Anyway, we slept super-late, which was lovely, and woke up with lunch in mind. We headed over to Hank's Oyster Bar, but somehow, both of us had neglected to notice on their website that they aren't open for lunch. So that left us a bit stumped, and wandering around for awhile. This only led to us getting hungrier and grumpier, and every time I found a Wi-Fi network with my iPod touch, it wouldn't connect, and that made it really hard to know where we were and/or where we were going.
Finally, like a beacon in the night, we spotted the Washington Monument in the distance, and that gave us some idea of our bearings. We headed that way, and figured if nothing else, we'd grab something at the National Museum of the American Indian, which was supposed to have a good food station area (not a buffet, exactly...one of those places where they cook the food for you at different stations...you know?).
Soon enough, we ran into the White House. I suppose I shouldn't have found the shooters on the roof alarming, but I did.
We'd been to DC a couple of times since 9/11, but I'd never noticed the sharp-shooters before. At least I assume they were sharp-shooters. I don't think they were up there doing shingle work.
And of course, the nuclear protester were there. They always are.
By this time, we were starving. We knew there we a restaurant we wanted to eat at on Pennsylvania Ave SE (we were on NW), so we took off -- in the wrong direction. But all was well soon enough, as we stumbled upon Central, where we actually had dinner reservations a couple of nights later. So I called an audible, and decided that we were going to eat lunch there.
We sat at the bar -- we figured we might be a little under-dressed, even for lunch, but the bar is always a safe bet in a situation like that. Jon, having done all his restaurant homework, knew that Central was meant to have excellent burgers, and that's what we both went with. Jon got his with just cheese, and I had cheese and bacon.
Oh heavens.
What they brought out was perhaps the most delicious hunk of cow muscle between two buns that I'd ever had. EVER.
The burger also had potato tuiles, which were like super-super-thin, crispy potato cakes. I wasn't sure how they would work, since I don't usually eat potatoes ON my burger, but they were quite good. The burger came with fries, which were good -- not great -- and I had a house-made grapefruit soda to drink, which was delicious.
Go ahead and drool. It's okay.
We decided then that we probably weren't going to come back for dinner, since it would be really hard to top the meal that we were having then, and we didn't just want to have the same thing again. To that end, to get the full Central experience, we ordered dessert -- Michel's Chocolate Bar (formerly known as the Kit-Kat Bar, until the Kit-Kat people had something to say about it). I think it probably ruined Kit-Kats for me for the rest of my life :)
After lunch, we soldiered on to the Mall, and wandered around there for a bit. We saw the Capitol and the Washington Monument.
We beat the Metro after-work rush back to the hotel, and were able to relax a little before dinner, which was at Obelisk, just around the corner from the hotel. (I'd put a link in, but there's not one for me to put.) Walking into the restaurant felt like walking into someone's home, since there wasn't a sign outside, and really, the dining room wasn't much bigger than the average living room. There were about 12 tables in all, down both sides of the room, with a large table in the middle where the waitresses prepared a number of the dishes.
All in all, we had 6 courses, if I remember correctly. We started with an amazing burrata cheese, which is a fresh cow's milk cheese that tastes like mozzarella, but has more the consistency of cottage cheese, although not quite. This was followed by several more antipasti, including polenta fritters, pork belly tureen (which confirmed by dislike of the tureen), chicory with a creamy anchovy dressing (sort of like a Caesar salad), and Tuscan-style meatballs. After all that, we finally got to the first course. Jon had a lobster bean soup, while I had eggplant ravioli, which were so fresh and delicious. For our entree (we had 3 to pick from), we shared a veal chop that came with perfect roasted potatoes and some kind of mishmash of olives and peppers that I avoided.
Are you feeling full? 'Cause we aren't done yet.
The 5th course was cheeses, served with a fig jam. One was a goat's milk, one was a sheep and cow's milk, and one a sheep's milk (I can't remember the names -- I know that two were from Piedmont, though). The cheeses were all excellent, although let's be honest -- I rarely have met a cheese that I didn't like. The fig jam didn't do much for me though. Too raisin-y.
Finally, dessert! The cocoa nib panna cotta I had was a great finish to my meal. Jon had some sort of pineapple thing, I think -- I didn't try it, as I don't like pineapple.
On the whole, a most excellent meal. I thought all the surrounding courses were actually better than the main (that may partially be because veal's not really my thing), and it wasn't hard to see why Obelisk consistently receives rave reviews. The service was also outstanding.
Thus concluded our second day in the District -- not a bad way to end!
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