brabo by robert weidmaier, 1600 king street, old town, alexandria

first of all i'm shouting, "bravo!" that someone has finally invested in the revival of old town alexandria. {if you want my thoughts on old town, click on the entry for jackson 20}.



chef robert weidmaier, of dc's brasserie beck and the lovely marcel's, has expanded his repertoire of resto's.



not only has robert weidmaier opened brabo restaurant, named after the roman hero, silvius brabo, just next door is the tasting room and next door to that is the butcher's block, a wine and gourmet shop. all by robert weidmaier. thank you, merci and grazie, chef.



this trio of treats is gorgeous too, from the outside. what a refreshing addition, see i can't say enough. they've opened in connection with the new lorien hotel and spa (a kimpton property - hotel monaco, et al.).



so, frenchy is back in town for three weeks of work. [see cafe du park entry for first dining experience with frenchy]. he happens to arrive with perfect timing for once - i have four days off from cooking and can finally fathom spending four to six hours of speaking loud and broken english (which has been daunting the past two times he's been in town, therefore his company being avoided). silly me.



brabo's on my running path through old town, so i've been frothing at the mouth to see what it's all about since i saw it's opening nearly a month ago. i was actually running one day when chef michel richard himself pulled his car over to tell me he was on his way to lunch there, asking me if i'd been yet [damn, i wished could've scooped michel].



btw, on this side of old town there's plenty of street parking so this is a huge bonus. so frenchy and i meet on the street and i get kissed on both cheeks. we accidentally walked into the tasting room, which by its name gives you the impression this is a chef's tasting spot.



oh no, friends, this is a coooool hangout. small and high-ceiling'ed, bustling with good energy, we're greeted at the door by chic hostesses and chefs welcoming us in. people in there are both attractive and having fun. my kinda place. i didn't realize i was in the wrong spot til i said i had a reservation. one waiter tells me i should've come here instead - it's way cooler. ah, but no, we are on a mission to eat so the kind hostess escorts us just next door to brabo restaurant. how sweet was that of her? that's service we're not used to in these parts, i assure you.



brabo is much bigger than i thought it would be. i had requested a quiet table (online, via opentable.com) due to our communication challenges. we stand at the door waiting to be seated. it's hot in here too. i'm starting to sweat. we must've stood there awkwardly for four minutes before the bartender tells me the hostess stand is behind a huge column in the middle of the room. strike one, i'm thinking.



don't worry though, there are no other strikes against brabo. none, nada.



the front dining area seems much more interesting but i'll have to try that another time as we're led to the rear dining room (for peace and quiet, i assume). i notice it's pretty slow for a thursday night, unfortunately.



our server, katherine/catherine greets us immediately with menus and wine menu. she's very sweet and knowledgeable and fortunately patient - little does she know this night's going to drag on and we're to be the last people outta here and i hope she didn't have an early night planned. because i was hot, i needed a glass of champagne on the double, so i went with charles de fere (at $8 a glass) and it was quite good. date wanted me to order the wine, but because i really wanted white, rather than red i asked him to please choose. they have a lovely and extensive wine list - pages and pages. he chooses Perrin & Fils, les Christins’ 2006 Vacqueyras for $57.



it's a nice menu too. there's not too much to choose from but it offers a good and interesting variety. he was going to order exactly what i had my eye on so i had to rethink. [and of course, i was going to order an entree this time rather than apps only.] date ordered for appetizer the wild mushroom and foie gras ravioli with truffle madeira sauce. it was quite good though the sauce alone has a really strong flavor of black licorice, not my favorite - it didn't seem to be anise, it was really really black licorice-y in flavor. the sauce was perhaps over-reduced too, as it left that weird coating feel in your mouth that only a chef would notice. but, as i said, all together it was nice.



i guess some of you probably don't care about the food. you're wondering how my date, part deux, is going.



well, strangely, the fact that we can't communicate very well is much more enjoyable than it was last time. we're using the dictionary a lot to muddle through but we were laughing and having more fun with it. i think since he showed the confidence to make fun of both how fast i speak and my terrible french accent, i loosened up - it was surprising to see his sense of humor. the waitress was probably laughing her arse off and feeling for me. i really had fun though - i swear.



my appetizer was fantastic. upon the recommendation of katherine, i ordered the duo of shenandoah smoked trout, which i never would've ordered otherwise. beautifully presented, it came with a perfect quenelle of smoked trout mousse atop the best potato blini i've ever had. alongside, another potato blini with a small piece of smoked trout filet and another perfect quenelle of creme fraiche. paired with these a small salad of julienne of granny smith apple (beautiful) and another tiny salad of shaved fennel. nicely done as well, but completely void of salt. those blinis were little pillows from heaven - creamy with an ever-so-tiny bit of crunchiness on the outside {it's like when you make pancakes and put too much oil in the pan, you know that little crust that develops? yummy}.



