A New Source for Notable Food

Wolfgang Puck's first Washington restaurant is serving up some mouthwatering dishes

** 1/2 The Source

575 Pennsylvania Ave. NW

202-637-6100

www.wolfgangpuck.com

Open: dining room Monday through Saturday 5:30 to 10:30 p.m.; lounge Monday through Thursday 5 to 11 p.m., Friday and Saturday 5 p.m. to midnight. Metro: Archives-Navy Memorial-Penn Quarter. Valet parking. No smoking. Prices: appetizers $14 to $18, entrees $28 to $58.

There are few drawbacks to a job that pays its practitioners to eat out every night. But one of them might surprise you. In our desire to eat below the radar and our duty to move on to the next dining room, most restaurant critics can't become regulars at places they admire.

I express this regret after dining with someone who has already become a habitue of the Source in the yet-to-open Newseum on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Introduced in October by celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck, the Source takes a two-pronged approach to dining. The first floor, illuminated with countless votives and wrapped in glass, is a lounge devoted to the cocktail-and-small-plates set. The second level ¿ reachable by a broad, white terrazzo staircase that lets every diner make a grand entrance ¿ gives a young Puck protege, Scott Drewno, an opportunity to show what he's learned after a decade of working for some American masters. His r?sum? includes Chinois and Spago in Las Vegas, as well as the Asian-themed Vong, conceived by Jean-Georges Vongerichten, in New York.

In the company of my discerning friend, I got to experience the Source with someone who had been there before and was clearly thrilled to be back. While a host eased my companion into a prime perch (a plush settee hugging a window), another employee welcomed her with a handshake.

Every table at the Source receives a complimentary nibble from the kitchen ¿ a bowl of stir-fried green beans and caramelized walnuts meant to be eaten with chopsticks ¿ but regulars are also treated to one of the best items on the menu, and a snack familiar to customers at Spago in Beverly Hills. "Spicy tuna tartare" by itself won't stop any presses, but its exquisite staging could. The cool-but-fiery minced fish, glistening like rubies beneath a dusting of shaved bonito, is slipped into a slender cone fashioned from miso and sesame. A savory twist on an ice cream cone, the velvety tuna and its crisp, subtly sweet cylinder are an inspired match. The fillip, which is served three-to-an-appetizer in a wooden holder for $15, disappears in a few bites. Yet its brilliance remains vivid in one's memory.

Drewno's food is exciting on multiple levels, not the least of which is Washington's woeful lack of sophisticated Asian dining. At his best, the chef, 32, turns out class acts such as stir-fried lamb nestled in cool cups of iceberg lettuce, and wok-cooked sea bass. The latter is delivered to the table whole but hacked into shards of fish that are crisp and meaty, then doused with either yuzu or chili-herb sauce. (The racy heat of the second accent works for me.) I could devote a whole meal to an appetizer of pork belly dumplings: dimpled envelopes filled with a mix of meat, dried fruit, cabbage and oyster sauce, splashed with Chinese black vinegar and chili oil, and tempered with a garnish of thinly sliced scallions and herbs. (Chinatown, are you listening?) And when friends and I share a starter of Arctic char, we see that Drewno likes to borrow from more than just a handful of countries when he's cooking. Rising from cardamom raita, the stylish stack of pink fish, chutney and pickled Japanese cucumber crowned with micro-greens is one of those seductions that has diners going back for another stab of heat, another bit of sweet ¿ and sighing once they've reached the end of the ride.

One reason so many restaurant-goers favor appetizers over main courses is explained here. A few bites of a little dish are more apt to hold your attention ¿ and less likely to flag any flaws ¿ than are many bites of a larger construction. An entree of beef ribs finds concentric rings of lentil and herb sauces surrounding the meat, which is tender but mute. And the thick pink slices of designer pork arranged over spinach in another main course take a distant second place to the small block of honey-glazed pork belly positioned atop the meat. The accessory ¿ rich, crisp and utterly decadent ¿ is some of the best bacon you'll ever taste. Glossy duckling sprinkled with huckleberries is so fatty and syrupy that I push the plate away after a few bites. The consolation for ordering the fowl are the gravy-swollen chow fun noodles that round out the entree. Their intriguing heat (there's chili oil in the seasoning) begins as a tease, and ends with a punch, on the tongue.

You might not understand the buzz surrounding the Source if you remain grounded. The pizza in the first-floor lounge is not too different from the pies I've encountered at Puck's many airport cafes ¿ it's respectable ¿ and while it's fun to find fat white sausages bursting with juices on the bar menu, their accompanying small, soft, greasy pretzels are a disappointment. A nosh that hints at what's to be found in the more formal dining room upstairs is the creamy tuna tartare topped with diced avocado, fueled with pickled ginger and served with delicate wonton chips tucked into the folds of a napkin.

The Source is like a friend you enjoy despite his or her shortcomings. The kitchen has a saccharine side that I don't share, evinced in that lacquered duckling and the cloying pad Thai noodles that escort a main course of seared scallops. A few dishes are overwrought. When you're shelling out more than $100 a head for dinner, you deserve to be dazzled by every plate.

But when every meal also includes a home run or two, it's easy to keep the relationship going. One of the best lamb dishes now playing locally: Drewno's gutsy grilled lamb chops, splashed with an herby vinaigrette and backed up with a side of soft eggplant tossed with crisp snow peas. The chef reveals a lighter side with a three-bite lobster roll that bands warm seafood with sheer slices of daikon; streaks of three sauces ¿ basil, balsamic and honey-rosemary ¿ decorate the appetizer and heighten its pleasure. And sending folks home on a high is the pastry chef, Karen Crawford. Her cookie plate could pass for a collection of gems from a European bakery case, while the lofty mango souffle is tropical elegance in every spoonful. I can easily say no to most chocolate desserts, but not to the Source's fragile clutch of phyllo enclosing a lavalike chocolate core.

It's impossible to ignore wine at the Source. The restaurant's stash is displayed behind glass walls, in temperature-controlled "cellars" that begin on the ground floor and continue skyward to provide an elegant backdrop. To guide you through the possibilities, the Source recruited Hawaii native Esther "Malia" Milstead from the esteemed Restaurant Gary Danko in San Francisco. She's a polished guide whose service includes "priming" empty wineglasses with a splash from your bottle of choice. I'm not convinced the ritual does much to improve the sipping, but the interlude gives diners the chance to hear what Milstead has to say about the wine she's poised to pour. Her list, which is strong on small producers from California but also nods to the rest of the world (there's some lovely sake from Japan), is designed to wow diners with quality and variety.

A name like Puck not only helps fill seats; it draws top talent from other restaurants. Gourmets will note the presence of faces from the Inn at Little Washington and other serious dining destinations among the waitstaff. These days, no other restaurant in the city makes a better first impression than the Source, where the door is opened for each arrival and the front desk is staffed by what appear to be runway models with graduate degrees in graciousness.

You can't eat a great reception. But a warm welcome is one of those subtle details that helps turns strangers into friends, curious diners into frequent patrons.

To chat with Tom Sietsema online, go to washingtonpost.com on Wednesdays at 11 a.m. Ask Tom will return.