100 Very Best 2017
100 Very Best 2019It’s hard to imagine a more fitting bistro for Georgetown. The airy room is elegant enough for lunching ladies, while owners Eric and Ian Hilton (Brixton, Marvin, et al.) know how to whip up an evening buzz with cocktails such as Armagnac old fashioneds—not to mention their equally atmospheric wine room, Bar à Vin, next door. Still, it’s not all style over substance. Chef Brendan L’Etoile skillfully updates brasserie classics including local duck à l’orange—here, a seared breast with farro and a punchy citrus sauce—and mines Southern French gems such as pork-rich cassoulet Toulousain. If you see heads turning, that’s probably the showstopper Paris-Brest dessert—a tower of praline crème and puff pastry—heading through the room. Expensive.
Also great: Pork-and-prune pâté; onion soup; bluefish rillettes; escargots; trout grenobloise; sea bass with fennel.
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.
Jessica Sidman covers the people and trends behind D.C.’s food and drink scene. Before joining Washingtonian in July 2016, she was Food Editor and Young & Hungry columnist at Washington City Paper. She is a Colorado native and University of Pennsylvania grad.
Kristen Hinman has been editing Washingtonian’s features since 2014. She joined the magazine after editing politics & policy coverage for Bloomberg Businessweek and working as a staff writer for Voice Media Group/Riverfront Times.
