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Terasol, Alan Moin's Artisan Gallery and French Cafe in Upper NW - Chef Hector Guerra comes from The Caucus Room - Closed


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After Jake's American Grille was quoting a 30-40 minute wait Saturday night with standing room only at the crowded bar, we hopped next door and had a very pleasant dinner at Terasol.

Apparently Terasol was a short lived venture in Chevy Chase Arcade and after a two year search has re-opened at 5010 Connecticut Avenue (across the street from Politics and Prose). The front third of the space is an artisan gallery, selling locally produced pottery, jewelry, paintings photography, etc. The back two-thirds is a cafe serving up French bistro classics - onion soup, pate, quiches, ratatouille, boeuf bourguignon, roast chicken, to name a few dishes.

The pate plate was two healthy slabs with a small pile of dressed greens, some sliced cornichons, and a little pot of grainy mustard.

The quiche was light, fluffy, and quivering.

The rataouille, served up in a medium sized souffle bowl, was luscious.

Overall, the food made a very good first impression, perfect for a light lunch or dinner. Service was friendly and well meaning but a little hectic and confused.

Open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

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We live nearby and have passed this little restaurant hundreds of times and each time we remind ourselves to try it. So this morning when it occurred to us that we should go for a leisurely brunch ahead of the Frankenstorm we remembered to give Terasol a try. Overall, we are very happy we did and plan to return.

12:30 pm and the place is about 1/3 full. Reasonably priced, French cafe style menu with a few specials all of which we were told were "very good". All of the food coming out of the kitchen looked very pretty. The three waiters on duty were friendly and efficient.

To start I had the special lentil soup and my husband had the French Onion soup. The onion soup was the clear winner of the two. The onion soup was a classic preparation and with the right amount of browned, crusty cheese to gooey cheese ratio. The lentil was good, but was eerily similar to the Progresso version, which isn't a bad thing per se, but they did describe it as homemade. They also had a roasted chicken and vegetable soup on the menu as well as a creme of asparagus on special. I think next time I would try the roasted chicken and vegetable soup.

Soups came out with warm slices of French bread and butter. Kudos to the warm bread but I have a real issue with ice cold butter. I don't understand why it can't come out room temperature when you take the time and effort to serve warm bread. Bread was above average restaurant variety but not as good as some of the bigger name local French places are serving.

For an entree I had the herb omelet which was just as described. Two fluffy eggs with fresh herbs. Simple and good. The menu said it was served with a salad. I was expecting mixed greens but was pleasantly surprised to see it come out with an assiette style salad. Two slices of spicy pickled carrot, a pickled onion, small scoop of mustardy (whole seed) potato salad, and lightly dressed tomato and cucumber. My husband had one of the specials- two poached eggs with crab and shrimp, topped with a Béarnaise over frisee. At $12 it was a steal given the generous provision of shrimp and crab that was mixed together in a salad that looked to be the same dressing on my potato salad.

To drink I had a coffee and he had tea. The only point of note regarding the coffee was that it was served in a French press. Tea was a choice of Tazo or Stash. The desserts will billed as homemade and so we decided to try the crepe with homemade jam. We were served two crepes folded into quarters. The crepes were a little gummy- either undercooked or perhaps reheated. The jam was strawberry and was just fine but seemed more like a higher end store bought product as opposed to homemade as billed.

Total came to $58 with tax and tip. Overall, I would describe our meal as above average neighborhood fare with some French flare in pleasant surroundings. We will be back both for brunch and for dinner.

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We live nearby and have passed this little restaurant hundreds of times and each time we remind ourselves to try it. So this morning when it occurred to us that we should go for a leisurely brunch ahead of the Frankenstorm we remembered to give Terasol a try. Overall, we are very happy we did and plan to return.

Your timing was serendipitous - Tom Sietsema has reported (*) that the cafe recently installed six burners, a fryer, and a salamander, and has taken on Chef Hector Guerra from The Caucus Room downtown.

(*) See how easy that was, everyone? It's called "Integrity."

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A group of six of us had a delightful post Thanksgiving family lunch at Terasol on Friday.

We all started with a bowl of soup. The lentil soup was a special \and it was better than our last visit. Despite my previous doubts, no question it is homemade (as well as vegetarian). Three of us got the roasted chicken and vegetable soup. It is a really delightful bowl of soup- the broth was basically a consomme and loaded with shredded roast chicken and vegetables, including fennel, green beans, and carrots. Those who ordered the French onion enjoyed it as well.

