Greta Garbo and
Reginald Denny in "Anna Karenina" (1935)
Happy
New Year!
❖❖❖
THIS WEEK
Dining Out in DC
by John Mariani
NEW YORK CORNER
2012: The Year in NYC Dining
by John Mariani
NOTES FROM THE WINE
CELLAR
THE BEST WINES AND SPIRITS OF 2012
❖❖❖
Dining
Out in DC
Three Newcomers Show the Range of Capital
Dining
by John Mariani
Al
Dente
3201 New Mexico Avenue
202-244-2223 aldentedc.com
It’s
been years since any Roberto Donna made anyone's
list of best chefs, despite his reputation
as one of America’s greatest. Donna
came
to DC from northern Italy when he was just 19—his
accent is still rich with Piedmontese vowels—and
in 1984 his deluxe, high-priced Ristorante Galileo
was the epicenter of Washington’s Power Lunch
scene, where he lavished pols, lobbyists,
ambassadors and lawyers with white truffles and
Gaja Barbarescos. chefs, he had a way of opening
and leaving restaurants before the paint dried. Now, he is back, at a
colorful trattoria up off Embassy Row near
American University, and he is cooking
Italian food at a level few other contemporaries
in America have achieved. At Al Dente, he brings
all he’s learnedto bear on dishes so deceptively simple
that they seem like sleight of hand. He puts as
much care into his superlative pizza alla
margherita as to anything he’s ever done.
How does he coax so much enormous flavor out of
roasted porcini
mushrooms, parsley and garlic baked in a foil
pouch?How
does he cram that intensity into humble Sicilian caponata
of vegetables, olive oil and vinegar?What
makes his polenta fries with stracchino cheese
so delicate? And by what miracle do his gnocchi achieve
such texture that they truly do melt in your
mouth?
Al Dente has an effervescent,
casual look, a riot of bright colors, tall
windows, and an open kitchen where Donna
works. There is a patio outside in good
weather. At first glance it looks like a
modest venture, but the cooking here is
superlative. Our party of four more or less
let Donna feed us course after course, which
included marvelous renditions of spicy, sweet-sour
Sicilian caponata. Orange and green zucchini
flowers were stuffed with freshly made ricotta,
mint, and a touch or lemon, and a plate of
spaghetti di
Gragnano, teeming with seafood, was a
triumph of delicate simplicity.
Cornish hen "alla mattone"
(pressed under a brick) was very juicy, served
with polenta, and tearing the meat from the legs
was half the enjoyment, while eating the whole
thing was the appeal of soft shell crabs, lightly battered and served
with spinach and polenta. For dessert there
were two old favorites that seemed brand new in
Donna's presentation--a hemisphere of tiramisu
with hot chocolate sauce and caramelized hazelnuts
(left),
and zuppa inglese composed of layers of chocolate
cream, rum-soaked sponge cake, and a lavishing
of hot vanilla sauce. For all that, Roberto Donna is still an
iconic figure, and, for 2012, he was my
choice as
Esquire’s Chef of the Year.
Al Dente is open for
lunch and dinner daily, brunch on Sat. & Sun. At
dinner antipasti run $3-$13.95, pastas (full
portions) $16.95-$19.95, main courses $16.95-$19.95.
Blue
Duck Tavern Park
Hyatt Washington
1204 24th and M Streets, NW 202-419-6755 www.blueducktavern.com
The
Park Hyatt Washington is a fine choice as a modern
hotel well located, in the West End of Georgetown,
proximate to the Smithsonian Museums and
other monuments of the Capitol. All the amenities
are here--large rooms, a spa room, meeting and
banquet space, and on unusual Tea Cellar offering
rare and vintage tea selections.
Its wide open restaurant, Blue
Duck Tavern, overseen by Executive Chef Sebastien
Archambault and Chef de Cuisine John
Melfi have given the traditional American cuisines
many modern interpretations, sourced from more
than 65 regional and American purveyors, which
gives weight to the much-abused phrase "farm to
table."
