FOOD & WINE
Let’s Do Lunch:
Blue Duck Tavern BY ROB E RT DE VANEY
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or lunch, we ventured to the Blue Duck Tavern at the Park Hyatt at 24th and M Streets in the West End. Just east of Georgetown and Rock Creek, the neighborhood’s name recalls when D.C. was divided into Washington City and Old Georgetown and other locales. Today, it’s an easy walk to the West End, which was until the late 1980s a nondescript place except for Blackie’s House of Beef. Opened in 2006 by chef Brian McBride, the Blue Duck Tavern along with other restaurants and hotels reflect the upscale change in this part of Washington. While in the ground floor of a hotel, the restaurant nevertheless works for both guest and neighbor. It contains different sections with Shaker-inspired tables and chairs, whether at the patio, near the open kitchen (sometimes noisy), along the M Street windows or at the very back, where we sat for lunch. Executive chef Sebastien Archambault and chef de cuisine John Melfi continue Blue Duck’s culinary commitment to fresh, regionally sourced ingredients that become simple, carefully prepared, flavorful meals for the pleasure of eye and palate. But the taste is in the details and “cannot be controlled by law,” as Thomas Jefferson reminds on the menu, which indicates whence main ingredients arrived. Our attentive waiter was helpful, succinct and likable, and it was time to order. Chilled lobster salad frisée, avocado, blood
orange honey citrus vinaigrette (from Viking Village, Maine): “tasty.” Mushroom tart, mixed greens salad, hazelnut oil vinaigrette (from Kennett Square, Penn.): “mustardy but delicious.” Jumbo lump crab cakes frisée and fennel, coral aioli (from Chesapeake Bay, Md.): “perfect, a total balance.” Wood oven roasted confit of duck leg, roasted baby vegetables, red wine apple butter (from Grimaud Farms, Calif.): “sauced up, moist, fell off the bone.” Crispy skin salmon, clam chowder, bacon, uni emulsion (from Skuna Bay, B.C.): “succulent.” Swordfish carbonara, egg, Parmesan cheese (a special that afternoon): “Unique, laced with complementary flavors.” For dessert: the highly regarded Apple Pie (“oh, man, yes”); the roasted pear, sun-dried cherries and pistachio crumble (“great”); and the honey vanilla ice cream with maple syrup (“the best … it’s a gift to be simple”). The starters averaged around $15; main dishes, $25; desserts, $9. Get yourself and friends to the Blue Duck Tavern for straight-up American dishes that are memorable and live up to the Zagat’s compliments. Not bad for a street that once boasted a greasy-spoon dive called the Pumpkin Shell.★ Reservations for dinner and brunch recommended. The Blue Duck Tavern, 24 & M Streets, NW -- (202) 419-6755 -- BlueDuckTavern.com -- BlueDuck.Tavern@Hyatt.com.
The Latest Dish BY LIN DA ROT H CON T E
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he Dublin, Ireland-based Ri Ra will add a new location and a new concept to its growing metropolitan D.C. base of operations. When it takes over the Mie N Yu space on M Street in Georgetown, it will bring not only its Irish energy, but an Irish chef who is developing a full service upscale menu, punctuating Ri Ra’s latest evolution into the restaurant scene. It will also feature a state-of-the-art whiskey bar featuring 150 different whiskeys, supplemented by an authoritative whiskey program. Chef Update: Marjorie Meek-Bradley has taken over executive chef duties at Ripple in Cleveland Park. She worked previously with Mike Isabella at Graffiato and for Thomas Keller at Per Se in NYC. Chef Greg McCarty will head the kitchen at Ashok Bajaj’s newest venture, NOPA Kitchen & Bar where Zola’s was on F Street in Penn Quarter. McCarty’s credentials include Jean-Georges and Nobu Fifty Seven in NYC. La Tasca Spanish Tapas Bar & Restaurant has announced the appointment of Josu Zubikarai as their new executive chef, overseeing culinary operations for all five of the company’s restaurants: Washington, D.C., Arlington and Alexandria, Va., Rockville, Md. and Baltimore. Zubikarai was the opening chef for Taberna del Alabardero in Washington, DC in 1989. Ashley Soto has been named executive pastry chef at the new Farmers Fishers Bakers. She used to work for Black Restaurant Group’s Pearl Dive Oyster Bar. She manages pastries
offered at the new FirstBake bakery and coffee shop within the restaurant. Carrie Jenkins, who briefly managed the pastry program at Farmers Fishers Bakers, has been promoted to executive pastry chef for Founding Farmers in downtown D.C. Karl Graham, of the defunct New York Avenue Beach Bar, is in partnership with Hogo and The Passenger owner Tom Brown (Derek’s brother) to open The Elroy, named for the young son in The Jetsons cartoon from yesteryear, so think “futuristic.” It will be in the ever burgeoning H Street corridor, as 1423 H St NE. Karl is a general contractor, so that should be a big advantage. A June opening is planned. Aaron Tootill is the executive chef at The Bench restaurant opening at the Gaithersburg Marriott Washington Center in the Rio Washingtonian Center, this spring. The restaurant will be contemporary American. Tootill was opening chef for Fire & Sage at Marriott Metro Center in downtown D.C. A spring opening is planned. Capitol Prague Restaurant will open where Morso was at M and Prospect Streets in Georgetown. It will also operate a coffee shop nearby. The cuisine is Czech and Slovak: think schnitzel and dumplings. It will offer Czech Republic beers hard to find anywhere else. An April opening is planned.★
GMG, INC. April 24, 2013
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