second course - date ordered the seared turbot with potato gnocchi, baby artichokes and black trumpets. it was gorgeous. it was slightly overcooked for his taste but i thought it was close to perfect. golden brown and the buttery sauce was delicate. i was interested in the skate wing, but on katherine's advice i ordered the grilled lamb tenderloins. they came with a white bean puree and ratatouille (normally to me ratatouille is icky, i thought brabo's was delectable without any pesky skins on the eggplant or peppers). the lamb was cooked perfectly medium rare. i wish i could complain about something. i can't. i really, really can't.



i will mention that there are several former citronelle buddies of mine working there - front of the house. eddie a busboy (i say busboy but he's an asian gentleman of probably 60 years) was working this night. he tells me that a couple of bartenders, an expediter also work there now. it's good none of them is working tonight as i need to really focus on my date.



i think we probably were vip once katherine realized she was waiting on a former citronelle cook and a french pastry chef. not that her service was lacking in any way, nor was the food to this point, but you just get a feel when things are ever-so-subtly ramped up. i'm ok with that.



by this point, flipping through le francaise-anglaise dictionnaire is 2nd nature. there are very, very few things that i smile and nod at, not really understanding. and i hope vice versa.



for dessert, he ordered the triple chocolate mousse terrine. sounds delectable, no? it was just ok. and if it's just ok to me, imagine it being so not worth the calories to a french pastry chef. three types of chocolate in the terrine and lacking in any rich chocolate flavor. pastry chef/date says it's too much sucre. that's sugar for you non-french speaking amigos.



i enjoyed the lemon "tart", which was really more of a lemon mousse served with a sable cookie and a tuile, alongside cilantro gelee - sounds weird but it's good with the lemon. certainly not my favorite dessert of all time but you know, i have to give brabo lots of kudos. i can't wait to go back again.



you know, being an american girl, i tried to pay too. last time was on him, this time, i think should be on me. he wouldn't hear of it. wouldn't even entertain the idea for une minut. tres gentlemanly.



i'm sad to report that the tasting room was closed up for the night at 11:30 (though the website says it's open til 1 am nightly). the boys getting off work told me they do last call whenever the crowd appears to be dying down. i understand. i'll go next time. that place is cooooolio. i promise. let's go out there sometime, friends.



we popped up the street to vermilion, another spot i've been meaning to revisit for some time. i won't get into the details, as we just had a cocktail there (have you ever seen anyone get a peppermint schnapps on the rocks? whatev. it was probably much better than the revolting glass of sparkling i was served).



i kindly gave frenchy a ride home though he wanted me to introduce him to philippe. think about that one for a minute. sly these frenchies, but come on.



bravo to brabo. we've been dying for a spot nearby to call "home." i can't wait to get over to the tasting room so i too can be one of those attractive people having fun with my friends in this sleek new spot.

jackson 20, hotel monaco, 480 king street, old town alexandria

jackson 20, an american tavern. walking through the king street entrance i'm greeted by a life-size bronze pig (perhaps the most charming thing about this place), said to be president andrew jackson's favorite animal, and a symbol of hospitality and abundance. i like pigs. and i know, i've dated a few. kidding. i do like pigs and all pork products.

i don't know how long it's been open - a year or maybe two? whenever holiday inn transformed into hotel monaco (thank the lord for signs of coolness coming to old town). i've been wanting to check it out, hoping that old town would start its resurrection of hipness and and stop being so bleeping old.

sadly old town alexandria is not so charming as it used to be. back in the day you could wander in and out of endless shops packed with art, furniture, italian, french gifts and antiques and whatnots. you could pop into one of many pubs to grab a beer or a bloody mary on a saturday afternoon and just enjoy relaxation and old town-iness. now old town is empty, closed down, bankrupted businesses and lame restaurants (with the exception of a couple, like restaurant eve, union street - not for their food - or maybe even vermilion).

just this past summer (as i continue to digress), 6 gorgeous ladies were walking around in the heat of summer longing to sit at one of the charming resto's lining king street for a bite to cure their horrendous hangovers - on the patio. well we happened upon landini brothers (a great place to go in the winter months - speaking of charm), whose patio was completely empty. we asked to be seated on the patio and were refused. yes, refused. but why? the patio's empty. we're told they don't have a table for 6. can you please push two together? nope, nada, not happnin. what in the world? who would rather have $0 than push two tables together - or at least offer up a 4 top and a 2 top. sorry - that shoulda been a story of it's own - perhaps i'll do a blog titled "buffoons running businesses without customer service: how do they survive in this economy?"

back to ye olde towne. it's called old town becaue it's 250-something years old and boring and dying. perhaps if you're a tourist it's doesn't seem so boring (it's rampant with tourists and browsers aimlessly meandering the streets all summer long). i can't blame them. i too bring guests down to visit charming old town. or i used to. what do you people in your cute, historic townhomes do???? what a perfect town for walking, shopping, eating, drinking. geez, i swear if i lived in the heart of old town i'd never drive anywhere; or at least i wouldn't have when all the businesses were open.

