"We're sort of going through an identity crisis," the young waiter at Town Hall admits ruefully. A couple of weeks earlier Jenna Bush and her posse had been in the second-floor bar of the Glover Park newcomer, and now the wannabes in halter tops and their button-down boyfriends are swarming the place on weekends for drinks and jerk-chicken wings. For a place bent on becoming a serious restaurant, being dubbed the new Smith Point–where the Bush twins used to hang in Georgetown–has to be a mixed blessing.
Still, the neighborhood is giving the new place, in the former Saveur space, a chance. On a recent Friday night at dinnertime, empty-nesters and families with young kids supped on trendy comfort food in the yellow-and-brown dining room. So far the kitchen could use some fine-tuning. Of the handful of plates sampled–including an andouille-and-Manchego quesadilla and a turkey pot pie that begged for more turkey–the pan-roasted pork chop with mac and cheese and caramelized apples was the only one that made us sigh. But what a sigh: A forkful of the elegant cream-and-goat-cheese-laden mac with a chunk of salty pork and a wedge of sweet apple was close to bliss.
We'll be back for another round–that is, if we can nudge through the crowds at the bar.
Town Hall: 2218 Wisconsin Ave., NW; 202-333-5640; townhalldc.com.
Open Tuesday through Saturday for lunch, Sunday for brunch, daily for dinner.
Appetizers $6 to $11, main courses $8 to $23, desserts $7.
Ann Limpert joined Washingtonian in late 2003. She was previously an editorial assistant at Entertainment Weekly and a cook in New York restaurant kitchens, and she is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education. She lives in Petworth.
