Auld Lang Cuisine

[saf]

On June 7, 2016 at 6:04 AM, DonRocks said:

They still had the "no right turn" signs in the Thomas Circle area - artifacts from the 1970's when people would take right turns to pick up street prostitutes (these signs may have actually lasted into the early aughts of this century, and many people had no idea what they were for).

Those went up in the 80s - the late 80s, I think. We were living at 15th and O in 1987, and they were very new then.

[DonRocks]

"#TBT: Why Patrick Clark's Culinary Legacy Still Matters" by Gary Duff on capitolfile-magazine.com

(For those of you who don't remember - I suspect a large majority - Patrick Clark was the 1994 James Beard Award winner for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic: one of the very first.)

I think this article is a nice thought, but it's nearly devoid of content, and not an appropriate tribute. It is, however, a cautionary tale about how quickly things are often forgotten.

[Mark Slater]

DC is not a big steak city; it's a big *chain* steak city. Other than Ray's the Steaks, what do we have? One local steakhouse does not a steak city make. 

Anyone remember the Golden Bull on L St.?

[DaveO]

10 minutes ago, Mark Slater said:

Anyone remember the Golden Bull on L St.?

I don't but am going to take a guess.  Was it a Blackie's restaurant?

[DonRocks]

38 minutes ago, Mark Slater said:

Anyone remember the Golden Bull on L St.?

I remember the Golden Bull in Adelphi.

Gaithersburg?

[pras]

10 hours ago, Mark Slater said:

Anyone remember the Golden Bull on L St.?

Gaithersburg still exists. 

[Mark Slater]

16 hours ago, DaveO said:

I don't but am going to take a guess.  Was it a Blackie's restaurant?

Not Blackie. It was near 16th and L.  

[DonRocks]

1 hour ago, Josh Radigan said:

Massive space, delayed opening which forces restaurants to spend cash that they don't have, a concept that has an above normal overhead costs in payroll, and a location off the path. It's tough to open restaurants in this day and age and with the world of Uber making it easier for people in the burbs to travel into the city, Clarendon has had its fare share of struggles in the last 12 months. Where Mister Days sits now used to be a brew pub, and I just can't remember the name but it started with Blue. That restaurant bubble is about to pop.

Blue and Gold, and that was my go-to spot for a burger and a beer around 2000.

[Josh Radigan]

Bingo! Your memory is far better than my Mr. Rockwell. That was when Clarendon started its boom. Now I am afraid the boom will be for another reason, minus those who are great restaurateurs and know how to run a business.

[DannyNoonan]

2 hours ago, Josh Radigan said:

Massive space, delayed opening which forces restaurants to spend cash that they don't have, a concept that has an above normal overhead costs in payroll, and a location off the path. It's tough to open restaurants in this day and age and with the world of Uber making it easier for people in the burbs to travel into the city, Clarendon has had its fare share of struggles in the last 12 months. Where Mister Days sits now used to be a brew pub, and I just can't remember the name but it started with Blue. That restaurant bubble is about to pop.

Blue & Gold is what that place was called. They used to sell 32 oz beers and an especially potent brew called Old Crankcase that tasted about as good as it sounds. Good times.

[dcs]

Fascinating interactive map of the Washingtonian's Very Best Restaurants from 1969 to present.

[Genevieve]

10 hours ago, dcs said:

Fascinating interactive map of the Washingtonian's Very Best Restaurants from 1969 to present.

This got me looking for my favorite long-lost Chinese restaurant, Hsian Foong in Arlington. It wasn't on the interactive map, but I found a WaPo review that mentioned my favorite dishes, sesame broccoli with cabbage and Hsian Foong chicken.

Mar 15, 1984 - "Cantonese Revival Hsian Foong" by Barbara Rothschild and Daniel Zwerdling on washingtonpost.com

[tenunda]

Though I was an early participant on this site, I have not been living in DC for nearly ten years now, and have not been back to this Board for a bit longer than that (holy growth, batman!).  I stop by now for a hint of nostalgia and to say hello to all the folks here.

I had an all-out full sensory dream last night about the $5 pork shoulder sandwich with green sauce ($8 if you added provolone and broccoli rabe) that Roberto Donna would make himself in Galileo's grill/laboratorio space a couple times of week in the mid-2000s.  To this day, it is the best sandwich I've ever had.  Better than any hamburger, any lobster roll, and French Dip, any of the legendary options at Darwin's in Cambridge, MA, or any at Furstenburg's Breadline.  Even better than DiNic's in Philly's venerated version.  Donna's bread was so flavorful and perfect-crumbed, and the green sauce so complimentary that I've never even thought about trying to re-create it despite such simple ingredients. 

