La Fourchette, Washington, D.C.

My friend Peter called me up and said he was going to a meeting in Mount Pleasant and wanted to go to dinner as soon as it was over. That meant Adams-Morgan, and we walked over to find a fun a different place. There are a couple of the better places in the area participating in Restaurant Week, but, with the newly raised dinner prices, Peter decided we should go to one of our old standbys, since after his meeting, he was definitely in need of a cocktail. Or two.

So, we went to La Fourchette, the old reliable French place we often patronize, and promptly ordered a carafe of the house white wine.

Then we got down to dinner. Peter started with a Caesar salad, which turned out to be a huge bowl of salad! I got a simple piece of their pâté maison, a country-style pork pâté served with little French black olives and cornichon pickles and a bit of tomato and lettuce salad.


For his main course, Peter got the chicken breast stuffed with crab meat and pronounced it delicious. I got a cold artichoke vinaigrette, and nibbled on the leaves and handmade mayonnaise dipping sauce forever.


We weren't going to do dessert, but Peter had been busily chatting up the waitress (she's new to La Fourchette, and said she's from Paris), so he felt obligated to order, and I didn't want to make him eat alone, so I acquiesced to doing dessert, too. He got my favorite, the ille flotante, or "floating island," and I got a pêche Melba on vanilla ice cream.


So, we didn't really have an "official" R.W. dinner at La Fourchette, but with their more reasonable prices, we got a huge dinner with wine for right about the same price we would have spent at a participating restaurant for just the meal (no drinks or beverages). It was my one moment of economy this week.