Thursday, April 24, 2008
Weekend brunch is a leisurely meal, unlike any other during the week. It's not quite breakfast and not quite lunch. It's a way to celebrate birthdays and welcome out-of-towners.
The late-morning or early-afternoon meal is only about a century old, first served just before the turn of the 20th century either to afford members of the British upper class a dignified way to recover from Saturday nights of imbibing, or as the perfect ending to early morning hunts. Food historians disagree over its exact origin. The hybrid meal didn't become popular in the United States until the 1930s.
Brunch still connotes a certain kind of luxury: of having time to while away midday Saturdays or Sundays over bloody marys and mimosas, eggs Benedict and quiche Lorraine, as others inch along in weekend traffic jams around shopping centers and sports complexes.
Washington has dozens of restaurants for indulging in brunch, from those in big-name hotels to neighborhood places. These are a few that offer something just a little different on the menu, don't make you commit to an expensive buffet and provide the ambiance and decibel level suitable for conversation.
South of the BorderThe migration of Oyamel to Penn Quarter from Crystal City also marks its emergence as one of the city's most popular brunch destinations. Yes, it's close to all the action at Verizon Center, but few diners seem to have anything pressing to get to after lounging over margaritas and Mexican tapas. Offered Saturday and Sunday, the brunch menu is a condensed version of the weekday lunch fare along with typical late-morning Mexican treats such as warm churros with cinnamon-spiced hot chocolate, a fluffy omelet filled with a light cheese and served over a tomato salsa with olives and capers (at $6.50, filling enough for a meal), Mexican scrambled eggs over handmade corn tortillas with fresh fruit salad, tangy with lime juice and a touch of hot pepper.
It's hard to pass up the guacamole made tableside (even though it's the most expensive thing on the menu) or the soft tacos filled with barbecue pork and slender rounds of pickled sweet red onion, or plump with chicken, grilled green onions and guacamole. The papas al mole are a Mexican version of french fries, but the mole (sauce) of almonds, chilies and a touch of chocolate, along with aged cojita cheese (similar to Parmesan) make them more of an acquired taste.
Dining is more free form than formal, with dishes arriving at the table in no certain order. Booths, banquettes and several niches are less noisy than tables in the middle of either dining room.
401 Seventh St. NW, 202-628-1005, reservations recommended. Metro stop: Archives/Navy Memorial. Small plates, $3 to $13.50. Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. http://www.oyamel.com .
A Bit of History
Poste Moderne Brasserie takes its name from the original use of the historic building where it is located. The marble structure is best known as the former Tariff Commission Building, but when built in 1839, it was the city's general post office. The entrance to the restaurant, off Eighth Street NW, is through the carriageway where horse-drawn wagons brought in the mail.
A glass-enclosed conservatory serves as the bar and leads to a bright, soaring space with an open kitchen and cozy booths. Two long, slender rooms, quieter and wrapped in floor-to-ceiling draperies, bookend the main space.
The menu has a French accent, with truffled french fries (served in a cone of newsprint), fresh quiche (light as a souffle with a flaky crust) and brioche French toast. Creamy yogurt and granola are served in a martini glass as a brunch parfait. Soft scrambled eggs are served with smoked salmon and caviar. The can't-miss dish is fresh doughnuts. The golf ball-size puffs are more like beignets, sprinkled with granulated sugar on the outside and filled with chocolate, lemon curd and sweet potato mousse. On the menu, they are a starter; we ate them for dessert.
555 Eighth St. NW, 202-783-6060, reservations recommended. Metro: Gallery Place/Chinatown. Appetizers, $8 to $16, main courses, $11 to $20. Hours: 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. http://www.postebrasserie.com.
Southern AccentIt would be easy to mistake the dining rooms at the Morrison-Clark Hotel and Restaurant for those of a Mississippi plantation; they were the parlors of two large townhouses (built by the Morrison and Clark families in 1864) and feature floor-to-ceiling pier mirrors with carved cornices that extend over the adjacent windows. The Victorian decor is elegant rather than fussy, in reds that match the ox-blood Chinese porcelains lining the walls. Lush draperies hang at the windows, a plush upholstered sociable (a circular tufted bench) dominates the center of the room, between brilliant white carrera marble fireplaces. Balloon-back ballroom chairs are pulled up to tables swathed in white.
