The urbane, casually romantic restaurant is suddenly all the rage among big-city restaurateurs. Well, this Adams Morgan haunt devised the script nearly two decades ago. Lots of places do cozy and charming–they also do it for a lot more money.
The bar is a low-key party even on weeknights, service is attentive and warm, and the cooking, under chef/owner John Manolatos, strikes a balance between comfort and polish. You might not talk about something you ate at dinner for the rest of your life, but you’ll likely walk out happy.
What to get: Foie gras with cider gastrique; fried rabbit loin with Creole mustard; head-on shrimp cooked a la plancha; chicken posole with crème fraîche and fried tortillas; rabbit meatloaf with braised red cabbage and mushroom gravy; miso-marinated wild sablefish with bok choy and shiitakes; spit-roasted goat with grilled flatbread, tzatziki, and black-eyed-pea salad; cannoli with pistachio ice cream; cherry clafoutis.
Open Tuesday through Saturday for dinner, Sunday for brunch and dinner. Expensive.
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.
