I thought I'd compare two recent experiences from Washingtno, D.C., which sometimes gets overlooked as a city with great restaurants.
My girlfriend and I ate at Citronelle, the Michel Richard restaurant in Georgetown. There are four restaurants in the D.C. area generally thought to be a true four-star experience, and this is one of them.
The food seems to step above "food" and walks easily into the realm of art. We did a three-course tasting menu that was about $90 per person (before wine) and the restaurant also offers a $160 per person menu for secen courses.
The dishes ranged from something done in a more "traditional" style, but fantastically -- duck two ways, for instance, cooked perfectly but with a relatively simple plating. Or a dish they call the "surf 'n turf moasaic" which used thin slices of carpaccio (eel, beef, pepper, tuna, beet and so on... ) to turn the plate into a stained glass window. The most stunning plate I've ever been served, and I was amazed to find out later the dish originated as a way to use scrap.
Service was flawless except for a misstep at the end — we ordered a coffee that went to the wrong table.
The wine list ranges from about $60 to $5,000, but it's weighted around the $100-range and seems to have a lot of good value on the lower end. They have a "coffee list" which struck me as a really nice touch — the downside, was that at the time it listed only one coffee.
All total the bill ran somewhere over $400 after drinks and tip and more drinks and tax and so on. Frankly, I felt a little out of my element here and wasn't 100 percent comfortable but I think that's mostly because the place has so much hype surrounding it. It was an amazing experience - Richard seems to be a very playful chef who is known for making one thing that looks like something else: using, say, mozarella and yellow tomato to make what looks like a hard boiled egg. Touches like this elevate the meal.
On the flip side...
Shortly after we ate at Citronelle, my girlfriend and I ate at Obelisk -- a really small place near Dupont Circle. Chef Peter Pastan offers a five-course meal for $65; his food is considered "Italian New American," whatever that means.
Obelisk is a great contrast to Citronelle's formality - tiny room, smaller cost, less flare. Pastan seems to do as little as possible with his ingredients, but what he does is amazing.
The meal starts with an Italian anti pasti that goes six dishes: light cow's milk cheese, lightly topped with olive oil. A kind of meat, "like bologna, but better," the waitress told me, and it was delicious and light. A bean salad with crab meat, some sort of croquette, and so on...
Second course is a pasta course with three choices; the pasta is all made in-house.
Third is a "main" course that usually involves meat: I opted for the grilled pork that had been brined with salt, sugar and star anise - this was amazing. The taste had a sort of shape and texture to it, and by the next weekend I was trying to brine my own chops in anise.
Fourth is a cheese and fig course - three cheeses, sweet fig jam. Desert was a couple of choices including strawberries over vanilla ice cream with balsamic vinegar. I'd never had this before, but it was amazing.
Total bill ran $235, and it just seemed like such a great experience and value - especially when compared with Citronelle.
Pastan is not Richard, and doesn't claim to be. So much of what he does, he does by doing so little. But the food was really fantastic, the restaurant understated and the service was excellent (the servers in both places knew the menu perfectly).
On the one hand, I don't think you can compare the two places. They have completely different aspirations and deliver very different experiences. Citronelle met expectations, for sure; but Obelisk crushed my expectations, and now I can't wait to go back.
Some restaurants, I think you go to be wowed — the chef is offering a performance as much as a meal. I think that's the direction high-end dining has gone in the last few years. The New York Times had a great column by Frank Bruni on this recently...
bruni's column
...I agree with some of it, but don't have the same perspective. It's a very NYC-based column, for sure.
Just some thoughts...