ulterior epicure

Although I can't offer you any photos of the food, I can give you an idea of what the restaurant looks like from the outside.

Here is a slightly edited version of my blog post. Since you all know komi, I cut out a lot of the details that you all probably know. ********************* It amazes me that Johnny Monis, ex-McCrady’s opened the restaurant at the age of 24 in 2005. (It amazes me when anyone does anything at 24.) It went on my list almost immediately. Of course, that was before chefs invented the “no photography” rule, which Monis has since instituted much to my disappointment. It wasn’t without a very long pause that I decided to eat at komi, despite this ridiculousness. Am I sorry about my decision? Yes: I can’t share a lick of it, visually, with you. And no: our 14-course plus meal ($125 per person) was a steady parade of successful dishes with pockets of brilliance. It’s one of the best meals I’ve had in a while. - 1st Course Kampachi Smoked tuna broth. 2nd Course Madai Grated Japanese wasabi. 3rd Course Steamed Brioche Crème fraîche, smoked salmon roe. 4th Course Scallop in Two Preparations Scallop Shellfish sabayon, almonds, cilantro. Scallop Dill mustard, black truffle. 5th Course Alaskan King Salmon Belly White Baltic salmon, shiso sorbet, candied pinenuts 6th Course Crispy “Caesar” Salad Warm Romaine cream, Caesar dressing, Parmesan cheese. 7th Course Mini Pork Belly Sandwich 8th Course Charred Octopus Charred cauliflower and grilled scallion salad Onion yogurt, candied pecans 9th Course House-made Mortadella Crispy halloumi, egg whites, capers, grainy mustard, red onion. 10th Course Oven-roasted Medjool Date Mascarpone, extra virgin olive oil, sea salt. 11th Course Ricotta Ravioli English peas, garlic, black pepper. Papardelle Quail ragu, black olive puree 12th Course Roasted Suckling Pig Roasted Goat Accompaniments Pita, oregano salt, chile sauce, roasted red onion mustard, cabbage and cumin slaw, cucumber tzatziki. 13th Course La Tur Fennel mostarda. 14th Course Tangerine Creamcicles Hibiscus salt. 15th Course Frozen Baklava Cinnamon ice cream, phyllo. 16th Course Soft Chocolate Fennel, ouzo ice cream. ----- Salted Lemon Lollipop - The first ten courses were “mezze” – small one/two-bite dishes. At least three or four of them were presented as finger food (server holding the serving dish while you pluck and eat directly with no layover on your plate). A clever way to minimize the use of silverware and dishes, I suppose. Most of the mezze were minimalist, showcasing one or two ingredients. There were a couple of exceptions, like the “Crispy Caesar Salad,” which was more manipulated and “conceptualized” than the norm, something out of the playground of Cantu or Bowles. But it was delicious – a warm, creamy romaine lettuce cream encapsulated in a croquette topped with Caesar dressing and Parmesan shavings. For the most part, dishes were served family-style. There were a few that were served individually, like the salmon belly tartare, which came in long-stemmed cocktail glasses; the cheese course; and the last two desserts. Monis likes salt. It appears prominently in all his dishes. He uses it to great effect. We balked at the hill of salt on top of his famous stuffed dates. But the dates were so sweet, the salt was needed. There was a wonderful balance. The warm, fruity extra virgin olive oil that coated the dates and the plate stole my heart. I found myself double and triple dredging the date around the plate just to pick up more oil and salt. In one dish, however, he crossed the line. The scallop duo – to one side, a slice of scallop resting a bed of creamy dill mustard and topped with a slice of black truffle, to the other side, a tartare of scallop with shellfish sabayon and pulverized almonds – was too salty, even though the scallops were immensely sweet and delicious. Pity. Monis serves excellent “crudi” (my description, not his). The