100 Very Best 2014
The billable-hours crowd adores this downtown steakhouse, where tables of six and eight dominate the room and there’s plenty of backslapping. Although you’ll likely blow plenty of cash, this is more than an expense-accounter’s paradise. There are few better welcomes in town than the one here, in the form of silky chicken-liver mousse, crusty bread, and massive popovers served with butter and an oversize shaker of salt. Those could double as starters, but then you’d miss out on the raw bar, an icy bed that showcases shrimp, littleneck clams, and stone crab claws. Steaks—especially a luscious Wagyu skirt steak and a dry-aged New York strip—are the obvious highlights of the main courses, but an herb-crusted veal chop is a sleeper hit.
Open: Monday through Friday for lunch and dinner, Saturday for dinner.
Don’t Miss: Crabcake with radish salad; Caesar salad; tuna tartare; Brussels sprouts; stuffed mushrooms; crepe soufflé with passionfruit; carrot cake.
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.
Anna Spiegel covers the dining and drinking scene in her native DC. Prior to joining Washingtonian in 2010, she attended the French Culinary Institute and Columbia University’s MFA program in New York, and held various cooking and writing positions in NYC and in St. John, US Virgin Islands.
