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Suna, Eastern Market - Chef Johnny Spero comes from Komi and Town House - Closed


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I never got a follow-up email, so that's a really bad sign. am so disappointed if indeed it is sold out- which very well may be the case. I emailed as soon as I saw it on this board, but not sure how long after it was announced. If anyone with a reservation has to cancel, please consider your fellow members of this board before you throw it back to the restaurant.

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This is an actual bargain. The Beard dinner I referenced above was $300 prix fixe + tax + tip IN 2003! This is slightly more than half of it ten years later.

Of course the economy is a "bit" different today from ten years ago, too.

And, as someone who just retired, dinners like this will be fewer and further in between.

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So! I have a reservation for two at 6 pm for the collaboration dinner, and my girlfriend now unfortunately has a work event that evening that she cannot cancel. I'm still planning to go, of course, so if anyone is interested in this dinner and doesn't mind sharing a table with a mid-thirties lawyer from the Pacific Northwest, please send me a message in the next few days.

Otherwise, I'm going to call the restaurant over the weekend and make mine a reservation for one, and see if I can be seated at the counter overlooking the kitchen so I don't take up a table on my own.

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I had a birthday dinner here last night that was outstanding. The food, the service, the atmosphere... what a wonderful place to have a meal. We all scraped our plates.

The dishes have been described and photographed above, so I won't give you the run-down, but good lord did we enjoy them. Generally, the food is highly refined, modern and beautiful without resorting to whimsy or cuteness and still retaining a natural earthiness/rusticity -- a very challenging chord to strike. The shocking green granita melting over the butter with the beet dish, the smoked eggplant sauce painted on the mackerel plate, the incredible texture of the ice cream... even as I write this, I am thinking about my next meal there.

The atmosphere strikes a similar balance -- comfortable veering towards casual, but certainly not informal. It's a bit like a more elegant Little Serow, with much more focus on pacing and orchestration of service... and no sun dresses.

It's hard for me to imagine you're gonna be able to get a reservation, or pay just $78 for 8 courses, at Suna for long. So go now.

Alex

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First of all, Alex- thanks for a beautiful description of your meal at Suna. It would have enticed me back for a return visit, had I not already been scheduled for one.

I attended the chef's collaborative dinner with John Shields from Townhouse, Bryan Voltaggio from Volt,Range & Family Meal, Michael Voltaggio from Ink, and Alex Talbot from Ideas in Food, along with Suna's executive chef, Johnny Spero. Wow. Sometimes you need a little help from your friends and Chef Spero is fortunate to have some talented friends to help shed light on this gem of a restaurant.

I was blown away by general manager/sommelier Sean Alves, who welcomed me back and mentioned they would be serving a wine I had enjoyed on my first visit. What a wonderful way to make a guest feel special.

Each and every one of the ten courses was a work of art and a taste sensation. I will write more when I'm not feeling the effects of the wine quite as much.

I had a brief conversation with Sean about the postings on this board and he expressed his deep appreciation for the support of this community. I strongly encourage anyone who hasn't yet visited Suna to get there as soon as you can.

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All five of the mains last night were absolutely outstanding, but I think John Shields's Dungeness crab and chicken drippings and Michael Voltaggio's egg yolk gnocchi and beef tendon edge ahead by a nose.

And then Chef Spero's pork, kale, and daikon (fantastic beer pairing) and Bryan Voltaggio's hunter-style rabbit, with Alex Talbot's bolognese just a tiny bit behind them.

Everything was superlative, though.

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Rabbit. Hunter Style. The seventh course of ten during last night's memorable guest-chef dinner. This course was one of Chef Bryan Voltaggio's courses (the other being striped bass with Old Salt clams and beets). But the keen eyes amongst us will surely recognize in the ballotine the creativity of another guest at work in the kitchen last night.

Bravo to all involved; I hope you all enjoyed yourselves as much as we enjoyed ourselves.

post-46-0-45321700-1358483941_thumb.jpg

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I think Lotus125's writings described our experience at Suna quite well. It was a very enjoyable night, everything was quite special, and it clearly has the potential to be one of the best restaurants in the city.

