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21P, 21st & P Streets in West Dupont - Chef Mark Sakuta comes from SBC Cafe - 86'd.


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Posted on eGullet - really recently.

A good time has been had at 21P last Saturday. Because I really, really, really disliked BeDuCi, I was anxious to like 21P.

Stepping in, I felt ready to trill like one of these deranged supersocial ladies, "I love what you've done with the place!" Decor is really quite enjoyable - blond wood across navy blue walls, glassed-in facade, orange daisies in turquoise glasses, very nice, nod of approval from Modern Living. Note that no delay in seating ensued with no reservation on a Saturday night.

The bar gets a special vote - we only spent a few minutes there, but it seemed both inviting and strangely unpopulated. Wide barstools on which the bottom rests comfortably, same dark blue color scheme, and a counter facing the street. I can think of worse things to do on a weeknight than to toss back cocktails and watching Dupont go by.

The food was...it reminded me of Princess Diaries or another movie where the plot revolves around a timid, unpopular and rather homely girl that through some twist of fate needs to Get Gorgeous, and soon. Twenty minutes later, after appointments with Antoine The Hairdressing Arteeste, posture tutors and unlimited accounts at Emporio Armani, she's a younger Elizabeth Hurley. Then, to stifle a fit of welling jealousy, you remind yourself that she always had good bones and pretty eyes to begin with.

The food at 21P needs Antoine The Hairdressing Arteeste. Good bones and pretty eyes are there, they just need to be polished and presented.

The ambition of the owners is clear when you take in the decor and some menu items. Now all they need is polish.

My veal cheeks appetizer was gorgeous and prettily presented on a square plate (note to ambition.) My friend had a rather serviceable green salad with candied walnuts, so good I charmed and guilt-tripped him into feeding me most of them.

The entrees were a step down. My cilantro-braised lamb shank was fork-tender and falling of the bone, but please. Does it need to be floating in the (tasty) sauce to the point of needing a swimguard? It takes a lot of sauce to sink a big ol lamb shank. Accompanying bean raviolis were yummy and with a bit of saucing on top could have warded off the dryness that distracted from how yummy they were. My friend's coffee-dusted steak (note to ambition) was okay and the sides of haricot vert and mashed potatoes (declined to taste) looked good.

Desserts were a crash. The pastry department is either still putting its act together or is an afterthought of a busy kitchen. Flourless chocolate cake that looks like a strip of fudge. Strawberry bread pudding with heath bar crunchies in some manner of sauce. Both taste and look as if they came out of a glass case in a corner store. Provide a sugar rush, yes. Demonstrate ambition and finesse clearly present or attempted elsewhere? No.

I think 21P is a great addition to the 'hood and I will continue to go - most certainly to the bar. My sincere wish is that they give the food a critical look to showcase its strengths a little better - which in most cases will require just a few tweaks. Antoine the Hairdressing Arteeste will be proud of this one when it emerges as a swan, and I sincerely hope it will.

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Visited 21P last evening for the first time along with the HH gang, Shogun, mdt, Jaques Gastreaux, and Babka. We sampled the bar apps and a couple of the main menu apps as well. Others will speak to what they had. I was curious in a kind of morbid way about one appetizer on the main menu -- confit of lobster/rabbit wraps with a mango sauce. How the hell does one do a lobster confit?? Maybe only the rabbit was confit and the lobster meat added to the wrap, but actually the lobster might just as well have been confit too --- the only discernable piece was the texture of rubber and virtually tasteless. But the rabbit was good so my advice would be to leave out the lobster. Had a bite of Jaques' coffee crusted hanger steak. The steak was average, served with a cream sauce and while the coffee crust did little to improve the steak it imparted its flavor to the cream sauce so what you had basically was a cafe au lait peppercorn steak.

