16. Bourbon Steak
Going to dinner at 5:30pm on a Friday night in Georgetown is not exactly “cool”. But when you’re on the way to see the super-human Cate Blanchett at the Kennedy Center, a girl makes sacrifices. So when Mom and I waltzed in to Bourbon Steak at exactly 5:31pm, we were the only ones in the restaurant. And the menus weren’t printed yet. And it seemed like the waiters were still getting dressed. But the good news is that we got our pick of tables. Ours ended up being bucolic (with a great view of the canal) and aromatic (next to the kitchen). Usually when I think bucolic, I think of smells like the back of a barn, but lucky for Bourbon Steak this was not the case.
We chose Bourbon Steak for our pre-theater dinner because, well, they had a pre-theater dinner. Since the menus weren’t printed yet, our server rattled it off to us. Though the fixed menu had dishes off the regular menu, there were little to no choices and the dessert was a root beer float. For $59 a person, I need more than a glass of foam. After a serious once-over of the menu, we decided on ordering from the regular menu and telling our waiter no less than twenty times that we had to leave by 7pm to make our play. He loved our diligence. He showed his love with eye rolling.
Neither Mom nor I are huge steak eaters, so I had the beef tartar as my appetizer so we could say we ate at least one beefy thing. I love good beef tartar, and this was definitely good, but Central’s was better. Mom had the lettuce wedge—another steakhouse standby—which was the most inventive version I’d ever seen. She also thought her appetizer was great, but when you’ve got something with blue cheese, bacon and avocado, it would have be covered in chemical waste for me not to like it. Same for Mom, though she would probably not sign on with my chemical waste comment.
As I’ve said countless times, I love roast chicken. So that’s what I got here. Not only was it a couple pieces of roast chicken (with skin!), but there was also a terrine of what I think was chicken parts. The breast was great, but I wasn’t thrilled with the terrine. I might just have been too full by the time I got to that part of my dish, but the textures were not good and a little bit nauseating. I was psyched about the truffle mac ‘n cheese served with the chicken, and it was good though pretty garlicky and mighty rich. It was good as a little side dish, but the $8 portion on the menu would most likely induce an immediate heart attack so I would steer clear of it. My mom went with the no-frills grilled salmon, which was cooked to perfection. It did have a mysterious brown streak on the plate (chocolate? coffee? mushroom?) which is never ever appetizing.
I can’t wait to go back, but because of the price point, I think it’ll have to be for the bar. Especially since the best part of the meal isn’t even on the menu—fries and dip instead of a bread basket. People, this is the future of food. Pass it on.