Here, Sunday brunch is a three-course fixed-price menu, which can be taken with or without champagne. Southern touches abound. The iced tea arrives with a small pitcher of simple syrup as well as the usual sugar and artificial sweeteners. Every table gets a platter of warm beignets with a lemon sauce for dipping, accompanied by a basket of biscuits and muffins.
There are only a few selections for each course. For example, a soup, salad or granola for starters and a half-dozen choices for the main course. Eggs Benedict get a Chesapeake tweak with inch-thick crab cakes substituting for Canadian bacon. Although the menu changes, other main courses have included waffles and eggs, steak and eggs (poached eggs atop tenderloin medallions) and shrimp and grits, a Southern favorite that features stone ground grits, flecks of country ham and three jumbo shrimp atop a chiffonade of Swiss chard.
Desserts are Deep South, too: a classic lemon chess pie and an intensely chocolate bread pudding.
1015 L St. NW, 202-898-1200, reservations recommended. Metro : Mount Vernon Square-Convention Center. Brunch is $35 with champagne, $30 without champagne, $20 for children younger than 12. Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Sunday. http://www.morrisonclark.com . Not wheelchair-accessible.
Old Georgetown
Martin's Tavern has been Georgetown's watering hole since the day Prohibition was repealed. The interior is all wood, with booths lining the walls and a banquette opposite the front door. If the woodwork could talk, oh the tales of intrigue it could tell. Bachelor Sen. John Kennedy used to dine in the rumble seat booth at the front and proposed to Jacqueline in one a couple of booths away. CIA agents and presidents dined here. Fliers in each booth provide a succinct history of who sat where.
Martin's opens at 9 a.m. for weekend brunch and attracts a largely local crowd. The eggs Benedict is a classic, with wispy tendrils on the eggs indicating they truly were poached. The same perfectly poached eggs top the corned beef hash. A variety of tavern specials -- fried oysters, clam chowder, lox and bagels, crab cakes -- is also available.
1264 Wisconsin Ave. NW, 202-333-7370, reservations recommended. Appetizers, $5.95 to $12.95, egg specialties, $7.95 to $18. Hours: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. http://www.martins-tavern.com .
The New Latin Vibe
I fell in love with ceviche (marinated fish) more than 30 years ago while in Peru covering first lady Rosalynn Carter. Despite the large number of Peruvian restaurants that have opened here recently, the ceviche at Las Canteras in Adams Morgan is the first I have tasted that matches what I had in Peru. It's on the weekend brunch menu, along with fewer than a dozen other dishes.
Housed in a typical Washington rowhouse, Las Canteras is a long, narrow room with deep red walls and heavy, carved furniture. Latin music plays in the background but doesn't overwhelm conversation. Other favorites on the menu include causa, layers of mashed potatoes enveloping tender morsels of chicken, and pimiento relleno, a mild red pepper stuffed with beef, tomatoes and spices and topped with melted white cheese.
2307 18th St. NW, 202-265-1780, reservations recommended. Metro: Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan. Brunch dishes, $6 to $12. Hours: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. http://www.lascanterasdc.com . Not wheelchair-accessible.
The Uptown Choice
Ardeo in Cleveland Park has one of the most sophisticated and extensive Sunday brunch menus in the city. Not only are there new renditions of many classics, including eggs Benedict, French toast and corned beef hash, but there are also spectacular new dishes. One is a minitower with a shallot potato cake base, topped with slices of briny, rich smoked salmon, crowned with a tangle of micro arugula and surrounded by a moat of horseradish creme fraiche.
The Art Deco dining room is open only for dinner during the week, but by 11 a.m. opening time Sunday, there is often a crowd waiting. In warm weather, there is seating on the rooftop deck. Starters include the smoked salmon shallot potato cake, a salad of cubed heirloom beets, avocado and baby tomatoes napped with a pomegranate-saba reduction and even a minted fresh fruit smoothie.
The eggs Benedict use the same potato cake as a base, instead of an English muffin, and substitute pancetta for Canadian bacon. These are topped with lovely runny poached eggs and hollandaise sauce. Crisp shoestring potatoes and a frisee salad complete the plate. The shrimp and grits incorporates stone-ground grits, bits of tasso ham in the sauce and five meaty shrimp.
In addition to the a la carte menu, you can choose two courses and unlimited champagne for $25.
3311 Connecticut Ave. NW, 202-244-6750, reservations recommended. Metro: Cleveland Park. Appetizers, $7 to $12, main courses, $9 to $18. Hours: 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Sunday only. http://www.ardeorestaurant.com .
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