kampachi was especially nice. The flesh, well-rested, had a wonderful texture and flavor. So did the silky king salmon belly tartare, which was juxtaposed with an almost-crispy slice of white Baltic salmon. Both kinds of salmon were raw, a unique comparison. There was wonderful housemade mortadella, sliced and folded like satin kerchiefs, served with crispy cubes of halloumi and a bevy of garnishes. And there were marvelous ribbons of fresh, egg papardelle, hugged by a quail ragu whose sweetness was checked by a salty dollop of black olive puree. The noodles displayed admirable elasticity. (The ravioli, on the other hand, were very soft – the cloud-like packets with fluffy ricotta filling melted away in the mouth.) Both the roasted goat and roasted suckling pig, served on large plates family-style, were excellent, perhaps the highlights of the meal. This meatfest was the “main course,” the end to the savory courses. The roasted pig – a nicely bronzed front quarter – was presented at the table before being taken to the kitchen where it was disassembled. The meat was pulled and the crackling removed, cut into squares and scattered over the meat. The slab of goat sported a thin, crisp layer of skin. The interior was very moist and tender; it shredded with the slightest pressure. The goat meat was very clean – almost too clean-tasting for me. The suckling pig had more flavor. Both meats came with pita wedges straight from the oven – fluffy, pillowy, warm, comforting. There was a row of condiments, including an especially rich tzatziki. It was all presented in a excitingly unstructured way – a choose your own adventure course. I made mini gyros. A slap of tzatziki. A dash of lemon. Some “oregano salt.” Comfort food. The meal headed slightly downhill after the main meat dishes. The cheese course was fine, but nothing extraordinary. (Or, is it because I generally find “composed” cheese courses too precious and forced?) Desserts were alright, but certainly the weakest link (is there a dedicated pastry chef at komi?). The “animal cookies” sent out for a birthday celebrant at our table tasted stale . They weren’t very good. The soft chocolate dessert was very forgettable, even if it included very good ouzo ice cream. Service was good, although I still prefer to have just one server, as opposed to drawing from a pool of servers. But, I must commend the staff on being so coordinated. The restaurant was full, servers rotated, yet nothing was amiss. They were polished, on cue, and knowledgeable. The long, narrow dining room is stuccoed in butter yellow. The floors were wood-paneled. There weren’t more than fifteen tables – every one of them full. komi reminded me of a Spartan (no pun intended) version of Vetri Ristorante. They even have the same degustazione-only weekend concept – a flurry of small bites, then pasta, then meat, and finally a couple of desserts. From my seat, I had a direct eye-line through the open door into the well-illuminated kitchen. Given that the restaurant was dimly lit, it was sort of like sitting in a movie theatre facing an open fire exit. If you don’t want to be distracted by the sight of Johnny Monis cooking, or his cook tossing pita throughout the evening, you had better request a table towards the front of the restaurant. “Yea or nay," an acquaintance asked me. Based on one meal, this gentleman from the State of Missouri will vote yea. Monis’s food is most successful where it’s honest. It’s immensely satisfying. This isn’t the place to go for innovation or subtlety. Neither is it a place to seek unfettered genius. Rather, komi delivers notably high-quality ingredients that are, for the most part, minimally handled and executed with rewarding precision. Rising Star? Monis is up for a second nomination this year at the James Beard Awards. He faces, among others, a Keller protege (Hollingsworth) and a Robuchon protege (Pugin). I wish him the best of luck.