I hope this blast from the past finds a few kindred folks here eager to reminisce about the explosion of DC's food scene around that time, even while we have so many great resources in Don's own Dining Guide to do just that. 

Cheers all, from the West Coast.

[lion]

Hi Tenunda and thanks for your nostalgic post. I also remember how wonderful Roberto Donna's pork shoulder sandwich with green sauce in Laboratorio space tasted especially after navigating the line that would snake around the dining room. Actually recall seeing Senator Mark Warner have lunch at a table and perhaps wondering why all these people were walking back to the kitchen. 

However your thread title reminds me more of my youth and my default favorite sandwich at Shackey's  Pizza Parlor in Tysons Corner. Their Steak and Cheese Sub was just a perfect combination of bread, thin grilled steak and cheese. I use to go there so frequently they knew my order especially my teenage age days working at the mall.

[DanielK]

Re-reading the Galileo Grill thread was a pleasure yesterday after a long day at work. Thanks for the memory tickler!

[Keithstg]

2 hours ago, DanielK said:

Re-reading the Galileo Grill thread was a pleasure yesterday after a long day at work. Thanks for the memory tickler!

A simpler time, to be sure. The Galileo III thread is also a fun read.

[DonRocks]

5 hours ago, Genevieve said:

I had my first taste of Cambodian food in a nice little Arlington restaurant around 30 years ago, but that place has sadly closed.

Apr 28, 1988 - "Review: The Cambodian Restaurant" by Joan Horwitt on washingtonpost.com

What a wonderful stroll down memory lane (even though I have no memory of this restaurant) - thank you for posting this. How do you find such things?

Remember Queen Bee? It wasn't all that long ago, but it seems like an entire generation. 

Whoops! I guess it *is* an entire generation! 

On 2/17/2017 at 1:25 PM, Genevieve said:

This got me looking for my favorite long-lost Chinese restaurant, Hsian Foong in Arlington. It wasn't on the interactive map, but I found a WaPo review that mentioned my favorite dishes, sesame broccoli with cabbage and Hsian Foong chicken.

Mar 15, 1984 - "Cantonese Revival Hsian Foong" by Barbara Rothschild and Daniel Zwerdling on washingtonpost.com

You've been around the block a few times, Genevieve!

[Genevieve]

I saw the Cambodian restaurant in the same Washingtonian interactive map that dcs posted.  Saw it earlier this year, forgot about it until someone just asked about Cambodian restaurants.

I grew up here, so my memory goes back a ways (though it's quite fallible). Hsian Foong was my favorite place for Chinese food in middle/high school.

I miss Queen Bee, but I miss Cafe Dalat more, since that's where my husband and I went regularly for years, pre- and post-kid.

 

[DonRocks]

1 hour ago, BookGuy said:

While I am feeling somewhat nostalgic about eating options in the Twin Towers, I remember when I moved to Rosslyn in the early 1980's, that complex had a restaurant called New York, New York which closed in a few years after I moved to Rosslyn.  Although I was young then and, therefore, had no basis for comparison, it reminded me of what a typical Manhattan eatery was like with a break menu of surf and surf, something like I imagined Toots Shor's or Jack Dempsey's must have been.  The closest that my fading memory can come to describing something similar would be Joe's, the Miami transplant on fifteenth street near the White House.

Tivoli was kind of old school.

[Kibbee Nayee]

2 hours ago, DonRocks said:

Tivoli was kind of old school.

I LOVED Tivoli. Tony was the waitstaff stalwart, and now serves the busy dining room at Lebanese Taverna Tysons Galleria. We underappreciate the really good waitstaff we have in this area, some of whom are reason for going there.

You, sir, are the lodestar of cofveve...!

[Mark Slater]

I worked at Tivoli for a few months. It was a quirky place. Tony hogged all the good tables. Every Saturday night, 2 tour buses would pull up full of cranky old folks. I got yelled at once because I couldnt bring Sanka coffee fast enough. Decaf brewed coffee was always regular coffee mixed with hot water. Tivoli was opened by the original F&B team at the Watergate Hotel.

[DaveO]

On 11/22/2014 at 4:18 PM, DonRocks said:

Does anyone remember a pizza parlor in Burke called Les Trois Continents?

You're not going to believe who owned it - I stumbled across that randomly, and my jaw dropped.

