The Smith, Originally from New York, now with 2 DC Locations

[Ferris Bueller]

Had dinner here (Penn Quarter location) twice this past week. Originally enticed by Restaurant week offerings, and lured back because the dinner was good enough to simplify and try their burgers.  

Ricotta gnocchi truffle cream, was some of the best I have had. Literally cut the gnocchi into halves to make it last longer in order to mop up the truffle cream. 

Chicken pot pie braised chicken, baby portobello mushrooms, pearl onion, cheddar biscuit top - the cheddar biscuit top was more of a flakier, dumpling consistency than a more traditional pie--type of crust. The braised chicken and broth all finished well; not a piece left at our table of 4.

Caramel banana bread pudding brown butter ice cream, banana rum caramel - cannot describe it any better than that - enough said.

Atmosphere was lively, bar was hoping before the dinner crowd picked up both nights. The circa 1950s black/white themed dining area was comfortable and sounds reasonable. You could talk at a normal tone without shouting as is often the case in open-air type restaurants. Service never missed a beat, and from water service to clearing our tables efficiently everything flowed seamlessly.  Overall dining time ~1 hour 15 minutes with 2 rounds of cocktails from the bar.  Bar drinks were quick and pretty consistent.  Nightly specials are static and looked good; hence why we came back for the Burger Royale Thursday night.  Burgers were very good, and the fries made all of us clean our plates.

[Kibbee Nayee]

Lady Kibbee and I had tickets for The Mavericks at the Lincoln Theater, so we had dinner at The Smith, right down U Street less than a block away. Our normal Izakaya Seki was not booking reservations after 5:30, so we decided on The Smith at 6:00 on a Friday evening.

I don't like chains but the menu was Lady KN-friendly (that means lots of seafood and chardonnay) and there are only seven locations between New York, Washington DC, and Chicago. So we gave it a try.

The atmosphere was reminiscent of The Oceanaire or McCormick and Schmick's, which was a reasonably good sign, so we grabbed a table and tucked in. First round was the Royale, a medium ($57) seafood tower with oysters, shrimp cocktail, and spicy salmon tartare. It was very good, and since we are big fans of oysters, the oysters on the Royale were a hit. They were shucked perfectly, not a shell shard anywhere, they slipped off the shell into the mouth with ease. We could have stopped there and just ordered oysters, and believe me, we're talking about going back just for oysters. And that salmon tartare was delicious.

Then came the mains. Wife had the salmon platter and declared it delicious, and I had the squid ink tagliatelle, with shrimp and calamari, and it was surprisingly sensational. I don't want to overstate this, but coming from a mini-chain kitchen, there was an obvious attentiveness and a decided lack of indifference that some chains are known for. This is not such that kind of chain. We happily noted that our future ventures to the Lincoln Theater would include a visit to The Smith.

 

[dcs]

17 hours ago, Kibbee Nayee said:

Lady Kibbee and I had tickets for The Mavericks at the Lincoln Theater, so we had dinner at The Smith, right down U Street less than a block away. Our normal Izakaya Seki was not booking reservations after 5:30, so we decided on The Smith at 6:00 on a Friday evening.

I don't like chains but the menu was Lady KN-friendly (that means lots of seafood and chardonnay) and there are only seven locations between New York, Washington DC, and Chicago. So we gave it a try.

The atmosphere was reminiscent of The Oceanaire or McCormick and Schmick's, which was a reasonably good sign, so we grabbed a table and tucked in. First round was the Royale, a medium ($57) seafood tower with oysters, shrimp cocktail, and spicy salmon tartare. It was very good, and since we are big fans of oysters, the oysters on the Royale were a hit. They were shucked perfectly, not a shell shard anywhere, they slipped off the shell into the mouth with ease. We could have stopped there and just ordered oysters, and believe me, we're talking about going back just for oysters. And that salmon tartare was delicious.

Then came the mains. Wife had the salmon platter and declared it delicious, and I had the squid ink tagliatelle, with shrimp and calamari, and it was surprisingly sensational. I don't want to overstate this, but coming from a mini-chain kitchen, there was an obvious attentiveness and a decided lack of indifference that some chains are known for. This is not such that kind of chain. We happily noted that our future ventures to the Lincoln Theater would include a visit to The Smith.

 

We have been to the 2 Smith outposts in DC and most of the locations in NYC and they never disappoint.  In fact, we were at F street yesterday just for drinks.  They also are in Chicago.