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Sonoma Restaurant and Wine Bar, Capitol Hill - Chef Drew Trautmann is Back in the Saddle!


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Apparently Barton Seaver has replaced Drew Trautman at Sonoma. The arctic char I had for lunch today was certainly worthy of him. What a coup for Sonoma!

Yes, but is Sonoma merely a holding tank while they open Blue Ridge? Regardless, this is worth knowing about in the short-term (and thanks to FunnyJohn for alerting me to this a few days ago).

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Yes, but is Sonoma merely a holding tank while they open Blue Ridge?
That's a great score for Sonoma in the short-term. I'll be ordering a seafood dish from there soon!

For the remainder of this week, I recommend making a special trip there, to capture 2 talents: ulysses helming the bar there, as well great seafood from Barton Seaver. Not so sure about soon thereafter.

ETA: Only meant I didn't know if the 2 will be there after this week...

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Last night at Sonoma was a first: I didn't bring any food home. I always overorder and can't finish my meal, but last night was just right.

With Chef Seaver in the kitchen, both my husband and I ordered fish, the arctic char for him and, for me, the whole roasted rainbow trout. I hesitated on ordering the whole fish because I have trouble eating something that's staring back at me :rolleyes:, but I really wanted to try it. I asked our server if they could serve it without the head. She checked with the kitchen and they said it was no problem. She assured me I wasn't making a bizarre request, but I still felt kind of stupid. I'm glad I ordered the trout, and didn't let my squeamishness and reluctance to make special requests get in the way. The simple preparation worked beautifully, and the fish juices along with the lemon and oil made a perfect dressing for the bed of arugula underneath.

We had started with two items from the daily specials: ravioli for my husband (the bit I got was great) and the split pea soup with housemade bacon for me. I thought the bacon pieces in the soup were a little too hard, but that's pretty much the only thing that wasn't perfect about the entire meal. They have Victory Pils on tap, and I availed myself of that, instead of wine.

I asked our server how long chef Seaver would be in the kitchen, and she said that he's now the executive chef of all of their restaurants and he'll be there until Blue Ridge opens in a month. I didn't think to clarify whether that meant he'd be in the kitchen daily or just there generally.

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The beef carpaccio that is on the menu now is just fantastic, with ribbons of mustard dressing, Parmesan, and a warm breadstick. Our party somewhat overdid it on bread products, having extra focaccia with the chicken liver mousse and two pizzas (a margherita and a giovanni--with soppressata and anchovy). The special of polenta with meatballs rounded out the table's order, though one of the two people eating it found the polenta a bit salty. I had no room left to try this, but it looked great.

I don't recall what the chicken liver was called before, but this is the first time I recall it being called a mousse. It seems to be a smaller portion than previously (which is fine, because it's so rich it was too much to finish before), and it was delicious. It's hard for me to compare taste in foods eaten far apart, but I think I preferred the previous preparation. Rarely do I order pizza here, since there are so many other items to choose from, but I loved the anchovy and soppressata combination on the pizza. The crust was thin with some char but also provided a decent amount of something to bite into. I really liked it.

A charge of $3 for a glass of club soda seemed a bit much when the same person also ordered a fairly expensive glass of wine. For me this falls into the category "I understand why they make the charge but it would be nice if they didn't."

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With Barton in Glover Park and Chef T back at Mendocino and Miles Vaden at Eventide, who is running the show at Mendocino?

Christopher,

Thanks for your interest (I believe you meant to refer to Sonoma, not Mendocino as written above).

The news about our new Chef De Cuisine, Nicholas Sharpe, has been out there for about 4 months now, see Tom Seitsema's chat reference to it here back in April.

The early reception to Nick's cuisine has been very positive - his most recent stints were in NYC and DC with Fabbio Trabbochi as well as at Mio - and this background is evident in his approach to our italian-inspired, seasonal mid atlantic menu.

Thanks!

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We went to Sonoma Friday night we were meeting friends for a birthday later, but I wanted to get a bite to eat first. Although Opentable said they had no reservations at the time we were going we got seats at a communal table without a wait.

We ordered a bottle of Hook and Ladder and started with two cheeses a sheep (a special they had not on the menu because they ran out of the one I wanted, but subbed this for that one and it sounded good) and cows cheese we also had the pork rillette and sopresetta. It came with very crispy white toast and grilled foccacio bread. The foccacio was really good, the other was best with the creamy sheep's cheese and rillette. I really liked the sopresetta with the spicy mustard. I really liked the accompaniments and portion sizes and the amount of bread provided it was really a very nice board with an accompaniment for each cheese and meat.