I've enjoyed hearty dinners
here, with most dishes cooked in the wood-fired
oven, but I was very impressed by the Blue
Duck's new approach to a lavish breakfast at a
very reasonable price, starting with a wood-fired pecan and cinnamon
roll that serves two. You are handed a
newspaper of your choice, and a choice of fruit
juices that might include pineapple and mint
or pomegranate and orange or watermelon. Croissants and pastries are
made from scratch throughout the morning,
including first-rate fluffy biscuits that break
open into a steamy aroma. You may go whole hog and
have them with peppery gravy. Grits are mill
ground, salmon is house-smoked.
My wife and I ate all over the
menu, from the array of charcuterie (right) and
breads to a terrific baked brioche French
toast. Pure aged maple syrup comes with the
skillet pancakes. The eggs are from Amish
farms and include eggs Benedict with pork
belly and sauce Choron, and there is a wonderfully
decadent short rib has with poached eggs and a
shot of horseradish sauce.
Your mother or your teacher might have told you
that breakfast is the most important meal of the
day, and if that's the case, there's no better
place in DC to indulge in it. The food and
service here will open your eyes both literally
and figuratively as to what an American breakfast
can be.
Blue Duck Tavern is
open for breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. You
may order a la carte, but the $35 American
breakfast is the way to go. (By the way, there
is complimentary valet parking if you come from
outside.)
Photo Len DePas
The
personality of a great restaurateur is evident
even when he is not on the premises. In the
case of Ashok
Bajaj, who runs The
Bombay Club, 701 Restaurant, The
Oval Room, Ardeo,
Bardeo, Rasika,
and Bibiana
Osteria-Enoteca, the man can't be
everywhere but you can see his hand in every
detail, not least the impeccable service that has
his thumbprint on the greeting, seating, and
taking care of his customers.
Born in New Delhi, trained within the Taj Hotels,
Resorts and Palaces, he eventually chose DC to
make his own mark.
The original Rasika in Penn
Quarter is still among the finest Indian
restaurants in America, overseen by Executive Chef
Vikram Sunderam. The West End version, more
casual, set on two levels, with big bar and
expansive patio, has Chef de Cuisine Manish
Tyagi, and he reproduces many of the dishes that
distinguish the innovative, intensely complex
flavors found at the first Rasika. Simon Stilwell
is Beverage Director and very helpful in pairing
wines to the food here, not an easy thing to do
with flavors like chili peppers, cardamon, and
cinnamon in the mix.
This is not a carbon copy of
the original's menu, but there are variations, for
instance, in the tawa griddle items, which sears
foods like honey ginger scallops with red Bell
peppers and (deliberately) charred garlic; crab
cakes kawahari
with onions and coconut chutney; and Parsi lamb
cutlet with garlic fries and tomato sauce.
Among savory finger foods are
cauliflower bezule;
masala
codfish Fingers with chili flakes and
curried mayonnaise; and gosht ke sev, made from shredded
lamb. There are also several barbecue dishes,
including a delicious one of mango shrimp
and another of duck Narangi Seekh with candied
orange and spiced marmalade.
The menu is long and need not
include 12 vegetable and sides dishes along with
15 meat and poultry dishes, but I highly recommend
the excellent Goan shrimp masala; the lobster hawa
Mahal with tomato and fenugreek; and the fabulous
lamb shank with caramelized onions, saffron and
garam masala.
Rasika West took off from the
start and has been popular with the locals, like
Hilary Clinton and her husband Bill, who
celebrated their anniversary here in October. If
the branch hasn't the elegant cast of the Penn
Quarter original and not quite the same refinement
in the cuisine, it is still an Indian restaurant
heads above all but Rasika itself in DC or
anywhere else in America right now. Ashok
Bajaj has another winner in the capital mix.
Rasika West End is
open Mon.-Fri. for lunch and Mon.-Sat. for dinner.
Dinner appetizers run $8-$12, main courses $17-$28.