I'll admit that the length of my regular blog posts are way too long. I view my blog as a safe harbor from editorial limits; a sort of verbal vomit vortex. The following excerpt might still be too long for some of you. If you want more, including pictures, you can proceed with fair warning to my blog. ******** I can’t believe that I lived in Washington, D.C. and never once stepped foot in Cafe Atlantico. Jaleo, yes. But never Cafe Atlantico. Neither did I visit Jose Andres’s Mediterranean “mezze” restaurant, Zaytinya, which opened shortly before I moved away, or minibar, which always seemed (and still seems) like too much of a hassle. Cafe Atlantico’s “Latino Dim Sum,” served only on Sundays, sounds like the kind of cultural collision I generally try to avoid. But everyone raves about it. There’s nothing tremendously earth-shattering about the food here now, though it might have been slightly more so when the restaurant first opened two decades ago (in 1990). Andres’s Latino “dim sum” is, basically, a smattering of creative tapas served with chopsticks, a fork, a knife, and a spoon. It’s a mish-mash of tropical ingredients and flavors from around the globe. He calls it “Nuevo Latino” cuisine. The three of us decided to make ordering simple and opted for the 14-course dim sum tasting menu ($35 per person; $25 for the 12-course vegetarian tasting menu).* The question of value of the tasting menu is worth considering here. A la carte, the dishes ranged in price between $3 to $8, with the average probably being somewhere around $4.75. Some of the dishes came with two portions (there were two scallops – large ones – on the “Scallops with Cauliflower Puree” dish, two oysters on the “Oyster with Mango-Lime Oil,” and two conch fritters). Most seemed to come with three pieces to a dish – three cigalas halves, three endives, three pieces of tuna. However, it is difficult to know whether these were their normal a la carte portions, or if they were tailored to our three-person tasting menu format. Our situation was even more difficult to assess since Indo couldn’t have crustacea. Our server ended up bringing out 18 different dishes to accommodate Indo’s allergy. She even brought out multiples of the ones we particularly liked, though I have no idea whether this was the normal course of business, or whether it was her attempt to make up for the cocktail she accidentally poured over half our table. I suspect that individual dish portion sizes for a single person tasting menu would be smaller. Assuming that the quantity of food we got was normal, then it turns out that ordering the tasting menu was slightly less expensive than if we had ordered those same dishes a la carte. On top of the 18 dishes we were served as a part of the tasting menu, we also added three savory dishes and two desserts from the a la carte menu. - Endive with Queso Fresco Espuma Walnuts and pomegranate ($3) Malanga Chips Plantains and curry ($3) Tuna Ceviche with Coconut ($4) Oyster with Mango-Lime Oil ($3) Mango-Anchovy Ravioli ($3) Fried Egg with Veracruz Sauce ($5) Pineapple-Unagi Avocado sauce ($6.50) Cauliflower-Quinoa Cous Cous ($4) Mushroom with 63-degree Egg ($5) Conch Fritters With a liquid center($5) Potato & Vanilla Mousse American Caviar ($4) (x3) Hot & Cold Foie Gras and Corn Soup ($5) (x3) Huitlacoche & Wild Mushroom Quesadilla ($7) (x2) Grilled Skirt Steak “Carne Asada” ($7) Coconut Rice Crispy rice and ginger ($4) (x2) Fried Egg with Black Beans & Pork ($5) Pork Belly Confit Passion fruit oil ($7.50) (x2) Pan Dulce Cinnamon syrup ($5) - Seared Cigala with Vanilla Oil ($8) Scallops with Cauliflower Puree ($6) Beef Empanadas Date marmalade and queso fresco ($4.50) Cuatro Leches “Morir Soñando” ($9) Warm Apples & Raisins ($9) - As far as brunch goes, Cafe Atlantico’s Latino dim sum adds a splash of color to an otherwise predictable slate of options. The food is all very good, and I suppose it’s a novel experience. But it didn’t leave me raving. True to the dim sum experience, there’s a factory feel to it all. Here, instead of steaming carts with loud-mouthed drivers, you have servers mad-dashing about the crowded, three-level dining room with trays stacked with dishes. Some might find it festive. I call it chaotic. The restaurant was packed. They seated us 20 minutes after our reservation time. It might have been delayed even longer had I not checked in with the host about 15 minutes into our wait and mentioned that my friend and I were both needing to catch a flight out later that afternoon. While at no point did we feel rushed, other than by our own time constraints, getting people in and out efficiently seemed to be top-of-mind for the staff. There was a steady stream of diners exiting and entering throughout the two hours we were there. Dishes were churned out with the same slapdash affect as at a dim sum house. The food wasn’t sloppily plated, necessarily, but most if it looked like it rolled off an assembly line; attempted order. Yet, almost everything was properly cooked. My favorite dishes were the more traditional, hearty Spanish ones. The “Grilled Skirt Steak ‘Carne Asada,’” for example, was simple, straightforward, and tasty. The strips of meat were tender and juicy. “Pork Belly Confit” was amazing – the layers of melting collagen and tender meat were almost indistinguishable from each other. The egg dishes – all of them – were great, especially the one with a delicious layer of pork-stewed beans (“Fried Egg with Black Beans & Pork“). The “Coconut Rice” was also very good, an unexpectedly savory comfort (I had expected something more akin to sweet rice pudding). And the “Huitlacoche & Wild Mushroom Quesadilla” were great – a toasty tortilla sandwich layered with a beefy, layer of silky mushrooms glued together with melted cheese. Other than the cigalas, which were mushy (Could they have been frozen? Past experience suggests so.), there were few truly disappointing dishes. The “Hot & Cold Foie Gras and Corn Soup” sounded better than it tasted: warm corn soup with a cold foie gras froth, it tasted like a mistake. I like my soups either all hot or all cold. This just left me feeling lukewarm, literally. The balance of our fare fell somewhere between forgettable and good. The scallops were good (and, at $6 for two, giant U-8s, the best buy of the day), as were the oysters. The packets of anchovy mousse wrapped in thinly shaved sheets of mango were creative – admirable for the subtlety – but not terribly moving (“Mango-Anchovy Ravioli“). Even less interesting was “Endive with Queso Fresco Espuma,” another casualty of the iSi epidemic. Crunchy endive leaves beg for a hefty partner – a cloud-like foam is not it. Rave? No. Pleased? Sure. Like the refreshing and well-made limeade, our “Latino dim sum” brunch at Cafe Atlantico was a bubbly and fun occasion, much more because of the company than the food. Unless someone lands a reservation to minibar and invites me, I won’t be rushing back.