I then had the black risotto with grilled squid. I have a feeling this is a Barton Seaver dish as it used to be on the menu at Hook and I loved it. I was so happy to see it here, because that was what I missed the most from Hook. The black risotto of course is cooked in ink and that gives it a bit of a briney salty taste, but still rich as risotto should be, then the grilled squid on top were light and perfectly cooked. I think there must be fresh lemon juice added on top because there was a nice hint of citrus to cut the richness and saltiness of the risotto. I love this dish. It reminds me of Barcelona. Hubby had the macheroni. The first one came out really salty, I tasted it and agreed that had to be an error. So he sent it back and they quickly replaced it with a fresh one that he said was very good (and I agreed it was much better) they were really nice about replacing the dish and I was so glad because Hubby really liked the new dish and when he goes someplace and has a bad experience it is hard to get him to go back, so I am really glad this went over well because I want to go back.

Our friends then stopped in and the lounge had been closed for a private event and they didn't open it back up when the event ended so they let us take over the communal table for drinks and dessert. I had a couple glasses of J 2007 which was lovely very light and crisp. I had the ice cream sampler for dessert and I really enjoyed the cherry ice cream which was more like vanilla with fresh cherries mixed in. They also had a pineapple that was very good, and a little cookie in each bowl. I was really impressed with the food and it wasn't a bad value I could get a starter and the small portion of pasta and be perfectly happy. They seemed to call last call a bit early, I guess because the lounge was closed, but we had all had plenty to drink anyway so it all worked out. I was really impressed they let us take over a table downstairs when they weren't opening the lounge. We were all happy not to have had to scramble and regroup and make all sorts of calls to re-route people.

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I went to Sonoma last week and enjoyed my meal there, although I don’t think it was anything out of the ordinary (in neither a good nor bad way). There were 8 of us in the party and we were easily able to score a table, through the phone, about an hour before our arrival. To start we shared a cheese plate (4 choices) and I thought it was great selection with particularly complimentary "accents". After the cheese, four of us ordered a bottle of the verdicchio, which I thought was a perfect summertime wine. I am not sure if it is the standard practice of the restaurant, but one of the most confusing parts of dining at Sonoma was that we didn’t seem to have a waiter assigned to us. One person introduced the specials, another took our orders, and another took our wine order and poured (in addition to others running food, busing the table and filling water glasses). All of them introduced themselves to the table in a "waiterly" manner, so we were all very confused who we should talk to and address during the meal. Having browsed this board previously, I was excited to try some of the seafood offerings from the chef. With that in mind, I ordered the roasted rainbow trout which was stunningly simple and matched the menu description perfectly. Although the menu does state "trout, summer squash, thyme, lemon" I was inadvertently expecting something more to appear on my plate than just a butterflied trout (cooked perfectly!) and 4 or 5 pieces of oddly cut squash with a lemon wedge and thyme. Visually, the plate looked incredibly empty. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to try any of the dishes my friends ordered, but both the gnocchi special and risotto looked amazing.

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I wish I could echo the recent praises for Sonoma, but I had a pretty mediocre experience there this weekend. I can't speak to the taste of the beef in the carpaccio because it was so drenched in mustard dressing and parmesan. And the bucatini with corn, peas, favas, and bottarga was, well, dull. And some of the veg in it tasted freezer-burned. My dining companion seemed fine with the mushroom burger, but it completely fell apart after a couple of bites, necessitating a knife and fork for most of it. The cheeses were good, but the accompaniments didn't really complement them that well, and the bread--crisp (not toasted) and yellow--was just kind of strange. And the bottle suggested by our server to go with the meal was pretty lifeless.

Eh. Dull.

Liked the bar and the bartender, though.

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I wish I could echo the recent praises for Sonoma, but I had a pretty mediocre experience there this weekend. I can't speak to the taste of the beef in the carpaccio because it was so drenched in mustard dressing and parmesan.

How weird. When we had it, there were thin Parmesan shavings layered with/over the beef, and the dressing was very artfully squeezed over the beef in thin ribbons. Everything was in nice proportion. It's too bad you got such a disappointing version :rolleyes:
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Chef Sharpe has been doing very good things at Sonoma. The fish dishes are uniformly excellent. Usually there is a fish special in addition to one or two menu staples. Right now the latter is trout, whose preparation and saucing can vary from week to week but which is always fresh tasting, tender, and interesting. (Another regular on the menu is arctic char, which is perfectly cooked but whose garnish of rabe is too bitter for my taste.) Recently the fish special was tilefish in a provencal preparation with tomatoes and artichokes. The seasoning was assertive but also brought out very well the freshness and quality of the fish. There is a roast chicken entree that I find myself ordering despite my reluctance to eat chicken in restaurants. A boneless, skin-on breast is seared on Sonoma's wood grill and served with a delicious and savory brioche stuffing, braised carrots, pan juices, and a confit of caramelized shallots. This is a delicious introduction to fall that makes me look forward to cooking for Thanksgiving, if that's even possible.

