Central is “Capital”

Every now and then you stumble into an experience you couldn’t have expected. When we were in Washington D.C. this past week visiting my family we had a bunch of great meals. A Belgium place with my Aunt Polly in Virginia to just outstanding meals cooked at home. A day trip to the city happened to bring us to Michel Richard’s Central restaurant–this turned out be an amazing gastronomic experience.

On a trip to the new Newseum, we were first going to get some lunch before explore this very cool museum.  In the museum, Wolfgang Puck runs The Source, an Asian fusion restaurant. While we were at The Source, my Mom told us about other places she likes in the area. She happened to mention Central–Brian and I both knew that that’s where we wanted to eat!

Working in the culinary industry it’s important to follow leading chefs and food news. Chef Richard makes it easy, he won Outstanding Chef 2007 from the James Beard foundation and his restaurant, Citronelle is cemented at the top of DC hottest and best places to dine. Central was the 2008 Best New Restaurant from the James Beard Foundation as well. This is a down home restaurant in a modern style and with a few twists and techniques to improve on some of the classics.

It’s about ten blocks form the Newseum to Central, it was a dizzily day and we were taking our time enjoying the city on our walk to lunch. This may be one of the reasons we were able to get a seat without a reservation. We showed up toward the end of lunch and got a table before they closed to set up for dinner.

We had a great server, she was knowledgeable and fun. We got a nice table in a corner and the table next to us must have been trying to sell wines to the restaurant, it was fun to watch all the different bottles coming and going on the table. The place seemed full of power lunches. It’s a shame to think that the food may have fallen into the background. A great dinning room with nice cheery tan walls and a hint of maroon on the lights. A large open kitchen lines the whole side of the restaurant, the cooks are all working hard  in their blue-striped aprons.  It is a nice back ground show happening amongst the chatter of the tables.

My Mom had been here before and knew she wanted us to try the cheese puffs or gougeres. They were soft and warm served in a spiral cone, baked perfectly through, yet very tender. I had the white grapefruit soda, fresh juice with a bit of soda water and a ton of ice, such a great flavor of the bitter and sweetness of the grapefruit, such a refreshing acompament to my meal.

We decided to share just a few things from the menu. That day they had a corn beef sandwich.  We have eaten a lot of deli while in New York City and growing up my mom would even make her own corn beef for us. But at Central they have such a tender, salty, juicy, and perfectly pink beef that I think could easily compete with any deli. Served on warm rye bread with a healthy layer of mustard on either side of the meat, which is staked high but is a very manageable amount unlike most Manhattan deli versions. There was also crunchy coleslaw on top. It was such a good sandwich I would go back any time for just to have it again.

We also had the rotisserie chicken with oven-roasted potatoes and a simple salad. The chicken is brined for hours before it is put into the huge rotisserie oven they have in the open kitchen. It was half a chicken and the white meat was just as flavorful and tender as the dark. It was such a pure display of the chicken that you can really taste the quality of the meat. This is not your every day grocery store chicken! It is meaty, full of natural juices and such a wonderfully game-like flavor not like duck but gamey in a chicken way. The skin was a deep nutty brown color and not greasy at all. It all mixed well with the acidic dressing of the salad and the heartiness of the potatoes.

We were having such a great meal we thought we just had to have some dessert. We probably didn’t get the most adventuresses of the choices but it fit well into our leisurely day. We had the huge ice cream Sunday, with a scoop of vanilla and chocolate ice cream and strawberry sorbet with two bananas, a mountain of whipped cream, chocolate, strawberry and caramel sauces, and four kinds of nuts. A little bit of overkill if you ask me, but satisfying none the less.

Though lunch took up more of our day then expected, we still were able to spend a few hours at that the museum. The Newseum is cool because it’s always changing and being updated. You should go if for nothing else to see the five pieces they have of the Berlin wall. It has incredible graffiti on one side and is scarily blank on the other. The museum is full of many other worth while exhibits too. I would definitely recommend it to anyone visiting the capital city.

Though we had not planned our day,  as it turned out, we went with what came our way. It turned out to be an incredible experience shared with great company. Food that I will be thinking about for a long time and a new “view” of the capital city.