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David Greggory, Downtown - Closed


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I was checking the menu out on the web site and noticed that they have a Pork and Pinot event on Wednesday nights. Has anyone of our DR.com family been to this? If not, we certainly must go. How can you pass up a Pork "Burger" with Bacon, amongst other tasty sounding options?! :P

If I'm not mistaken, Greg was the RAMW "Chef of the Year" back in, what, 2000 maybe? He was still at Gabrielle at the time. So glad to see that David Greggory is succeding. He's come a long way from New Heights.

You're right, though - that sounds like a tasty dinner.

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I used to eat at DG quite a bit when I lived around the corner from them. The food was consistently good in that it never wowed me nor was anything ever bad/horrible. The service was always friendly and efficient. It is definitely a place worth seeking out if you don't have to go too far out of your way.

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The Happy Hour deals, particularly the wine(s) by the glass are a good deal + the HH bar food. On Fridays they are usually slammed, but the HH deals are available on any night. Tuesdays HH lasts 'til 10 pm!

Edited by FunnyJohn
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I took advantage of the Tuesday HH deal at David Greggory last night. Deviled eggs were delicious, and the pizza with applewood bacon was a steal at $5. They have a decent chenin blanc and cab/shiraz blend for $4.75/glass.

There was a minor incident at the bar. The tool standing next to my seat at the bar was oblivious to his surroundings-- leaning against the back of my barstool, whacking me in the shoulder with his elbow, and eventually setting down the menu on a lit candle. I looked around for whatever was burning, spotted the menu, and tossed it on the floor behind the bar because it looked quite wet. Good move huh? Well the bartender seemed to think that I set the damn thing on fire and was amusing myself by throwing flaming menus at his feet.

Oy. :P

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Has anyone been to one of their monthly bacon dinners yet? I was at their great happy hour on Monday and happened to run smack dab into the middle of it. I got the chance to check out the menu and four courses, appetizers, and wine pairings for $60 (if I remember correctly....it was happy hour after all) seems like an amazing deal for any pork enthusiasts out there. I was tempted to jump on in, but was rebuffed when informed that you needed reservations. Needless to say, I'll be keeping my eyes out for this next month!

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I went with 6 friends to David Greggory last night for their Wednesday night pork and pinot special. While it is listed on their happy hour menu link, they happily seated us at a table which was great since the bar was packed but the restaurant not so much. The pork menu was available all evening and not just during happy hour.

They do have a whole roast pig on display that they shred for several of the dishes. The dishes are "tapas sized" and offered one for $6.50, 3 for $18.75, or 5 for $30. We went with three rounds of 5 dishes each. They also have a variety of pinot noirs available by the glass or bottle with a flight of any 3 you want for $16. Considering the wide range of prices for the glass offerings, we were surprised you had free reign of the list. As we were a large group and all wanted to do the flights, we ordered three bottles (one each of the OR offerings -- we were still thirsty and ordered 2 bottles of the NZ). Our attentive waitress took note of our discussion of interest in the flights and offered to bring all three bottles at once with separate glasses. Nice touch that was well appreciated.

Now for the food. There were some amazing dishes and some that were just ok. I think order of consumption matters greatly as some of the lesser spiced food was lost under the great smokiness and spice of other dishes.

I was glad I tasted the bacon wrapped shrimp first for this reason. It was juicy and not overcooked as a recent version I'd had was.

The standout dish for me was the bacon risotto. It had a wonderfully smoky flavor that balanced the creaminess of the rice. We ordered more of this. I could happily sit at the bar and order this and glass of wine for a less indulgent night.

Another star was the tempura bacon -- served with a sweet dipping sauce you had the salty, sweet, smoky, crunchy interplay of flavors and textures.

The pulled pork on bacon biscuit was mighty tasty. We ordered two of these and one was oversauced while the other was fabulous. I'd ask them to go light on the sauce the next time. While the pork was great the biscuit made the dish. It was light, moist, with a hint of smoke.

I was disappointed when first served the Pork "Burger" w/Bacon because there was no visibile bacon. It was, however, a moist, flavorful burger with a spicy bun (jalapenos maybe), tomato, and mustard. We speculated about whether there was chopped bacon in the burger or the bun but never settled the matter.