Sonoma also offers some inventive salads which do well for a light lunch and are always fresh and beautifully composed. The dessert menu is limited but good. But what has most impressed me recently is the consistency of the pizzas. The ingredients have always been good at Sonoma, but sometimes the execution has been lackluster (soggy crusts, runny toppings). Chef Sharpe seems to have overcome this problem, so that the few I've ordered recently have been lightly charred, chewy but crusty, and delicious in every way. Things are in good hands here.

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The fish dishes are uniformly excellent.

This is nice to know. It's not that often I'm eating seafood these days and haven't been to Sonoma in quite some time but chose to go there for my birthday tonight because I really wasn't in the mood for the multi-multi-course or giant portion thing. At least now I know I'm having fish. And I hear they have a couple of wines, too. :angry:

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This is nice to know. It's not that often I'm eating seafood these days and haven't been to Sonoma in quite some time but chose to go there for my birthday tonight because I really wasn't in the mood for the multi-multi-course or giant portion thing. At least now I know I'm having fish. And I hear they have a couple of wines, too. :angry:

Well, Happy Birthday!

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After pulling a twelve-hour day at the office on Monday and then coming home, making dinner, and suddenly having to handle a work emergency, I decided that Tuesday was going to go like this:

1. Punch out at 5.

2. Meet a friend for aperitifs.

3. Have a nice dinner out with DarthJim.

And lo! That's exactly what happened.

Despite Sonoma's location right at the top of Penn, I'd only been to the bar once for a happy hour), so since that's where I was meeting my friend, I figured I'd snag a table after. The original plan was just to wing it, but when I arrived at 5:45, the bar was mobbed with Hill-types (at least two Representatives and their assorted staffers), so as I waited, I used OpenTable on the iPhone to confirm a two-top at 7. (And people say smartphones are ruining society. Bah.)

I wasn't expecting anything revelatory; just something solid that didn't require me to turn on the stove. Quite honestly, Sonoma outperformed my expectations, at least a bit.

We started with the house-made burrata, chive, tomato jam, fried bread ($11). This is the one dish I'd tasted before, in fact, and it was better last night than the first time I had it, with one exception -- the burrata was served too cold. I would prefer my burrata be cool, of course, but as though it had been in les caves, rather than bearing a level of chill that brings to mind the refrigerator (even if it's never seen the inside of one). However, despite its temp, the burrata was delicious, flecked with chive, creamy and spreadable. Being just a bit warmer would have allowed it almost to melt into the crispy bread, but each bite, topped with a bit of the sweet/sour tomato jam, was still a lovely contrast of tastes and textures.

We also had the grilled calamari, paprika, red pea salad ($11). This was outstanding, my dish of the night. The calamari were charred just enough to impart a great smoky flavor, and retained just enough chew (but weren't chewy) to set off the tender peas. The peas themselves were infused with a different, but complementary, kind of smokiness from the paprika; eaten on their own, they were good, but taken together with the squid, the flavors dovetailed in unexpected ways.

DarthJim got the small portion of the pappardelle pork bolognese ($13), the noodles made in-house. I didn't try any, but it was a perfect size, sauced not too heavily but not too sparsely, and he finished every bite. I had the roasted rainbow trout, zucchini purée, zucchini, aleppo aioli, squash blossoms ($20) -- I seem to be on a trout kick. This presentation came as a lovely piece of skin-crisped fish, the flesh juicy and flavorful, next to a dollop of aioli, three lightly-fried squash blossoms, some sautéed zucchini coins (should have had a few more of these), and a bed of the purée. The last item had an odd bitterness to it when tasted by itself, but that flavor disappeared when paired with the sweetness of the fish and the buttery zucchini.

With a glass of the belle glos “oeil de perdrix” 08 pinot noir blanc (rosé) ($14) and a rye old fashioned ($8), the meal was complete, and quite a nice treat on a steamy summer Tuesday.

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Sonoma seems to have fallen on hard times.

