As we approached the location, we heard a lot of chanting and noise on the street, and we were wondering what sports team was in town, thinking perhaps there was some kind of rally for the loser-Washington R******s football team (I don't use their mascot name since it it racially insensitive and offensive to Indians) after their unfortunate playoff performance in Seattle. However, as we turned the corner by the restaurant, we saw a huge union picket line circling around on the sidewalk protesting something or another—we never did figure out what they were whining about. This must be the protest week, since the next day on Friday evening, we saw another group of unidentified protestors/picketers parading up and down the parkway by the Watergate complex while we dined at Aquarelle. Fortunately, though, the restaurant windows at Butterfield 9 were thick enough we didn't have to listen to the pickets and we were able to lunch uninterrupted.
We arrived a couple of minutes before our reservation, and the hostesses greeted us, asking us to wait just a moment while they finished preparing our table. They offerred the bar, but we weren't drinking, so we declined and stood in the lobby area. After about five minutes, a manager type wandered through and decided we were in the way and moved us into the bar, anyway. That, of course, created the situation we were trying to avoid, which was making the bartender have to come greet us and take our orders, only to be disappointed that we weren't paying (and tipping) customers and were just taking up space. We sat in the bar for probably another five minutes before the hostess came in to fetch us to our table. We were given an excellent table with an L-shaped banquette in the corner of the restaurant by the window that allowed us a full view of the entire dining room, all illuminated with unusual contemporary wire chandeliers.
The Restaurant Week menu was interesting and varied, with at least four choices for each category. They also offered a three-glass wine pairing for an additional $18 per person, which I passed on, but which Tony, armed with mommy's credit card, chose to enjoy.
We both ended up ignoring the very interesting salad options and started with soups. I got the soup du jour, which was a simple cauliflower potage poured over a center mound of royal trumpet mushrooms and garnished with shavings of al dente cauliflower. The soup was okay, and I particularly enjoyed the unusual mushrooms.
Tony chose the butternut squash soup with maple-cured bacon and young celery. With his soup course he drank a Albarino Salneval 2004, Rais Baixas white, from Spain. They also served us a basket of assorted breads, one of which was a particularly delicious brown bread spiked with raisins and walnuts.
For our main courses, Tony had an exquisitely delicious braised beef short rib on a pool of soft, truffled cheese grits topped by mustard greens and crispy bits of portobello mushrooms. He raved about the rib, so I guess it was good. A glass of Syrah Elsa 2003 Mendoza from Argentina came with his beef.
I had the duck leg confit salad served over warm, wilted frisée with some mustard cream sauced haricots verts green beans. I loved the salad. The confit was rich and exploding with flavor. One of the things that struck me about this dish is that it exploited all of the taste senses, with a salt coating on the duck, a sour vinegar dressing on the bitter leaves of the frisée, and a sweetness to the haricots verts and their sauce, as well as the sauce on the duck. Quite a nice balance.
Desserts were pretty. Tony chose the sorbet du jour, which happened to be three egg-shaped scoops of mango sorbet garnished with a fresh strawberry that he reported had a very pronounced mango flavor. He drank a Moscato D’Asti M. Chiarlo "Nivole", from the Italian Piedmont with dessert.
Meanwhile, I reveled in a warm Mexican chocolate soufflé cake with spiced pecans and a sweet cream sauce spiked with amontillado sherry.
Butterfield 9 was a very pleasant restaurant and we had a very fine dining experience. One thing I noticed, though, was the use of sourness as a theme throughout the meal—sourness in the soup mushrooms, sourness in the vinegar dressing on the duck salad, sourness in the dessert chocolate—and a consistent sweetness in the matching wine flight. The dining room stayed busy our whole visit. Both a floor manager and the hostess checked on us during various parts of the meal, and our waiters and assistants were efficient and well trained. I look forward to going back to Butterfield 9 again.
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