Fare Minded
Nage in D.C.: Coming Along Swimmingly
By Eve Zibart
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 23, 2006; Page WE15
Silly me. Years of making watermelon
pickle, and I never thought of it
as a foil for foie gras.
At Nage, the seared foie gras is
presented on a bed of dark gingerbread
and topped with a generous dollop
of spicy sweet-sour relish -- almost
a cross between watermelon pickle
and what Southerners call chowchow
-- that tweaks the liver into asserting
its richness rather than exploiting
it. It's both tangier and more complex
than a typical fruit sauce, and it
shows once again that there's always
a new way to address an old dish.
Hello, dish!
Pan-roasted scallops with caramelized
fennel risotto and baked oysters.
To say that Nage is swimming against
the trend tide -- the name refers
to "swimming" in French
and is also the term for a seafood
broth -- is more than a pun. Not only
is Nage the latest upscale restaurant
to broach the traditionally tough
Scott Circle neighborhood (a kind
of commercial limbo between Dupont
and Logan circles), it's the offshoot
of a popular Rehoboth Beach, Del.,
kitchen that is hoping to hang on
to its warm-weather friends all year
round. A sleek and fairly intimate
space, with a smallish bar and exposed
kitchen, it's in the Marriott Courtyard
Embassy Row Hotel, not terribly visible,
though convenient enough once spotted.
Even so, the winds seem favorable
for the venture: With duplicate menus
(including several of executive chef
and co-owner Kevin Reading's signature
dishes) and two Rehoboth area veterans,
Gray Rollins and Dave Hamer, heading
the cook staff, the Washington Nage
seems not to be diluting the strength
of its sibling but rather helping
to refine it.
Like the resort original, the new
Nage offers a different mix-and-match
three-course dinner for $35 each night;
the chalked-up options, usually pretty
intriguing, are also priced a la carte.
Among Nage's early successes is an
appetizer that started as a special
and moved to the regular menu, a dish
so rich it should come with a cholesterol
warning: It stars a lushly tender
veal cheek, served over an appropriately
cheeky bacon, egg and tomato risotto
in which the smattering of salty bacon
bits nicely offsets the unctuous meat.
The warm seasonal vegetable salad
with goat cheese is a personal favorite.
One night the composition included
one perfect asparagus, an artichoke
heart, a bit of sweet pepper, a couple
of fresh mustard greens, slightly
marinated mushrooms, a few tomato
dice and a handful of sweet corn kernels.
It might be a trifle light for $11,
but I'd take a double for dinner any
summer night. And nothing is truly
"light" here because every
evening starts out with a different
bread (whole grain, potato, olive)
and a spread such as cumin-scented
hummus or fully roasted, acid-free
elephant garlic cloves.
The baked oysters, another longtime
signature, are still fine, the mixture
of spinach, fennel and mushrooms bound
and "salted" lightly by
asiago. The notorious Nage frites,
a huge tangle of white and sweet shoestring
potatoes sprinkled with white truffle
oil, retain their fresh texture to
the bottom of the bowl.
Even happier is the "seafood
a la Nage," a varied but manageably
restrained combination (rather like
the veggie salad) of scallop, shrimp,
squid, mussels, clams and a half lobster
tail in a fine tomato-seafood broth.
Though the vessel it's presented in
is not as clumsy as one that rendered
the Rehoboth original dish so slippery,
it's still a little tricky. The angle
at the bottom isn't conducive to spooning,
so the best thing to do is to break
the supplied croutons into the dish
and let them sop up the liquid; aromatic
of shellfish and fennel but not salty
or bitter, it's much too good to leave.
The seasoning balance is not always
consistent, however, and the kitchen's
swinging from coddling a sweet tooth
one day to indulging a salt jag another
almost suggests a bad case of kitchen
allergies. The pan-roasted scallops,
four large and rare-centered beauties,
were overwhelmed by the too-heavy
dose of parmigiana in the risotto
(a common dilemma, since the cheese
is crucial to the texture but is only
one of several salt-bearing ingredients).
The crab cake, on the other hand,
although lumpy enough, was overmatched
by a double dose of sweet condiments,
a sugared succotash (okay by itself)
and a tomato jam (better with the
crab). A mini-tower of crispy, fried
soft shell crabs wasn't hurt by its
sweet-pea-like base, but it wasn't
particularly improved by it, though
the lobster-mousse-stuffed roast piquilo
pepper on the side was rather neat.
Even the nearly perfect watermelon
pickle could be a little less sweet
and a little more pungent.
The "lobster corn dog"
is cuter on paper than on the stick,
since the flavor of the (large knuckle)
meat is obscured by the doughy crust;
you can brighten the batter or the
shucked crustacean with the mustard
dip, but it doesn't all work together.
The jicama-green mango slaw is a nice
touch, though.
The kitchen is perhaps a little too
habituated to the entree/starch/sauce
format, which shows up, particularly
with risotto, in several variations.
A good change is the pan-roasted rockfish
fillets, which are served over a much
crunchier barley-Parmesan cake and
a tomato-fennel swirl. The bourbon-brined
pork tenderloin is served over smoked
cheddar grits more delicately cheesed
than the risotto, and the fresh black-eyed
peas were a smart textural touch.
(On one occasion, the braised mustard
greens, though sauteed to just the
right degree, were ruined by the unhappy
surprise of grit.)
Still, with Reading making regular
visits to consult with the kitchen
staff, and the slower (in-town) summer
season to fine-tune the menu, it's
hard to think that Nage can't stay
afloat come fall. Maybe you'd do well
to get into the swim before the swells
do.
Nage 1600 Rhode Island Ave. NW (in
the Marriott Courtyard Embassy Row)
Metro: Farragut West or Dupont Circle
202-448-8005 Prices: Appetizers $9-$18;
entrees $16-$28 Kitchen hours: Monday-Thursday
7-10:30, 11:30-2:30 and 5-10; Friday
7-10:30, 11:30-2:30 and 5-10:30; Saturday
7-10:30 and 5-11; Sunday 7-10:30 and
5-10 Wheelchair access: Good (in hotel
lobby)
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