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Lunch at 11 • Dinner at 4 Saturday and Sunday Brunch 11-3 Great Happy Hour 4-7 • Late Night Menu
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survived the whittling. The walnut-size bites, similar to gnocchi, are soft and soothing, set off with threads of speck. Fried sage imparts a breeziness to the idea. The dish is filling; an appetizer order could stand in for an entree. Schnitzel, a reminder that Alsace shares a border with Germany, endures on the menu, too, and it tastes as if it has been flown in for the occasion. The crumb coating is light, the pounded meat really smacks of pork, and diced fingerling potatoes tossed with lemony mustard and pickled Swiss chard make a rousing companion to the centerpiece. Kielbasa packs even more flavor on
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its plate. Links of the sausage, spiced with coriander and smoked paprika, frame an aromatic alp of bacon-laced sauerkraut. There are lacy shredded fried potatoes (rosti) in the picture, too, and some sweetness to balance the tang, from a sauce made with plums. The entree is a guilty pleasure you’ll pay for at the gym tomorrow. But when you’re eating the mound, life sure feels better. Bockwurst is less wicked and less fun, but I enjoy its attending ribbons of carrots, zingy with white balsamic vinegar, and squiggly crisped spaeztle. Among the grilled meats, lamb chops napped with a peppery vinaigrette are especially appealing. Served with foie gras-flavored
1200 19th St. NW 202.452.6870
sabayon, the duck-fat fries sound like pure food porn. Reality, however, is far less titillating; the neatly stacked golden rectangles smack of yesterday’s mashed potatoes. I’ll stick with the regular french fries, heaped in a metal bowl, thanks. In a part of Clarendon that sees lots
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of Sysco traffic, it’s encouraging to find a kitchen baking its own bread, turning out its own sausages and rolling out its pastas. The latest menu celebrates summer with a salad combining peach chunks, tomatoes in three colors and croutons; it needed only a dash of salt to lift it. The bar, too, pays attention to the
time of year. In Blood, Sweat and Tears, peach recently replaced blood orange as the fruity element in a fabulous cocktail featuring rye whiskey and elderflower liqueur. The menu is plenty meaty, but you
can be a vegetarian or a pescatarian and feel indulged. Exhibit A is the
Provencal tart: sheer tomato slices, olives and a crumble of cheese on a light and flaky disc that is so thin, it almost disappears into its plate. It’s served like a pizza and is easy to share. Exhibit B is a perfect piece of halibut set on a fine froth of lemon oil and egg yolks, and accessorized with sugar snap peas that live up to their name (they’re sweet and crisp). LaCivita and Lyon Hall’s chef de cuisine, Andy Bennett, have an eye for what looks good on a plate. So does pastry chef Rob Valencia,
whose sourdough bread kicks off dinner. His strudel, rethought as spring rolls, arrives with a changing scoop of ice cream (tangy sour cream when I tried it). The dessert should also come with a warning: Be careful when you bite into the tips, as the pressure tends to propel the hot fruit filling out like a cannonball. Just ask my dry cleaner. A more elegant conclusion is the almond-flavored pot de creme, decorated with a crisp tuile and peaches. Black Forest cherry cake is reinterpreted as a dome of white chocolate mousse enclosing cherry puree, trailed by a line of fresh cherries garnished with shaved chocolate. The look isn’t classic, but it’s pretty. Valencia’s chocolate sampler highlights bonbons in such unusual flavors as cardamom and stout. Narrow and crowded, the bi-level
Lyon Hall is not the beauty of its block (lucky diners land on the banquette facing the front window), but the servers make up for that. One night, a ringer for Anne Hathaway guides me through dinner; another evening, a young Stanley Tucci attends to my needs. No matter who is minding my table, though, there’s the feeling of people who enjoy what they’re doing and want you to have fun, too. By the time you read this, Lyon
Hall’s aural assault might be a moot point. The restaurant was expected to close over Labor Day for extensive soundproofing. Let’s hope the buffers work. My
next meal, I want to hear the crunch of the kraut, the snap in the sausage — and the punch lines to my companions’ jokes.
Next week: A taste of the new Buddha Bar in Washington.
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