The menu continues to have a few good things going for it. The problem is more with consistency. One day the roasted trout can be firm, moist, and delicious, another day tasting tired and lifeless with garnishes that seem impromptu and confused. Pizza is such an absolute crap shoot that I hardly order it anymore--one day fine, another day a flaccid soggy mess in the middle with as much area taken up by the outer crust as the rest of the pie. In the past Sonoma's menu was a good reflection of the seasons and a wide variety of interesting purveyors. Now it changes comparatively seldom except for the occasional pasta selection. (Currently the pappardelle with pork ragu are excellent.)

The 48-bottle Wine Keeper, arguably the raison d'etre of a place calling itself a wine bar, has been inoperative for months now, instead simply functioning as a refrigerated storage space for open bottles. When I asked why this is so, I was told that the owners simply don't see it as a priority right now. Prices haven't changed during that time, however; if anything, they've risen.

This neglect shows itself in other ways. The physical space looks frayed around the edges, especially in the bathrooms. Fruit flies around the bar are a constant nuisance. (Yes, I know this is seasonal, but I don't notice this at other places.)

I hate having to say this as an habitué of the place literally since day 1, but Sonoma has become a shadow of its former self.

ETA: I was just reminded of my 10/2009 post above. Alas, quite a different story now.

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Sonoma seems to have fallen on hard times.

The menu continues to have a few good things going for it, but one has to be much more selective than before. The problem is more with consistency. One day the roasted trout can be firm, moist, and delicious, another day tasting tired and lifeless with garnishes that seem impromptu and confused. Pizza is such an absolute crap shoot that I hardly order it anymore--one day fine, another day a flaccid soggy mess in the middle with as much area taken up by the outer crust as the rest of the pie. In the past Sonoma's menu was a good reflection of the seasons and a wide variety of interesting purveyors. Now it changes comparatively seldom except for the occasional pasta selection. (Currently the pappardelle with pork ragu are excellent.)

This is distressing to hear. I haven't been in a while and was planning to head there this weekend. Any suggestions other than the pappardelle?

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I'm happy to report that a friend and I had a good meal at Sonoma last night. The pappardelle pork bolognese was as delicious as reported above. The service was excellent, possibly the best service I've ever had at Sonoma. My friend was asking questions about the wine list and our server was quite knowledgeable and able to answer all her questions in detail.

We started with the chicken liver mousse, which is now served in a small enough portion that it can be finished by two people, without any going to waste. I loved the pickled onions or shallots (?) that came with it, and my friend polished off the cucumbers. She was pleased with the north carolina shrimp carolina gold rice grits, roman beans, saffron, baby squash that she had as an entree. The bit I sampled was quite good: spicy shrimp and creamy grits. I had a small plate of stracciatella cheese cherry tomatoes, arugula, grilled focaccia, as well as the pappardelle for my meal. The wonderfully creamy stracciatella provided a pleasant contrast to the peppery arugula. At first I couldn't locate the focaccia and then realized it was served as croutons in the salad :).

As to the fraying at the edges of the physical establishment, I noticed this somewhat, but it actually seemed to me that it gives more of a lived in, home-y feel to the place rather than being an absolute negative. It's not as bright and shiny and sleek as it once was, but last night it seemed like more of a neighborhood restaurant than it ever has before. The fruit flies i could have done without, though. They migrated to our table, which was near the bar. And, while I find it a bit excessive when restaurants keep replacing silverware compulsively every time a plate goes onto or leaves the table, it really would have been nice to have our silverware replaced last night between courses rather than having the dirty silverware removed from our plates and set back down on the table. I didn't really want to use the knife with chicken liver residue on it to cut my pappardelle. I don't consider this a service issue so much as a management one, since I presume the servers are all directed in when to replace cutlery. I wasn't really at the top of my game last night or I might have thought to request new silverware.

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Had a nice dinner on Friday night at the bar before seeing Colum McCann at the Folger.

Dinner started with the market salad (mixed baby greens, shaved radishes, sherry vinaigrette) and the house-made meatballs with creamy polenta. The salad was nice but rather expensive at $9 for a bowl of dressed greens. The meatballs were tasty and I wish there was more polenta with them, but that is a nit.

After sharing those we had the paccheri pasta (brown butter braised cauliflower, capers,lemon, parmesan pane frita), which surprisingly did not appear to have any cauliflower in it. I thought it was missing something, but did not ask to see the menu again. Anyway it was tasty so no complaints on that end. We also had the uovo pizza (fonduta, house-made bacon, sunnyside-up farm egg, arugula) which was one of the top pizzas I have eaten in a long time. Perfectly cooked, each ingredient tasted good individually, but were even better when combined. That is some damn good bacon!