Here is more history concerning General Loan, the man in one of the most powerful and impactful photos from the war in Vietnam and the owner of the restaurant.

The facts behind the execution change the story rather dramatically.

The executed Vietcong officer had just led the murders of many people that day.  He was caught.  The Geneva Convention accepts the immediate type of execution captured in the photo.   The photographer always regretted the impact on the South Vietnamese General’s life.  

Today’s Washington Post includes an editorial by George Will describing the lessons learned and unlearned from Vietnam.  One paragraph covers this event.

That photograph was and remains remarkable.  It was an incredible symbol of the “wrongs” of the war.

Nobody at that period knew the executed Vietcong was a vicious heartless murderer.

History and its lessons are always valuable

[DonRocks]

1 hour ago, DaveO said:

That photograph was and remains remarkable. 

The timing of that photograph was perfect - after the trigger was pulled, but without much sign of carnage? Jeez.

There's a (graphic, but not gory) color video of the incident here (<--- appropriate warnings apply), which really shows how amazing the timing of that photograph was - it had to be taken at the precise millisecond. The video actually makes the incident look *less* cruel and violent.

(BTW, the article above says, "Lem's final expression is one of pain as the bullet rips through his head," but I suspect the sound of the gunshot and/or the force of impact caused the facial expression, more than any type of pain would have, as the brain has no pain receptors in it - moments of anxiety aside, that's about as easy a way to go as there is.)

Enjoy your meal.

[DonRocks]

I'm curious what people's earliest ultra-luxe fine dining memories are. I'm not talking just about sit-down restaurants, or even great restaurants, but fine-dining, white-tablecloth experiences that left an impression on you.

My first might have been Harvey's - "The Restaurant of the Presidents" in downtown DC - I was about 20, and I was nervous as hell.

I can pretty much do my early memories by city:

Cincinatti: The Maisonette
San Francisco: Ernie's

(The above two restaurants were 5-star/5-diamond rated in Mobil/AAA - this is long, long before Michelin left France, and these were about the only national ranking services there were.)

New York City: The Russian Tea Room
Baltimore: Tio Pepe's

[Kibbee Nayee]

2 hours ago, DonRocks said:

I'm curious what people's earliest ultra-luxe fine dining memories are. I'm not talking just about sit-down restaurants, or even great restaurants, but fine-dining, white-tablecloth experiences that left an impression on you.

My first might have been Harvey's - "The Restaurant of the Presidents" in downtown DC - I was about 20, and I was nervous as hell.

I can pretty much do my early memories by city:

Cincinatti: The Maisonette
San Francisco: Ernie's

(The above two restaurants were 5-star/5-diamond rated in Mobil/AAA - this is long, long before Michelin left France, and these were about the only national ranking services there were.)

New York City: The Russian Tea Room
Baltimore: Tio Pepe's
Bar Harbor: 

The Air Force landed me in the DC area in 1980, and my first fine dining experience here was Vincenzo's -- the Italian seafood restaurant in Adams Morgan. Maybe a notch below but quite excellent was New Orleans Emporium in Adams Morgan.

Growing up in Lancaster, PA, fine dining was scrapple WITH ketchup....but Haydn Zug's in East Petersburg was as good as it got.

[DaveO]

2 hours ago, DonRocks said:

I'm curious what people's earliest ultra-luxe fine dining memories are. I'm not talking just about sit-down restaurants, or even great restaurants, but fine-dining, white-tablecloth experiences that left an impression on you.

My first might have been Harvey's - "The Restaurant of the Presidents" in downtown DC - I was about 20, and I was nervous as hell.

I can pretty much do my early memories by city:

Cincinatti: The Maisonette
San Francisco: Ernie's

(The above two restaurants were 5-star/5-diamond rated in Mobil/AAA - this is long, long before Michelin left France, and these were about the only national ranking services there were.)

New York City: The Russian Tea Room
Baltimore: Tio Pepe's
Bar Harbor: 

This "sort of qualifies" (without very specific memories).  When I was very young my parents included the kids for some celebratory fancy dinner.  We dressed up.  The restaurant was some distance from the house and was in an attractive setting and seemed very fancy inside. I believe other extended family or possibly friends of my parents were at the meal.

What entirely stands out was that the meal included intermezzo, something so foreign and exotic to my experience.  A sorbet served mid meal.  How utterly fascinating and completely foreign to anything I had ever had at a dinner.  A palate cleanser.  Imagine that for some young little shmuck who liked hot dogs, hamburgers, Italian and Chinese American food. Ha ha.  It really stood out.   It was decades and decades before I had  intermezzo at dinner again.  But it sat in the back of my head for decades wondering where and how one experiences that.