They have my favorite salad on their menu- poached egg, bacon and frisee. I really enjoyed it. The egg was warm and perfectly runny with a really bracing vinaigrette. My mother and sister both had the Caesar salad. My mother's complaint, which was not echoed by my sister, was that the salad would have benefited from a couple anchovies since she felt it wasn't fishy enough. My other sister had the beet and goat cheese salad which looked lovely as well.

My husband had a mozarella, tomato and pesto panini which came with a side of that awesome potato salad and pickled vegetables. My father got one of the specials- seared sea scallops with cous cous and tropical fruit salad. I think this entree is probably indicative of what the new chef brings to the place. It was a stunningly beautiful plate. Four large perfectly seared scallops served with an arugula and fruit salad and some cous cous. At $20 it was a steal.

This restaurant really is a neighborhood gem.

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A group of six of us had a delightful post Thanksgiving family lunch at Terasol on Friday.

We all started with a bowl of soup. The lentil soup was a special \and it was better than our last visit. Despite my previous doubts, no question it is homemade (as well as vegetarian). Three of us got the roasted chicken and vegetable soup. It is a really delightful bowl of soup- the broth was basically a consomme and loaded with shredded roast chicken and vegetables, including fennel, green beans, and carrots. Those who ordered the French onion enjoyed it as well.

They have my favorite salad on their menu- poached egg, bacon and frisee. I really enjoyed it. The egg was warm and perfectly runny with a really bracing vinaigrette. My mother and sister both had the Caesar salad. My mother's complaint, which was not echoed by my sister, was that the salad would have benefited from a couple anchovies since she felt it wasn't fishy enough. My other sister had the beet and goat cheese salad which looked lovely as well.

My husband had a mozarella, tomato and pesto panini which came with a side of that awesome potato salad and pickled vegetables. My father got one of the specials- seared sea scallops with cous cous and tropical fruit salad. I think this entree is probably indicative of what the new chef brings to the place. It was a stunningly beautiful plate. Four large perfectly seared scallops served with an arugula and fruit salad and some cous cous. At $20 it was a steal.

This restaurant really is a neighborhood gem.

Read this, please.

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I ate here for the first time tonight, and enjoyed it enough to write. I make no extravagant claims about the place, but it was good food (I had Caesar salad, and salmon entree, and bread pudding) with nice waitstaff, and a good French/Django jazz trio.

In the culinary sadness of west-of-the-park NW DC, it is nice to find such a place. (A dissertation, or a bad Slate article, could be written about why this area is so lacking in midpriced good food. )

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Though guilty of this myself, I am totally over the notion that Le Diplomate is THE place in town to feel like you are in Paris while in DC. Dinner at Terasol is a similarly transporting experience except perhaps to a more far a flung arrondissemt with a more subdued, less hip crowd. No question, this is a neighborhood place but that is a good thing. Service is friendly and efficient. The food is very approachable. Prices are reasonable. Friday night at 8:30 the place was packed with locals and they had live music.

We started the meal with a French Onion Soup and an endive salad off the list of specials. The endive salad came with blue cheeses and walnuts in a light sesame seed vinaigrette. Both were delicious. Warm french bread comes out of the kitchen at regular clip. For entrees we had a salmon over risotto and the roast chicken. That salmon was pretty damn good. Salmon was perfectly cooked with a super crisp skin over a creamy risotto with hints of saffron. The quarter chicken had crispy skin, a nice thyme-y brown sauce and Parisian style turned and roasted potatoes. If I had to find something to complain about, I wish I had gotten more dark meat instead of breast which was could have been a little moister. To drink, two glasses of red wine. We were too stuffed for dessert. With tax and tip $100 even.

All in all it was a lovely, quiet dinner in a lovely neighborhood restaurant. Not much else you can ask for really.

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On 1/4/2018 at 1:06 PM, DonRocks said:

Terasol has closed. :(

Screenshot 2018-01-04 at 13.05.21.png

Jan 23, 2018 - "A Tribute to Terasol ...." by Stephen Samuels and Joanna Pratt on foresthillsconnection.com

" Over the last 14 months we all have had to deal with the hate and ignorance of those who attacked us through calls, texts and life-threatening emails but were humbled to see the outpouring support of our neighborhood. We didn’t close because of their attacks as I would never want to give them the satisfaction. Yes, it was difficult to constantly be attacked for no other reason than hate and ignorance… at Terasol but also in our daily lives. Receiving an email stating you will be hurt in the worst of ways and sooner than you think shakes you. But our team – and we – stayed strong."

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