1789 Restaurant

www.1789restaurant.com

Thank goodness for restaurant week! Tony and I went to 1789 Restaurant- a coveted reservation during Restaurant Week- and definitely a place we wouldn’t have gone to otherwise! The restaurant is an institution in D.C. Situated on a tiny side street in Georgetown, I felt I should have arrived in a horse drawn carriage instead of our Volvo. It is actually an old townhouse with five different dining rooms throughout. Very cozy, romantic and formal- men are required to wear jackets. So it was a great excuse to dress up and dine.

The entire menu was offered for Restaurant Week which was very nice. A lot of restaurants only offer a few selections to choose from and, in my opinion, that totally defeats the purpose of Restaurant Week. We definitely experimented with our food selections and it paid off…

I ordered an Artic Chard appetizer- which is best described as a mix between smoked salmon and lox. The pink fish was wrapped around crème fraiche and cavier and served with roasted beets and toast points. It was amazing. A lthough I confirmed my distaste for cavier- it’s too fishy for me. For my entrée I ordered rockfish. The fish was pure white, thick and melted in my mouth. It was served on top of wild mushroom risotto and a butternut squash sauce. It sounds fussy, but was an excellent combination. Tony ordered the rack of lamb, which we later learned in talking with the manager, has been the restaurant’s staple dish for over 20 years. The ingredients change only slightly with the season. Tony is still talking about it, it was that good. He played flag football the next morning and swore he was going to be “Baaaa-ing” at the opposing team. :)

I took another chance with dessert and ordered the rum cake. I saw it prepared for another table and the presentation alone sealed my decision. It was like a performance. The server splits the cake in half, dollops vanilla bean cream in middle, and then pours a shot of rum over it. The cake was excellent, but I was not a fan of the rum. It was too saturated- I would have preferred that they let me pour it on myself and that way I could have regulated. I don’t like rum in my drink, so I don’t why I would like it on my cake! Tony’s dessert however, was fantastic. Lemon tart, orange compote, and lemon meringue. All three were lined up next to each other on the plate and you took a bit of each to create the perfect bite!

1789 is definitely a place everyone living in D.C. should experience once- especially during Restaurant Week! It is quintessential Georgetown- in every way that phrase can be interpreted.