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Pennsylvania 6 - An Upscale Pennsylvania Steakhouse Chain in the Former Tuscana West Space at Franklin Square - Closed


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First notes from the (not quite opened yet) Pennsylvania 6.  First, extremely convenient to the McPherson Square metro stop.  Half a block walk and you're there.  Very lively bar scene for a restaurant that hasn't opened yet.  Beautiful series of rooms.   Lots of understated wood and flattering lighting (and believe me, I need all the flattering I can get :D). 

Now for the good stuff.  Let's start with what Grover and I had for dinner last night:

She gets to go first: 

Starters:  Lobster platter.  Half a lobster on ice.  (I grabbed a bite and am glad I did)  Beautifully presented half-lobster, with drawn butter and cocktail sauce.

I had: The Crab platter.  SIx healthy pieces of King Crab legs.  Sweet, very fresh and delicious.  Again drawn butter and cocktail sauce.  Grover got a healthy bite and gave her approval.

Shared: A dozen oysters.  Two each of six different oysters.  Excellent from smooth and silky to just a bit briny. 

Next up:  The real starters.

Grover had the Wild Burgundy Snails.  Eight snails covered with a bone marrow butter topping,  The snails were as close to perfect as you could get, each in garlic, lemon juice, parsley, with bits of mushroom.  They were more melt in your mouth than rubbery as most snails in restaurants seem to be.

I had the Fois Gras Mousse.  Moussed Fois Gras topped with a apple cider gelee and accompanied by red onion jam and Pommeroy mustard.  The apple cider gelee added just a tiny touch of sweetness to the Fois Gras (not that it needed anything but this was a great choice for contrasting tastes and textures).

Entrees: Grover had Monkfish Osso Buco.  Most Monkfish don't have legs (or shanks for that matter), but the dish get's its name due to the bone being left in the Monkfish filet.  Prepared like it's namesake, it's served with carrots, mushrooms, baby Tokyo turnips and truffle jus.  It must have been good because Grover kept saying she couldnt' possibly eat more but she kept eating until it was gone.

I had the bone-in filet.  Cooked to exactly the right pinkness, very flavorful and extremely tender, this was a beautiful dish.  I'm not much of a beef eater but this filet could make me consider eating a lot more beef.  My only complaint about the filet was the garliced butter on the steak.  it was a bit too salty for me (but, because I very rarely eat salt, it may have been my reaction to it).  A very small negative in an overwhelmingly positive entree.

Both courses were accompanied by skillet fried brussel sprouts (I finished them for lunch today) and very creamy mashed potatoes.

For dessert, Grover had sorbet (I really don't remember the flavor due to the food coma I was rapidly succumbing to). I had a trio of eclairs, one of which was topped with bacon pieces.  What a great contrast of the salty (yeah, here it was just right) and the sweetness of the eclair.

Mark Slater was right in his element and perfectly at home suggesting (and selecting) wines to accompany each dish. I'd love to tell you the wines, but we were overwhelmed with the food and I was way too busy enjoying the marvelous tastes to remember. I did have the 23 year old Pappy Van Winkle Bourbon to finish the evening.  Mark was lucky enough to score a couple of bottles of the 23 year old and it was a perfect way to finish out an extraordinary meal. 

We were told the official opening is going to be on the 20th of November, that the management felt that the new staff needed a bit more time to get acquainted with the menu and how things worked.  If our experience was the way anything like the house is expected to operate, they're quite ready to open.  Julie our server was there when she was needed, made great suggestions, and in general made a great experience even more enjoyable.  The entire staff was very attentive and seemed to want nothing more than we enjoy our visit and they succeeded very well.  Our first visit but definitely not our last.

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Had lunch here today with my brother and a friend (a local restaurateur, in fact). Space is beautiful. Food was very good. We shared "for the table" orders of Sardinian flatbread and skillet-fried shisito peppers. Both excellent. Then I got the seafood salad louie, as I am doing a fitness challenge and wanted to bypass all the bread. It was quite good. Still, I'd like to try more of the "for the table" dishes and the appetizers - such as the fresh ricotta, warm broccolini dip, and charred spanish octopus -- and just make a meal out of those.

Definitely one for Don to check out! I suspect it will get the italics. :D

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its been my experience that if you walk into a restaurant and spot Mark Slater watching over the dining room, you're pretty much going to eat well and drink well. That was certainly true a few nights ago.