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So now that Nicholas Sharpe is definitely out of the kitchen and at the new Vietnamese joint.. new captain at the helm? Any major changes on the menu?

I ate here five or six months ago- just wine and cheese, but all seemed to be humming smoothly. I'll be going back next week and wanted to know what to expect.

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Had dinner at Sonoma early this week. Though the flavors were good, I was turned off by the apparent lack of value. Having dined at Sonoma a few years ago, I remember eating excellent food and not leaving hungry. This week, I found portion sizes painfully small for the price paid.

I started with a small plate. It was the burrata with winter caponata crostini. As I ordered, I thought I'd eat it alone. Looking at the price, though, I figured it had to be split-able and decided I'd share with my wife. $12. I'm used to the size of the burrata 2Amys serves. That is plenty for more than one person and costs something in the $7 range. Also, the 'i' on 'crostini' suggested there would be more than one piece of bread. Turns out, this was a crostinO. One meager piece of bread. A paltry piece of burrata (looked like we received only half of a full burrata 'puck'). A healthy scoop of diced pumpkin and onions and pistachios (the caponata). Here, the flavors were excellent. The caponata was a smidge sweet, but the pumpkin did balance well with the sharp onion and the creamy cheese and the char on the bread. Despite the taste, I was disappointed to only get one bite of it all, as my wife had the second bite.

My main was the roasted trout with kale, molasses-glazed carrots, and smoky crushed potatoes. Again, flavors were a real hit. The trout had skin on both sides. It was edible and added good texture and mouthfeel to the dish. The carrots were nice enough. The potatoes were as described...smoky and crushed. A bit dried out, but still tasty. The kicker here, though, was that everything was pretty cold and light in size. I don't imagine the trout weighed more than 3 ounces (I guess 4 is probably standard, so maybe my serving wasn't so far off from being reasonable), there were three baby carrots on the plate, and the potatoes amounted to about four forkfuls. The $21 price tag isn't terribly high, but I probably only got about eight bites of food off the plate. It just struck me as so little.

My wife had the roasted chicken. I didn't try it. She reported decent tastes and inconsistently cooked chicken. In the car ride home, and totally unprompted, she remarked, "I can't believe how little food there was on my plate tonight." That plate cost $23.

I'll bookend this by saying we aren't huge folks. Combined weight of about 262 pounds. For a couple of lightweights to leave hungry after spending about $80 on dinner, you gotta figure portion size just wasn't adequate. As much as I'd like to eat the food at Sonoma again, I don't think I can stomach spending that much cash for so little product.

JFW

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Sonoma seems to have found its culinary feet again after Nick Sharpe's departure to Ba Bay. Today a new item was added to the menu, ricotta gnocchi with spring onion, bacon, and chilies. The small portion for $13 confirms what was said upthread, but the dish itself was truly remarkable. Chunky bits of house-made bacon were a wonderful textural contrast with pillowy gnocchi that could have come from Palena's kitchen, all highlighted by a decent kick of ground chilies. Chef Mike Bonk said spring onions were one of the first and only spring vegetables he's been able to find, so he decided to put this dish on the menu.On a gray and wet day, it was a delicious foretaste of a spring that seems never to arrive.

One of my favorite dishes here is meatballs and polenta, for 9 bucks. With one of the excellent salads that Sonoma has always had on their menu, it makes for a satisfying and relatively economical lunch.

But overall the prices, even more so for wine, are indeed high. I don't know what the rationale for this is, but I assume there is one (Hell, I go there!). At happy hour they can be slammed, at lunch as well, then on other days at the same times almost empty. The rhythm of the Hill, I suppose. But I don't like paying $16 for a glass of Sicilian red, especially from a wine preserver/cooler that still is not up and running.

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Thanks for the praise on the Gnocchi!

I just wanted to introduce myself to the board. I'm Michael E. Bonk I'm the Executive Chef at Sonoma Restaurant. I've been at Sonoma for 2 years now. I came to Sonoma as Nick Sharpe's Exec Sous. Nick is a close friend of mine and we previously worked together at Mio, West End Bistro, and Vidalia. After Nick's departure and a trial period I was officially named the Executive Chef a month ago.

I want to carry on Sonoma's tradition of offering the best, local, seasonal food that we can source. I personally have long standing friendships with several local co-ops/farms. These relationships are part of the reason I've chosen to live and work in Washington DC. (I'm originally from the Philly metro area)

My personal philosophy on food is that first and foremost I want to use the best ingredients I can find and support the local community of growers in the process. Second, I want to make food that is approachable, fun, and hopefully delicious.

