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Charlie Palmer Steak
Capitol Hill Dining Meets the 21st Century
Posted: Friday, February 03, 2006
By Alejandro Benes
Just down the hill from the U.S. Capitol lies a feat that this humble scribe would not have imagined three decades ago. In the mid-1970s, Washington, D.C., and especially Capitol Hill on the mall side, was a virtual wasteland of fine dining. Certainly, there was nothing the least bit cutting-edge about the restaurants here. Of course, as the Washington metro area grew and diversified, so did the culinary scene. Steak has always been here, but 30 years ago you might have gone to Blackie's House of Beef to celebrate a special occasion. Now, Charlie Palmer Steak makes every meal feel like a party. And you can smoke a cigar.
Charlie Palmer is well known in the world of fine dining and cigars. His New York flagship Aureole has a branch in Las Vegas (at the Mandalay Bay) and so does Charlie Palmer Steak (at the Vegas Four Seasons Hotel, which is on the top floors of the Mandalay Bay). Palmer, a cigar lover whose eateries occupy some of the most interesting real estate in America, placed a hefty bet that the stodgy nation's capital was ready for something that was more natural to Vegas, or L.A. or Manhattan: a restaurant with cool style.
Walking in off First Street and Constitution Avenue, the first thing you should note about Charlie Palmer Steak is the glass. The entire front of the restaurant is windows. This allows views of the Capitol building from virtually anywhere in the main dining room and guarantees a unique sense of place. The restaurant is basically white from ceiling to floor. In the main dining room, the round lighting fixtures on the ceiling give the restaurant some variety without distracting.
When you walk into the Charlie Palmer Steak, you're in the bar. This is where you can smoke a cigar later on. Your instinct is to go through the bar to get to your table, but you are directed instead to a long walkway that runs the length of the wine store. This is another appealing use of glass. There are 10,000 bottles with 750 selections representing all 50 states. Under this glass construct is a pool of water on a bed of rocks. It's all amusing enough to keep your eye occupied as you make your way to your chair. That's where the real fun begins: you get the menu.
Now, I am fortunate to know the folks who own and manage W. Curtis Draper Tobacco in Washington. They are friends who are extraordinarily knowledgeable about the dining scene in their city and one of them, Matt Krimm, gave me sound advice the afternoon before I went to dinner.
"Here's what I do when I go to Charlie Palmer Steak," Matt told me. "Right when I sit down, I order the chicken for the table. It's an entrée, but we share it as an appetizer."
Chicken at a steak restaurant? Well, I did as Matt suggested and while I will try other appetizers next time, this was a tasty and moist chicken ($23). The chicken is roasted, a breast plus a thigh stuffed with herbs. The plate has a thin coating of jus and truffle oil, we're told. Accompanying the bird are red Swiss chard, baby corn and chanterelle mushrooms.
My friends and I, who are all going to see the Washington Capitals play hockey after we eat, have no small appetites. Cliff is having the filet ($33). It's a "European cut," immense and grilled medium rare, accompanied by a plate. Ray orders the Alaskan Halibut "Cioppino" ($33). The fish, a supremely firm filet, is served atop chitarra pasta along with clams, mussels and prawns. Jay, at the recommendation of the server, orders the surf and turf, not on the regular menu. It's a filet on one side and lobster on the other. All these dishes are precisely prepared. I get the Kansas City Rib-Eye Chop ($34). It's a hefty rib-eye steak with the bone left half-attached.
As good as the entrées were, the most surprising performance came from the wild mushrooms ($6) we ordered as a side. They were simply sautéed, a testament to the procurement of such fine fungi. The most extreme dish was easily the Truffled Twice Baked Potatoes ($14). The potatoes are baked, then the insides of the potatoes are scooped out of the skin and combined with Gruyère cheese, bacon and truffle oil, then baked again. I think I heard that right. I can't rightly remember because after the first bite, I just sort of forgot how to think. (Or maybe my arteries clogged a bit, cutting off blood supply to the brain?) The potatoes are so rich, that they're probably not a good companion to the steak. Just too rich all around.
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Picking the wine would have been difficult if this crowd were the least bit picky. I ordered a Pinot Noir from Oregon called Big Fire ($42) that the restaurant was also pouring by the glass. It paired nicely with the seafood and stood up well enough to the beef. Dessert selections skew to the chocolate and caramel, but no one complained. We shared a cheesecake ($7) and a chocolate caramel mousse with dark chocolate sorbet ($7).
We left Charlie Palmer Steak stuffed. Fortunately, we had three hours in which to recover at the hockey game before we made our way back to the bar to light up a cigar. That's still allowed in Washington, at least until next year under the new antismoking ordinance. Draper's stocks the restaurant's humidor and smoking is allowed at the bar and in the lounge. The cigar menu lists 17 selections, from Ashton to Zino, and includes a Padrón 1926, a Tatuaje, a Bahia and a Camacho. This is great variety, the kind you rarely see even at cigar bars.
Cliff and I are reminiscing about college as we puff a couple of double coronas. We keep bemoaning the point that "back in the day" there was no place like Charlie Palmer Steak. Of course, back then we couldn't have afforded it. The Zacapa 23-year-old rum we're drinking helps us enjoy the memories. The Capitol is pretty at night.
Charlie Palmer Steak
101 Constitution Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C.
Phone: 202-547-8100
Lunch, Monday through Friday 11:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Dinner, Monday through Friday 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.; Saturday 5 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.
Closed Sunday
Three private rooms; rooftop available for large events.
Go to Cigar Bar Central.
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