Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Obelisk

Washington D.C., April 7, 2009 —

ONE OF MY FAVORITE restaurants — I'll write the history of this over at The Eastside View tomorrow — Obelisk is small and comfortable, serving forty or so diners a prix-fixe five-course dinner impeccably Italian. It was good to see the kitchen maintains today standards I noticed fifteen or twenty years ago. We began with antipasti chosen by the kitchen, which turned out to be:

  • Marconi almonds warmed with finely ground sesame seeds; burrata with honey and salt, peppers à la greque, sarde in saor, a smooth paté of rabbit and duck livers, and very nicely made polpettini fragrant of veal and nutmeg.
    And the other four courses followed:
  • Pici (handmade noodles) with duck gizzard ragù (L.); Gnocchi with castelmagno and chives (C.)
  • Culotte steak with rapini and cippoline (L.); Quail with vignarolla (C.)
  • cheeses: Raschera, cravanzina, and cinerino, with fig jam
  • Tangerine granita (L.); Fior di latte panna cotta (C.)

    and no green salad. Details will appear tomorrow at that Eastside View.
    Arneis, Roero, 2007; Carmenere Piu, Inama, 2006 (C.); Arte, Clerico, 2005 (L.)
  • 2 comments:

    Curtis Faville said...

    I stayed in DC once scouting books about a decade ago. Can it have been that long? Good lord!

    I stayed at a very modern motel which called itself a bed and breakfast, very near the river, and only about two blocks away from a delightful little restaurant where I had a full course dinner with cocktail, wine and dessert--all by myself, two nights running. The place had an odd construction, old dry wood with many small-paned windows, strange alcove-y little solitary tables against the street-side. I'll never remember the name.

    It was Fall--October I think--and the place was gorgeous, all oranges and browns and yellows, and breezy. Foray up to see the Ahearns. Maryland. The Triangle.

    Lovely place, DC, even the old-fashioned row houses in the poorer sections.

    Must go back.

    Charles Shere said...

    Oh, Curtis, can't you go into deep selfhypnosis and retrieve the name of that little restaurant? Please?