I stuck around to dine with my wife who eventually made an appearance and had a very good halibut -- perfectly cooked. I was pretty full so I couldn't finish it or the sides but they made a nice presentation on the plate. My wife had the duck breast which she enjoyed (Babka got a complimentary order of the duck to go.. given by the management when our bar server forgot to place the order with the other food we got at the bar -- it was her first Friday on the job and she was a little overwhelmed.)

Our service at table was excellent and Mike the manager was very attentive. Even though,as I said, I was stuffed halfway through my halibut Mike provided a complimentary flourless chocolate cake which was delicious (forced myself to eat it :lol: ) My wife appreciated that they had tables in the bar area so she could smoke without having to leave the table.

Good selection of wines by the glass, particularly enjoyed the Crosspoint pinot noir and the Tavel Rose.

In summation the menu is in certain regards a little overly ambitious, but there are several good choices amonng the entrees. The service is excellent and overall I think this place will eventually hit its stride and make a great addition to that neighborhood.

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posted on egullet 4/21:

Had dinner at 21P last week and was pleasantly suprised - though I do agree with Nadya. And while nothing overwhelmed me with wonder and joy, nothing disappointed me either. I was content.

And sometimes content is all you're lookin for.

Called 20 minutes before we walked infor reservations for two, and there were no problems or wait time. The decor was as clean and zen as everyone else has descibed, so I'll leave that alone. The server* was friendly and knowledgeable, although after we ordered it was a little difficult to get bread. But he answered all of my questions and was polite and professional yet warm and comfortable. Not too familiar and not too stuffy. Just the way I like it. (Why do I suddenly feel like Goldilocks?)

So after I asked about 15,873 questions, I ordered the Kajiki tartare** with wasabi aioli to start. It was my favorite dish of the evening - so simple and light and fresh, and had the most satisfying texture. You know, when you have a good tuna sashimi and your teeth just kind of slowly sink into the pink flesh? Yum.

For my main course I had another app - the curry-crusted scallops with coconut grits and pineapple chutney. Again, quite tasty. Though it was a small dish in comparison to the tartare, the flavor and quality of the scallops was excellent, and the coconut grits were perfectly cooked and seasoned. However, the curry flavoring on the scallops was a tiny bit too overpowering - they could have used a dash or two less. My man had the meatloaf which I didn't taste. He said it was decent, but didn't finish it. He said the dish was definitely too much food, and this boy eats a lot. Now that I think about it, all of the entrees I saw go by did look much larger in proportion to the apps and desserts.

What made me happy, though, was that for once I won. Usually he picks the better dishes and I get jealous. But this time, I did. Heheheheheh.

Oh, and I had a glass of Schlumberger Riesling from Alsace that was delish. A great complement to the spice of the scallops and creaminess of the grits.

For dessert, I had the bread pudding which was eh, and he had the chocolate mousse with white chocolate mousse. First of all, it wasn't so much a chocolate mousse as it was a chocolate pudding, and the white chocolate mousse was more like a whipped cream. In addition, it was served in an espresso cup so it was teeny. And I am not a fan of huge portions, but this was ridiculous. However... it was good. Comfort food-good. So we ordered two.

So we left sated and content. Not blown away, and not disappointed. The total bill was about $75 before tip, and there are many places in DC that will charge you that much and serve you slop, so we were pretty happy. Bottom line, for me it is not a destination, but if you live within 10-20 minutes its a good neighborhood restaurant to keep in your pocket. And I imagine that in a few (weeks? months?) Antoine the Hairdressing Arteeste will have that girl ready for the big ball.

The (I-Can't-Believe-My-Post-Has) Footnotes:

* I feel bad for saying this, and I'm sorry Dorian if you're reading this, but our waiter introduced himself by name, and neither my boyfriend nor I could place how we knew him. Had one of us worked with him? At what restaurant? Had we gone to GW with him? Aargh, how did we know him? Then 20 minutes later, out of nowhere, my boyfriend calls it - he's Kuramo's boyfriend from the Real World in Philly.