The Tuscan Ham Sandwich and special of the night shredded pork taco were the disappointments of the night. The ham came on a little bun with mayo and maybe a leaf of arugula. It had no taste. The shredded pork taco had salsa and mexican crema on it, rolled in a soft flour tortilla. It was ok but paled in depth of flavor compared to the pulled pork on bacon biscuit. Others at the table seemed to enjoy the other special offering of sauteed pork and mushrooms but since I'm not a mushroom fan, I skipped that.

We pondered ordering a vegetable to round out the meal but opted to save room for dessert. Smart choice. This is a dessert menu for me -- grouped into chocolate and not chocolate (or what's the point?). We cleaned our plates. We sampled the chocolate bread pudding with cherries (my least favorite of the dishes but still good), the classic 3-layer chocolate cake (moist cake, fudgy icing), the dark chocolate pudding with mascarpone (I somehow missed a taste of this), and the greek smore (my favorite but very sweet -- rich, hot brownie, melty marshmallow, and crisp phyllo sheets).

This was a very fun and tasty way to spend an evening. All this (15 dishes, 5 desserts, 5 bottles of wine, one sparkling water and one iced tea) came to $350 including tax, not tip.

Edited by laniloa
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What? No pork desserts?

They said they have them for the big monthly bacon dinners. The manager mentioned something about bacon fat added to whipped cream but promised it was paired with savory-sweet things so it wasn't as disgusting as it sounded (his words).

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Went to David Greggory for dinner Tuesday. There were lots of menu choices for RW which was great. We had-----

Appetizers:

Truffle Pizza. The flavors of the cheese and leeks were good but the dough was soggy

Tostones. (mashed plantains formed into large chips served with black beans, salsa and crema) Heavy but addictive. Great texture from the plantains.

Entrees:

Seared halibut in a seafood broth--- a solid dish, the fish was delicate and the broth had lots of calamari, clams, and mussels.

Crabcakes-- lots of lump, a good mango sauce to accompany it

Now for the not so pleasant portion of the evening...

The server (not the one who took our order) puts down our desserts. We thought we'd ordered a piece of chocolate cake and a piece of coconut cake. He brought out two pieces of chocolate cake. We said we ordered one of each. He took one of the chocolate cakes away.

Our server, Isabelle, who took our order comes back slams the coconut cake down and says, "just so you know-- you ordered two chocolate cakes" in a not so pleasant manner. It is perfectly possible there was a miscommunication/misunderstanding but was that comment really necessary? My guest and I both thought we had ordered one chocolate, one coconut.

When we ordered our drinks we asked for recommendations from the cocktail menu and our server said "I don't drink those, I'm a bourbon girl" Usually I wouldn't pay attention to a comment like that but then combined with the rude comment with the cake. It was too much. I hate complaining about service because my family is all in the restaurant business. But getting yelled at by our server was not sitting well with us.

We talked to the manager and he was great. He said he appreciated us telling him and even though we did not want him to take anything off the bill he took our drinks off the bill. He handled the situation well and I even said I know it's restaurant week and you're slammed. He said that's no excuse.

So the food and the manager were all great as for Isabelle- hope she was just having a bad night

Edited by gnatharobed
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I visited DG before heading to the Kennedy Center to see "Wicked" on a Tuesday night. We were the first ones seated in the main space (which is very pretty if kind of generic/commercial), though there were several people in the bar enjoying the HH specials.

My friend and I both had mango bellinis...good and a bit different. We shared the deviled egg assortment at my friend's request...good but gimmicky/forgettable.

I had the specialty meatloaf as a main; very flavorful, juicy, and well-seasoned; the potato accompaniment was also comforting and satisfying. My friend had a crabcake, which was nice but run-of-the-mill.

Dessert=we shared cloud-in-a-pudding. Marscapone, rich chocolate pudding, very smooth, very chocolate-y, sweet but not too sweet. I loved it. Dessert was absolutely the highlight of the meal.

Service was polite enough, but pretty slow considering we were the only table seated. He didn't light the candle at our table until just before the mains arrived. I wondered what was occupying his attention--it certainly wasn't us.

Overall...as you can probably guess, good but not great. I would enjoy going back in a few months for another taste.

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Has anyone ever been to one of these that can give a report back?

Aphrodisiac Bacon Dinners

Chef Greggory Hill will host a series of bacon dinners

with co-host The Grateful Palate’s “Bacon of the Month Club”

Guests will enjoy a selection of passed hors d’oeuvres,

a delicious multi course dinner, dessert, and

hand selected wines, all paying tribute to Bacon.

