2010 Fall Dining Guide

By Tom Sietsema
Sunday, October 17, 2010

The skeptical looks on my friends' faces as we pull into the parking lot of a generic shopping center turn to smiles once they enter Praline and spot a display of elegant macarons, tarts and chocolates in the cheery ground-floor bakery. At the top of the stairs, we're given the option of dining in one of several snug rooms or outside, on Praline's brick terrace. A fine fall night makes the decision easy, and soon we're being schmoozed by a genial French host and charmed by the flavors flowing from the kitchen of chef Christian Gautrois. Lush chicken liver pate, model French onion soup, and tender and garlicky snails, mopped up with chunks of a crusty baguette, are followed by chicken potpie with an airy saucer of puff pastry, rib-eye carved for two and served with hand-sliced french fries, and marshmallow-soft, hard-to-find pike quenelles in a rich puddle of lobster sauce: a taste of Lyon in Bethesda. Dessert is nonnegotiable, and one is not enough: Walnut dacquoise and lemon meringue tart, s'il vous plait.