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Restaurants for Special Occasions
We’re Celebrating!
1789: Low-Key and Leisurely
Stepping into this charming Federal house in one of Georgetown’s quieter enclaves, you feel as if you’ve been invited to an elegant dinner party.
A bevy of young women in black whisks diners to their tables with a gracious hello. The corner banquette in the John Carroll Room, the largest and the loveliest of the dining rooms, is ours—my husband, Bill, asked for a great table when he made the reservation.
Done up with Currier & Ives prints and antique furniture and silver, the room’s crowning touch is an ornate fireplace. One Champagne is available by the glass, and it happens to be a favorite, Taittinger, La Française Brut.
Bill’s been eyeing the frosty cocktail shakers at other tables, so he’s a bit taken aback when his martini shows up in a glass and not as chilly as it might be. A word to the waiter and a shaker—ensuring an icy cocktail—is ours. Wish the waiter were as accommodating when we ask about the menu. He seems bored filling in the blanks and even a mite condescending.
Maybe if he’d been more forthcoming we would have skipped the lobster, leek, and fontina tart, which sounded heavenly but was a yawn. No complaints about a luxuriant oyster stew with celery root, walnuts, and Smithfield ham—it’s a draw to see who’ll get the last spoonful. Or perfectly cooked halibut over smoked-tomato vinaigrette with a memorable potato cake bound with artichoke cream. The rack of lamb is another dish we’d order again, one of the restaurant’s signatures with rosemary Shiraz sauce and creamy feta potatoes.
Bill has moved on to a 2002 Merlot from Echelon Vineyards—one of nine by-the-glass reds. Noticing I’m sticking with Champagne, the waiter refills my flute on the house.
Most diners on this Friday night are from the generation that enjoys making an evening of dinner, and while the lag between starters and main courses seems overly long, no one else seems to mind except my fortysomething Type-A spouse.
Dessert sets things right: a luscious tart of fromage blanc with black mission figs and port vanilla sauce, and an intense chocolate pot de crème with crunchy espresso crisps.
For a low-key, leisurely celebration—and not a wildly expensive one—1789 is just right.
—CYNTHIA HACINLI
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