The only additional comments would be in regards to seasonability of the dishes. Somehow the progression of dishes overall didn't fall well with the time of the year. Individually they worked quite well.

I've probably used this before as an example of seasonability and taste, but I was reminded of a review of a place in Japan that I want to visit in the future. This review, http://chriseatskyoto.blogspot.com/2008/12/kichisen-kaiseki-dinner.html, does a good job of encapsulating http://www.kichisen-kyoto.com/en/.

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Had a nice dinner here on Saturday evening. The restaurant shows great potential but we didn't think it could compete with the best of DC yet.

Here is a very quick review:

Space - I like the space a lot. Brick, hardwoods, comfortable chairs. Only issue is that the room is freezing. Every time the front door opened (which was down a flight of stairs and down a long hallway) the warmth of the room was drawn out, making the room rather cold and uncomfortable. I hope they can fix this issue with some draperies or something.

Service - Serivce was quite good. Waiters were attentive, water refilled often and quickly, servers friendly and gave good explanations of the food and wine. Our only issue was that the tables are close together, and when the server was pouring wine at the table next to us, we always got a face full of butt.

Clientele - Clearly this is where the young professionals go for a nice night out. Nearly everyone was in their 20s and 30s.

Food - The presentations are beautiful. These were among the nicest plates of food i've seen in a long time (probably since my wineing and dining Michelin starred places in Spain). Beautiful presentations with nice plates. Standouts were the dashi custard with delicious sweet scallops and the "root vegetable" which was a salad with beets, some candied, some roasted. The deserts were rather good - we both particularly enjoyed the hibiscus dessert which was primarily a sesame bark/hardened foam/candy type concotion which was rather delicious. Overall, the food was good, though we both noted that portions were rather small and not particularly filling.

Wine - We had the pairings with out dinner. We had the four course meals so the pairing was we though was a reasonable $28 per person. It included three glasses of wine/beer.

Overall, this restaurant has potential. We will probably revisit later in the year to see how it has matured.

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I took my husband to Suna for his birthday last week and sat at the kitchen bar where we talked with the chef throughout the meal. We each had a different 4 course menu with the wine pairing. Both of us thought the portions were correct -- neither of us was hungry afterwards. The plating is very pretty.

Others have written about the root vegetables and the dashi, so I will be brief.

My take- away a week later is that this is satisfying and deeply- flavored food --and I look forward to going back in the Spring, the Summer and the Fall.

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We went on Saturday night. It was great and at times verged on truly outstanding. Service was decent - kind of got off to a slightly rough start but settled down after that. The food is very ambitious both in concept and presentation and most of the time they pull it off. The Dashi custard and scallop dish may be the single best thing I have eaten in about two years - stunning depth of flavor. Beets and carrots were excellent, as was the squab. The pork and kale dish was probably the weakest of the night. Desserts were also great - the chocolate orange one in particular just floored me.

Beautiful space - at times the music (Grizzly Bear :) ) verged on a teeny bit too loud. The dishes on which the food is served deserve their own mention - mini rustic works of art. I would love to go back asap but am wondering how much the menu changes. While I would eat the dashi custard for brekfast lunch and dinner I would definitely like to try other offerings from the litchen. Maybe as spring arrives there will be more changes.

The speakeasy next door is pretentious - we rolled out of Suna at 11pm in a great mood after such a wonderful meal, walked into the speakeasy which was practically EMPTY and were told we couldn't be seated until 11.45 - whatever - I guess they don't need my money.

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Sietsema just tweeted that Suna is closing on Saturday. I assume he meant for good. That's shocking, given how well-received it's been.

Well, that's depressing. I was very much looking forward to returning for the spring menu.

I recently enjoyed a great dinner at Elisir and thought that the food really expressed the passion of the chef. A few days later, they announced the decision to change their format. Not to say that the new restaurant can't be great, but it doesn't sound like what Enzo really wants to do.

I really admired how Suna was trying to do something different, but it looks like the market didn't reward that. A real shame.

I hope that Chef Spero and his team soon land somewhere good. Bonne chance.

