Dino - A last minute dinner

Where should we go?  We just got out of a work happy hour in Cleveland Park.  2 Amys?  Palena?  On this day, Dino.  Late summer.  I really like Dino.  It's been good to me. Dean Gold shops at the farmers' market for lots of fresh & local, and I'm down with it.  Plus their before 7pm $27 3-course deal is pretty much the best in town.  I hope my memory hasn't foresaken me, this was a few months back...

Artichokes.  Crispy and zesty and begging for me to squeeze that lemon wedge all over 'em. 

Prosciutto rolled peaches.  Whaaaaaat?!

Cheesy warm gooey cannelloni.  Beautiful color, too.

Tubular pasta with duck leg confit.  And greens.  I want it again, now.

Dino
3435 Connecticut Ave NW
Metro: Cleveland Park

Weekly Recap A Little Late - OR IS IT!

Wait, am I the only one who is still enjoying the weekend?  I took today off from work to play tourist with three of my lovely cousins.  Abe Lincoln, WWII Memorial, Old Post Office Clocktower---despite the super hot weather, we had a wonderful time and had a blue sky backdrop for our photos.  What more can you ask for? [...besides it being 75 instead of 95, of course.]

Let's quickly recap last week so we can move on to this week.  I just can't bear to skip it, because ever since I started these recaps out of boredom (THANK YOU SNOWPOCALYPSE) I just can't wait to tell you about my food news/bookmarked recipes/favorite stories of the week.  You know, just in case a) you don't follow me on Twitter (I'm heartbroken), or b) I was too lazy to find the link on my phone to copy and paste into my Twitter app.  It happens.

Top Chef started.  I feel like I'm the only one who wants the hashtag #TCDC to happen.  Why waste the characters with #TopChefDC?  But I'm alone (except for a few lovely friends).  OBVIOUSLY, we have our fair share of recaps going on.  The first three I read were We Love DC, Capital Spice, and Brightest Young Things. CS was more about the places featured in the episode and their history.  Learn something, will ya?  It's classy.  Oh, and Hank Stuever from the Post thought it was lame, in a nutshell.

Recently I've noticed apricots taking their share of the spotlight---fresh from Foodwanderings and dried from Passion Fruits.  I'm an apricot fan, and the other day on NPR I heard a story about a WOMAN named Apricot!  Good times.  Speaking of fruit, Cherry Pie from Adventures in Shaw is so gorgeous and so yummy looking.  I want to buy it. 

It turns out GW Law is not just a JD factory...it produces a disproportionate number of people who head toward the culinary arts (including a friend from my year! But he doesn't have a truck...yet.).  P.S., does Mr. Curbside Cupcake still use boxed mixes for his treats?  (h/t LB)

Tackle Box is coming to Cleveland Park.  One of my former favorite haunts.  Reasonably priced, usually yummy, but the real question is--who will be making the pie???  (add'l h/t to Komi to Marvin and Metrocurean)

Lunch joint in the sky (h/t EmGusk).  

And also, h/t to EmGusk for teaching me the abbreviation h/t.  Hat Tip. 

Dino

I recently went to Dino with a group of TWELVE. After seeing the information on the web site about the various minimums imposed for private parties (requires a non-OpenTable dealing for parties of 11+), I thought--you know? Dino is a good, reasonable place. I'm going to get in touch and see if that minimum ($700 I think) reaaaally applies (maybe they are just kidding?). Dean Gold got back to me super quickly and said I should give him a call--we could order off the menu with no minimum at a semi-open kitchen table so long as we (with a 6pm reservation) are out by 8ish for the next group coming in. Subject to a cancellation fee, but we're planning on showing up in full family force.



Not everybody loved Dino. The naysayers said that the pasta dishes were too rich and heavy, and I think the menu was intimidating to some because it's not the standard Italian joint they are used to. Some of us were getting ready for the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler, so--carbs, right? I forgot that L would likely want to avoid something too heavy and cheesy, so she decided to forgo the pasta for the rotisserie half chicken. She said it was kind of bland--I didn't taste it myself.

Maybe I'm just easy to please (feel free to invite me over to try your cooking--it's a confidence booster). I LOVED my risotto primavera with morels and ramps (onion/leek-like vegetable), and swooned over Mom's lasagna. Father and son got the Tuscan bread soup, and when I asked them what had been in their now-empty bowls, they said "really good soup." The teenager got "fish" that was "good." When I asked her what made it good ("The sauce?" I prompted. "Sides?") she said "it just was." J liked his halibut with baby bok choy, and the roasted red pepper sauce on the plate (which was orange!) was delish.

A said the golden tilefish was "small but good."



In a large group it seems like most people don't love their food, and it's not because the food isn't great, or even good. It's because it's hard to please 12 people, aged 14-82. And everyone is somewhat stressed from traveling, worrying about everyone else (is there anything for Grandma to eat? What time is it? When do we have to be at the next place?), and it's not the leisurely, wine-laden situation that J and I had at our first visit to Dino last year.

Dino
3435 Connecticut Ave NW
Metro: Red Line to Cleveland Park

Palena - burger time

At our first visit in the summer we had three goals: eat the burger, eat the fries, and eat the chicken. We got the second two but unfortunately they were OUT of the burger! Out of it! Obviously this added to its intrigue.

