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Pineapple and Pearls, Fine Dining Restaurant on Barracks Row by Rose's Luxury, $325 All-Inclusive Including Drinks - $225 (No Drinks) at the Bar


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15 hours ago, Marty L. said:

Is there really that much disposable income floating around in this town?  I'm increasingly shocked that D.C. can support as many expensive places as it does today.  Or is the bubble going to burst dramatically in the next year or two?

That is seriously a lot of money.

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45 minutes ago, Josh Radigan said:

Add to that the population at least within the city lines has started to decrease.

The rate of DC's population growth has slightly decreased but the city had a net gain of over 10,000 residents last year.

 

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On December 2, 2017 at 10:39 AM, Marty L. said:

Is there really that much disposable income floating around in this town?  I'm increasingly shocked that D.C. can support as many expensive places as it does today.  Or is the bubble going to burst dramatically in the next year or two?

I'd be in full agreement if we were talking about just this town, but a Michelin 2 star is bringing people in from elsewhere, as well as people who spend part of their time here but are based in NYC or SF, et al., and have business reasons for being in town some of the time.  Cutting down on the size of the space will factor into this equation too.

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There are over 100,000 hotel rooms in DC region, most close in with very high occupancy rates and averaging well over $200/room/night on average in the city.  There is also somewhere in the range of $4 billion spent on lobbying in DC and at the high end of the large international community (embassies et al) there is a lot of $$ spent.  

As Pat said above there are many visitors  who bolster the local community when it comes to dining at a name restaurant.  

I visit(ed) name restaurants in other cities and I keep reading about members here doing so in distant cities.  So too with visitors here.

Of course hit us with one recession and all bets are off

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That's odd- I just saw an article in the WBJ which stated that the D.C. Population has been shrinking for about 6 months due to people leaving to go back to their hometowns now that the recession has subsided to many. That being said D.C. Can support good restaurants but the ones in the middle will struggle simply because there are so many of them.

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On 12/2/2017 at 10:39 AM, Marty L. said:

Is there really that much disposable income floating around in this town? 

Yes.

Quote

I'm increasingly shocked that D.C. can support as many expensive places as it does today.  Or is the bubble going to burst dramatically in the next year or two?

It will/has for a lot of places in less fashionable areas, particularly the suburbs. Hot, well reviewed and nationally known places like P&P are largely safe from any burst. 

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On 12/3/2017 at 1:51 AM, Mark Slater said:

That is seriously a lot of money.

That it is. It is  still on my bucket list to be able to dine at Pineapple & Pearls, but more so to share the meal with someone that would appreciate as much I would. That is challenging.

Living in York, Pa, I have met Matthew Russell, proprietor & human extraordinaire of the Horse Inn. He worked with Aaron, and speaks highly of him. Chef to chef, that is a compliment.  The District can support this  high level of dining, and withstand any said bubble. I mean Citronelle sustained it for 18 delicious years. So kudos to the team at P &P , and may you prosper well into the new year, beyond. 

Pine for P &P,

kat

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@MichaelBDC received a very generous gift card to Pineapple and Pearls for Christmas and we wanted to use it before prices went up. We were able to snag a reservation for the bar on the one Saturday in February they were open. In an attempt to contain costs (the gc did not cover the full amount), I did the wine pairing while Michael sipped on a glass of wine. The meal was nearly perfect and lived up to the hype (and price tag).

A few pictures of the menu and most aesthetically pleasing, but not necessarily the best, dishes are below:

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The very good and creative chip & dip was a fun and flavor-filled way to start the evening. The abalone panda cotta with royal ossetia caviar was my absolute favorite dish of the evening. 

Beggar's Purse with Egg Yolk and Gold Leaf

Beggar's Purse with Egg Yolk & Gold Leaf. Pasta was made with beets and the liquid underneath was parmesan broth. This was @MichaelBDC's favorite course.

Tete du Moine, Hazelnut & Honey

Cheese course. You could hardly tell. Incredibly rich. 

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We had originally wanted to go for my birthday but Pineapple and Pearls wasn't open that evening so I made the reservation for a week later. We went out on my actual birthday anyway so this was a second celebration of sorts. We were so stuffed at this point, we ended up taking half the cake and the chocolates home with us. 

