Adour at the St. Regis, Washington, D.C.

It's Restaurant Week in the District, and I opened this week's food fantasies today at Alain Ducasse's new local venture, Adour at the St. Regis Hotel. Our local establishment follows the ideas of Ducasse's eponymous restaurant at the St. Regis New York, serving contemporary French American food in a fresh, new environment in what used to be the Library in the hotel. The architects retained the ornate ceilings of the old dining room, but the lower portions are sleek, glass, chrome, and leather with a full glass wine wall on one side of the room. While the juxtaposition of old ornate and new contemporary sounds shocking, it was well done and came across comfortably.

Lunching with my friend Father Steven, we both enjoyed the food and the environment. The room was full, but the noise level was moderate and it was easy to carry on conversations. Service was generally efficient, but Fr. Steven's main complaint was that he had to ask twice for sweetener for his iced tea, and during the course of our meal, his empty $5 tea glass was never refilled.

Fr. Steven started with the sunchoke parmentier soup with bacon foam. A waiter brought a large, empty soup plate with bits of bacon and the bacon foam (a creamy looking, bubbly thing) on the bottom, then poured the sunchoke purée into the bowl. I chose the daurade tartare. Daurade is a French fish, and in this case, it was served raw like chopped sashimi, presented on a bed of guacamole and encircled by a spicy tomato essence. It actually was quite delicious.

For his main course, Fr. Steven ordered the grilled hanger steak. It came with potatoes boulangerie and some sauteed spinach. The steak was sauced with a red wine shallot butter. He ordered the meat rare and pronounced the dish very very good. I got the artisanal pasta with duck confit and chestnuts, a very unusual, yet good, combination.

There were two desserts on the menu, so we ordered one of each and split them both. One of the desserts was a coffee cremeux, in essence, a coffee-flavored mousse enrobed in dark chocolate and served with a little dish of sabayon sauce on the cocoa-dusted plate. Two "cigarettes" of meringue rested beside the cremeux. The second dessert was called a contemporary pina colada with coconut tapioca sauce. A base of tapioca was topped by a layer of finely diced tropical fruits, all supporting an egg-shaped bit of mango ice cream. It was sour and refreshing.

And thus was my first Restaurant Week adventure of 2009. For those so inclined to try it, Adour is extending Restaurant Week through next week, so you've plenty of time to try it out.