl.

La Fourchette, Washington, D.C.

The Adams-Morgan neighborhood has started a new public relations campaign that features "First Tuesday," a special promotional day on the first Tuesday of the month where many retailers offer discounts and a number of the restaurants there offer a special $25 dinner for two (that's for two people, not per person!). Laurent and I ventured over Tuesday night to see what we could find.

We landed at La Fourchette—"The Fork"—a French place that has been one of the anchors of the Adams-Morgan restaurant scene for years. It's a very comfortable, very "French" café with a reputation for solid, sensible, food. The idea of two dining for $25 at Fourchette is a steal, so I was very excited.

While the menus for these monthly specials are limited, we still had a lot of nice choices. The special provided for a soup, salad, or paté as a first course, several main course selections (since an entrée in France is an appetizer, main courses are called a plat in French), and then a glass of the house wine.

Laurent started off with the pork and veal country-style paté, accompanied by cornichons, French olives, and croutons. I sampled a bit; it had a distinct fresh, meat taste, and was not liver based.


I got the cream of mushroom soup, a hearty blend of mushrooms in a light soup without the velouté base formerly used in older cooking traditions. While I've always preferred the classic velouté, they say these days that all that heavy cream and butter isn't healthy. :(


Next, Laurent had the seafood crèpes. He got two crèpes stuffed with shrimp, crab, and scallops, sauced, and matched with some julienne carrots and squash. He said they were very good.


I had the leg of lamb on a bed of white beans. The lamb was a large cross-section slice with large spikes of garlic and a reduction sauce.


They were out of the sauvignon blanc, so Laurent had to drink the house chardonnay. I had a glass of the house cabernet sauvignon.

After dinner, the waiter came around with a lovely dessert tray with too many goodies to try. It was not, unfortunately, included in the meal special, but we were weak and opted to share a decadently rich and delicious oeufs à la neige—a "floating island." I love those things, and seldom order them, but I don't know why. The floating island is a soft meringue that "floats" atop a "sea" of crème anglaise (English custard cream) and is garnished with caramel. Yum.


And thus was our first First Tuesday experience. I think we'll be penciling in Tuesdays on our calendars.