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This makes me so so sad. I can't believe they couldn't hang on just a little longer, I think in time this spot would have been a destination.. I hope it resurfaces somewhere and I hope something else takes over the beautiful space.

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Holy sh*t!!

Cannot believe this - SO SO glad we got to try it at least once. One thing I observed but neglected to mention in my post was that it did not seem overly busy for a Saturday night - our reservations were for 8.45 and there were empty tables the whole time we were there - I would hazard a guess that it was about 60% full

This is a huge loss for DC - these guys were really shooting for the stars

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Really a shame, I really enjoyed the one time that I went and looked forward to going again sometime this month.

Echoing above, I went on a Thursday night a few weeks ago around 7:30pm with a +1 and only 2 other small tables were populated during our entire stay (we left for the speakeasy rez around 9:45). I hope the decision wasn't due to not being able to await for more press coverage / public awareness to fill tables.

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I'm devastated. Was planning on going next Saturday for the first time, for my birthday. I should just stop planning big birthday dinners. I also had reservations at Teatro Goldoni's chef's table the week Enzo left. Ended up stuck with a tasting menu of 9 pastas and 5 desserts or something along those lines.

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Well that sucks. I'd like to thank them for the great experience I had there, and the 2 bottles of Rivesalte Ambre in my cellar that I would never have heard of if not for GM Sean Alves. Good luck in your future ventures.

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Did they know that the Post was about to publish a review? Wouldn't that bring a influx of people?

One wonders why a restaurant of Suna's high calibre had to try to wait it out for over four months for Post review. A real shame.

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One wonders why a restaurant of Suna's high calibre had to try to wait it out for over four months for Post review. A real shame.

It's a very poor business plan to wait for press coverage to fill your empty dining room. I happen to know of a very well-regarded food website with a huge readership that accepts advertisements. ;)

I was hosting a birthday party two weekends ago and tried to book a table at Suna for our party of eight but was told they would have to split us up into two tables. I didn't like that idea, so our four-digit check went to Palena Cafe instead.

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you know what? I'm pissed. I am not saying they are remotely the same thing, and I am not claiming I did my part, as I don't have the finances to be a regular at either, but with this and PS7, I say Fuck YOU DC, enjoy applebees.

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One wonders why a restaurant of Suna's high calibre had to try to wait it out for over four months for Post review. A real shame.

Under the old calculations for these things, I wouldn't have thought of four months as being horribly long to do the three plus visits it might take to review and publish said review. Now everything is so instantaneous, I guess ordinary time seems long. That's also not taking into account travel and whatever other things Tom was doing in the same time frame (including moving from Logan Circle to a new home).

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I'm a huge advocate of the DC dining scene (although currently live in NYC). I never dined at Suna but thinking more big picture as opposed to Post review-like factors. Suna charged $48 for 4 courses and $76 for 8 (don't quote me on that). That's expensive IMHO. Friends of mine who ate there said they left hungry after the 4 course meal. The restaurant is above a comfort food restaurant that charges $20 for a bowl of pasta. I understand trying to push the envelope, but I don't think this was the right neighborhood for this restaurant. Capitol Hill is a late 20s, early 30s neighborhoody crowd. I know the restaurant was trying to be a little more hipster and this wouldn't have worked on H Street either. A restaurant like Suna needs to be downtown where they can charge more for both 4 and 8 course meals and get the clientele who are willing to pay it. The restaurant never had more then 4 tables at a time most days. Just a bad business decision.

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I'm a huge advocate of the DC dining scene (although currently live in NYC). I never dined at Suna but thinking more big picture as opposed to Post review-like factors. Suna charged $48 for 4 courses and $76 for 8 (don't quote me on that). That's expensive IMHO. Friends of mine who ate there said they left hungry after the 4 course meal. The restaurant is above a comfort food restaurant that charges $20 for a bowl of pasta. I understand trying to push the envelope, but I don't think this was the right neighborhood for this restaurant. Capitol Hill is a late 20s, early 30s neighborhoody crowd. I know the restaurant was trying to be a little more hipster and this wouldn't have worked on H Street either. A restaurant like Suna needs to be downtown where they can charge more for both 4 and 8 course meals and get the clientele who are willing to pay it. The restaurant never had more then 4 tables at a time most days. Just a bad business decision.