The bun on the Palena burger was a brioche monstrosity. The thing dwarfed the meat--the real show, it should have been--and honestly it was difficult to take a bite! I love thick bread that has a crunch to the outside as much as the next person, but not necessarily surrounding a burger or sandwich. Otherwise it's more like a bread sandwich with a little meat inside.

So if you want to experience the best of Palena, then head to the cafe, order the half a roasted chicken (and all it's lemony garlicky fall-apart-tender goodness) and the fry plate (soft and creamy dauphines, regulars, onion rings, and of course the lemon slices), and call it a day. Then curl up on the couch and take a nap.

Maybe I was there on an off night. Maybe I have unreasonable burger standards! Or maybe I've been spoiled rotten by Ray's Hell-Burger and their enormous, meat-heavy skinny-breaded, perfectly-cooked masterpieces.

Palena
3529 Connecticut Avenue
Metro: Red Line to Cleveland Park

Palena

I wanted to go to Palena for a long time. When we went inside, it didn't quite look the way I expected. The name invokes a subdued but colorful Spanish-inspired look in my head, but it was really quite a mix--mostly neutrals, with some color on the booth upholstery, and very classy (and comfy looking) bar stools with big Marie-Antoinette-like cushions.

So there's the dining room, where you can only partake in a fixed price menu (and which takes reservations, I believe), then the cafe. The cafe doesn't take reservations, you can order anything from the fixed price menu a la carte, AND choose from an extremely reasonable cafe menu. Our server was clear about how much different courses will cost from the fixed price options, and was just extremely helpful, kind, and efficient. J heard that on weekdays people line up at 4pm to be seated when the cafe opens at 5:30, so on this Saturday before Easter we arrived at around 6pm. After a 35 minute wait (which we spent walking (not too deep)) around the zoo, we were seated in a roomy booth.

On to the food.

Fry plate: Hand-cut fries, really long, thin, hot and crispy; a few onion rings, dauphine potatoes, and the biggest surprise--quarter-dollar rounds of fried lemon. J was brave. When I warned him his next bite was lemon, he shrugged his shoulders and continued, while I paused to consider the possible sour bite to come. They were surprisingly good, and didn't cause any scrunchy faces.

Gnocchi: Yukon Gold Potato Gnocchi with a Tyscan-style sauce--I had relished every word of Jason from DCFoodies' recommendations for Palena. And the gnocchi was really good--definitely the best gnocchi I'd ever had, because the texture was admittedly, probably was what gnocchi should always be. But the rest of my meal really out-shined those few bites.

J had the stuffed lamb off the cafe menu, he said he couldn't really tell about the "stuffed" part but it was really good. I can't recall what it came with. Wow, I'm so self-absorbed in my own food!

Roasted organic half chicken: What in the crispy outside, juicy super-soft inside is gong on! Tell your server right away that you want the chicken, as it takes 45 minutes to prepare/serve. And it's worth every minute of the wait. There was tons of meat, this was no El Pollo Rico or Super Pollo. I guess the 45 minutes is when they dilute the magic sparkle dust and turn it into my chicken.

Dessert brought the Warm German Apple Cake, which was as it sounds. It wasn't too sweet, and had a delightful large dollop of ginger ice cream alongside. The ice cream was refreshing, not too ginger-y, but enough to warrant the name.

I'll definitely be back at Palena. We had a delicious, beautiful gourmet dinner for less than $100.

Palena
3529 Connecticut Avenue NW
Metro: Red Line to Cleveland Park, take West exit.

Dino

Dino of Cleveland Park is described by its owners as "rustic" and "traditional with a twist." Whatever you call it, I like it.

For wine aficionados, unfortunately, Dino does not have a wine list. They have a wine BOOK! At least that's what they call it--it looked to me like an overstuffed clipboard. I mean that in a good way, because obviously they are keeping it fresh and always changing, adding, depending on what's hott and what's now. I like it.

From the moment we arrived I felt like Dino and I were meant to be--we arrived at 7 on a Saturday night with no reservation and were seated right away after we found a parking spot 15 feet from the door. It was in the stars, I tell you! We sat at one of those tall tables, which I find very comfortable, and were against a wall (nice and anchored).

It being Chanukah and all, J and I noshed on the croquette di patate, perfect little cylindrical logs of golden brown fried happiness with piping-hot moist potato within.

J's buffalo steak took us back to the good old days in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where some kind of wild game was our dinner every night (elk medallions, anyone?). Cooked to a perfect medium rare, the steak was juicy and tender and all the things it's supposed to be. After I finished my own food, it was only natural that I sample his purple potato and fontina gratin--it looked like a bruise, but tasted much better.

The halibut was perfect, and I ate every bit of my roasted eggplant risotto. While I enjoyed my meal very much, looking back at the stated ingredients, I can't say I really *felt* them all. That's not necessarily a bad thing, maybe they just worked and danced together unobtrusively...or maybe it lacked some zazz.

We didn't have dessert, but we did drink a bottle of wine. The list is accommodating to all wallets--the bottle we shared was only $21.

Dino
3435 Connecticut Ave NW
Metro: Cleveland Park