Congrats Chef Miller!

I was at the original location near Dupont on a recent Saturday for brunch, drawn by a sudden yen for a lobster roll. The place is cute; a Georgetown-on-Cape Cod outfit with exposed brick walls and slick, blond wood floors. I bet the servers here all have masters degrees. One friend asked for a pint of Tröegs “Troegenator” and a “Lobster Bisque” ($7), neither of which I tasted. The bisque looked thin, which was her main complaint. It came with a baggie of oyster crackers. My other friend ordered the “Housemade Corned Beef and Potato Hash” ($13), which I also didn’t try. It looked good enough, heavy on the meaty dices of corned beef and light on the potatoes. The egg seemed nicely poached, the yolk was runny. I did, however, try one of my friend's “Fried Oysters” ($11), which were plump, with a thin, flaky, and impossibly light crust. Heaped into a shallow bowl, the ones on the bottom went soggy, the crust, greasy. The accompanying dip, a creamy hybrid of tartar and remoulade, was delicious. My “Lobster Roll” was pretty good – a well-buttered and toasted bun stuffed with a generous portion of lightly dressed lobster salad (tiny bits of celery – and mayonnaise, of course – being the only company for the lobster). The lobster had been nicely diced – there’s nothing worse than ill-chopped chunks still strung together, one bite pulling out the entire filling at once. Sadly, the accompanying tangle of fries were limp, though well-seasoned. But I found consolation in a delicious side order of “Coleslaw,” which was more sweet than tart ($5). And the “Marinated Beets,” which were tender and clean-tasting, were also very good. Dessert? Not that we were looking to indulge, but we couldn’t have even if we wanted to. There are no desserts at brunch (I’m not even sure they offer dessert at weekday lunch or at dinner). But a little ramekin of dark chocolate nuggets – replacing the Goldfish – arrived with the bill. It was just the sweet cap that we three were quietly craving. Service was efficient and friendly, surprisingly attentive for a casual establishment. Although we beat the “rush,” I’ve been warned that this place can fill up quickly. They don’t take reservations, but they do accept 20-minute call-ahead seating requests. I called ahead, but arrived at a half-empty restaurant. By the time we left, all the tables were full. Had it been twenty-degrees warmer, you would have found us out on their patio. You can find the link to the photos and more on my blog.