So we thought it was hysterical that we were being waited on by a slightly-famous extra on a reality show, and that he probably got recognized so often that he had to move from Philly to DC. Which is probably very untrue and we are bad people for laughing about it. But for all of you who are young and stupid enough to watch the Real World - Kuramo's boyfriend was our waiter!

**Kajiki is also known as Pacific blue marlin and tastes similar to tuna. I didn't know this before eating it and neither did anyone at the restaurant where I work. So don't feel bad. And you should feel extra-special smart if you did know it. Yay, you!

--------------------

Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what's for lunch.

- Orson Welles

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I'm gald to hear that things got better after I ileft on Friday evening. Admittedly, the food service in the bar area is subpar, but we had a new employee. I thought the duck-mushorrm quesadillas were really good. The pork belly was OK. The steak was fine, I just thought all the stuff they put on it overshadowed the flavor of the beef. I should have known better than to order a steak at a place like 21P because I've been spoiled by Ray's the Steaks. Their wine by the glass program seems pretty good.

The duck mishap happened when they forgot to input mdt's duck order. When it finally came out, mdt was long gone. I'd be interested in hearing how Babka's roommate like it.

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Yeah, the duck, when it finally came, looked and smelled great. The issue was just that she didn't put the order in, then came back to apologize and say it would be right out, and twenty minutes later we're still going "What about the duck, Fawlty?" and focusing more on splitting up the check.

I think there was a large element of 'morbid curiosity' in the bar and main menus. There were a few things on there that we weren't entirely sure if they would work or not. So we did the only sensible thing and ordered them! I went with a duck quesadilla with Camembert (Which were, in fact, really good), and the truffled potato spring roll with lumpfish roe. The spring rolls were light mashed potatos with truffle oil in a fried spring roll skin, presented standing on end and topped with creme fraiche or sour cream and a little mound of roe. I liked this dish, as an app or bar snack, even through the presentation (Which looked pretty cool...think somebody got a picture) means you only get the taste of the roe in the first bite. I would have also liked a bit more truffle flavor, tough it was definitely there. I would happily order both again, if there weren't other things I would also like to try next time around!

The wine by the glass program was varied and well priced, I thought. The French chardonnay was a bit cold (Though this wasn't unappreciated following the long walk to Dupont on a warm day!), and the pinot noir was too warm. They also seem to have the same Universal Wine Glass that I have! :lol:

The only hangups were in the service (Again, new server, understandable), not the food...everything we thought 'might not work' ended up working!

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Some friends and I tried 21P for the first time Sunday evening. We had a reservation, but obviously didn't need one. The restaurant never got to be half-full. The food was kind of uneven, but at the fairly low prices they charge, I was generally favorably impressed. I started with a chilled cucumber soup with crabmeat. The crabmeat was an addition that didn't add much, but the cucumber soup itself was wonderful--tangy, cucumbery, refreshing, delicious. Next came the truffled potato spring rolls, which weren't served up-ended, and the creme fraiche was served separately in a little ramekin, with "American caviar" (clearly lumpfish roe) dolloped on top. I really liked the spring rolls, which were fried perfectly; the crisp skin and the totally soft, smooth potato goop played against each other very well. I thought the creme fraiche accompaniment was ill-considered at best, and the lumpfish roe merely a distraction. Something like crisp pickled carrots would have worked much better. The creme fraiche was too much additional richness and too much additional softness. For a main course I had the green chile pork stew with blue-corn tamales. The pork stew was not terribly sophisticated, but then it was a pork stew, and it was delicious. The tamales were perhaps as bad as anything I've ever been served in a restaurant, so dense and tough I had to cut them with a knife for the two bites I actually took. They reminded me of tootsie rolls. Just utterly horrible. To finish, I had a cup of espresso. I wonder how it's possible to coax such a dismal fluid out of an espresso machine (I assume it came out of an espresso machine). The coffee was as dreadful as the tamales had been; the brown ditch-water was an almost infuriating end to a meal that had been on the whole rather good. My friends were generally pleased by the food also. The complaint of one that his seafood gumbo had okra in it was not really to be taken seriously; the complaint of the other that the carrots in his plate of asparagus and carrots had no discernible flavor was, on the other hand, confirmed by the carrot and asparagus accompaniment to my pork stew: the carrots seemed to have been put through a de-carrotting process.

