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

First Look: Cork

By Todd Kliman , Cynthia Hacinli , Ann Limpert

This wine bar's all about the food

Cork's wine list is filled with affordable, interesting bottles, with plenty of by-the-glass selections. Photographs by Stacy Zarin-Goldberg.

One of the toughest jobs in town might be host-stand duty at Cork. All night long, customers tap the hostess on the shoulder to ask how much longer they’ll have to wait for a table. Hour-plus waits for one of the 79 seats at this Logan Circle wine bar are typical even if you call ahead to put your name on the waiting list.

The reason everyone from mussy-haired twentysomethings to middle-aged theatergoers is willing to spend a good bit of the night flattened against a vestibule wall is the food, which transcends rustic simplicity and handily beats both the neighborhood and wine-bar competition.

The small menu’s seasonally minded dishes, crafted by Ron Tanaka, a former sous chef at CityZen, are billed as sharable small plates but are sized like generous appetizers: A flatiron steak, beautifully grilled and set over roasted Brussels sprouts, is more like a main course—and a steal at $14. Tanaka’s cooking hides subtle surprises: A dusting of lemon zest elevates a mound of fries. Airy fried shrimp and calamari are paired with a rémoulade made not with traditional chopped pickles but with puréed capers. A creamy slathering of chicken-liver pâté carries a whiff of rosemary, and the vinaigrette on a salad of shaved fennel and house-cured trout is vivid with a splash of tangerine juice.

Not everything succeeds. A purée of eggplant drowns out its accessories of chili and mint; a chicken breast is oversalted. And the kitchen’s policy of sending out plates when they’re ready, as if they’re tapas, tends to cause traffic jams.

But Cork shimmers with promise. It’s an unpretentious neighborhood hangout that’s exceeding expectations.

Cork, 1720 14th St., NW; 202-265-2675; corkdc.com. Sharable plates $4 to $15, charcuterie and cheese $6 to $24.

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Comments

all i ever hear is people from other countries complaining about this town. all they ever do is compare it to where they come from. but you know everywhere is different. people don’t drink wine in cork its a new thing. we drink stout(guinness) here. no one i know is interested in wine and if the yare they are considered wierd. I’ll bet where all ye come from is not that great.. just people with nothing better to do than complain.. i went all over europe and everywhere (cities) were the same except minor differences. morons

Posted by: dude from cork | Jun 05, 2008 06:06:20 AM

I also cannot recommend Cork. If you took DC Grl’s comments and replaced bar with upstairs, and people bumping into us with people drunkenly banging/smacking their fists into the upstairs railing shaking my date’s seat all evening then it would be the same review. When two people cannot carry on a conversation in very close quarters because of the cafeteria like noise that is a very big problem.
The food was decent but not spectacular and if you advertise plates to share, you do not expect large portions but at least enough to actually share more than one bite between two people. Overall I felt it was a tremendous waste of money, money which Cork might want to reinvest in some noise reducing materials for their decor.

Posted by: SMS | May 21, 2008 06:35:45 AM

I cannot recommend Cork - far to loud a place. I was there on a weekday night, and could not hear a single word my companion was saying - at ANY volume!

Posted by: David | May 20, 2008 12:03:15 PM

Honestly, I was not impressed with my visit to Cork last month. Being pressed up against a corner of the bar in a tiny area while we waited for our table, and then once we were seated our backs were right up against the crowded bar so folks kept bumping into us as we ate. Some of the plates were well presented but with the noise level and rushed feeling we got from our waitress we ended up spending over $90 for two of us and still feeling hungry as soon as we walked outside!

Posted by: DC Grl | May 19, 2008 02:18:54 PM

I have to say, I prefer Vinoteca to Cork, hands down. It’s less crowded, has fabulous wines, and a great Sunday brunch.

Posted by: bk | May 19, 2008 01:30:14 PM

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First Look: Cork

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