Generally, I would agree with you (assuming one is a relatively able home cook). But, speaking from personal experience, I'm much more likely to let someone else add pounds of butter and duck fat to my food than prudence would allow me at home. And I say this only half-jokingly.

I had a decent lunch here recently. Richard's food is fun, creative, and over-the-top. It's generous, effusive, and lovable. Anchored in fundamental technique, there are no surprises here except how good well-cooked and simple food can be. There were textbook Gougeres ($7), about a dozen warm puffs sporting a soft-crust jacket laced with grated cheese. There were textbook French fries - crisp, salty, golden. Michel Richard's signature Ahi Tuna Burger ($19) was well-made, a thick, chopped tuna patty on a pillowy bun with tomato and house-made mayonnaise. I might have liked the inside of the patty a touch more rare, as I recalled it being the last time I had one out on the patio at Citronelle nearly a decade ago. But it was flavorful and moist, and, perhaps the only reasonably sized portion we saw (price notwithstanding). Only one potato tuile? I remember there being at least two in past versions (indeed, the burger on their website boasts at least half a dozen crisps). Two (or more) tuiles seem necessary. The one sort of got lost along the way, its crunchiness diminished with every bite. My Corned Beef Sandwich ($17) was excellent (even if a little overpriced). The ultra-thin layers of house-corned meat were moist and light. It was impossibly delicate, yet satisfying. The slaw (which came on and with the sandwich) was a tangle of grated cabbage, zucchini, and carrot brought together by a slightly curried mayonnaise dressing. The rye bread - mildly toasted - held up nicely, it being neither dry, stiff, overly thick nor flimsy. Instead of fries, I opted for a salad. Nothing new here, just mixed greens and a zippy dressing. At first glance, the dessert menu seems like a laundry list of usual suspects (e.g., chocolate mousse, crème brí»lée, chocolate "lava" cake, cheesecake, etc.), with a couple of Richard signatures thrown in (e.g. Michel's Chocolate Bar, a.k.a. "Le Kit Cat."). But well-made dessert is a well-made dessert. The "Tropical Meringue" ($9) was a mountain of crisp, airy meringues and coconut sorbet topped with a fluffy cloud of whipped cream flocked with colorful dices of tropical fruit (kiwi, mango papaya, bananas, and pineapple) and drizzled with fruit syrups. It had every textural component you could want. It was light and refreshing. It was wonderful, large enough for four. (Our server admitted that our serving seemed unusually large.) The "Banana Split" ($12) was an ice cream parlor on a plate. It was excess at its best, a childhood fantasy. Our server hit the mark for this kind of establishment at that hour of the day, focusing more on efficiency than personality. She seemed to have more to say as the crowd thinned out. Yes, the restaurant was full when we walked in around 1:15 on a Friday. My friend had hoped to revisit the Cafe Brulot here (it was listed on the cocktail menu online). Sadly, it was not on the menu when we arrived. Instead, she enjoyed a tall glass of "Cinnamon Sweet Tea" ($11). It tasted like cinnamon-flavored Listerine to me. But she enjoyed it. You can find the particulars and photos on my blog.

By the way, Don, I love how you encourage postings. When can I shed my "shrimp' shell and move on to my larger, "prawn" digs? And how did leleboo become a non-aquatic creature? Can I be "space man?"

Well, I certainly won't shoo away recommendations for places to find that diva of pastries.

I know of one other member of this forum who appreciates opera as much as (and assuredly, more than) I do. I'll let him speak up if he sees this thread. Has anyone seen Terrence McNally's "Nights at the Opera: The Lisbon Traviata?"

And considering the inaccuracy of those lying weatherpeople on the tee vee these days, it's not likely that the mileage will be accurate until the moment of the meal. Thanks for the information, KMango!

Yes, I already checked and they do have a brunch menu. But I only want the lobster roll, which is on the brunch menu. Is the one at Q. Street "breezy, open-air environment," or is that the one in Old Town?

I'm bumping this thread. Trying to decide between Hank's (Q. Street) and Tackle Box for a weekend lunch (I guess that'd be brunch). Why these two? Convenience. And because I have a yen for a lobster roll.