A colleague and I popped into Pennsyvania 6 and the space is quite nice and comfortable. Despite the snow it was still bustling, although not busy. I feel for "new" restaurants that open up and then get hit by a blizzard. Makes things tough.

We basically ordered some crudo and an assortment of shellfish, and Mark suggested a bright and crisp Albarino that was perfect. The shellfish was delicious and if I had any complaint it would be that the shucker needs to work on his clam skills a little more. The clams were delicious, but a bit mutilated.

The carpaccio of beef was outstanding, as was the rose that Mark suggested to go with it. A well made macchiato and a rich amaro capped off the night. Penn 6 is  a delightful addition to the neighborhood and is easily one of the best restaurants within the area.

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On 1/28/2016 at 11:56 AM, B.A.R. said:

The clams were delicious, but a bit mutilated.

 
This made me laugh out loud.
 
On 1/28/2016 at 11:56 AM, B.A.R. said:

The carpaccio of beef was outstanding, as was the rose that Mark suggested to go with it. A well made macchiato and a rich amaro capped off the night. Penn 6 is  a delightful addition to the neighborhood and is easily one of the best restaurants within the area.

Interesting pairing - was it a bone-dry, pale Rosé, or a fuller-bodied, reddish Rosato? I can see either working depending on the preparation (lemon and capers, pale; miso-based sauce, dark).

When you say "within the area," how big of an area do you mean? (I haven't been yet, but I've heard Pennsylvania 6 is very good.)

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First visit to Pennsylvania 6 was for Sunday Brunch.  The restaurant has shown up on a number of top 10 lists for brunch, and was recently listed in a Zagat article of best bottomless brunches in DC.  I was excited to try their unlimited champagne and bloody bar.  Our reservations were for 1:30, which is pretty much prime brunch time in DC, but the restaurant only had a few tables and I don't believe the number of occupied tables exceeded 8 the entire time we were there.  Even though it wasn't crowded, we found the restaurant to be quite loud.  

The food was excellent.  We began with oysters and fresh ricotta.  The ricotta was served with grilled crostini which were refilled upon request.  I had the frittata with sausage, boursin and potatoes.  It was served with mixed greens on top.  This was excellent!  Well seasoned and the filling ingredients were nicely distributed so that every bite had flavor and texture.  It was also a very filling entree.  Hubby had the eggs Benedict and our companions each had burgers which they thought were also excellent.  

The bottomless champagne and bloody bar consisted of a number of fresh juices, syrups, fruit, bitters, olives and vegetables.  The champagne or basic bloody was provided by the waitstaff and then you could go to the bar for whatever accouterments you desired.  Nothing on the bar was replenished, so it got a little "picked over" by the time our brunch came to an end.  The juices were not refilled, so options got limited after our first visit to the bar.  The real issue with the 'unlimited' concept was the need to wait for your server to refill your glass with either bloody mix or champagne.  Since our server tended to disappear for 10-15 minute intervals, we spent most of our brunch with empty glasses.  Even when we were able to ask for refills, it took a while for those to be delivered.  

I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt and say our server was having a bad day. She seemed very knowledgeable about the menu, and was able to answer our questions. But she was almost comically unenthusiastic!   We asked for salt and pepper to go with our appetizer and that showed up halfway through our entrees.  As previously mentioned, drinks were infrequently refilled and only after having to flag her down, and a single glass of chardonnay took almost 25 minutes to be delivered.  

We may try the restaurant again for dinner, as the food was excellent.  But there are better, and friendlier, brunch options to choose from. 

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29 minutes ago, schulju said:

The champagne or basic bloody was provided by the waitstaff and then you could go to the bar for whatever accouterments you desired.  Nothing on the bar was replenished, so it got a little "picked over" by the time our brunch came to an end.  The juices were not refilled, so options got limited after our first visit to the bar.  The real issue with the 'unlimited' concept was the need to wait for your server to refill your glass with either bloody mix or champagne.  Since our server tended to disappear for 10-15 minute intervals, we spent most of our brunch with empty glasses.  Even when we were able to ask for refills, it took a while for those to be delivered.  