I've read several posts on Don Rockwell, open-table, yelp, etc.. commenting on prices or portions and I assure you I take it all in consideration. I'm constantly changing/updating dishes based on the season, prices, portions, etc. If you've had a bad experience in the past I ask that you give us another try. I feel the restaurant as a whole (front and back of the house) has made some serious improvements over the last six months. I feel we have a long way to go but I'm very proud of what we have been able to do.

I'm also working on some special projects such as a series of farm dinners and a neighborhood pig roast.

Getting this job has been the most challenging and at the same time most rewarding experiences I've had in my life. So I thanks to all the people that got me here. You know who you are.

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I wanted to write a review about Sonoma and a great pizza I had there a few weeks ago, but I had so much wine I can't write a very thorough review, so suffice it to say, the pizza was the Ouvo- fonduta, bacon, sunny side up egg and arugula. It was not something I should have eaten, but oh it was good. And after the amount of wine I had that evening it was like the best munchie/been drinking pizza ever. It was gooey and crispy and just fantastic. And our server was so nice to us!

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I realized recently that I hadn't been to Sonoma--which used to be one of my favorite restaurants--in a couple years. I set out to remedy that last night. As I was walking over, it dawned on me that I hadn't checked to see if they were open, as they they used to close for vacation at some point during the summer. Then I remembered it was Restaurant Week, in which they usually participate, so they would surely be open. If memory serves me, I have eaten here off a non-RW menu during past promotions, so that was my plan. This time, though, they have only a RW menu, though one can order a la carte from those items. (Comparing the menus online, it's not all that abbreviated a menu.)

After hesitating for quite a while, I decided to order the 3 courses, sold on this in large measure by the dessert selections, all of which featured seasonal fruit in some way. Since I'm not a dessert person, this was a bit of an unexpected turn. Indeed, the dessert I ordered [goat cheesecake blackberry sauce, sea salt 8] was my favorite part of the meal.

Starting with the chef’s house-made charcuterie board [three charcuterie items with accents and bread 12 ] is something I often do here, as I have always especially loved their chicken liver mousse. It has changed over time and the portion has gotten smaller, but I've still always enjoyed it This time it was the smallest portion yet, though I assumed that was due to RW, seemingly confirmed by a much lower set price for this a la carte vs. the regular menu. The biggest problem, though, was that the mousse didn't taste like much of anything, which left me disappointed. The other two items on the board (no choice of selections for RW) were prosciutto, which came in a fairly ample portion and was just fine, and paté de campagne with pistachios, which was far more flavorful than the chicken mousse. The two pieces of bread (a focaccia type) were nicely grilled. The accompaniments included several pickled vegetable pieces, grainy mustard, and some pickled onions (or maybe shallots).

Often I will ask for extra bread with this but didn't this time around, as the amount of bread was adequate for the toppings. I noted with some interest, though, that when people seated near me who had ordered both charcuterie and cheese boards asked for more bread, they were brought out three pieces of what looked like melba toast or slices from the end of a baguette.

For my second course, I decided to maximize my Restaurant Week investment and ordered the second most expensive item available: local beef eggplant, roasted potatoes, sweet corn 25. A hearty chunk of sirloin was plated over roasted potatoes and eggplant puree and topped with delicious sweet corn kernels. The eggplant suffered the same fate as the chicken mousse: it didn't taste like anything. At first, I had trouble figuring out what it was. It was also a rather unappealing muddy brown. The corn provided the color to the plate and was the standout component. The beef came out a little on the rare side of the medium rare I requested and was hard to cut (though maybe some of that was the knife) and a little chewier than I would have liked. Overall, it was beefy and satisfying, though.

I was full at this point and the bartender (who provided helpful pleasant service all the way along) asked if I wanted the dessert to go. I was a bit surprised by this, as the menu specifically says that the RW menu is not available to-go. That's part of good service, though. It also wouldn't have made much sense to serve it to me, have me take one bite and then wrap it up. It traveled well and I subsequently enjoyed the cheesecake at home.

The inside of the restaurant looks fresher again. Everything is very grey but it gives a clean look. There were no fruit-flies and the wine taps appeared to be back in service. (I had a draft beer.)

If I could let go of how I felt about Sonoma years ago and enjoy what it offers now, I think I'd appreciate it more. I do miss that wonderful chicken liver paté, though...