❖❖❖
NEW YORK
CORNER by
John Mariani
2012: The Year in NYC Dining
Horn
& Hardart Automat façade exhibited at
the New York Public Library (2012), photo by John
Mariani
It's
been the usual frenetic pace of dining in NYC in
2012, and you'd never know there are lingering
effects of a recession in the packed
restaurants--many of which were out of commission
for weeks after Hurricane Sandy. As usual,
needing something to inflate, the media tried to
make way too much of the so-called
"Brooklynization" of NYC's dining scene, for despite
numerous openings in that borough, only a few, like
Gwynett
Street (left)
and Blanca, flared more brightly than other
openings in Manhattan and Queens. (This latter
borough, I predict, will soon have its own hype
coming in 2013 as the hot new dining destination.)
Critics went mad over restaurants
that overnight appropriated "New Nordic Cuisine,"
which has already gone past its time, and chefs
whose idea of a nice evening out is to sit guests at
counters and serve them 12, 18, 28 or more courses
of four hours, as at Blanca and Atera,
which says more about young chefs' egos than it does
about a trend. Molecular and molecular cuisine
made little headway, despite all the hype about
them, with chefs picking up an idea here and there
but generally eschewing the fantastical.
Indeed, there was far more attention to gutsy,
hearty cooking--marrow, shortribs,
innards and heavy sauces--than in the past, led by
the tiny M. Welles
Dinette P.S. 1 at the Museum of Modern Art in
Queens and Mas (La
Grillade). Oddly enough, the media also went
ga-ga over restaurants like Pok-Pok in Brooklyn and
Mission Chinese in Manhattan that are facsimiles,
with the same menus, of originals in, respectively,
Portland, Oregon, and San Francisco.
Despite those who continued to
insist that high-end posh dining was dying--citing
the closure of Alain Ducasse's Adour, L'Atelier de
Joël Robuchon, and Matsuri--there were wholly
different reasons for each, and had more to do with
a lack of personality than the quality of the food
or interest. In several cases, it was purely about
real estate: Ben Benson's Steakhouse and Beacon
Grill both went under when the landlord demanded
impossible rent increases. Yet while those
closed, high-end restaurants like Daniel, Le
Bernardin, Jean-Georges, Corton, The Four Seasons,
Eleven Madison Park, Gramercy Tavern, Gotham Bar
& Grill, Per Se, Marea, and others flourished,
with expensive newcomers like Michael White's
Ai Fiori,
Daniel Humm's NoMad,
and Danny Meyer and Floyd Cardoz's North End
Grill (right)
thriving.
Bistros
have shown new popularity at places like La Promenade
des Anglais, where Chef Alain Allegretti gives
real spark to old dishes, as is the family-style
kitchen at Jeanne
& Gaston. Italian restaurants'
numbers just won't let up evidenced by
newcomers like Sirio,
The Leopard
(left) Valbella
Midtown, Vai,
Caffe Storico,
Rosemary's, Il Buco
Alimentari, Perla, and
Isola.
Ed Shoenfeld upped the ante on Chinese-NY food at RedFarm (below), and
there is still a three-hour wait to get into a
California offshoot named Mission
Chinese. The one genre that has seemed to run
out of steam is the expensive steakhouse, of which
we long ago had more than enough.
The range of these restaurants
should put off any doubt of those who believe NYC is
running second to, oh, I don't know, Portland, as
America's greatest restaurant city. Its
breadth and depth is not even
scratched in the newcomers and oldtimers, and the
ethnic neighborhoods continue to be crucibles of
food cultures most people never even sample.
What do I see in
the upcoming year? Much more of the same. There
should be more Korean restaurants getting away from
the brazier-cooking tabletop style, and Mexican
cooking can only improve after the success of Cocina
Empellon. Except for a vocal minority of rapid
foodies who search out the next food truck or
storefront sandwich shop with the fever of a starved
Tasmanian devil, most New Yorkers dine out to eat
what they favor--maybe great French food one night,
dim sum the next, Italian-American classics, or a
perfect strip steak and onion rings. New
Yorkers do love celebration and are not immune to
fashion, swooning, and celebrities. Out of
towners want much the same, content to go back to
totemic restaurants, avid to check out what's new,
willing to spend on the big ticket. Fifty
million of them come to NYC every year. Toss
in 7 million New Yorkers, and you've got a lot of
mouths to feed.