I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt and say our server was having a bad day. She seemed very knowledgeable about the menu, and was able to answer our questions. But she was almost comically unenthusiastic!   We asked for salt and pepper to go with our appetizer and that showed up halfway through our entrees.  As previously mentioned, drinks were infrequently refilled and only after having to flag her down, and a single glass of chardonnay took almost 25 minutes to be delivered.  

We may try the restaurant again for dinner, as the food was excellent.  But there are better, and friendlier, brunch options to choose from. 

Management needs to hear about this. These are the types of actions by 1-2 people that can ruin a restaurant's reputation, even if they're having a "bad day." *All* restaurant workers hate brunch, but brunch is part of what they signed up for, so please do it, and do it well. Yes, it sucks, I know that, but show some pride in your work and some courtesy towards customers, even if you don't want to be there, and even if you're actively looking for another job (which often turns out to be just as bad as the one you have now). If you have the server's name on the receipt, please PM it to me privately, and I'll make sure it gets in the right hands without publicly humiliating the person.

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11 hours ago, DonRocks said:

Management needs to hear about this. These are the types of actions by 1-2 people that can ruin a restaurant's reputation, even if they're having a "bad day." *All* restaurant workers hate brunch, but brunch is part of what they signed up for, so please do it, and do it well. Yes, it sucks, I know that, but show some pride in your work and some courtesy towards customers, even if you don't want to be there, and even if you're actively looking for another job (which often turns out to be just as bad as the one you have now). If you have the server's name on the receipt, please PM it to me privately, and I'll make sure it gets in the right hands without publicly humiliating the person.

I had a similarly bad experience with service when I dined with them a few months ago, only at dinner.  Probably the worst service I've had in the past year or two.  Our server disappeared for 15 minutes at a time most of the evening.  We didn't get to place our order until we'd already been sitting for 30 minutes.  Our server spent most of her time in the back expoing food and/or doing god knows what, while the food runner brought us out incorrect food, left us without silverware, etc.  I politely highlighted for her how that service model is suboptimal, and that an expo was more important than a food runner in this case, but she got defensive.  I attempted to track down a manager but there wasn't one in sight.  So, I gave up.   

Lastly, this was the night of the ice storm and their sidewalk was a veritable ice rink.  I almost fell myself and cringed as older patrons attempted to traverse the sidewalk, only to give up and turn back.  I alerted the hostess and she looked at me cluelessly, as if to say what am I supposed to do.

The food was edible but not worth coming back for - run of the mill 1.5 to 2 stars.  There are too many good restaurants in DC for me to bother giving them another shot.

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15 minutes ago, ALargeFarva said:

Lastly, this was the night of the ice storm and their sidewalk was a veritable ice rink.  I almost fell myself and cringed as older patrons attempted to traverse the sidewalk, only to give up and turn back.  I alerted the hostess and she looked at me cluelessly, as if to say what am I supposed to do.

In all fairness, *everyone's* sidewalk was an ice rink the night of the ice storm. Funny - I just wrote about that not five minutes ago.

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Yesterday's Pokémon marathon brought me to the Mall.  I spent almost 8 hours walking, with beer stops to charge my phone.  For sustenance, and all you can drink champagne, I hiked up to Penn 6 on I (where I caught a Vulpix).

As for food, I had (i) some blistered shishito peppers, (ii) some snails with bone marrow butter, parsley & mushroom duxelles, and (iii) a crudo sampler.  I thought the crudos were particularly good - vibrant flavors with quality fish.  The snails were good and the shishito peppers were over abundant.

I attempted to have my 3 plates arrive sequentially by saying "I like to start with...., followed by...." but all 3 dishes arrived simultaneously.  Perhaps I could've been more clear.

 

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Welp, was planning to go with some colleagues for drinks tomorrow and saw the place has closed. I had a very good if pricey lunch there soon after it opened with my brother (a trencherman of some repute) and our camp friend Josh Hahn, one of the original folks behind the highly successful Logan Tavern group. Never made it back and never heard much about the place so can't say I'm overly shocked. Guess it never found its groove like similar downtown spots such as Woodward Table.

BTW, if any of you know Josh and are curious what he's been up to since he stepped back from the resto biz, he's now one of the co-directors of Camp Somerset, a very nice girls camp in Maine that reopened after a 30 year hiatus (website). I'm sure the camp food is quite good! Yeah, I'd say it looks good

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