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Things were so-so at Sonoma last night, but I'm optimistic about its future. I loved the charcuterie plate to start. San Danielle prosciutto, bresaola, mortadella, and salami were all nicely presented with a few slices of hearty bread and grainy mustard. The plate also came with something I had never had before, baby peaches marinated in truffles. Man, those were tasty. I gotta find a place to buy them.

We then had a good arugula and fennel salad with pecorino, lemon, and tuscan olive oil. We tried the grilled asparagus which tasted as though the grill could have used a good scrubbing as it was just too sooty.

Two pasta dishes came next. The wild boar sausage that came with the bucatini was dry and crumbly and the pesto sauce was rather bland. The most disappointing dish of the night was whole wheat spaghetti with Venetian anchovy sauce. I don't know where they were going with this. The "spaghetti" came in all sorts of uneven sizes, so it came out unevenly cooked. The sauce tasted like fishy pickle juice that had been thickened somehow.

For entrees we had a Sunnyside Farms ribeye which was delicious and cooked to a perfect medium rare. It came with a few wonderful poached garlic cloves and some roasted potatoes that were a bit overcooked. If I was to have this again, I'd ask for more garlic—they were tender and loaded with flavor. We also had the "red" pizza with scamorza and wild mushrooms. The crust on the outer part of the perimeter was golden and crispy, but the center was too mushy and watery. The sauce is good, but I think the mushrooms gave off too much water and caused the sogginess problem.

We ended the night with a well thought out selection of cheeses and had a tour of the restaurant with Eli—one of the owner managers. He told us that the bar would have a snazzy top soon, and the numerous shelves behind the bar and in the downstairs dining room would be filled with wine and olive oil bottles, and whatever else they come up with. Upstairs they're working on a lounge in the front and either a fine dining or private party area in the back. When it's all done, I think it will have a striking look.

I'll return in a couple of weeks to sit at the bar, peruse the full wine list (only a handful of bottles were available last night), and try a dish or two. I'm excited to have another sorely needed good restaurant to enjoy nearby and I'm certain that Sonoma will improve considerably as they iron out some wrinkles.

Thanks to hillvalley for letting us use your reservation!

[The #41 post in thread #105 (by Member #27) reminds me of how much community we used to have when this website opened. Forty posts salivating about a new Capitol Hill restaurant before it even opened its doors.

These were heady times, but then Facebook stepped in and led everyone away, all but eliminating the enthusiastic participation of our so-called "core membership." (Make no mistake - donrockwell.com never changed, except improving for the better.) Regardless, I payed homage to the first 41 posts in this thread by spending an hour or so going back and inserting hyperlinks to key words and phrases - it's a fun read. Hope you all enjoy it! They were, as they say, "the good old days" - days that are gone forever.

Cheers,

Rocks]

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An email just arrived saying that they've now started serving breakfast:

Sonoma Restaurant and Bar is excited to announce that we are now open for breakfast Monday through Friday from 7:30am until 10:30am.

On a semi-related tangent, way back when -- say, mid 80's -- I used to like to eat breakfast sometimes in what I'm pretty sure is now their upstairs lounge. There was a French restaurant there at the time, I believe, and the back of the upstairs space led out to the Capitol Hill Hotel (now the suites).

Does this sound familiar to anyone? It was much more expensive than Sherrill's, Pete's or the Bagel Bakery, but I found the space quiet and calming.

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An email just arrived saying that they've now started serving breakfast:

On a semi-related tangent, way back when -- say, mid 80's -- I used to like to eat breakfast sometimes in what I'm pretty sure is now their upstairs lounge. There was a French restaurant there at the time, I believe, and the back of the upstairs space led out to the Capitol Hill Hotel (now the suites).

Does this sound familiar to anyone? It was much more expensive than Sherrill's, Pete's or the Bagel Bakery, but I found the space quiet and calming.

Will be very interested to get some reports on this (Sonoma's new breakfast) given the still gaping hole that exists for decent morning fare with DC area restaurants beyond the hotels.

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It had been a long time between visits, so we headed to Sonoma for dinner last night.  It wasn't exactly a hit but wasn't really a miss either.  The food was overall quite good (with one obvious prep misstep) and the service attentive and responsive (with one odd gap*).  The atmosphere was festive (lively bar crowd), but the dining room is kept way too dark.  The room seemed oddly underpopulated for most of the time we were there, though it started to fill up more to what would seem like Thursday night levels after 8:30.

Not wanting to walk all the way over in the dark, I arrived much earlier than our reservation time.  As has happened in the past (and is a strong point in Sonoma's favor), the hostess offered to seat me anyway, even though the rest of my party wouldn't be arriving for 20 more minutes.  I had figured I'd wait at the bar, but it appeared full, so I took her up on the offer.  (Once I was seated, I could see there actually were a few spots at the far end of the bar.)  

