Brasserie Les Halles, Washington, D.C.

After our garden tour at the White House yesterday afternoon, Kevin and I continued the quest for inspiration for our Bastille Day dinner French menu by having lunner just down the street at Brasserie Les Halles. Les Halles was fulled decked out in red, blue, and white bunting in anticipation of Monday's holiday. They are also the sponsors of the big annual DC waiters' race on Bastille Day where waiters run an obstacle course from the restaurant to the Capitol and back whilst carrying trays of champagne.

We started by sharing an appetizer (what the French would called an entrée) of les rillettes du Boucher, a confit made of shredded pork used as a spread on thin slices of French bread. It came with little cornichons and some cocktail onions. It was tasty, though very traditionally French and overly rich; I think for modern American tastes, I would have brightened it a bit with a squeeze or two of fresh lemon juice.

We both had sandwiches for our plats. Kevin chose the French dip. The meat looked a little rarer to me than the "medium" he ordered, but he thought it was fine. Instead of coming with a little bowl of beef broth, it came with a little ramekin of a barbecue sauce-looking stuff that Kevin said tasted intensely of beef.

I had the croque-monsiuer, a broiled ham and cheese sandwich with béchamel sauce. It was very satisfying. Both of our sandwiches came with pommes frites. Kevin got a little mesclun salad on his plate and I had some frisée.



After our lunner, Kevin drove me home and helped me carry in the case of wine we'd bought earlier in the day.