Old Angler's Inn

Old Angler's Inn
By Phyllis C. Richman
Washington Post Restaurant Critic
From The Washington Post Dining Guide, November 1996

10801 MacArthur Blvd., Potomac, Md.
(301)365-2425

Hours of Operation and Prices
Lunch: T-Sun noon-2:30; Entrees: $14.50-$17
Dinner: T-Sat 6-10:30, Sun 5:30-9:30; Entrees: $23-$30
Brunch: Sun noon-2:30; Entrees: $20-$25
Closed: M

Other Information
• Credit Cards: All major
• Reservations: Recommended
• Dress: Jacket required
• Parking: Free lot

Sometimes I wish for a warm, fresh, starlit evening when I'm heading for the Old Angler's Inn. Then I can sit outdoors amid the flowers and trees, listening to fountain and frog sounds while I dine on sauteed scallops in thyme oil, inch-thick swordfish on a bed of near-melting shaved fennel or tuna served raw as a tartare or near-raw as a seared steak with a lemon-grass crust.

Other times I'm hoping for a chilly night when a fireplace will be blazing and I can sit before it on a sofa with a drink while I order my dinner: game, of course, or superb veal cooked as a chateaubriand, with vegetables of the season (my favorites: spring's morels and asparagus). I'll start perhaps with a soup or splurge on sauteed foie gras. No, most likely I'll be unable to resist the little appetizer napoleon, its pastry layers of lacy fried potatoes gaufrette, its filling a silken, house-smoked salmon and its garnish a dollop of osetra caviar, the most flavorful of the sturgeon eggs.

Or maybe I'll order a tasting menu and let the chef show me what he's doing that's most exciting.

Chef Jeffrey Tomchek keeps up with the trends, but he doesn't try so hard to be original that he loses sight of the essentials. His fish, his meats, his vegetables taste primarily of themselves and only peripherally of their elaborations. Nothing too fussy here. Expensive, yes, but the quality of the ingredients plus the magical setting add up to a bargain among luxuries.

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