Daily dispatches on the Washington, DC area's food, restaurant and dining scene.

An Early Look at The Source by Wolfgang Puck

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By Sara Levine

The Newseum’s opening might be delayed, but its restaurant will open this week

Wolfgang Puck's first DC restaurant feels far away from Beverly Hills.

You can snack on Puck-designed small plates in the downstairs lounge.

Also representing Puck in DC is his younger brother, Klaus, a vice president of the company who runs its “regional operations” team. Klaus is literally living on top of the restaurant—he’s leasing a place in the luxe Newseum Residences for the next six months to a year.

Aside from its journalism-inspired name, the airy, window-walled space has few conceptual ties to the Newseum. Similar to Zola, adjacent to the Spy Museum in Penn Quarter, the Source has a separate street entrance and lacks the hushed feel of a museum cafe. But while Zola’s design has some spy-themed touches, such as peepholes into the kitchen, there are no newsprint motifs or Woodward-tinis to be found at the Source.

The menu for the upstairs dining room—which Drewno is still fine-tuning—includes Asian-influenced dishes not found at other Puck establishments (roasted suckling pig with plum-fig chutney; lacquered Chinese duckling with huckleberries and glass noodles). In the downstairs lounge, a snacking menu will offer Puck signatures (smoked-salmon pizza from LA’s Spago; prime-beef sliders from Cut, his Beverly Hills steakhouse).

Diners and drinkers in the comfy leather seats around the bar get a view of the semi-open downstairs kitchen and its indoor charcoal grill and wood-burning oven for pizzas. In addition to the usual beer, wine, and cocktails, there’s sake by the bottle and glass. A subterranean private dining room seats 40, and there’s outdoor seating on an upstairs balcony.

The Source (Sixth and C sts., NW; 202-637-6100; wolfgangpuck.com) is open for dinner Monday through Saturday beginning this Thursday. Lunch service should begin in a few weeks. Plates on the downstairs menu range from $8 to $18. In the upstairs dining room, entrees are $20 to $36.

Comments

One of my biggest complaints with DC dining is that the music is too SOFT!! If I wanted to eat in silence, I would eat at home, or a less trendy more subdued restaurant. The fact that you say the music is actually loud makes me want to go here. I love atmosphere, and loud music makes a great night out!

Posted by: JenS | Oct 16, 2007 11:18:47 AM

My family and I had dinner Saturday evening at The Source and enjoyed every moment. We were greeted at the door by lovely hostesses and then asked if we would like to have a seat at the bar or go ahead and be seated for dinner. We chose to sit in the comfortable seats by the bar and enjoyed some of the restaurants signature drinks. My favorite, ’the sidecar’ was one of these and the bartender prepared it just as i like it. He even came by to ask if it was prepared to my liking and without hesitation i responded very positively. After about 5 min our server came by and presented us with a smoked salmon (topped with caviar) pizza ’courtesy of the chef’. It was delicious! Just before heading up to be seated for dinner the chef (Jeff -- can’t remember his last name) introduced himself and welcomed us. The restaurant has an incredible flow to it, from the door to the bar and seating areas. The extraordinary ’wall of wines’ is absolutley breathtaking -- they have an in-house Somalier who was very nice and helpful in choosing our wine with dinner. The seats are very comfortable and the service impecable. There were 3 of us for dinner and each ordered something different. I chose the Kobe short ribs (indian twist to it), my husband ordered the lamb chops and my sister had the pork chops. Everything was incredibly flavorful and beautifully presented. We didn’t order an appetizer, but were served a small dish of schezuan veggies, incredibly spicy and phenomenal (i love flavor filled foods). The wine, where do i start? It worked so well with our food, we chose a Shiraz. After dinner we each picked out a different dessert, i had the mango souffle, my husband chose the chocolate tart and my sistar chose a trio of sorbet. Each were unique and once again very delicious. The only complaint i can think of -- although after a couple drinks i didn’t mind it much -- the music was a tad bit loud. When we first arrived the music was classical and by the time we left at 9pm, they were playing Elton John and even some current songs. Needless to say, we cannot wait to return to The Source and enjoy the atmosphere and food.
Definetly a hit in my book.

Posted by: KKratovil | Oct 15, 2007 07:14:29 AM

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