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i loved the tete de moine when we had it about six weeks ago; the honey was truffled, which added a lovely earthy element, and the hazelnut puree underneath was nicely salty.  (p&p has always done well with plated cheese courses.)  it was one of the best dishes of the night, along with the beet beggar's purse, the abalone, and the fennel sorbet.  

i've always enjoyed p&p, but the last few meals haven't left us quite as impressed as the first few, for no reason that i can clearly articulate.  but looking at my list of favorites from our january meal, maybe the answer is that the dishes are very delicious but lack the wow factor that i want to call something a truly amazing dish?  cheese, truffled honey, and salty nut flavors are a great combination, but also not unusual.  same with the pasta: beets, caramelized onions, egg yolk, and cheese make for unctuous delight, but not wonder.

in contrast, a recent celebratory dinner at komi was the best meal i've had there in recent memory, and affirmed komi's place as my favorite fine dining restaurant in dc.  

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Pineapple and Pearls was very new when we moved away from DC in early 2016. Despite the accolades to motivate us and regular trips back to the area for both work and pleasure since then, we had our first meal there over the weekend. For obvious reasons when we are back in town we usually hit up our nostalgic favorites but we were able to get relatively last minute 9:30 pm seats at the bar. We found the most memorable aspect of the meal to be how unsatisfying it was. I don't think it lived up to the hype. It would be entirely fair to @ me because we were seated at the bar and that isn't the same thing. But I am someone who believes the bar experience and quality should be as good than the dining even with a slightly different or truncated menu. A bar menu should make you want to go back for the full dining room experience. This is especially true of you are still paying high end tasting menu prices.  I left the dinner thinking the food was a lot of overwrought gimmick not backed up with flavor. To be clear nothing was bad or offensive. The technical execution was there. I just didn't love the meal.

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22 minutes ago, lekkerwijn said:

Pineapple and Pearls was very new when we moved away from DC in early 2016. Despite the accolades to motivate us and regular trips back to the area for both work and pleasure since then, we had our first meal there over the weekend. For obvious reasons when we are back in town we usually hit up our nostalgic favorites but we were able to get relatively last minute 9:30 pm seats at the bar. We found the most memorable aspect of the meal to be how unsatisfying it was. I don't think it lived up to the hype. It would be entirely fair to @ me because we were seated at the bar and that isn't the same thing. But I am someone who believes the bar experience and quality should be as good than the dining even with a slightly different or truncated menu. A bar menu should make you want to go back for the full dining room experience. This is especially true of you are still paying high end tasting menu prices.  I left the dinner thinking the food was a lot of overwrought gimmick not backed up with flavor. To be clear nothing was bad or offensive. The technical execution was there. I just didn't love the meal.

I haven't been here in over 18 months - this is a case when my "liking" a post doesn't mean that I "LIKE" the post; but I appreciate the thought that went into it, and also who's writing it (lekkerwijn knows a lot about these things).

As far as I know, the meal at the bar is the exact same as the one in the dining room.

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2 hours ago, DonRocks said:

As far as I know, the meal at the bar is the exact same as the one in the dining room.

I disagree.  On July 7, 2018, I had an extraordinary dinner, one of the best in 2018 at the Chef's counter of P&P.  As always, P&P exceeded all expectations.  In my opinion, P&P remains the BEST restaurant in DC.

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12 minutes ago, DonRocks said:

Disagree with what? I'm pretty sure the meal I had at the bar was the exact same thing they served in the dining room.

Summer Bar menu is 5 courses for $150 only at the bar.  Most of the same dishes as the full dining room menu, but not the exact menu. 

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55 minutes ago, DonRocks said:

Disagree with what? I'm pretty sure the meal I had at the bar was the exact same thing they served in the dining room.

It was. They seem to have made a change. The old bar menu (not special, summer, etc.) was $150, but the price has gone up (I believe) twice since then. So they must have added back a $150 menu with fewer courses.

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I just made a reservation for our anniversary for the $150 summer bar tasting menu. During the reservation process they now mention what the special will be that night, which for our night is a $120 surcharge per serving, with a recommendation of at least one serving for two people. That would considerably up the cost of the meal, but it would also add back in some more food. (I'm a little concerned that with only five courses, my husband will leave hungry.)

When I declined the special while making the reservation, they then asked if I would like to be asked again about the special on the night of my visit. I really like this approach. Very world-classy. So, if I complain about them bringing up the special again when we're at the restaurant, feel free to smack me.😉

I will consult with my husband in the meantime about what he wants to do about it. There's plenty of time.

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(TL;DR alert: This really needs editing and I should find the codes for getting the correct accents in, but I'm posting now anyway.)