Since I was taking up a table solo, I ordered cheese in addition to a beer.  They are running a promotion in honor of American Cheese Month, with a cheese flight for $15 (wine pairing is $18).  The cheeses are Humboldt Fog, Point Reyes Original Blue, and Grayson.  The Humboldt Fog was a decent- sized chunk, maybe about a 1 1/2" cube.  The others were closer to postage stamp size, which was a bit incongruous.  I didn't ask if there was a reason for that...since I'd already complained that the baguette slices that came with the board were stale.  Apparently all the bread for this is sliced in the morning :huh: .  The server offered to bring out foccacia instead and brought out two nice long slices.  They were a bit soft for this application (though good with the board's relishes/"accents") but preferable to stale bread.  My husband arrived while there was still cheese left and the variation in portion size proved felicitous, since he likes Humboldt Fog but not blue or more assertive tasting cheeses and I like them all.  Verdict:  Weak spot of the meal, but the cheeses were well-selected.

We then proceeded to order one small plate to share, one large plate each for main courses, and one side plate for me.  First up: house made meatballs parmesan polenta, mushrooms, san marzano tomatoes, bread crumbs 12.  These were packed into a large ramekin (can a ramekin be large?) and were quite tasty.  It was a little hard to get at the polenta underneath, so I guess we should have split it on plates instead of trying to eat it from the serving vessel.  Verdict: Would order again.

My husband got more polenta with his large plate:  grilled local sirloin corn polenta, corn and pepper relish, fried vidalia onions, vincotto 26.  He devoured everything but the last bit of polenta and was pleased with his steak and its doneness.  The bite I got was juicy and well-grilled.  I went with fish and got a generous portion of pan seared rainbow trout green beans, orzo pasta, mascarpone, lemon caper sauce 24.  I was concerned that the sauce might be too assertive but it was not.  The trout was extra crunchy, leading me to wonder if it had been breaded, but I couldn't tell visually.  This was a good combination plate, reminiscent of the one I've liked at Beuchert's down the street, and bigger, for roughly the same price.  We brought the remainder home, as well as the last of my side plate: fried brussels sprouts balsamic glaze 5.  Verdict:  All of these dishes boast quality ingredients, are a good value for the price, and I would gladly order what I had again; however, I would really have liked to see the food I was eating.  There's a level of dimness that promotes mood, and there's a level that reaches "I might as well be eating blindfolded."  They've hit blindfold territory, at least for me.

Before going to the restaurant, I had read the online menus (and, thank you, Sonoma, for having up-to-date menus online) and that is how I was able to order from the print menu.  I remembered the cheese special to order that and for the rest looked for the outlines of words that resembled what I had seen on the online menu and then confirmed with my husband that they were there.  He was having some trouble with it being too dark too, and his vision is much better than mine.  When I was first seated, I commented on the darkness to the hostess, who immediately brought over two more little candles.  It was a nice gesture but didn't make any difference.  When I commented on the dim lighting to our server, he offered to bring more candles over.  I declined, since the number of candles it would have taken for me to see would have left no room on the table for food.   On the positive sensory side, it's not too loud in the restaurant anymore  ;) .  

So, it was an overall good meal, but things didn't totally click.  It's hard to put my finger on exactly what was amiss.

*The service was solid, with prompt responses to any requests or even comments, except for a  puzzling period mid-meal when our servers completely disappeared.  

 

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Hey Rockwellers

I recently returned here as Executive Chef after a long hiatus. It is good to return to the neighborhood. Anyway, I wanted to let people know about an event that we are doing that is near & dear to my heart as my mother just recently passed away due to complications from Alzheimer's. Any support for this cause from the food community would be greatly appreciated.

http://act.alz.org/goto/Sonoma_Alzheimers_Fundraiser

Thanks

Drew Trautmann

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On 1/31/2020 at 4:29 PM, Drew Trautmann said:

Hey Rockwellers

I recently returned here as Executive Chef after a long hiatus. It is good to return to the neighborhood. Anyway, I wanted to let people know about an event that we are doing that is near & dear to my heart as my mother just recently passed away due to complications from Alzheimer's. Any support for this cause from the food community would be greatly appreciated.

http://act.alz.org/goto/Sonoma_Alzheimers_Fundraiser

Thanks

Drew Trautmann

Sorry to hear about your loss of your mother. Losing a mother is never, ever easy. You are in my thoughts.

That's also good to know you're back, too.

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