These special evenings will be held on the third Monday

of each month throughout 2006.

Limited Seating - Reservations & Deposit Required

Please call us directly at 202-872-8700 for reservations and availability.

It sounds completely overindulgent, but the February dinner is on my birthday this year, so I was wondering if it would be worth looking into!

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So I went to the questionably named "Restau-Lounge" last night for this Pork & Pinot affair... I was a little skeptical when I walked in, first because of the title of the place and then due to the the atmosphere. It just seemed a little urban chic for a place that purported to devote itself to weekly porkgasms.

In short, I was wrong to question their devotion to swine dining. With ten standard offerings on the small plate "Pork & Pinot" menu and three special additions, this Restau-Lounge loves pig. The four of us split ten of the offerings, ordered wine individually and everyone left sated.

For me, the must-have-again standout was the pork soft taco. Cut right off the pig roasted that afternoon (brined, started off at a skin-crackling 475 or so, then dropped to 225ish after 30 mins and slow-roasted for several hours, sorry details foggy) and wrapped up in a flour tortilla with fairly neutral veggies (maybe it was a cabbage? The pork was clearly the star), it was simple, delicious and the two-taco portion was generous.

The other definitely-will-order-again-when-I-go-back item is the Pork Quesadilla. Again, a delicious, generous portion, but this time the marriage of the beans, the guac, the salsa and the pork worked out wonderfully, though I wished for a little more of the heat-spiked sour cream sauce they drizzled on top.

I also enjoyed the bacon tempura, especially when paired with what seemed close to an orange marmalade and the barbecued pork, which was prepared fairly traditionally and came on a biscuit with a spoonful of good, peppery, rough-cut slaw.

Oh -- and the pork belly special was excellent. Grilled and served over what I recall were a lump of mashed potatoes and a lump of sauteed spinach. It was the last dish I dug into, so forgive me for not recalling all the specifics, but I was very glad to have taken a stab at the special this time.

Things to avoid -- the bacon-wrapped shrimp skewers seemed a little pu-pu platterish to me, the bacon risotto was too granular (but I'm comparing it to that creamy risotto that comes under the pork shoulder from Komi, so I could be a little tough on them) and, um, those were the two.

On the drink front, it's important to note that when one orders wine by the glass at David Greggory, it comes in a small carafe and the diner can refill at his or her discretion. I'm no expert in liquid measures, but they must give close to an eight ounce pour. Great deal. Beats the bag out of their flight, which (according to our waitress) consists of three one ounce pours for $16.... ouch.

Also worthy of note, before tax and tip and excluding wine, our ten plates cost our four-person group exactly $60. Total. As a "between-jobs" 20-something, that really sung to me. Also, with a $15 corking fee, you could make Pork & Pinot into an inexpensive, fun and delicious night out.

Oink.

Alex

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In Praise of Pork

I stopped by David Greggory last night for dinner. Chef Hill asked if I would be interested in trying some "off the menu" items. I eagerly accepted. The pig feast began with a plate of sauteed morels and smoked ham, topped with a tangy blue cheese sauce made from St. Pete's blue cheese, with a smattering of just-arrived English peas. The morels and ham were plated against fresh greens that had been lightly oiled. Savory, smoky, rich, fresh are all words that come to mind for this dish that nicely balanced the meatiness of the morels with the Spring-time freshness of the peas. The next course consisted of jerked sausage, which had been prepared by Brian McPherson. I used to eat Brian's food at New Heights, and he knows how to prepare and season this food perfectly. The next course consisted of "bacon risotto," which contained double smoked bacon, paired with perfectly cooked, sliced pork tenderloin pork that was accented with garlic and chives. This was really a nice dish and I hope to see more of it. Finally (yes there was more pork in my future), the chef presented his interpretation of a trotter. The trotter was prepared in the confit style and cooked for 18 hours. The skin was crisp, with star anise glaze, and the meat succulent , very tender and almost sweet. The real surprise, though, was the seared foie gras nestled within the trotter. Oh my gosh: So over the top! So delicious! This fabulous dish was resting on sauteed chard, spiked with balsamic vinegar, and roasted tomatoes.

