The Melting Pot, Washington, D.C.

Tonight, my friend Scott and I went to the Melting Pot for what turned out to be a *very* long dinner! The Melting Pot is a small national franchise specialty restaurant chain serving up Americanized versions of traditional and not-so-traditional Swiss fondues. The D.C. location is just south of Dupont Circle on the lower level of a newish office building. Upon entering the building, one has to descend a flight of stairs to get to the Melting Pot, and I didn't see an elevator anywhere around, so handicapped people may be out of luck. The decor is modern and elegant, and a large bar sits right off the maitre d' stand. We were seated in the main dining room in a booth that featured a large hot plate and fondue pot in the middle. We were given cocktail menus, plus large dinner menus that had probably five pages of wine lists before the two pages of food options. They had several prix fixe as well as a la carte options, and since Scott had never had fondue before, we opted for one of the prix fixe menus so he could taste a little of everything.



Naturally, our first course was a traditional Swiss cheese fondue. Our waitress started by placing a quantity of chablis wine in our pot, then slowly adding some shredded Emmenthaler and Swiss cheeses. Once they started to melt, she added garlic, nutmeg, and a couple of stout shots of kirschwasser. While it melted, she brought us small cubes of French bread, cubes of Granny Smith apples, and an assortment of small crudites, all of which were to be speared on our long fondue forks, dipped in the melted cheese, and then eaten. It was a nice fondue, though I daresay that it could have used a couple more shots of kirschwasser (the fondues I've had in Switzerland have all had an almost overpowering alcohol bite).

The next course was a large pecan and dried cherry salad on an interesting bed of mixed baby spring greens that included some unusual greens like Swiss chard, all dressed in a cherry vinaigrette. I enjoyed the salad, but I daresay it could have used a little more chicory, endive, and raddicchio for more bitterness to help cut the richness of the first course.

Next was our "Potomac platter," a lovely large plate full of assorted raw tiger shrimp, ahi tuna cubes, chicken chunks, and a whole lobster tail cut into bite-sized pieces, plus a smaller plate with mushroom caps, broccoli, quartered new potatoes, and yellow summer squash demilune slices. All of these items were to be speared on the fondue forks, then immersed into the new fondue pot full of hot cooking oil. We had the option of cooking the meats and vegetables au natural, or dipping them first into a tempura batter or a sesame batter. Once the food was cooked, we had a plethora of dipping sauce options, including a three-welled dish with a chipotle sauce, an oriental barbecue sauce, and a curried yogurt sauce, and four small bowls of sauces such as a lemon butter, a hot spicy house-made cocktail sauce, a lovely gorgonzola cheese sauce, and a "green goddess" sauce of sour cream and herbs. Seems like I'm forgetting something, but you get the gist. Fondue cooking is such a great boon to conversation, since it takes a minute or two for each morsel to cook in the boiling oil, and you just had to talk in between bites!

The waitress then forced us to eat dessert. We had about eight options as to dessert fondues, and Scott selected for us the "yin-yang" fondue, a mix of dark chocolate and white chocolate in the same pot. The dippers that came with the chocolate on a big platter dusted with confectioner's sugar included a slice of cheesecake, cherries on stems, strawberry halves, banana pieces, pineapple chunks, cubes of angel food cake, and marshmallows rolled in dutched cocoa.



Scott likes sweet drinks, so we shared a bottle of asti spumante with the meal, and after dinner while I sipped my cappuccino, he had a yin-yang martini, which was an interesting white chocolate liqueur, Ketel One vodka, and cream concoction with half the top of the cocktail garnished with a heavy layer of grated dark chocolate.

The Melting Pot is a great place to eat, though, obviously, one will want to dine with friends to be able to share the wonderful fondues. And, be sure to allow plenty of time to eat! We were there tonight for about three and a half hours.