15 RIA....That's Rhode Island Ave. N.W. for you out-of-towners.

It's always a pleasure to see old friends. Below is a shot of Janis Mclean and yours truly mugging for the camera. Janis and I have been working together for years at various places since 1999 or so, in one form or another.


Janis has an impressive cv, including being educated at La Varenne Ecole De Cuisine and working for them for several years.

Janis also worked at one of my bygone favorites, Red Sage. Her plating and colors are reminiscent of it. This dish was a trout on forbidden grains with a grapefruit/avocado salad with fennel.

The scallops above were huge and cooked perfectly. That's a tough act. The sweet potato has was served on a ginger beurre blanc with wilted spinach. Very tasty.

Nicely done.

This was a banana cream pie! The banana slices had a top of caramelized sugar. The filling was light with chunks of fresh banana. The crust, of course, was dark chocolate cookie crumbs. Elvis would have liked it.

For those of you with a gluten issue, try this. Flourless chocolate cake with a raspberry splash.

I still lament the demise of the first restaurant we met at, Red Dog. She put together a great culinary operation in a very strange little restaurant in Silver Spring. The white pizza she created there was the best I've ever had, and I've had a lot.

If you have questions or comments, please don't be shy. I'd love to hear from you.
Thanks for reading.