Le Zinc: New chef, new shoot!

Lunch time photo shoot at Le Zinc 2/23/12.

 http://www.lezincdc.com/

(202) 686-2015

3714 Macomb St. N.W., Washington, DC

This is a new menu item at Le Zinc, from my fabulous cheffriend (just coined a word) Janis McLean.

Crispy skate with a saute of haricots verts, wild mushrooms, hazelnuts, and lemon caper sauce.

This is the woman behind the line, Janis McLean.  If you're a fan of my blog you've read about her before when I posted about 15 RIA.  She's been a friend for years and always has a piece of advice when I ask about cooking something.

She's been through some great kitchens including Red Sage, Morrison-Clark, redDOG Cafe, and 15 RIA.

Nice shot of the frites servers standing patiently, waiting for some hot fries.

Pan-seared sea scallops with cauliflower puree, caper and white raisin sauce.

Another closer shot of the dish.  Very pretty.

The grilled rockfish boullabaisse veloute had a terrific, rich tomato flavor.  The shrimp and mussels were cooked just right, not overdone as you get in some places that don't care quite as much.   

Chocolate Hazelnut Truffle Tort.  Not much more you can say about this.  It's rich and decadent.

This is Sous Julio Dupuy on the left, mugging for the camera with us.

A great lunch shoot done way too quickly for my tastes.  I only got a fork full of everything to try, but it was great.  Next time we'll have to come in for dinner and spend the evening enjoying and taking pictures.

If you like what you saw, the pictures were done by my friendtographer (Oh! coined another one) Michael Palmer.  http://mpalmerphotography.com/.  He's done shoots for CityEats (lots of them) 2941, Elisir, and many more.  Look him up!

Thanks for reading folks.  As always, comments and questions are welcome.

 

Update!!!
Bistro Le Zinc closed it's doors for good September 2013.

Bistro Le Zinc...La nourriture était bonne!

This is me with the owners of Bistro Le Zinc a week or so prior to opening.  David Ashwell, Chef, is on the left and John Warner, General Manager, is on the right.

The reason I'm posting this now, instead of in July when I had this meal, was that I had started posting to a Facebook Group instead of my blog do to the way Blogger was handling pictures.  Blogger has since improved greatly, so I moved back to that format.

Secondarily, The WaPo put out a bad review for these guys that I thought was way off base and I'd like to do what I can to assist in setting the record straight.  These guys know what they're doing.

I like it when you can mix form with function.  This is the salmon appetizer. 

Very nicely executed with lots of different flavors going on.

My wife got the French Onion Soup, or FOS if you're in the biz.  This was the best bowl of FOS I've ever tasted.  It wasn't a one-note affair.  It had depth and layers of flavors.

This was the Escargot.  Awesome with Stilton and roasted wild garlic.

This is a new trend you see in a lot of restaurants, and I like it.  Filtered bottled watered, made in-house, either flat or sparkling, at no additional charge, or in some restaurants at nominal charge.  I do not miss $14.00 bottles of sparkling water.

This was my son's dish.  He got the duck three ways.  The breast was wonderfully tender.  He ate everything.  At 9 years old, he's got quite the pallete.

This was my dish.  The Lamb Shank.  Falling-off-the-bone tender.  The lentils and potato were very tasty and well executed.

The Steak Frites.  Perfectly executed with a very nice sauce.  The fries were crispy and the roasted onions were creamy.  What more could you want?

David and John have worked very hard to bring this project to fruition and it shows.  I've been back several times and have found the place to be vibrant and generally packed.  Well done gentlemen.  I wish you continued success, critics be damned.

If you go, tell them you read about it on Pleasures of the Table!

Coming soon...Bistro le Zinc

Bistro le Zinc is set to open within the next couple of weeks at 3714 Macomb St., N.W. Right across from Cactus Cantina. The kitchen looks great.

Getting ready to put the pans to the fire...

Nice'n'shiny.

To my left is David Ashwell and to my right is John Warner. Both alums of Chef Wiedemaier's establishments. They were hands on from the start, which is always a good sign of things to come.

David will be handling the kitchen and John will be in charge of the FOH.

If you stop in, make sure you tell John and David where you read about it.

I'll let you know about the food in a couple of weeks....