We opted not to get the supplement last night because it would have been served in place of the fish course, which was monkfish. The price quoted, however, was $60 per person, rather than $120 per shareable serving. We both enjoyed the monkfish course and felt we made the right decision.

Our bartender - server said that they've changed things so the bar menu is different from the dining room and chef's counter menu, with fewer courses that are also a little bigger. If I understood correctly, this is not just for summer but a permanent change. From what I read on the website about the five course summer bar menu a while ago, I believe it still some form of a subset of the larger menu. My husband could have used a little more food, but I filled up on the courses they served. I like that they are offering this smaller and more gently priced menu at the bar.

Everything was excellent, though I wasn't fond of the flavors of the black chestnut ice cream that was half of the dessert. Maybe it was because the chestnuts had been long fermented. When I picked up actual chestnut flavor, it was okay, but the rest did not sit too well with my taste buds. Otherwise, everything hit all the right notes. The service was exceptionally good, with one oops.

The biggest highlights were the aforementioned Creole Style Blackened Monkfish,  on a bed of very rich and creamy Anson MIlls Carolina Gold rice with mussels and a pourover sauce of etouffee; the Summer Charcoal Grill Out course that followed, with Porterhouse Shenandoah Lamb; and, the other half of the dessert: Birch Sticky Toffee Cake..

My husband needed a sharp knife to cut the monkfish but I was okay with a dinner knife. It was a delicious fish (and shellfish) course, though not the only one that involved seafood.

The lamb that arrived next had been pre-cut but left together on the plate. It tasted like it had been cooked outside on a charcoal grill, so truth in advertising. We were encouraged to pick up the lamb bones to get the remaining bit of meat. This was served with two sauces, a mint and parsley chimichurri and a harissa. There was an accompanying side dish (well,, bowl) of favas, English peas, and braised vegetables with delicious saucing courtesy of an herbal and floral nutmeg veloute and smoked creme fraiche and anchovy. I have no idea how they develop these combinations, but it all worked together really well.

The cake was in the form of a biscuit-sized round tart, topped with summer berries. It tasted like gingerbread to me. I don't gravitate towards desserts, but I loved this. We were supposed to go back and forth with the cake and ice cream, I think, but I didn't find that improved the ice cream flavor, so I finished that and then focused on the cake. (My husband was okay with the black chestnut ice cream. That was just me.) Because we were celebrating, we also got an extra dessert that was a chocolate shell-covered ice cream (my husband laughed when I invoked Dairy Queen). There was also a small scoop of something else that might have been ice cream, but there was some marshmallow in there too, I think. I lost track, and I don't have a menu entry for this to remind me.

As far as the rest of the menu, the amuse bouche was a Smoked Tallow Tart with red onion gelee and rosemary. It was cut in the form of a tiny isosceles triangle of cheesecake. There was a nice bit of pastry in the crust that came through. The Maine Uni Arepa, the bite that came next, was the first of three pretty spicy courses. The arepa was the size of a Ritz cracker and then was topped with a sandwich of the other ingredients. The soy sauce emulsion layer of this was incredibly creamy, and we would never have guessed it was soy sauce. The pickled Fresno chili added quite a kick of heat. Next followed what I imagine is a signature dish of the restaurant, as I see photos of it promoted as a sample of the menu: a brownie-sized 150 Layer Lasagna, this served with a Lobster, Blue Crab, and Clam Fra Diavolo sauce. My husband could identify pieces of lobster in the sauce. I just admired the construction project and enjoyed the pasta and sauce. It was spicy but not overwhelmingly so. It was at this point, I realized that we were in a section of the menu that was really bringing the heat. (The monkfish followed.)

/TL;DR

Executive summary: The restaurant continues to excel. The 5 course bar menu is a fabulous way to experience the restaurant.

 

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Not sure what to make of this article as the details are cryptic, but when they reopen it will be smaller (26 seats, down from 42) and cheaper!!  When does that happen!?!?  Then again, I didn't realize their pre-pandemic price had ballooned to $325.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2021/11/15/pineapple-and-pearls-relaunch-aaron-silverman/

After reading it, my first thought was the thread about Eleven Madison Park going vegetarian and possibly regretting it, or at least having a goldmine if they kept it how it was.

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I went last year and won't give a lot of detail but just did not love the experience at all.  A lot of pomp and circumstance, stories about Chef's youth, and the only thing I remember that we had was the soft serve ice cream we got at the end of the night.  No way you will see me back here unless someone else is paying.

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