Our server, though apparently new, was competent, personable, and very, very good-looking. Very.

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It might not be wrong, but the fierce debate over who is the hottest--Derek at Firefly or Sebastian at Komi--would soon degenerate to an out of control and irresolvable shouting match.

 
Do I have to choose? wink.gif

Those tamales sound as bad as the Pad Phrik Khing I had at Benjarong the other night. Oy.

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My son and I ate at 21 P last night for RW. They are extending the deal until the 28th. They had their whole menu available, with an extra charge for the tuna tartar appetizer ($3) and the filet ($6).

Dinner was quite good. The boy had the tuna tartar, Zinfandel braised short ribs, and a pot of chocolate. I had the curry crusted scallops, duck leg confit, and chocolate diablo with cassis sauce (why is it so hard to find cassis here in the states?)

Service was very good, the food excellent, if not huge portions, and a very pleasant room.

I'm going to Charlie Palmer's for lunch tomorrow.

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Went to 21P the other night with some friends to take advantage of their extending the restaurant week deal. We had a 9pm reservation, and didn't get seated till 9:30. Though we all enjoyed drinks at the bar, I was starving and annoyed at having to wait so long. The restaurant week deal allows you to order off the full menu, so the 6 of us made sure to cover as much as possible. In lieu of writing a detailed review of all that we ate, let me just say that everything was tasty, but nothing was great in the way that stood out where you told yourself that you couldn't wait to return to the restaurant to have it again. The one thing that did stand out was our waiter, who was attentive, and gave us free food, though we, of course, didn't ask for it. He heard us mention some things and he gave them to us, no fuss no muss.

The one thing I found most appalling was the scallop appetizer, which I believe normally costs $9, and consisted of exactly 1 scallop! The entire table was shocked to see it and we all felt it was ridiculous. It still angers me now, and I didn't even order it.

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Went to 21 P on Saturday night. Beautiful restaurant!! Very nice outside seating area with the symphony of life to keep us occupied. But the food...... uh.. yeah. The food. Unless you are desperate for outdoor dining in Dupont Circle, don't bother.

Now everything wasn't horrible, just not fabulous. The crab cake appetizer served on top of the red pepper soup was very yummy. And the scallops were passable, even if the grits served with them were bland and just barely room temperature. The pineapple chutney was a very nice burst of flavor that dressed up the scallops nicely.

The salads were very tasty. With just enough dressing to enhance the flavor of the fresh field greens.

However, the main course of halibut was very average and totally failed to impress. The side of steamed zucchini and squash was terribly trite and uninspired. The rockfish was not very good either. To serve fish this bad within a rock's throw of the amazing Johnny's Half Shell is a deadly sin. They should just take the fish off the menu all together. It is an embarrassment.

And for dessert, the chocolate Diablo was too rich and it needed some ice cream or even whipped cream to balance out the density of the flourless cake. The heath bar bread pudding was pretty good, but not worth a second trip.

Prices were pretty reasonable - a 4-course dinner for 2 with 1 bottle of wine was $150 before tip.

Other than for a great happy hour menu and al fresco dining, skip it. There are too many amazing restaurants within a stone's throw of this place.

