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Washington Flyer
5 Restaurants to Make You Forget Resolutions
These new havens of food goodness beg us to leap from the wagon...quite happily.
I know this is the time of year for resolutions that usually
involve going to the gym, cleansing, cutting back the carbs, and other
forms of torture and deprivation. But I’m just not down with that. My
waistline might whisper, “Salads! Vegetables! Fruit!” but my brain
screams, “Steaks! Burgers! Oysters!”
If you’re wondering who won that battle, read on.
Talk about finding a pearl in an oyster! Chefs Jeff and Barbara
Black, who brought us BlackSalt, Addie’s, Black Market Bistro and
Black’s Bar and Kitchen, ventured into the heart of D.C. this past fall
to open the latest in a string of hits, this time on 14th Street.
Pearl Dive Oyster Palace (1612 14th St., NW;
202/986-8778; $75 per person, all inclusive) snares you even before you
walk in its door. A bar opens up to the street, where impulse slurpers
can down a few bivalves on the way to Whole Foods. (I’ve done this.) By
all means, though, step inside the 78-seat restaurant for the full
experience, but be prepared to wait. Pearl Dive doesn’t take
reservations, and this place is a hot ticket.
The
Blacks spared no expense to outfit their new baby, having wisely bought
the building. I call it shacky chic: lots of whitewashing (rafters,
floorboards, wainscoting), exposed brick and stripped plaster to imbue a
sea-worn effect, plus aluminum-edged wood plank tables, nautical
lighting and gewgaws, including hanging sculptures fashioned from anchor
chains.
The vibe is bustling, and the crowd is well-heeled and diverse; Pearl
Dive is already a fave of the neighborhood’s old and new guard, who
mingle easily with trendies, Hill staffers and singles on the town.
The first sign of good things to come from the kitchen is that the
tables are outfitted with three kinds of hot sauce (Frank’s, Crystal,
Tabasco). Oysters are the order of the day (and night) here, and in any
ilk they are terrific. Start with ice-cold, raw, on-the-half-shell
Dragon Creeks, Skookums, Malpeques or Belons (they offer four sauces to
match different favor profiles). From there, migrate to the cooked
variety: grilled bacon-wrapped angels on horseback are weep-worthy;
Tchoupitoulas with oyster confit, crab, tasso and corn cream are rich
and flavor-packed.
Next stop: gumbo. (Have you caught on to the New Orleans influence?) I’m
partial to the oyster, shrimp and crab version jazzed up with andouille
sausage, even if I prefer my gumbo a little darker and less floury. I
haven’t tried the braised duck and oyster gumbo yet, but it intrigues
me.
Click here to read the whole story.
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