It's Not Just Sharing, It's Social-ism

The new Social in Columbia Heights does its best to facilitate a feeling of community. There's a moody bar billed as "the cellar" underground and a window-wrapped, drinking and dining area a flight of stairs up, where tufted leather sofas are arranged around low cocktail tables and a red-and-gold carpet covers a large swath of a buffed wood floor. With its handsome red draperies and clusters of intimate seating, the second floor looks like the living room of a host with good taste. Indeed, it's known as "the family room."

Our sense of deja vu is partly explained by the ownership. A.J. Guy and Scott Hammons are former managers at the Hotel Helix in Logan Circle, and Joe Norton, the restaurant manager here, comes to the project from the Topaz Hotel. Both Helix and Topaz are owned by the hospitality-focused Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, based in San Francisco.

Like a lot of restaurants these days, Social encourages its clientele to order a bunch of dishes to share, or, as our young server put it at dinner last month, to participate "in human interaction on the highest level."

Whatever. Much of the menu can be ordered in three portion sizes, a strategy the menu refers to as "micro-dining." Mahi-mahi tacos, for instance, can be sampled for $9, $15 or $20, depending on the size and the appetite of a party. Entrees are flagged as "self-indulgence"; they range from a salad of crab and fennel to roast chicken and grilled rib-eye. Michael Clements is in charge of the kitchen. Formerly associated with Tonic and the short-lived Red Bean in Mount Pleasant, he makes respectable, lemon-grass-flavored Vietnamese pulled pork sliders and lamb "lollipops" (chops) infused with red wine and dabbed with a cilantro pesto. Oddly, our apple and arugula salad showed up without its promised gorgonzola and pecans.

Social doesn't take reservations and doesn't care whether you order your meal in bits and pieces. That's part of the restaurant's relaxed, no-rush philosophy. So is one of its desserts: Milk and warm cookies are meant to be eaten leisurely, after all.

1400 Meridian Pl. NW; 202-797-1100. http://www.social14.com. Small plates, $6-$10.