Archived Article By Tom Fitzmorris Originally published February 23, 2007 Dining In The Capital Lynn Breaux, the president of the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington, DC, is a New Orleans native. (Her brother runs Breaux Mart here.) She has the perfect description of a critical difference between the two cities. "In New Orleans," she says, "every meeting is a party. In Washington, every party is a meeting." When I was there for six weeks after Katrina, I thought there was something funny about the place. And that was it. Washington and its sprawling, traffic-choked suburbs are full of good restaurants. Its ethnic culinary scene is almost as rich as that of New York. Its African restaurant community, notably the Ethiopians, have no equal anywhere except maybe in Africa. The avant-garde and high-end dining departments offer many opportunities for adventuresome dining. So why is it so hard to get a conversation started on the subject of food there? Two quick stories from my evacuation. A fellow evacuee and I went to a great Italian restaurant called Galileo (about which more in a moment). Since neither of us had anything pressing on our schedules (this is typical of evacuees), we had lunch at a New Orleans pace. After two hours, a waiter said that he knew we were from out of town, because all we talked about was food. "Nobody here talks about anything but politics," he said. Second story: In those scary times, I was beating the bushes for possible career alternatives. I spoke with the program director of a news-talk radio station who was interested in me until I told him that the sole subject of my radio show in New Orleans was food. "That's impossible!" he said. "Just food for three hours every day? You can't do that on the radio!" I told him it had been very successful for 18 years, but he refused to believe it. I returned to Washington for a week recently. (My family is still there; my kids were taken in by schools so good we couldn't bear to pull them out.) I attended a couple of parties put on for Congressmen and other influential people by the Louisiana Seafood Marketing Board, and the Louisiana Oyster Task Force. The oysters and seafood were an easy sell: Washington eats the same kinds of oysters and crabs we do. (We sell them a lot of both.) However, the big conversation at the party was the new House ethics rules, which prohibit Congressmen from accepting free food that requires flatware. If it can't be served on a toothpick, it's against the rules. Everybody was trying to figure out how to eat oysters Rockefeller with a toothpick. (Galatoire's bossman Melvin Rodrigue, who was doling the Rockefellers out, showed people that it could be done by turning the logo on the end of the plastic picks into a mini-spoon.) What I'm trying to say here is that if you go to Washington, don't expect the kind of enthusiasm about great food you get around here. Even the restaurant critic for the Washingtonian Magazine--a good writer who won a James Beard award for his reviews--seems to favor food you have to think long and hard about to get a thrill going. He says Citronelle, a hyper-expensive, innovative French restaurant, is the best place in town. Also in his top ten is a Spanish trend-follower who serves you thirty-six spoonful-size courses. Unless you get a kick out of that sort of thing (which seems to me to be the gustatory equivalent of having to create a fantasy in order to enjoy making love), your New Orleans palate would be better served in other restaurants. And if you want to hang with the heavy political figures, you'd also be going elsewhere. The rough equivalent of Galatoire's in Washington is the Old Ebbitts Grill (675 15th Street NW, 202-347-4800). A stone's throw from the White House (although you'd probably better not throw any stones around there), it's a big old (since 1856) place that describes itself as serving American saloon food. That's not quite it. Half the menu is Italian, the other half steakhouse fare. Crabcakes (the closest thing Washington has to an indigenous dish) are very good, and the steaks are too. But no matter how hard you concentrate on the food, you'll be distracted by the politicians, the media folks, and other heavy hitters, all of whom mingle with the substantial tourist crowd here. If you don't find your favorite political hack at Old Ebbitts, then you may find him in one of the steakhouses on 19th Street. All of the big chains are there or very nearby: Smith & Wollensky, Morton's, and Palm. It's just like the old Ruth's Chris on Broad here, but with more power and vastly more money. My own favorite upscale restaurant in DC is Kinkead's (2000 Pennsylvania Ave NW; 202-296-7700). It's also near the White House, but doesn't get many lobbyists and such. Maybe that's because the food is actually good enough to distract you away from politics. It reminds me of Commander's Palace with a touch of Mr. B's, without the Creole aspect. Lots of fresh fish imaginatively prepared, as well as simply wood-grilled. They also have a good raw bar (one great thing about Washington is that they not only serve the local oysters, but species from many other places). That Galileo place I mentioned earlier is terrific. (1110 21st St. NW; 202-293-7191.) It is northern Italian, but steps away from the timeless classics just enough to become singularly interesting. They make several unusual versions of agnolotti (small ravioli) stuffed with offbeat meats and sausages, a great rabbit dish with three different preparations, and more organ meats than I'm used to seeing. Beautiful restaurant, terrific Italian wine list. We have nothing like this in New Orleans. What we do have in New Orleans is Creole food. It's usually a bad idea to seek that out in another city. But Washington has the best New Orleans-style restaurant anywhere outside Louisiana. Acadiana (901 New York Ave. NW; 202-408-8848) would be considered a great place to eat even here. They bring in all the ingredients from New Orleans (including French bread, oysters, and crawfish), and research their recipes thoroughly. The chef-owner, Jeff Tunks, spent a number of years here as the executive chef at the Windsor Court. I had Acadiana's crawfish etouffee here on this trip that was the equal of any in my past experience. Also a dead-on chicken-andouille gumbo, barbecue shrimp, char-broiled oysters, and rabbit stew topped with panneed rabbit. I hope you're never stuck in Washington as long as I was, but if you are, and need a fix of real food, come here. © 2007 Tom Fitzmorris. All rights reserved. news@nomenu.com