Corduroy

Corduroy was a birthday destination, and I’m returning soon for Restaurant Week this August (partly to double-check that I’m remembering the food correctly). I’m bound to get hungry while recapping the experience we had last time, which was sensational.

Location: awkward. I have friends that walked by Corduroy daily without knowing it was there, until I clued them in. The restaurant is hiding inside the Four Points Hotel, for now. It’s scheduled to move to Shaw (1122 9th St NW to be precise) at the beginning of the new year. While I want it to be packed with people, both for Chef Tom Power’s sake and for the welfare of the people (seriously, they are missing out right now!), I kind of liked it being somewhat of a secret spot. I felt like I knew something that no one else knew—just me and everyone else who reads Tom’s chat. We walked from Dupont because it was a warm-but-not-hot day and we enjoy a good stroll.

Enough small talk. I had the buffalo mozzarella porcupine, which was divine. I can’t really explain what it is, but it’s cheese, it’s warm, and it has a spiky (but not painful) breaded outside that made me downright glad. Being a recovering vegetarian, I opted for the safe roasted chicken as my entrée. This was the first time I had ordered chicken in a while. As a relatively non-threatening choice, grilled or roasted chicken is my go-to food, but I had an incident in Philly that curbed my chicken appetite. Basically, I had the same rubbery, dry grilled chicken for lunch and dinner for four days straight. Blech.

My meal at Corduroy reopened my heart to chicken dishes, and made me a believer in the 3 hour dinner. We lingered over wine, thought about dessert for more than 2 minutes, and—how is it so—DIGESTED a little in between each course. The atmosphere was quiet and relaxing, the perfect private and romantic birthday spot.

The vanilla bean crème brulee was a fine choice in dessert. I have nothing negative to say about this meal, except that I made the mistake in not repeating it weekly ever since.

Corduroy
www.corduroydc.com
1201 K Street NW
Metro: Metro Center or McPherson Square