Aria Trattoria, Washington, D.C.

What a beautiful day it was today! The sun was out, it was warm, twas a harbinger of the spring to come. Not a day to be cooped up inside!

Had a very good business lunch downtown with my friend Mike at Aria Trattoria in the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. We started to eat outside on the patio, but they'd reserved a nice table for us inside, and we ended up there.

Mike had the wild mushroom risotto, which he reported was very good. It was simply presented in a large soup plate with a tiny garnish of fresh chopped parsley. I had the pulled chicken salad, and, while it was very good, I was a little bit surprised at the presentation. They started with a bed of mixed European-style baby greens tossed in a balsamic vinaigrette and in the center was a mound of pulled chicken moistened with a mayonnaise or mild aioli in a traditional "chicken salad" way; two long, thin parmesan crostini sat criss-crossed atop the chicken. I think I'd expected the pieces to be tossed lightly amongst the greens instead of being formed into a chicken salad. With our food, Mike drank a Melini Borghi d'Elsa chianti and I had a Kris pinot grigio.

For dessert, we split a tropical mousse torte and a pot of French press coffee. They used a round mold with coconut ladyfingers in the bottom and then filled it with a mousse of banana, mango and passionfruit. A little whipped cream and a squirt of tangerine coulis went atop the torte that then was scattered with a mango dice (the mangos, unfortunately, were not ripe). Ripe, fan-sliced strawberries and dollops of whipped cream garnished the plate. I thought the dessert had a very pleasant flavor and was a nice ending to the meal. The coffee was surprisingly filled with sediment; perhaps they over-ground the coffee beans before brewing the pot. While we had our dessert, our waiter brought us a tray of glasses of beers and ales with half-ounce pours to introduce us to the new beers on tap in their bar.

One of the other perks of dining at Aria is that by having a late lunch, I was able to get a 1,000 point Open Table bonus for booking between 1:30 and 3:00.