LaShanta

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Happy Hour from 5-8PM is a must! I was a little under the weather, so I started my evening directly from my doctor's appt. on Q St. They have a real sweet and cheap menu, cheap cocktails (the blackberry mojito for $5 was huge, although I stuck with straight Meyer's-I only like to drink brown liquor when I'm sick), and pleasant company-the owner Hannah who is very sweet was chatting at the bar and buying a round! For happy hour they have an enormous burger and fries for $5, and the soft-shell crab sammy which I believe was $8 (or $9), and they kept the crab on special all night. I started with a seafood gumbo ($5) that was loaded with good sausage and seafood chunks. The chef was not shy with the roux, and the gumbo had a very satisfying smokey depth of flavor. I followed with the scallops ($5), there were two of decent size, which were crusty on the outside and freshly sweet inside. The pineapple chutney was OK-a decent companion, but the grits were oddly almost cold. But the scallops stood well on their own without either. But wait, you have got to try the caramel tea-braised pork belly (I think I have that right). A hunk of pork that was so large for $5, that I thought I got the wrong thing. They are using Korobutu (like Kobe beef, I think I have that right?) pork for this dish, and the quality of the meat was amazing. There is a complexity to this dish that becomes more apparent as you eat more, especially the fatty parts, and a silken mouth-feel in the leaner parts. Perfect happy hour food for your all-night drinking binges. Go.

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Happy Hour from 5-8PM is a must! I was a little under the weather, so I started my evening directly from my doctor's appt. on Q St. They have a real sweet and cheap menu, cheap cocktails (the blackberry mojito for $5 was huge, although I stuck with straight Meyer's-I only like to drink brown liquor when I'm sick), and pleasant company-the owner Hannah who is very sweet was chatting at the bar and buying a round! For happy hour they have an enormous burger and fries for $5, and the soft-shell crab sammy which I believe was $8 (or $9), and they kept the crab on special all night. I started with a seafood gumbo ($5) that was loaded with good sausage and seafood chunks. The chef was not shy with the roux, and the gumbo had a very satisfying smokey depth of flavor. I followed with the scallops ($5), there were two of decent size, which were crusty on the outside and freshly sweet inside. The pineapple chutney was OK-a decent companion, but the grits were oddly almost cold. But the scallops stood well on their own without either. But wait, you have got to try the caramel tea-braised pork belly (I think I have that right). A hunk of pork that was so large for $5, that I thought I got the wrong thing. They are using Korobutu (like Kobe beef, I think I have that right?) pork for this dish, and the quality of the meat was amazing. There is a complexity to this dish that becomes more apparent as you eat more, especially the fatty parts, and a silken mouth-feel in the leaner parts. Perfect happy hour food for your all-night drinking binges. Go.

Zowie! This sounds excellent! What day did you go and how crowded was it?

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Zowie! This sounds excellent! What day did you go and how crowded was it?

I was there last Monday at about 5:30, and there were just a few people there. Bar never really got crowded, although the restaurant's patio seating was pretty full by 8 or so. Service was excellent.

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There should be a way to categorize restaurants that charge a premium for average food. Last night a friend and I ventured to 21P. I had vague recollections that people on dr.com liked the place. None of the entrees struck us as interesting as the appetizers so we decided to make a small plate meal out of the evening. We had 3 appetizers, 2 small salads and 1 glass of wine. The bill was $60 including tip.

The appetizers were curried scallops with coconut grits, pork belly with a molasses sauce and a truffled potato spring roll. The scallops with the grits were really good. My question is whether 2 scallops for a $10 order is reasonable? I don't know. It seemed skimpy to me, though the scallops were not small. The coconut grits were a creative alternative to coconut rice. Though there was absolutely positively no corn taste or texture which is a sign of quick or instant grits. The potato spring roll was a bit greasy and served on a BED of garlic. There was a hint of truffle oil but overall not impressive. The pork belly was not for me, my friend said she liked the sauce but the texture of the meat was engh.

The patio is nice and the service fine.

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The chicken pate tastes like play dough there. mellow.gif

That is just wrong. Though it wouldn't surprise me. What struck me after dinner, I wanted to check out Urbana. It is in soft opening right now, a very swanky crowd and space. The menu looks very similar to the other Kimpton group restaurants (though this one is French/Italian influenced)

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My question is whether 2 scallops for a $10 order is reasonable? I don't know. It seemed skimpy to me, though the scallops were not small.