A brief word about wine: Bill Hunter is putting together a great program at DG, especially when it comes to finding small-lot treasures. For example, I enjoyed a 2003 Du Nah Chardonnay that was crafted in a Burgundian style that had great body, but that thankfully lacked the cloying presnce of too much oak. The main wine event, though, consisted of a 2003 Sine Qua Non "Papa" Syrah. This wine was a great pairing to the heavier pork dishes, particularly the bacon risotto and the trotter.

-Beau

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I've never been to David Greggory, and a recently exiled Washingtonian is coming back for a visit and suggests having dinner there. Should I say "good choice!" or should I say "may I suggest somewhere else instead?"? Has anyone been recently? Sietsema's review on the Post's website is from 2003, and recent (and, admittedly, generally useless) reader reviews suggest a falling-off. Their emphasis on swine is certainly appealing to me. Any advice will be appreciated.

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I stopped eating at David Greggory when myself and 2 colleagues fell ill after eating lunch there (we all had a seared tuna salad special). When I called to let them know that 3 people who ate the same thing were sick, and that they should strongly consider pulling the special from the menu for the rest of the day, the person on the other end of the line asked me "are you the person who called earlier?". :P I wasn't. That was definitely the wrong thing to say and I haven't been back since.

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I stopped eating at David Greggory when myself and 2 colleagues fell ill after eating lunch there (we all had a seared tuna salad special). When I called to let them know that 3 people who ate the same thing were sick, and that they should strongly consider pulling the special from the menu for the rest of the day, the person on the other end of the line asked me "are you the person who called earlier?". :P I wasn't. That was definitely the wrong thing to say and I haven't been back since.

Sorry to hear that, but I eat lunch there regularly and have never had a problem. If there s a better BLT (actually BAT as chef Gregory uses arugula) in the city I've not had it.

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I went last night with three girlfriends for the Restaurant Week promotion. David Greggory strikes me as a "fun with a group" type of place. I would not go back for the food alone. The Resaurant Week menu was the same as their regular menu with clearly noted up charges for certain items from the appetizer and entree categories. As we were seated, I noticed a ten top and a few other four tops in our waitress' territory. Though the restaurant was not full, I feared that this did not bode well for us. One of our party was already seated when we arrived. The waitress came to take drink orders, and didn't notice that three of us had no menus. We had to ask more than once for them. As we were waiting for our waitress to come back and take our order, a hostess asked if a fifth person would be joining us. We replied in the negative, and she reached for my friend's menu, lying in the space that a fifth would have occupied at the table. My friend asserted that she would like to keep her menu, but the hostess was not having it. She left with the menu under her arm after my friend said she could read one of our menus to refresh her memory once it was time to order.

Our glasses of wine arrived after a 10-15 minute wait. Once our order was placed, the bread didn't hit the table for another 15 minutes. The fun with a group theme asserts itself here. If I had been alone or with only one other person, the long stretches between ordering and getting would have been more remarkable, as it was, we were involved in animated conversation and service lags were noticed, but peripheral.

When the appetizers came, they were auctioned off by the food runner, a pet peeve of mine. My smoked chicken empanadas were flavorful, but short on chicken. There was another prolonged wait for our meals, this time, noticed by all in the party as those around us were served though they placed their orders after ours. When the food arrives it's again auctioned off by the food runner. Two of my friends ordered steaks, there was some confusion as to who got what. As one friend was handed her plate she asked if the steak had been cooked to her medium well specification. She got no response, asked again and was ignored by the food runner. My order of braised pork shank was tender but rather tasteless. The lardons of bacon and roasted tomatoes that accompanied it were by far the best part of the dish. The steak eaters were pleased with the tenderness and flavor of their meats and the crabcakes were declared good, though I noticed that they were dissected on the plate by my friend to gain the most meat and leave the filler behind.

Shortly after receiving our entrees, a glass of wine was ordered. When it came much later, it was lacking the accompanying carafe that the other wine drinkers at the table got with their orders. A little later, a second glass of Pinot Noir was ordered and eventually poured from the carafe into MY glass of Malbec by a harried looking floor manager. The waitress very quickly apologized and filled the Pinot carafe with more of the same, as I sampled my newly created meritage. We joked about the lags in service and the missing and misplaced wine but as the evening stretched out, our good humor was wearing a little thin.

We had a good time, and everyone in my party said they liked the food. The service did not ruin our evening, nor was it bad enough to complain about. Just little missteps that hovered around the periphery of our evening. I left feeling that I could find more satisfying food, with better prices and smoother service elsewhere.

