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Weekend Pass | dining IN OTHER CHEWS
BRINDLEY BROTHERS PRESENTS
Do the Tryst
RADIO
As if you needed another reason to kill time at Tryst (2459 18th St. NW; 202-232-5500, trystdc.com), the cafe is offering daily specials beginning Saturday. On Mondays, catch live jazz and Manhattans; on Tuesdays, enjoy black-and-white movies on the big screen alongside $5 Old Fashioneds; Wednesday means half-price bottles of wine and 30 percent-off cheese and charcuterie plates; Thursdays bring surfer movies and $9 mai tais, below; and beer specials round things out on the weekends.
BRONZE RETURN W/ THE FALLS FRIDAY
JAN 31
LEYLA McCALLA OF THE CAROLINA CHOCOLATE DROPS:
VARI-COLORED SONGS,
a tribute to
LANGSTON HUGHES WEDNESDAY
FEB 5
ASTRID RIECKEN PHOTOS (FOR THE WASHINGTON POST)
LIVE
UPCOMING PERFORMANCES
TUESDAY, FEB 4
INDIGENOUS
Bleat Your Heart Out
FRIDAY, FEB 7
YO MAMA’S BIG FAT BOOTY BAND W/ THE GOOD THING
SATURDAY, FEB 8
TOUBAB KREWE W/ SONGS OF WATER
TRYST
TUESDAY, FEB 11
NICKI BLUHM AND THE GRAMBLERS WEDNESDAY, FEB 12
LAKE STREET DIVE
The braised goat with turnip, carrots and red wine impresses.
SOLD OUT
W/ MISS TESS AND THE TALKBACKS THURSDAY, FEB 13
JOE PUG
W/ DAVID RAMIREZ FRIDAY, FEB 14
NEWMYER FLYER PRESENTS
LOVE SONGS: THE BEATLES SATURDAY, FEB 15
THE AUTUMN DEFENSE
FEAT. JOHN STIRRATT AND PATRICK SANSONE OF WILCO W/ DAWN LANDES WEDNESDAY, FEB 19
ROBERT ELLIS
FREE
LATE-NIGHT MUSIC IN THE LOFT EVERY FRI & SAT
THEHAMILTONDC.COM
Dish Upon a Star Looking for an out-of-this-world dining experience? Thursday kicks off Capella Washington D.C.’s semimonthly Constellation Dinner Experience ($175 per person, various dates through the year; 1050 31st St. NW; 202-617-2410, capellawashingtondc.com). Up to 10 guests share a three-course meal with wine pairings in The Grill Room’s private dining room followed by stargazing on the hotel’s roof. Led by graduate students of University of Maryland’s astronomy department, the cosmic experience is enhanced with binoculars, telescopes and hot cocoa.
NEW & SOON
1.31 Joe’s Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab will open at 750 15th St. NW
Fainting Goat’s solid dishes will draw you back for seconds Before he helped open the Fainting Goat in the U Street corridor, James Barton was chef de cuisine at the Oval Room near the White House. Why would he ditch one of the city’s top American restaurants for a start-up? “Fine dining is not what people want to eat,” says the chef, 29. “The formality is going away.” What Barton wants to do at the Fainting Goat is pull diners in a couple of nights a week for a simple menu sprinkled with surprises. Popcorn in the “garden” salad surprises me. It’s not the first ingredient I’d think to add to greens and radishes, and honestly, the standin for croutons is not ver y appealing. But there’s enough on Barton’s concise list, its dishes arranged under clever headings (Nibble/Graze/Chomp/Feed), to draw me back a few nights after an initial dinner. Take the meat pie, a riff on pâté en croûte that finds pork, chick-
Owner Greg Algie, left, and chef James Barton, right, serve food sans pretension at Fainting Goat.
en and foie gras inside a thin pastry shell. Its filling, seasoned with Chinese five-spice powder and brandy, is good enough to eat on its own. Of the sandwiches, I’m partial to the blimp-shaped shrimp roll. Roast chicken is presented with a loose stuffing of torn bread and vinegary raisins. Winey braised goat with carrots and turnips is another main course to remember. Desserts are more deconstructed than is my preference. You might want to indulge in another cocktail instead. The bars (there are two) whip up solid drinks. The former Urban Essentials design store space makes a hand-
FIRST BI T E
some backdrop to the food. Maple floors, exposed-brick walls and small chandeliers reflect accessible style across several levels of dining room and bar. Initially, co-owner Greg Algie (Fado Irish Pub, Cantina Marina) thought his new restaurant should link to the business that preceded it via a furniture-related name. But the idea was shot down by friends after he shared a story from his past. Turns out Algie was so shy around women, his friends used to tell him he looked like a fainting goat around them. “That’s the name!” his listeners told him. TOM SIETSEMA (THE WASHINGTON POST )
1330 U St. NW; 202-735-0344, faintinggoatdc.com. (U Street)