❖❖❖
NOTES
FROM THE WINE CELLAR
By John Mariani
The Best Wines
and Spirits of 2012
Rachel
Taylor and Freddy Rodriguez in "Bottle Shock"
(2008)
Though world auction prices have been dipping in
recent months for First Growth Bordeaux and the
greatest Burgundies, the prospect of drinking those
wines in the future dims for most wine lovers,
especially since those wines may never even be
uncorked by those who bought them, saved for another
auction or as trophies for display in some Hong Kong
restaurant. All of which means that all the rest of the
wines in the world and an increasing number of new
spirits, are there for the us all to enjoy at
competitive prices driven by a global wine glut. Prices for third, fourth, and fifth growth
Bordeaux are stable, and the lesser estates throughout
Bordeaux are offering some amazing value now.Many
California cult wines, once sold by subscription only,
are having a hard time unloading their recent
vintages. And when was the last time any Italian
winery announced it was making a new “Super Tuscan?”
Meanwhile,
South America and Portugal are making every effort to
move in on the export market once dominated by the
Italians and French. So, as I riffle through my notes
over the past year, I find more enjoyment, overall,
with new discoveries and old favorites whose
consistency is always an allure. Here are some of the
ones I was happiest drinking in 2012.
Two Gran Reserva Riojas, which by
law must spend 24 months aging, three in bottle,
delighted me for their power, nuance and brilliance,
without edging past 13.5 percent alcohol: Beronia Gran Reserva 2001
($30) and Baron de
Ley Gran Reserva 2001 ($38), a Rioja Alta
blend of tempranillo, graciano, and mazuela, aged in
oak for 30 months.
In the same way, a Chianti Classico
Riserva, Barone
Ricasoli Rocca Guicciarda 2008 showed refined
complexity with Italian styling, which was something
of a surprise from an estate I’ve often thought made
Chiantis that were too austere. This is a lusher
version, showing that Chiantis can achieve the highest
levels of quality in Italian viniculture.
One of the now classic Super
Tuscans I was thrilled to enjoy again was Ornellaia, this
time the newly released 2009 ($150), which was of
medium body rather than the heavyweight usually
associated with the estate. The tannins were soft, the
levels of acidity and fruit promise a long life, and
the melding of cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet
franc, and petit verdot, while a Bordeaux blend,
showed all its Italian charm in its soft radiance. Joseph
DrouhinClos
de Mouches 2010 ($120) reminded me again of
the eminence of the best white Burgundies
over all other chardonnays, made on the slopes of the
Côte d'Or (right).
A
rainy, cool summer made for small berries that ripened
with perfect sugars but a slightly less than normal
alcohol, with wonderful bouquet and balance throughout
the palate.
I make no secret of my enduring
love for good Sancerre, but Domaine Thomas’ Sancerre La Crele 2010
($25) was a revelation of the power sauvignon blanc
can achieve. Big and full-fruited wine, made from old
vines, with 13.5 percent alcohol, it’s everything that
the overly sweet and grassy sauvignon blancs of New
Zealand and California should hope to be.
At an autumn dinner at Alain
Senderens in Paris, I thoroughly enjoyed a glass of Pommery Cuvée
Louise Rosé Brut Champagne 2000 with
a mousseline of pumpkin, and the next day I visited—as
anyone may—the Domaine
Pommery estate in Rheims, with its modern
art-filled caves, and I was happy to find that the
newer vintages, especially the roses, have a elegance
and fruit lacking in other prestige cuvees that are
often much too bone dry. Knob
Creek is best known for its fine bourbons, so
I thought it merely a novelty when I ran across their
100 proof Rye Whiskey ($41). Ryes are making something
of a comeback, for while most traditional ryes have a
sting and make good mixers, Knob Creek’s, released
last July, deserves to be savored in a cut crystal
glass, preferably with a dog by your side to pet and
talk to.