[pras]

3 hours ago, DonRocks said:

I'm curious what people's earliest ultra-luxe fine dining memories are. I'm not talking just about sit-down restaurants, or even great restaurants, but fine-dining, white-tablecloth experiences that left an impression on you.

My first might have been Harvey's - "The Restaurant of the Presidents" in downtown DC - I was about 20, and I was nervous as hell.

I can pretty much do my early memories by city:

Cincinatti: The Maisonette
San Francisco: Ernie's

(The above two restaurants were 5-star/5-diamond rated in Mobil/AAA - this is long, long before Michelin left France, and these were about the only national ranking services there were.)

New York City: The Russian Tea Room
Baltimore: Tio Pepe's
Bar Harbor: 

For me the first memory I have of something special was brunch with my grandparents at Normandie Farm in Potomac.  I'm not really sure how old I was, but I certainly do have a foggy memory, which includes their famous popovers.

[Tweaked]

Growing up we didn't do much fine dining, but I remember one restaurant which was the "birthday place" and I remember always ordering the creme de menthe Grasshopper sundae for dessert.

 

[Mark Slater]

The first recollection of a really "nice" restaurant I can remember from youth was a spot in White Plains, NY called Patricia Murphy's. It was a large building, huge dining room with a lavishly landscaped and lit garden behind it. This was when White Plains was somewhat rural. It was only for special occasions and holidays. The signature was the waitresses circulating with enormous baskets of fresh pop-overs. There was a branch in Manhattan for many years, as well. 

[naxos]

51 minutes ago, Mark Slater said:

The first recollection of a really "nice" restaurant I can remember from youth was a spot in White Plains, NY called Patricia Murphy's. It was a large building, huge dining room with a lavishly landscaped and lit garden behind it. This was when White Plains was somewhat rural. It was only for special occasions and holidays. The signature was the waitresses circulating with enormous baskets of fresh pop-overs. There was a branch in Manhattan for many years, as well. 

I loved those popovers at Patricia Murphy's, although I think the one I visited more often was on Long Island - Manhassat maybe.

[seanvtaylor]

Growing up in rural NW Pennsylvania didn't provide a large number of fine-dining options, but when I was very young--maybe 6 or 7--I stayed with my aunt and uncle in Pittsburgh and they took me for lunch at the Top of the Triangle, at the top of the US Steel Building. It was the first restaurant with white tablecloths, waiters wearing ties, and of course an incredible view--it fit the definition of ultra-luxe in 1970s Pittsburgh, I think. I had a barbecue ham sandwich, and distinctly remember the sweet onion slices on the sandwich and the nicely sliced slivers of ham. It was several years before I visited another restaurant like that.

[dracisk]

Like @seanvtaylor my first fine dining memory involved dining high above a city as a child. We took the train (Amtrak, I think -- this was before the T commuter rail extended to Providence) with my grandparents from Rhode Island to Boston for lunch at the Top of the Hub, which is still open. The view is amazing. I'm not sure about the food, but I'm guessing not so much.

A few years later we ate at the Sun Dial while visiting my uncle in Atlanta. I guess my family liked eating on the top floors of skyscrapers.

[DonRocks]

21 minutes ago, dracisk said:

Like @seanvtaylor my first fine dining memory involved dining high above a city as a child. We took the train (Amtrak, I think -- this was before the T commuter rail extended to Providence) with my grandparents from Rhode Island to Boston for lunch at the Top of the Hub, which is still open. The view is amazing. I'm not sure about the food, but I'm guessing not so much.

A few years later we ate at the Sun Dial while visiting my uncle in Atlanta. I guess my family liked eating on the top floors of skyscrapers.

When I was in graduate school, I lobbied to have our Spring Formal at Peachtree Plaza - at the time, it was the tallest hotel south of NYC. It was "fine," but I wish the other person had spoken up more loudly: He wanted to have it at Litchfield.

[jpbloom]

5 hours ago, Mark Slater said:

The first recollection of a really "nice" restaurant I can remember from youth was a spot in White Plains, NY called Patricia Murphy's. It was a large building, huge dining room with a lavishly landscaped and lit garden behind it. This was when White Plains was somewhat rural. It was only for special occasions and holidays. The signature was the waitresses circulating with enormous baskets of fresh pop-overs. There was a branch in Manhattan for many years, as well. 

