In Search of Wow
A new restaurant in Palisades fails in its quest to blow diners away

By Tom Sietsema
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 9, 2008

Let's look at the bright side: There's a new place to eat in Palisades, and it doesn't require great effort to get into or charge a small fortune for dinner.

Kemble Park Tavern, which takes its cue from the hunt country, is pretty easy on the eyes, too. Think horse figures sitting on bookshelves, wingback chairs running down the center of the room, houndstooth fabric covering the banquette, and even a hearth (in a rear dining area that doubles as a party space). If you like Clyde's restaurants, you'll probably feel at home here. (And if you prefer booth seating, keep in mind that the three here are so popular that people often request them when making reservations.)

A glance at the menu shows it to be staunchly American in flavor and reflective of what a lot of diners seem to crave. Homey soups. Lots of meat. Potatoes four ways. Fat in abundance: Marrow is served as an appetizer; veal ravioli are lavished with cream; and bacon is listed as a side dish. If you're not a vegetarian or watching your figure, Kemble Park Tavern is a cozy refuge.

I said "cozy" rather than "delicious," and here's the caveat: The cooking needs to catch up to the million-dollar design. Brought to life in November by veteran restaurateur Jim Foss, who wears the toque here, the tavern fills the location left vacant by Starland Cafe. Foss says he is striving for a "wow" factor, though that's not always evident in what emerges from the kitchen. Several meals have taught me that, to get to the best of the place, you should treat this restaurant as if it were a steakhouse.

That means settling in with a Caesar salad. The one here is spears of romaine "stuffed" with garlicky chopped romaine. The toss is generous and tangy and comes with meaty white anchovies atop the lettuce. If you like Caesars, you'll cheer this one.

Along with the appetizer comes the inevitable question ("Pepper?" asks the waiter) and what appears to be a joke: a black grinder the size of a bedpost. There are chuckles all around as the server dispenses the seasoning at the table, a few swift cranks at a time. "He's in California!" cries a pal, exaggerating by only a few thousand miles the distance between the waiter's raised arms and a dining companion's salad plate.

If you don't order greens, splurge on beef tartare. The raw ground beef is seasoned with gusto, carpeted with wasabi sprouts and served in a little Mason jar. The first course is adorable, decadent and meant to be slathered on shards of toasted bread. Your next stop should be more beef. The cuts I've had the most pleasure slicing into have been the thin and succulent skirt steak, offered with a vibrant romesco sauce, and the simply seasoned and nicely juicy Delmonico, carved from the short loin. The top of the Delmonico's plate is bordered with a roasted tomato, grilled onions and a dab of whipped potatoes. They make straightforward and satisfying treatments.

There are a couple of exceptions to my order-like-you're-in-a-meat-market rule. One is a flock of plump chicken wings, striped with honey mustard sauce and poised on long strips of cucumber. And among the sandwiches are a tasty gyro: grill-singed pita bread bursting with shaved leg of lamb, cucumber and garlic sauce. At almost $12, it's a bit more expensive than your fast-food gyro, but no less appealing.

This is a restaurant that wants to take the high road. When someone at my table requested the tomato salad in mid-winter, a waiter replied that the tomatoes weren't looking good, so the chef wasn't serving any. (Good for him, I thought, but why is it on the menu?)

Kemble Park Tavern also goes the extra distance to make your meal attractive. A French press is used to serve chicken noodle soup, which is poured into a bowl at the table. The presentation is impressive. The flavor is far less so. The broth is dull, the chicken is vapid, and the matzo ball sitting in the center of the dish is more of the same.

Almost everything else I tried was a letdown, from the wan marrow, to lamb chops dragged down by cloying fruit and undercooked scalloped potatoes, to a side of dry macaroni and cheese that skimped on the latter. Despite all appearances, shrimp and grits were an uneasy marriage; the only spark of personality I could find were bites of snappy, sassy andouille sausage. Some meals, it was as if two different chefs were preparing dinner. How else to explain those appealing steaks and a slapdash fish special -- snapper accompanied by oddly thick slices of potato and beet -- served the same evening?

Like most of what precedes them, desserts stick to a comfort-food theme. So, you'll find rice pudding, served in one of those cute Mason jars, and a seasonal fruit crumble. Another nod to nostalgia is carrot cake. This being 2008, however, the dessert is "deconstructed," or served in parts meant to be assembled by the diner. Here, that means a nude, muffin-size piece of cake accompanied by piped goat cheese icing, macerated white raisins and candied nuts. If conversation flags, ordering this dessert -- moist and not too sweet -- will give you something to talk about.

Palisades is rich with people who like to dine out but poor in the number of restaurants to feed the need. Kemble Park Tavern plays the part of a nice new neighbor, but, once you get past the smiles and the style, there's not a lot to maintain a relationship.

"Wow?" Not right now.