I like renegade spirits makers, and
Phil Prichard of Prichard’s Tennessee
Whiskey ($30), founded in 1997 in an old
schoolhouse complete with basketball hoops, is made
from white corn in small batch copper pots, then aged
in white oak barrels. The nose bursts with vanilla and
soft smoky oak, so it begins sweet on the tongue, then
trails off with an engaging, peppery finish that stays
there until you take your next sip. Orange
liqueurs are usually added to other spirits and
juices, as in a margarita, but Solerno Blood Orange
($30), from Sicily, is not only a great looking
scarlet package, but its blood orange base gives it a
unique, berry-like flavor, with medium sweetness, and
a faint, pleasing burn. It’s best enjoyed on the rocks
or crushed ice rather than in a cocktail.
John Mariani's wine
column appears in Bloomberg
Muse News, from which this story was adapted.
Bloomberg News covers Culture from art, books, and
theater to wine, travel, and food on a daily
❖❖❖
IS THIS THE LAST (AND WORST) WRETCHED EXCESS OF
2012?
For $409, The Loews Hollywood Hotel has a Sweet!
Suite, stocked with over 100 pounds of candy,
a $100 gift card to Sweet!, a candy-making demo and tour
of Sweet!, plus two giant sticky 10-inch diameter
lollipops, one five pound Wonka bar and "all the
Stickyhard candy you can eat."
GREAT
IDEAS OF WESTERN MARKETING
NBA legend Shaquille O'Neal has lent his name
to a brand of coconut-flavored vodka called "Luv
Shaq."
❖❖❖
Any of John Mariani's
books below may be ordered from amazon.com.
My
latest book, which just won the prize for best
book from International Gourmand, written with
Jim Heimann and Steven Heller,Menu Design in America,1850-1985 (Taschen
Books), has just appeared, with nearly 1,000
beautiful, historic, hilarious, sometimes
shocking menus dating back to before the Civil
War and going through the Gilded Age, the Jazz
Age, the Depression, the nightclub era of the
1930s and 1940s, the Space Age era, and the age
when menus were a form of advertising in
innovative explosions of color and modern
design.The book is
a chronicle of changing tastes and mores and
says as much about America as about its food and
drink.
“Luxuriating
vicariously
in the pleasures of this book. . . you can’t
help but become hungry. . .for the food of
course, but also for something more: the bygone
days of our country’s splendidly rich and
complex past.Epicureans
of both good food and artful design will do well
to make it their coffee table’s main
course.”—Chip Kidd, Wall Street
Journal.
“[The
menus] reflect the amazing craftsmanship that
many restaurants applied to their bills of fare,
and suggest that today’s restaurateurs could
learn a lot from their predecessors.”—Rebecca
Marx, The Village Voice.
My new book--Now in Paperback,
too--How Italian Food Conquered the
World (Palgrave Macmillan) has just won top prize 2011 from
the Gourmand
World Cookbook Awards. It is
a rollicking history of the food culture of
Italy and its ravenous embrace in the 21st
century by the entire world. From ancient Rome
to la dolce
vita of post-war Italy, from Italian
immigrant cooks to celebrity chefs, from
pizzerias to high-class ristoranti,
this chronicle of a culinary diaspora is as
much about the world's changing tastes,
prejudices, and dietary fads as about
our obsessions with culinary fashion and
style.--John Mariani
"Eating Italian will
never be the same after reading
John Mariani's entertaining and
savory gastronomical history of
the cuisine of Italy and how it
won over appetites worldwide. . .
. This book is such a tasteful
narrative that it will literally
make you hungry for Italian food
and arouse your appetite for
gastronomical history."--Don
Oldenburg, USA Today.