Patricia Murphy's was my first "fine dining" experience.  We had moved from Yonkers to Rockland County in 1962 (talk about rural) but went to Patricia Murphy's once a year in the mid '60s for a "special" dinner.

I moved to DC in 1978 for law school.  My first real fine dining experience (and the first time I spent over $100 for a couple for dinner) was at Cantina D'Italia, which I definitely could not afford.  I still remember that meal (and my date, who has been my wife for over 35 years).

 

[Mark Slater]

9 minutes ago, jpbloom said:

Patricia Murphy's was my first "fine dining" experience.  We had moved from Yonkers to Rockland County in 1962 (talk about rural) but went to Patricia Murphy's once a year in the mid '60s for a "special" dinner.

I moved to DC in 1978 for law school.  My first real fine dining experience (and the first time I spent over $100 for a couple for dinner) was at Cantina D'Italia, which I definitely could not afford.  I still remember that meal (and my date, who has been my wife for over 35 years).

I spent my early to middle teens in Mount Vernon. In those days, you could actually see the Empire State Building from Fleetwood. 

[seanvtaylor]

2 hours ago, dracisk said:

Like @seanvtaylor my first fine dining memory involved dining high above a city as a child. We took the train (Amtrak, I think -- this was before the T commuter rail extended to Providence) with my grandparents from Rhode Island to Boston for lunch at the Top of the Hub, which is still open. The view is amazing. I'm not sure about the food, but I'm guessing not so much.

A few years later we ate at the Sun Dial while visiting my uncle in Atlanta. I guess my family liked eating on the top floors of skyscrapers.

I had a business dinner at the Top of the Hub about 6/7 years ago, and the dining was unremarkable (as was the view, unfortunately, on a hazy night). In fact, and unfortunately, I'd completely forgotten about it until I saw your post!

[MarkS]

19 hours ago, pras said:

My first might have been Harvey's - "The Restaurant of the Presidents" in downtown DC - I was about 20, and I was nervous as hell.

Harvey's was the 1st restaurant I ate at when I moved down here in 1983.  I was on an expense account while moving.  Their menu had the term "Free Bar Pour" for their drinks.  When I ordered a Vodka and tonic, I was brought a glass full of Vodka and a bottle of tonic.

[dwt]

21 hours ago, pras said:

For me the first memory I have of something special was brunch with my grandparents at Normandie Farm in Potomac.  I'm not really sure how old I was, but I certainly do have a foggy memory, which includes their famous popovers.

I was struggling to remember the name until I saw your post. My parents and a classmate celebrated my 16th birthday with dinner at Normandie Farm. It surely qualifies as my first fine dining experience.

[saf]

On 2/21/2019 at 10:39 AM, DonRocks said:

I'm curious what people's earliest ultra-luxe fine dining memories are. I'm not talking just about sit-down restaurants, or even great restaurants, but fine-dining, white-tablecloth experiences that left an impression on you.

Pierce's, Elmira NY, now long gone.

My grandfather and his wife took me, along with my second sister, there when we were about 10, I think. Our first experience with fine dining, and our favorite thing was the dessert cart!

[DIShGo]

In 1982, when I was a senior in high school, my school dance team won first place in the state competition in Chicago. To celebrate, we dined in the restaurant atop the John Hancock Center. It was the fanciest place most of us had been to at the time--we were from a small town in the southern part of the state with very limited dining options. I have fond memories of that wonderful experience, shared with my closest childhood friends and our moms.

[weezy]

My mother grew up far in the mountains of NC, and went into the Army as a nurse.  Being exposed to a much more cosmopolitan life, she educated herself via Vanderbilt's Book of Etiquette, and then made sure her children never suffered embarrassments of not knowing which fork to use, etc.,  so my siblings and I grew up with proper place settings at each meal,  cups with saucers, cloth napkins for the most part, and other such things.  My folks were also members of a golf club and 3-4 times a year, they would take us to dinner at the club, and while it was not "fine dining" in the strictest sense, it was definitely formal dining.   I remember the wait/kitchen staff being very kind to prepare "rainbow parfaits" of sherbet for dessert for our good behavior at the table during dinner.