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After an unfortunate incident at Corduroy last night where they told my girlfriend that they could not let her in because she was wearing shorts (the fashionable kind that are now in style), we decided to head down the road a bit to find a place where we could eat outside. Having been to DG before and remembering it being pretty good, we decided to stop by and take advantage of their large outdoor seating area.

Upon arrival, we were told by the manager that there would be a relatively short wait to get a table outside. This was fine, we figured we could sit at the bar and take advantage of their excellent happy hour special on Tuesday. We ordered drinks (me an Eggenburg and her a Key Limetini, which was not good at all) and the calamari appetizer, which was quite good. As a sign of the potential problems to come for the night, the bartender was in a really bad mood, constantly complaining under her breath and really letting her frustration show in pretty much everything she did for the patrons. It was not really a big deal, more funny than anything, but it was odd to listen to this person basically complain and give their fellow staff a hard time while we were sitting right across from them.

After about 15 minutes, we were told that our table was ready outside. When we were seated, we were not given menus, silverware, or any indication that someone might be helping us. A waiter finally came out and asked us "Do you know what you want?" I did my best to hold in my sarcasm and said with a smile "We'd really like some menus". He said "Ohh, OK, I'll be right back". Ten minutes later, he comes back with one bar menu (the one we had just looked at). Again, I smiled and said that we wanted to have dinner, so could we have the dinner menus. English was definitely not his first language (which is fine), and I think he had some trouble figuring out what we needed. I eventually got the attention of the manager and asked for dinner menus and he came back with them. At this point, we're about 20 minutes in at the table, starving after the calamari whetted our appetites, and still without even a drink. The waiter disappeared for another 5 minutes or so before coming back to ask about drinks, at which point we were not smart enough to realize that we should order our food or risk not seeing him again for another 10 minutes. Of course, he shows up with our drinks 10 minutes later and we finally order our food. 35 minutes in and just ordering our food we were quite anxious, but figured it would not be much longer until we at least got our appetizers. Once again, maybe it was our fault for not tempering our expectations, but we were sorely mistaken. After another 20 minutes, my girlfriend just looked at me and said "I don't care if our food is ready right now, I do not want to eat here anymore". I had to agree, it was the worst service I have had in DC in recent memory, which is saying a lot considering I rarely get good service in this area. Ironically, our food was coming out of the kitchen just as we asked for our cheque, but we decided to just cut our losses and take off for Delhi Club.

For as good as the menu sounds (and may taste), I can't see myself going back there to spend considerable money (entrees are $23-32, drinks $9) and have to deal with the type of service we received last night.

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Has anyone ever been to one of these that can give a report back?

Aphrodisiac Bacon Dinners

Chef Greggory Hill will host a series of bacon dinners

with co-host The Grateful Palate's "Bacon of the Month Club"

Been meaning to check one of these out for quite some time. At the urging of a friend who went last month (and was ready to go back), tonight I attended the 34th Aphrodisiac Bacon Dinner. Six wine-paired courses, all featuring bacon ($75):

Oysters Deep Fried in Bacon Fat

Nodine's Garlic Bacon and Smoky Paprika Deviled Eggs

The oysters were good, but had a bit too much breading. The deviled eggs were unbelievable-- I'm not sure how he got so much bacon flavor into them.

Burger's Bacon Stuffed Mussels

Mussels baked with panko and bacon-- fine, but probably the weakest dish of the night

Carbonara with New Braunfels Smoked Bacon

Caramelized Pork and Burger's Black Pepper Bacon

Sorta like pulled pork with a caramelized bacon crust-- really good. I think this was everyone's favorite of the night.

Roasted Lamb Chop with Petit Jean Ozark Hickory Bacon

Rhubarb, Strawberry, and Gatton Farm Bacon Cobbler with Bacon Ice Cream

The bacon was very subtle in the delicious cobbler. The ice cream, made with bacon fat, didn't work for me (it was starting to seperate, leaving a greasy film).

And they give you each a pound of artisanal bacon to take home (I got some stuff from Kentucky). A fun night. The only downer was the syrupy Aussie wines of the Grateful Palate which didn't pair very well with the food (actually, I can't see Marquis Phillips' wines pairing with any possible food).

There's going to be bacon dinners in July and August, but that may then be it due to the sale of DG.

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