Were they diver scallops? Other restaurants charge more than $20 for an entree and you receive 4 or 5 so $10 for an app sounds about the going rate.

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Were they diver scallops? Other restaurants charge more than $20 for an entree and you receive 4 or 5 so $10 for an app sounds about the going rate.

You know, 2 was probably reasonable because they weren't small. I don't know what kind of scallops they were but... I have realized what I didn't like about the meal.. the presentation. Plates were very large for small portions. I had a professor in undergrad who taught how to plate food so that the food was appealing. Yes, odd class but I learned a lot about botany.

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My question is whether 2 scallops for a $10 order is reasonable? I don't know. It seemed skimpy to me, though the scallops were not small.

 
At a local restaurant (x) last year, I was served a scallop main course with two medium-sized scallops (and not much else)--for $27. When I had a discussion via e-mail with the owner of the restaurant, he claimed that the scallops were u-10 (ten scallops per pound, ) and so the portion was more than 6 ounces, and the price was justified. The only problem was that at the time, I was working at a high-end fish market, weighing out and selling day-boat and diver scallops every day. I knew that the (dayboat) scallops on my plate had not been u-10's, which retail for around $18 or $19 per pound, and believe me, are huge. The portion I was served was about 3 oz., maybe a bit more. The kitchen at restaurant x had not weighed the portion, because a standard entree portion of boneless fish/seafood is 5 ounces (or more). If they thought they were purchasing u-10 scallops from their supplier, then they were negligent and got ripped off. If they had thought about it, or weighed their portions they would have put at least two more scallops on my $27 entree plate, and I might not have felt like a rip-off victim. The owner of the restaurant argued with me, but ended up offering me a "gift certificate" for the cost of the entree. I never went back to redeem the "gift".

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There should be a way to categorize restaurants that charge a premium for average food.

There is. The category is called: A Washington, DC Restaurant.

Exceptions prove the rule.

This is a comment more on the accepted, normative, pervasive fleecing of guests in this market than on quality (or on this particular restaurant).

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There is. The category is called: A Washington, DC Restaurant.

Are you putting these all together in 'A Cooks' Quips'? For a chef you're pretty effin funny!
On the topic, when I was at 21P, I recommended the happy hour-food is much cheaper-also, it WAS actually really good.

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There is. The category is called: A Washington, DC Restaurant.

Exceptions prove the rule.

This is a comment more on the accepted, normative, pervasive fleecing of guests in this market than on quality (or on this particular restaurant).

To paraphrase the old adage: Fleece me once, shame on you. Fleece me twice, shame on me.

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To paraphrase the old adage: Fleece me once, shame on you. Fleece me twice, shame on me.

Not applicable in DC. The prices in DC restaurants are set by those restaurants who cater to the defense contractors, lobbyists, power brokers, trade organizations, special interests and political organizations who are smugly squandering other people's money while they glibly hoard as much of the common weal as their grubby but manicured hands can grab, as they, pig-like, root for truffled anything on K Street.

The average diner is of little or no consequence, and therefore no consideration is given to providing value, nor is there choice.

All lines lead to the shearing station (if your fleece is white as snow--to the slow-death killing floor if it is not). And, in this town--fattened as they are on gastronomic soma in their quarter-acre, herbicide-, pesticide-, phosphate-saturated, Bay-destroying, gated-community feeding lots--all the the little lambs are silent as they go.

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My one time there was during the fall Restaurant Week '06. We forgot it was RW & happened in on a Saturday night for early dinner around 7ish. While they were nearly all booked, the host was friendly and accomodating, getting us seated nonetheless. While the seat was next to host stand, we had an enjoyable meal and were very pleased to have been treated well despite our lack of reservation.

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Hey all - a friend and I tried to go to 21P last night for their happy hour (having never been there before). When we got there, we saw that they were closed and there were signs (DC signs) on the windows saying something about their registration hadn't been paid and therefore they were prevented from doing retail business. Anyone know what's up?

