Summer Restaurant Week: What’s on the Menu

Comments () | Published August 12, 2009

• Urbana
Pizza, cassoulet, and squid-ink linguine are on the menu at this eclectic dining room/lounge in Dupont Circle’s Hotel Palomar. It's extending Restaurant Week through September 6.

Lunch appetizers: Celery-root soup with crispy bacon and truffle oil; endive-and-frisee salad with marcona almonds and tangerines; greens salad with grape tomatoes and tarragon vinaigrette.

Lunch entrées: Grilled eggplant panini with zucchini, roasted peppers, and aged gouda; avocado BLT with bacon and buttermilk-ranch aïoli; tomato-and-watercress sandwich with balsamic-glazed red onions and St. André cheese; pizza bianco with pecorino, baby artichokes, and picholine olives; pizza margherita with buffalo mozzarella; pizza pesto with sheep’s milk ricotta, marcona almonds, and mint; pizza salisccia with merguez sausage, roasted peppers, and aged gouda; pizza fungi with buffalo mozzarella, manchego cheese, wild mushrooms, and banana peppers.

Dinner appetizers: Celery-root soup with crispy bacon and truffle oil; endive-and-frisee salad with marcona almonds and tangerines; cassoulet with duck confit and garlic sausage.

Dinner entrées: Roasted branzino with cauliflower, preserved lemons, and capers; squid-ink linguine with littleneck clams and cherry tomatoes; roasted pork loin with chipotle risotto and arugula purée.

Lunch and dinner desserts: Lemon cheesecake with strawberry jam and mint crème fraîche; espresso crème brûlée with brown-butter/maple foam; chocolate/peanut-butter mousse with hazelnut crunch and caramel sauce.
• Vermilion
Housemade pastas, crabcakes, and summer berry crisps are on the menu at this brick-and-velvet Old Town restaurant.

Lunch appetizers: Summer tomato gazpacho with watermelon, feta, and dill; butter-lettuce niçoise salad with tomato, potato, egg, olives, capers, filet beans, and three-herb vinaigrette; artichoke dip with garlic breadcrumbs, smoked bacon, and grilled flatbread.

Lunch entrées: Hanger steak with porcini-dusted fries, baby greens, and housemade steak sauce; four-ounce crabcake with filet beans, crispy lemon, and green-goddess dressing; garganelli pasta with summer squash, smoked mozzarella, and red-pepper coulis.
 
Dinner appetizers: Crispy oysters with fennel, spearmint, and creamy slaw dressing; summer tomato gazpacho with watermelon, feta, and dill; Wagyu carpaccio with pickled shiitakes, spicy cheddar crackers, and caramelized-onion aioli.
 
Dinner entrées: Scottish salmon with cornbread panzanella, basil pesto, and kalamata-olive “tapenade”; bistro filet with roasted beets, crispy sweet onions, and buttermilk-blue cheese; open ravioli with summer-squash ratatouille, red-pepper froth, and crispy basil.

Lunch and dinner desserts: Vermilion “PB&J,” with bittersweet chocolate, hazelnut rice-crispy, and raspberry two ways; summer cornmeal crisp with peaches, blackberries, and sweet-corn ice cream.