{off the subject but of important note, hotel monaco hosts doggy happy hours from 5-8 pm on tuesdays and thursdays april through october in their courtyard. i've been wanting to go to that too (in hopes of meeting a cute boy). evidently my dog philippe went once last summer when i was out of town. i hear he had a great time but he did not mention whether there were any hotties for me.}

so i met a couple of girlfriends and a guyfriend for a couple of cocktails and hors d'oeuvres president's day night; how apropos i now think, president's day, having a drink at a bar named after a former president. they wanted to start drinkin' early since everyone had had the day off (except for me, i just started nightly cooking for a family this very day so i had to meet up later, ugh, sigh, i knew this new gig would be a commitment that i didn't want to keep for fear of it cramping my social life). anyhoo, they'd gotten well into a bottle of penfold's bin # something. old reliable. jackson 20 has 20 bottles of wine for $20. way cool considering everyone's in the poorhouse now. pourhouse?

the appetizer fool that i am is always excited to see what's on the menu. what's on the appetizer menu here is disappointing though. crabcakes, fried green tomatoes and a bunch of rabbit food. nothing good for sharing. if you want some things to share - peruse the "sides" section of the menu for more options. we opted for the fried green tomatoes, a side of macaroni and cheese, asparagus - for something green and not fried and cheese fries (ok, so no one's on a diet here - but there were 4 of us - and we were sharing. besides - isn't the pig at the door supposed to give you an idea of how you're supposed to eat?). also of note - the regular dinner menu looks fantastic with lots to choose from.

the fried green tomatoes were really good actually. they needed salt, but they had a tangy little salad of arugula on the side and a buttermilk blue crab dressing which went nicely. the cheese fries were nothing to write home about (especially for me - i couldn't write anybody at home about these because it's in stillwater, oklahoma that the best cheese fries in the world are made at eskimo joes, once famously mentioned in a speech by none other than President Bush I) - clearly not homemade fries and WHERE'S the godforsaken cheese, people? how lame, how sad. what would old hickory say about these cheese fries? not much. i've already said too much. don't get 'em, they're not worth the calories.

i would like to mention, however, that the mac and cheese was heavenly!!! angels were singing. and i am not normally on the mac & cheese bandwagon like everyone else in this town. the cheese sauce had lots of earthy oregano infused in it and was just perfectly cooked - not overcooked like most mac & cheese. yum and i will use that idea - just lovely. white and creamy - i didn't think it was going to be good - the breadcrumbs on top were not properly gratineed (they weren't browned at all). surprisingly i was surprised. we were actually still hungry so we got some pretty decent little rolls with butter brought to us.

what i noticed most about this place - for somewhere that's supposed to be named after andrew jackson, in a town with lots and lots of presidential history, it was actually pretty nondescript inside. the photos online make it look pretty hip but it didn't come across in person. the service was good yet it was nondescript too.

the other thing i noticed and this is a doozy for a single girl like me (or for people who like to go where there's good people-watching) - jackson 20 drew an amazingly unattractive group of people. rarely do you look around you and find that not one person in the place is nice to look at. what gives? i asked my friend. he says to me, "well today is the equivalent of a sunday night since it was a holiday." ah, true dat. i forget from my restaurant days of not so long ago that sundays are for early birds, non-appetizer eating eaters who like to get in/get out and not fuss with the rest of the world who eat out all of the other nights of the week. rude? perhaps it is. it's a generalization! don't get angry at me. after all, we were out and we are really attractive people. i had to go look at myself in the restroom just to remember that attractive people are out and about on a holiday.

i will give jackson 20 another chance because it's so darn easy to get to from my place. plus, my friends promise that normally there's a better crowd. plus that dinner menu had a few things calling my name - and that's unusual for appetizer girl.

for all the negative things i said about old town. i'm just sad about it and venting. i'm actually a hopeless romantic for old town alexandria, praying it makes a comeback soon.

more to come this spring from doggy happy hour at hotel monaco. cheers, people!