Hello everyone,
I would like to introduce my self and Plume at The Jefferson Hotel. I'm in charge of all Food & Beverage operations at The Hotel as well as Plume Restaurant General Manager. Yes, very long days :-)
I'm Italian and have been in Washington DC for the past 4 years. The last 3 entirely dedicated to The Jefferson project, recently reopened after 30 months of major renovations. A great passion for hospitality, 5 star service and of course for food and beverage. My background goes through Relais & Chateaux, Small Luxury Hotels of the World, Leading Hotels, from France, to Italy, to Morocco, Switzerland. I'm a graduate of Hospitality Management School of Lausanne.
I will spare you from the description of The Hotel as it's my understanding that this blog concentrate mostly of the restaurant scene in town.
Plume concept is born around the end of 2007 after many months of research on the history of the building, competitive surveys, chef research, staff recruitment to fit the concept, and of course reading a lot on Thomas Jefferson's passions for traveling, food and wine, botanics. We wanted to create a restaurant with a solid soul, where guest could feel at home, could learn something about history, and a romantic scene with traditional elements, trying to stay away as much as possible from the typical stiffness of restaurants of this caliber. Recruiting people with a true passion for this job, people that could smile at the idea of serving and cooking the best meal. The idea is to create Washington best small luxury restaurant, providing 3* MIchelin level food and service. I flew myself 3 times in Europe for recruitment, and multiple times to all corners of the United States to find the perfect fit. Our fantastic Chef Damon Gordon has worked for names such Roux brothers, Alain Ducasse as executive. HIs classic culinary background, reflects our interest in doing somehow what Thomas Jefferson did at the end of the 18th century. He was american ambassador in France for 2 years and he brought along his cook to have him trained in french cuisine. The cuisine of Plume can be described as Classic Contemporary.
Our Sommelier Michael Scaffidi, former French Laundry and Greenbrier sommelier, worked closely with me for over 1 year to develop a wine list that would reflect Thomas Jefferson's incredible passions for the finest wines of France, Italy, Spain and Germany, but at the same time affordable and at everyone's reach. TJ, during his 3 months travels throughout the wine region of Europe, wrote the classification of Best premier grand cru of Bordeaux 70 years before the official classification of Napoleon the third of 1855. He also loved wines from Burgundy and Cote du Rhone; a great passion also for Riesling and Madeira. The challenge was how to make such a collection of names affordable, right? Well, we decided to lower the usual mark-up, but also trying to get most of these vineries to bottle or ship half bottles uniquely for us. We currently have almost 250 labels in half size. The other almost 1000 labels are of mostly regular 750 format. We were trying to think on how many times we found ourself with a guest, willing to have a nice wine, but realizing that a bottle wold be too much, often interested in both, a white and than a red, and forced so in the by the glass selection. This was our answer to the problem. In addition 55% of our wine offer are listed at less than 100 dollars.
Plume it's a special place, but please don't think we are the pretentious spot that many people think we are. We might be ambitious and the space appears to be formal, but Plume it's the result of few passionate people that work together with humbleness and trying to give the best they can to make the experience memorable.
Also to mention it's Quill and PLume Bar. Quill it's our lounge where Alex Holzer, mixologist previously at La Pergola in Rome, infuses liquor every month (look for the White truffle infused Vodka starting next week), grows herbs and prepares fresh juices everyday. Plume Bar it's our pre or after dinner small intimate bar, only 7 seats (5 at the bar and 1 table of 2), where you'll find Madeiras starting from 1780 and Armagnacs starting form 1893.
Anyway, we really look forward to hosting you all and tell you more about it. Ask form me whenever you come, I would be very happy to show you more secrets of the Jefferson...
You can all have a look at our Menus at www.jeffersondc.com
I hope this was not too long as introduction :-) and I look forward to start posting and reading your feedback on Plume.
Mario