"Italian
restaurants--some good, some glitzy--far
outnumber their French rivals. Many of
these establishments are zestfully described
in How Italian Food Conquered the World, an
entertaining and fact-filled chronicle by
food-and-wine correspondent John F.
Mariani."--Aram Bakshian Jr., Wall Street
Journal.
"Mariani
admirably dishes out the story of
Italy’s remarkable global ascent to
virtual culinary hegemony....Like a
chef gladly divulging a cherished
family recipe, Mariani’s book
reveals the secret sauce about how
Italy’s cuisine put gusto in gusto!"--David
Lincoln Ross, thedailybeast.com
"Equal parts
history, sociology, gastronomy, and just
plain fun, How Italian Food Conquered the
World tells the captivating and delicious
story of the (let's face it) everybody's
favorite cuisine with clarity, verve and
more than one surprise."--Colman Andrews,
editorial director of The Daily
Meal.com.
"A fantastic and fascinating
read, covering everything from the influence
of Venice's spice trade to the impact of
Italian immigrants in America and the
evolution of alta cucina. This book will
serve as a terrific resource to anyone
interested in the real story of Italian
food."--Mary Ann Esposito, host of PBS-TV's
Ciao
Italia.
"John Mariani has written the
definitive history of how Italians won their
way into our hearts, minds, and
stomachs. It's a story of pleasure over
pomp and taste over technique."--Danny Meyer,
owner of NYC restaurants Union Square Cafe,
Gotham Bar & Grill, The Modern, and
Maialino.
❖❖❖
FEATURED
LINKS: I am happy to report
that the Virtual
Gourmet is linked to four excellent
travel sites:
I consider this the best and
savviest blog of its kind on the web. Potter is a
columnist for USA
Weekend, Diversion, Laptop and Luxury Spa Finder,
a contributing editor for Ski and a frequent contributor
to National
Geographic Traveler, ForbesTraveler.com
and Elle Decor.
"I’ve designed this site is for people who take
their travel seriously," says Potter. "For
travelers who want to learn about special places
but don’t necessarily want to pay through the nose for
the privilege of staying there. Because at the end
of the day, it’s not so much about five-star
places as five-star experiences." THIS WEEK:
Eating Las Vegas
is the new on-line site for Virtual Gourmet
contributor John A. Curtas., who since 1995
has been commenting on the Las Vegas food
scene and reviewing restaurants for Nevada
Public Radio. He is also the
restaurant critic for KLAS TV, Channel 8 in
Las Vegas, and his past reviews can be
accessed at KNPR.org.
Click on the logo below to go directly to
his site.
www.EATINGLV.com
Tennis Resorts Online:
A Critical Guide to the
World's Best Tennis Resorts and Tennis Camps, published
by ROGER COX, who has spent more than two decades
writing about tennis travel, including a 17-year stretch
for Tennis magazine.
He has also written for Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, New York Magazine, Travel &
Leisure, Esquire, Money, USTA Magazine, Men's Journal,
and The Robb
Report. He has authored two books-The World's Best Tennis
Vacations (Stephen Greene Press/Viking
Penguin, 1990) and The
Best Places to Stay in the Rockies (Houghton Mifflin,
1992 & 1994), and the Melbourne (Australia) chapter
to the Wall Street
Journal Business Guide to Cities of the Pacific Rim (Fodor's
Travel Guides, 1991).
nickonwine:
An engaging, interactive
wine column by Nick Passmore, Artisanal Editor, Four
Seasons Magazine; Wine Columnist, BusinessWeek.com;
nick@nickonwine.com; www.nickonwine.com.
MARIANI'S VIRTUAL GOURMET
NEWSLETTER is published weekly. Editor/Publisher: John
Mariani.
Contributing Writers: Christopher Mariani, Robert Mariani,
John A. Curtas, Edward Brivio, Mort Hochstein,
Suzanne Wright,and Brian Freedman. Contributing
Photographers: Galina Stepanoff-Dargery,
Bobby Pirillo. Technical Advisor: Gerry McLoughlin.