Honeysuckle - Hamilton Johnson's M St. Gem

Honeysuckle

1990 M St. N.W.

Washington, DC 20036

202-659-1990

www.honeysuckledc.com

Honeysuckle is pretty cool. I mean, it's really cool. It's low-key. It's down-to-earth, it's a restaurant guy's kind of restaurant. You can go in a pair of jeans and nice t-shirt, or a tie and jacket. Either way you'll feel at home.

Hamilton Johnson is cool too. He's a real human who doesn't put up a facade. He's out there living loud for everyone to see. His posts on social media are pretty much unfiltered. He shows his vulnerability, happiness, and adventures. I've been following him for a while, since his days with Jeff Buben at the now-shuttered Vidalia (which has been reclaimed by Hamilton and transformed into Honeysuckle) and it's been fun watching him.

Background aside, as some of you may or may not know I'm back working with independent restaurants again. I'd been working for a multi-national company for the past couple of years and didn't make it downtown too much during that time. Wow has DC changed. Was it always this bohemian? By 8:00pm there were people dancing in the streets and passing joints around on the sidewalk. Crazy.

Back to the subject at hand - 

The amuse that came to our table was a foreshadowing of things to come: tart, salt, herb, and umami.

I'm a sucker for fois gras, and this health-sized chunk of seared ambrosia came from Hudson Valley. There was some slightly-caramelized zucchini bread with a cherry-rhubarb jam, spiced peanuts and a CocaCola caramel.

My son Alex is a sucker for raw fish in pretty much any form. He started out with the Ahi Tuna Tartare. When you get everything on the plate together the flavors pull together for a very satisfying finish. There's a lot more going on than raw tuna with mustard. 

 This is the Citrus Cured Trout - the rye meringue was very neat. That being said, I wonder what this dish would have looked like with the meringue on the bottom? There was smoked roe and pickled onions under there. Very tasty.

 Perfectly prepared asparagus with lemon aioli.

 Alex got the Chicken and Dumplings. He's not a big fan of mushrooms so I was surprised he ordered it, but glad he did as I got to finish off the fresh oyster mushrooms in the sauce chasseur. The chicken itself was billed as a confit. It may have been, but not in the traditional crisp-skinned sense. The meat tasted as if it were, that's for sure. It was rich and very flavorful. 

 I ordered the Spice-Crusted Duck Breast. Wow that was good. Our server recommended mid-rare, so I went with it. Sometimes restaurants do that and what comes out is an inedible, tough piece of bloody poultry. Not the case here. It cut and chewed like a good steak. Perfection.

Last, but certainly not least, was the dish that enticed me to come to this restaurant on this night. Foie Gras ice cream. I saw a post on Instagram of Hamilton making this and I had to come try it. It was all that. Think very creamy ice cream with a hint of foie and grandma's spiced apple pie with crumbled brown-sugar goodness.

Bravo Chef. I apologize for waiting so long to try you out, but will certainly be recommending Honeysuckle in the future.

Thanks for reading.

Tosca - An Opera In Your Mouth

Ristorante Tosca

1112 F St. N.W.

Washington, DC 20004

202-367-1990

www.toscadc.com

It's unlike me to go to an older restaurant unless it's a favorite of mine, i.e. Old Ebbitt, Billy Martin's Tavern, Brasserie Beck. I'm not sure why, but I thought it would be fun to try Tosca. I've never been there before, but my son was away and the parents wanted to play so we gave it a shot.

I'd read about Tosca, and Chef Matteo had given me some pointers on Facebook, so I figured, "Why not?"

Turns out it was a good choice.

If you've followed my blog in the past you'll notice the familiar chef's table crew. These folks are always so good about humoring me on my culinary adventures.

Here we have Chef de Cuisine Jesse Long on the left and the blurry go on the right is Executive Chef Matteo Venini. They were both very pleasant and accommodating during the meal even though the dining room was full.

Here is the first course being plated.

Cured Ora Salmon with several accompaniments. Charred citrus emulsion, grapefruit vinaigrette, olive oil powder, and lychee sorbet. The salmon was like butter. Apparently this type of salmon is known for it's consistent, thick marbling and takes curing very well. 

Second course was house-made burrata with smoked eggplant crema, onion ash and beets. 

The eggplant crema brought a serious flavor boost to what could have been a boring dish. I like burrata, but it's often bland. Nicely done.

This is the braised cuttlefish stew with wild mushrooms, garlic oil and olives. There was a whole lot of flavor in this. Unfortunately, I was taking pictures while everyone else was stealing the rest of the excellent bread to sop up the broth and wipe their plates clean, or I would have done the same. The trumpet mushrooms were screaming umami. I began to enjoy this meal in a serious manner here.

Next up was the Carbonara Ravioli. Inside the ravioli was a 1-hour duck egg. Excellent combination.

The shavings of summer truffle and the smoked butter were awesome.

I had to take a shot of these entrees as they were awaiting final touches before hitting someone's table. Everything looked tasty.

Sorry I didn't get a chance to try this!

Shanks a lot!

Back to our dinner...next course was a risotto with burned leeks and crispy sweetbreads. I'm not normally a fan of sweetbreads, but these were just the right size and texture. Perfectly cooked risotto as well.

The octopus had a shrimp and scallop mousse with a beet coulis. The flavor and texture was perfection.

Next was an intermezzo of sorbet and a shot of margarita! Ole!

Muscovy duck with spicy cherry gastrique. This was my wife's favorite.

Here's another look at the plate. Well composed.

Here is our dessert being plated.

The money shot!

Now I'll explain it to you: Foie Gras and Salted Caramel Candy Bar.

This may be the best thing I've put in my mouth all year. That is saying a lot. The dark chocolate and salted caramel with the chilled fois was stupendous. I can only think of a few desserts that are even close to this. Bravo chefs!