[Pat]

When I was young (single and low double digits) growing up in PA, there were two fancy places we'd go. (I'll call them "fancy" instead of fine dining.) One was the Newtown Squire, usually abbreviated to "The Squire," which was in our town and not to be confused with the diner of a similar name the next town over, and the other was the Drexelbrook Inn, which was a kind of country club-ish place available to people who lived in the development where my grandparents rented a townhouse. My memories of the latter are much dimmer than of the former; we went there rarely and I was very young. That is now a Holiday Inn with a lavish catering and events center. Back in the 50s and 60s, the development was considered pretty swanky. I was going to mention the family lore about how both Dick Clark and Ed McMahon lived up the big hill across the street from my grandparents at one point, but I see this article has already mentioned it, though they left out my grandparents. This place had a different kind of air about it than The Squire, which was refined but not exclusive* in the same way. It may sound odd, but even at a very young age I could feel the exclusivity at Drexelbrook.

The Squire was where people went for special occasions, not just my family but other people we knew, our neighbors. I can't recall what I ate at The Squire, but I think it was mostly steak, potatoes, and shrimp cocktail. My parents would always let me order whatever I wanted when we went out, which was pretty special, come to think of it, especially since I gravitated to the most expensive items on the menu. I also recall being allowed to order for myself, directly communicating with the waiter. It may have changed later, but in my early memories, they only had waiters. (The cheaper family Italian place we went to had only waitresses. I recall finding it odd that the fancy places had all waiters and not waitresses.) Vintage postcard of The Squire via Amazon.

*It's also a pretty safe bet that if there were non-white people at either of these places they were employees, not customers.

[cocoagirl]

I have never forgotten having dinner in Savannah and they brought out sherbet as palate cleanser- a first for me.

Not a fine dining experience but my mom and I loved the lunch rooms of the old department stores, especially Neiman's, Marshall Fields, Forty Carrots in Bloomingdales and  lastly the Birdcage in Lord and Taylors where we ate lunch at least twice a month from when I was probably about 8 through my early fifties.  In the early days it was a prix fix menu and it always came with a dessert from the dessert cart.  My brother being a boy got 2! 

[Peachyboy1]

I was 21 and in OCS at Newport, RI.  As officer candidates we were eligible to use the Officers' Club.  Not just any Officers' Club, this was the one across the street from the Naval War College.  Thick with Captains and Admirals.  The saying in the Navy is the only thing lower than an Ensign is whale poop, and that is at the bottom of the ocean.  Well, OCs are apparently somewhere between ensigns and whale poop, but there I was at one of the Navy's poshest clubs, perhaps with admirals.  (We had to be in uniform, but real officers could wear civvies there,   so I rarely knew the rank of the guy at the next table.) Almost literally straight off the farm in Minnesota, I was unfamiliar with seafood aside from Mrs. Paul's and the freshwater fish from our local lakes.  But in Newport I had my first shrimp cocktail and my first steamed clams.  (I fell in love.)  The waitstaff treated us larval-stage officers with all the courtesy they showed senior officers.  I'm sure I made lots of naive choices and asked stupid questions ("And for wine, could I have a nice little bordello, please?").  It's a lovely memory.

[Keithstg]

As the topic states, what DC restaurant would you most like to see return? Jessica Sidman tweeted this question recently and I find the answers fascinating.

For me there are two at the top of the list:

1. Citronelle

2. Palena

Honorable Mention: Nectar

---

[Edit - Here's a built-in, 13-year-long, running answer with 500 replies and 50,000 views. DR]

[curiouskitkatt]

14 minutes ago, Keithstg said:

As the topic states, what DC restaurant would you most like to see return? Jessica Sidman tweeted this question recently and I find the answers fascinating.

For me there are two at the top of the list:

1. Citronelle

2. Palena

Honorable Mention: Nectar

[DonRocks]

Off the top of my head, if I had to pick three (not including Sammy's Villa or Palena) -

1. Le Lion d'Or

2. Dining Room at Ritz-Carlton, Pentagon City (under Gerard Pangaud)

3. Nino's

[dracisk]

My response to Jessica's tweet was (Ray's) The Classics. Such a loss for Silver Spring (and the area)!

[dcs]

Vincenzo @ 20th and Q streets.

[Kibbee Nayee]

3 hours ago, dcs said:

Vincenzo @ 20th and Q streets.

Yes, Vincenzo was amazing Italian seafood. At one time heralded as the best seafood restaurant and best Italian restaurant -- both -- within many miles.

I also miss New Orleans Emporium in Adams Morgan. Spot on creole food, as is you walked through the door and entered New Orleans. Blackened lamb chops were perfection on a plate. Upstairs at the bar, oyster shooters before they were cool and "cajun popcorn" (battered and fried crawfish tails) with Dixie Beer were how you started.