D.C. Coast, Washington, D.C.

Yesterday was the last day of Scott's medical convention, so he and two of his colleagues from Oklahoma City asked me to accompany them to D.C. Coast, one of the trendy contemporary American seafood restaurants downtown near McPherson Square. I think they were planning to use up all their left over per diems! LOL

When I arrived, they were cocktailing a bit; I can't remember all the details, but I do recall that one of the ladies was sipping Cirroc vodka on the rocks.

We had some interesting menu choices, and we all tried to do different things so we could look and taste and share a tiny bit (though I noticed that more of the alcohol got shared than the food!). Courtney and I both got soups for our first courses. She chose the roasted Kabocha squash soup with pumpkin seed-crusted goat cheese and crispy pancetta. It was presented with little balls of the goat cheese in the center of the soup plate with pieces of the bacon sprinkled over it. Once the plate was in front of her, the waiter poured the soup into the bowl I had a similar experience with my soup du jour, a cold cucumber and honeydew melon soup. My bowl had bits of finely diced cucumber and melon, and a little bit of blue crab in the center. I thought the soup quite good, with hints of mint, creme fraiche, and a little bit of pepper spice.

Scott had deferred ordering a soup course, because he thought his entree choice would include a bowl. He picked the Trio of Crab, an interesting plate with a large lump crabcakse in the center and four large Jonah crab claws radiating from it; crab chowder was poured around the other two crab items to fill his plate. It looked quite good, and he particularly liked the crabcake, since it was mostly crab with no noticeable filler. He also ordered a side of stir-fried vegetables to go with it.

Courtney picked the grilled yellowfin tuna, coming with whipped parsnips and crispy fried spinach. I'd wanted to order that myself. Her tuna came medium rare. Connie got the grilled free-range chicken with mashed sweet potatoes and applewood-smoked bacon. She also got a side of the vegetable stir-fry.

I selected the mushroom crusted halibut. It was a thick square of fish that was crusted with finely chopped mushrooms, but cooked in a way that the coating was crispy. In the center of the plate was a portobello mushroom cap holding a mound of truffled whipped potatoes. The fish leaned up against the potatoes and the whole dish was dashingly decorated with a big flag of rosemary sticking in the top of the potatoes. A dark, beefy porcini mushroom broth covered the bottom of the plate.

With dinner, Courtney drank a Domaine Ehrhart Vieilles Vignes 2004 riesling from the Alsace region of France. I had a very lovely 2005 Chateau St. Jean fume blanc from Sonoma County, California. They have a very nice wine list with most of the wines available by the glass.

Dessert required more hard choices. Connie got a scoop of butter pecan ice cream in a petite little ceramic dish. Courtney had the trio of seasonal sorbets, including banana-honey, pineapple yogurt, and pear-lychee, that came on a long, rectangular, cobalt blue, glass plate with three recessed spaced along the length to hold each dip separately. Scott and I shared a coconut cake. It was rather a pound cake with cream cheese icing and large shavings of toasted coconut garnishing the top. Also on the plate was a mound of roasted pineapple--it looked almost like a thick puree--and these little, tiny cubes of Gosling's Black Seal Rum gelee. It wasn't really a large dessert, but it was really just the right amount of sweet to end the meal.

With our after dinner coffees, Courtney drank a very interesting Royal Tokaji Birsalmas 1999, a pinkish white dessert wine from Hungary. Scott got a limoncello, but he ended up not liking it, and traded it away to me for my glass of Taylor Fladgate Fine Tawny Port.

It was quite a pleasant evening, and time just flew. We went in a little after seven, and it was about eleven when we left.

D.C. Coast has improved in its quality and menu pairings since the last time I was there. I think it used to have more focus on the "fun" part and their large bar and cocktail selections. Given their rather high price point, I've always held them to higher standards, especially since it's part of a small local group that includes Ten-Penh, Ceiba, and Acadiana, all top-notch places, but they're paying attention to the food now.