Sometimes it's worth the trip to visit something that isn't on the Eater Heatmap. Give it a shot. You won't be disappointed. If you go, tell them you read about it on Pleasures of the Table, and grab me one of these candy bars to go, would you?

Grazi.

Traipsing Down Truffle Lane at Vidalia

So Matt and I decided to get together for dinner at Vidalia. We'd talked about the restaurant before, but hadn't had the opportunity to go there together. I'd been there a couple of times with family. We tried to get reservations for Restaurant Week where the menu we had would have been a bit less expensive, but resos for Vidalia during restaurant week are harder to find that honest politicians. Matt and me at the beginning of the meal...we started out with a reasonable bottle of rose champagne. Matt is a great dining companion as he's happy to keep passing every course back and forth. With this strategy we were both privy to 10 courses of Vidalia's finest. That didn't count the amuse bouche or the tasty confections at the end.

Jeff Buben, Chef/Owner, was working in the kitchen that night. Great to see chefs actually working in their restaurants. He's got two, and I know, he can't be in both places at the same time, but it's still a nice touch. Not that I don't trust his exec, R.J. Cooper.

So we start with an Amuse Bouche. The item on the left was a puff filled with a creamy, warm cheese. The one on the right was a sardine with some Parmesan and something else...pardon my lapse of memory here. Yes, I ate the sardine.

Next was a pappardelle with rabbit bacon and fresh black Perigord truffles.


The bib lettuce salad with a truffled honey dressing.

After that, came the fois gras. Drabs of honey and an apple compote. That went very well with the champagne.

Very nice presentation. I had to step back and get a picture of the whole plate for you.

This is the cullot of beef. It's the outside rim of a piece of prime rib. It's heavily marbled, but the way they cooked it most of the fat had rendered. They cut it off, tie it into a pinwheel, and broil.

Wow....couldn't pass this up. This is truffled mac and cheese. He uses some tasso, panko, and more truffles. This dish was actually one of the two dishes I remember from my first meal here in 2001 or 2002. If you go, get it.

The Dover Sole was flavored well, but it tasted like it had been left under the heat lamp for a little to long. This was the only disappointment of the meal.



Yellowfin Potatoes? I'd never heard of them, but it had truffles on it, so we included it in the ad hoc tasting menu. Nice.

This is one of the ubiquitous dishes at Vidalia. Shrimp and Grits. The grits are cheezy, the shrimp still have their heads, and the Andoulie is awesome.

Always a southern favorite, pecan pie.

The dessert de' resistance: Lemon Chess Pie. This is the other thing I remember from my first visit here. I'm not a big fan of citrus desserts and am generally a chocolate kind of guy, but this is unbelievable. The texture is something that I have tried, and failed, to duplicate many times.

I've spoken with Jeff about it and he says it can't be duplicated without commercial equipment. I'm a believer.

As if all of that weren't enough, they send you out the door with some home made confections. Matt and I only shared the one bottle of bubbly and we're both big boys, but we were buzzed. If you've ever had a food buzz, you'll know what I'm talking about. If you haven't, try Vidalia's tasting menu. Tell Jeff I sent you.

Thanks for reading. I'm not sure what the next post will be, but I hope you come back to read it.

Until then...

Coming to you LIVE! From BLT Steak!

Sorry, had to throw in that title for obvious reasons. You run into the darndest people in Washington, don't ya? Wolf Blitzer and me at BLT Steak

So here's some news for you. I've got a favorite new steakhouse and it's name is BLT. I'd had lunch there previously, but I didn't really experience the whole thing then like I did Saturday.

Cheryl and I started out at her office party with a few glasses of bubbly then headed to BLT for a late dinner.

Our table at BLT was a little late to open, but after eating there I understand why people want to keep their tables for a while after they're done eating. This place has the VIBE. All caps, btw. You walk in and you know you're going to have a good time because everyeone else there is having a good time. The music is cool, the place is loud, the service is there when you need it and very friendly. Adam, the GM, is very good at what he does. Their sommelier, whose name escapes me at this moment, was helpful and knew what she was talking about.

So on to the meal: We started out with a cocktail at the bar while we waited. Once we sat we got a dozen oysters. Three of the twelve weren't the best we've had, but the rest were tasty. I was starting to get concerned. All worries, however, were forgotten once the Fois Gras showed at the table. I've had my share, but this was above and beyond. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture, and truthfully it's not pretty anyhow. That being said, this was seared perfectly. There was a crisp carmelization on both sides and it was topped with some apple something. I wasn't paying attention to the fruit really. This FG, when paired with the sauternes the sommelier suggested, was unbelievably good. Sublime is a word that comes to mind.

From there, we moved on to the entrees. Cheryl had the Sole with a browned butter, lemon and caper sauce. The browned butter brings a nutty flavor to it. It was a nice dish. The texture and flavor we as good as it gets.

Dover Sole with Browned Butter/Lemon/Caper Sauce

On to my entree, which was a 5-ounce slab of Kobe Beef.

Kobe with a bone (full of marrow) and roasted garlic.

I've never had beef that tasted like this. This is the real deal flown in from Japan. The cows are fed beer and massaged daily. It tastes like it too. It was offered with a choice of sauces, though it's really not necessary with a steak like this. I got the Bernaise just to see how theirs was, and it was good, but I didn't let it near the beef. The bone was served with marrow in it. Some of that slathered on the cheese popovers they serve was a delight by itself.

The sommelier paired our entrees with a 2006 St. Joseph, Domaine du Tunnel. It stood up nicely and both Cheryl and I enjoyed it.

So, overall experience? A+. One of the top 10 meals I've ever had. I recommend it highly. Give it a shot.

Thanks for reading.