This is why we can't have nice things.

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I'm a huge advocate of the DC dining scene (although currently live in NYC). I never dined at Suna but thinking more big picture as opposed to Post review-like factors. Suna charged $48 for 4 courses and $76 for 8 (don't quote me on that). That's expensive IMHO. Friends of mine who ate there said they left hungry after the 4 course meal. The restaurant is above a comfort food restaurant that charges $20 for a bowl of pasta. I understand trying to push the envelope, but I don't think this was the right neighborhood for this restaurant. Capitol Hill is a late 20s, early 30s neighborhoody crowd. I know the restaurant was trying to be a little more hipster and this wouldn't have worked on H Street either. A restaurant like Suna needs to be downtown where they can charge more for both 4 and 8 course meals and get the clientele who are willing to pay it. The restaurant never had more then 4 tables at a time most days. Just a bad business decision.

Perhaps an extremely insightful post: would Suna have done better, much better, say if it was a block off of Connecticut Avenue? I am guessing that sometimes cutting edge is equally dependent on what is served, what is written and the neighborhood outside the door. For thirty years I entertained on business and for many of those nights a steak house was where I felt "safe" in taking my clients and out of town friends. Some of them allowed a dinner that was more than just...steak. This often meant Italian and Roberto delivered big time on this as did Fabio. French fit into this, too, but all of these were familiar.

All of these were also downtown or Tyson's (when Maestro was there-and usually they were staying there).

Over the years I've entertained at a lot of restaurants in D. C. But almost without exception everyone was in downtown proper. Suna's location did not encourage this. I also understand that an $85 prix fixe might be $110 or more off of PA Avenue. Komi might even be $175 if it were a few blocks west and a block or two south. On Connecticut or, say, 21st and L. Unfortunately, for the kind of menu that Suna was attempting the audience may need to have included a few who were being entertained.

Business dinners are foundational for many restaurants. It is possible that location matters as much as the review.

Seventh and C streets, southeast.

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Very disappointing; I was planning to go there for my birthday. The comments on the slowness of Sietsema's review strike me as ironic, since very often he gets criticized for printing a review too soon (though it never got a "First Bite," like many other restaurants that were later reviewed). Did Kliman give it any notice, either? Was the location a problem? Well, Acqua Al 2 regularly gets power players--I saw Madeleine Albright there one night--as does Montmartre, less than a block away, so the location is just fine for grabbing politicos. Certainly the signage didn't help them; it was hard to tell the place was there. Since Spero is being very circumspect, I suspect an impatient financier who pulled funds prematurely.

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I thought Suna was EXTREMELY good value. Your mileage obviously varies.

This is also a discussion of whether or not D. C. will support a creative restaurant like Suna. I am suggesting that we do not know because the location was questionable.

I am thinking of all of the destination restaurants I have been to in my life. I can start with Roses and San Celoni, Spain and continue to Baiersbronn, Germany or even one of my favorite restaurants on earth, Fore Street, in Portland, Maine when nobody-not even the locals-went into Old Port when it opened.

They all needed more than four months.

I'm not trying to be critical but there are going to be some value judgments made by some in the industry that D. C. will not support a restaurant like this. I am suggesting that it will. But if the restaurant is going to open in a marginal-at best-neighborhood it is going to need funding to support an operation for an extended period of time while the destination is created and confirmed. I am suggesting it is "safer" to open in a more traditional neighborhood much closer to downtown.

Failing this there has to be an article, a television show-there must be some kind of "spin" to tell people that it is there. Perhaps just a successful publicist given to hyperbole. Or a cable channel. But somebody has to tell the world about it. And remind them from time to time. They are not just going to walk by.

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Please please please, all of you give respect to those who are there and have put their souls into Suna. Stop speculating on the whys and morn the loss.

I think the sheer number of posts is indicative of mourning the loss. I agree that speculating on "why" is wrong, but it shows that people care. I've never been prouder of our community than I am from today's posts in this thread.

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