PHOTOGRAPH BY SCOTT SUCHMAN
Tom Sietsema Dining
Teekay teekay teekay.
★ ★
(Good)
Bistro La Bonne
1340 U St. NW. 202-758-3413. bistrolabonne. com.
OpEN: Lunch
Tuesday through Friday 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.; dinner daily 5 p.m. to midnight; brunch Saturday and Sunday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Major credit cards accepted.
Chef Daniel Labonne now has his own stage.
Another direction
C
for U Street
Corridor gains a generous French bistro
hef Daniel Labonne serves French food in portions that bring to mind Thanksgiving. Here’s a tip: Go with an appetite (or anticipate a doggie bag) if you visit his eponymous new restaurant on U Street NW.
Stick earplugs in your pocket or purse, too. Whether upstairs or
down, the noise level rivals that of a NASCAR race. Now that I’ve dispensed with the nits about noise and portions
(I try to follow Miss Piggy’s advice: Never eat anything bigger than your head), allow me to share some of the pleasures of the place. One of them is an airy raft of puff pastry with a well of sweet
shredded onions and kalamata olives. Nearly big enough to qualify as an entree, the barge — er, appetizer — is beautifully coiffed with silvery marinated anchovies on top and a mustard vinaigrette on the plate. Steak frites always seduce me, too. Labonne partners the inexpensive but tasty cut known as hanger steak with a catcher’s mitt of french fries. They look delicious, and they are; I’m tempted to pluck them off their plate even before the server has had a chance to set it down. The only reason I don’t is because I’m competing with my companions’ fingers. Plus, if I leave them where they are for a bit, the fries soak up the juices of the beef and its red wine sauce. Ketchup need not apply. Bistro La Bonne is something to cheer in this bohemian part of
town. Where else nearby can you get a good steak dinner for $17 or, for just a buck more, a collection of sauteed seafood draped in a
creamy champagne sauce? Just as significant, the restaurant gives Labonne his own stage. Name a French neighborhood spot in Washington — Bistrot du Coin, La Chaumiere, Petits Plats — and the Martinique native, 36, probably cooked there. “The ultimate goal for a chef,” he says, “is to do food the way you like it.” The hub of the action is on
the ground floor, dressed up with predictable art posters on brick walls and dominated by a long bar where soccer fans know to gather for live broadcasts of French games. Voyeurs should head upstairs; part of the equally noisy loft on the second floor overlooks the animation below. The service staff, watched over by Cyril Decrozant, a veteran of the fine Bistrot Lepic in Georgetown, proves warm and attentive. Decrozant seems to be everywhere at once, seating guests, opening wine, clearing tables and inquiring how everything is. A dining buddy dubs him “a Jacques of
(Continued on Page 36)
METrO: U
Street/Cardozo.
prIcES:
Appetizers $6.50- $12.95, entrees $14.95-$23.95.
SOUNd cHEck:
92 decibels/
Extremely loud
FLEXING HIS MUSSELS
Labonne lets diners customize steamed mussels. The chef offers three bases — white wine, tomato and cream — to which customers can add any of a dozen or so enhancers for 50 cents or $1 apiece.
Tom Sietsema
chats live at 11 a.m. on Wednesdays. Join him and find videos, blog posts and more at
washingtonpost. com/tomsietsema.
May 30, 2010 | The WashingTon PosT Magazine
35
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