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Hey all - a friend and I tried to go to 21P last night for their happy hour (having never been there before). When we got there, we saw that they were closed and there were signs (DC signs) on the windows saying something about their registration hadn't been paid and therefore they were prevented from doing retail business. Anyone know what's up?

not sure, but no big loss overall. that place stinks.

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Hey all - a friend and I tried to go to 21P last night for their happy hour (having never been there before). When we got there, we saw that they were closed and there were signs (DC signs) on the windows saying something about their registration hadn't been paid and therefore they were prevented from doing retail business. Anyone know what's up?

Weird, I was just there for HH a couple weeks ago. Agreed, management sucks. But was kinda in love with one of the bartenders. Ah well.

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I was there for restaurant week this past January, that is what happens when your friends decide to go out for restaurant week that night at 2:00 on a Thursday afternoon, and I will say that it was an uneven experience. Some of the food was quite good, there was a plethora of good looking girls sitting at the tables and our waitress was very nice. But, I felt that the food was overpriced, even at restaurant week prices, and I had the single worst item that I have ever had at a "nice" restaurant in my entire life! The side dish on my plate was a mashed sweet potato with some vanilla. I like sweet potatoes, I mash them at home often, but I took one bite of it and literally stopped dead in my tracks. I am not sure if the sweet potatoes were rotten (can that even happen!?) or the seasoning was just way off, but it was awful and everyone else at my table agreed with me. The waitress could tell that something was wrong, because it was the only thing left on my plate, and I simply told her that it was horrendous. I felt kind of bad about doing it, but I was trying to be helpful so that the kitchen staff could correct the error. I can't imagine that it was supposed to taste like that, is that possible?

Anyway, not to kick a restaurant when it is down because our experience was mostly good other than that. Can't say that I was ever going to go back there again, but there are much worse restaurants that are still in business.

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Does anyone know what happened to 21 P?

The restaurant was shut down over the weekend. There are DC Government notices plastered on the doors and windows similar to the ones posted when a place gets shut down by the ABC board. I can't remember the language, but it didn't say anything about liquor.

What's the dirt?

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Does anyone know what happened to 21 P?

The restaurant was shut down over the weekend. There are DC Government notices plastered on the doors and windows similar to the ones posted when a place gets shut down by the ABC board. I can't remember the language, but it didn't say anything about liquor.

What's the dirt?

 
as i posted above, this is all I know - but I haven't been past there again since...

Hey all - a friend and I tried to go to 21P last night for their happy hour (having never been there before). When we got there, we saw that they were closed and there were signs (DC signs) on the windows saying something about their registration hadn't been paid and therefore they were prevented from doing retail business. Anyone know what's up?

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Anyone know what's up?

 
It's bizarre - almost as if they were shut down on very short notice. The "suspended" signs are plastered everywhere, yet the daily-specials chalkboard is sitting right by the front door. I do hope the city has the decency to come during off-hours if they're going to shut a place down.

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I do hope the city has the decency to come during off-hours if they're going to shut a place down.

not likely. every manager in the city has a story to tell about various inspectors arriving during the middle of a rush on a friday or saturday night when ten other thngs require attention.

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My understanding from the Washington Business Journal and having inside knowledge is that the owner didn't pay his Federal or District taxes and was sued for it. After loosing in a hearing, the Dept of Taxation came in a closed it........Too bad. Mark had some good food.

According to the Washington Post business section on Monday, 21P has filed for bankruptcy and dissolution of the corporation.

From the Post:
21 P Restaurant Concepts
2100 P St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20037
Type of filing: Chapter 7 liquidation
Case number: 07-00087
Date filed: Feb. 13
Attorney: Joseph M. Goldberg, 202-638-0606
Assets: $238,199
Liabilities: $472,888
Largest unsecured creditor: Hana Sakuta, $61,465

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