This a lot I can promise: Nobody goes house hungry after dinner at Obelisk.
Washington
Review | By never veering from its recipe, Obelisk remains a top draw in D.C.
A plate of greens will get dropped off. “Puntarelle,” a server says, introducing the crisp hole stalks of a vegetable that Romans gravitate to in winter. The pleasantly bitter salad is slick and scrumptious with anchovy French dressing. On the heels of the greens are a pair folds of smoke-perfumed duck garnished with pickled bitter cherries, purple on purple. I’m marveling on the dance between the fowl and the fruit when some suppli interrupt the efficiency. Just like the burrata, the fried-to-order balls of Arborio rice and mozzarella cheese style a breed aside from a lot suppli on the market. The proportion of crisp-soft rice to stretchy cheese is right, and, just like the puntarelle, a Roman vacation.
“Don’t eat any extra bread,” I warning my eating companion — this, after I wolf down a second piece of crusty sourdough. (Critic, heal thyself. Or MYOB.) Expertise tells me I must tempo myself at Obelisk, nevertheless it’s been so lengthy since my final go to, I really feel like I’m catching up with an previous pal and, effectively, guidelines are supposed to be damaged.
Any second now, I anticipate my first course. The kitchen has different concepts, particularly creamy lobster salad on a finger of toasted bread — a single, superb chunk that performs up the flavour of the candy seafood.
By no means been to Obelisk? You’re lacking, ahem, rather a lot. Veteran restaurateur Peter Pastan introduced the thought to life in 1987 and finally offered the 27-seat enterprise to longtime worker Esther Lee in 2016. (Pastan is the expertise who had us lapping up Neapolitan pizza when he rolled out 2 Amys in 2001.)
Raised in Columbia, Md., Lee strikes a modest pose, referring to herself as “a child from the suburbs” who went on to graduate from the Culinary Institute of America in 1995. Like her former boss, she eschews consideration. She figures the one motive some folks learn about Obelisk is as a result of her servers insisted she put up just a few images on Instagram. The youthful faces I’ve seen within the restaurant may be the consequence. “They suppose they’re discovering one thing,” says the chef with amusing. In any other case, the clientele tends to be “pure Washington,” as in “unflashy.” No bros, in different phrases.
Lee, 51, has modified so little of the acquainted recipe, any tweak looks like a giant deal. For so long as I can bear in mind, the drill has been 5 programs, with just a few selections per course, in a setting that’s merely dressed with a band of mirrors at eye degree, affording each diner a view, and a few strategically positioned framed drawings and small obelisks. The room shimmers extra nowadays, because of a copper-painted ceiling and silver cloth on the banquettes, however in any other case, it’s the identical cozy enclave I recall from years in the past. In contrast to at so many eating places now, nobody is informed how lengthy they will keep. How very Italian of Obelisk. Pastan is now not a presence, however his presence is felt. “He noticed what different eating places had been doing and did the alternative,” says Lee, who subscribes to the identical, steady-as-she-goes principle.
Lee says she’s considered chopping again on the flotilla of snacks, “however then I feel, you don’t need to eat all the pieces!” Simpler stated than finished when the crumbs of the antipasti are brushed away and your selection of pasta lands on the green-and-gold place mat. Somewhat leaning tower of lasagna options chestnut pasta and roasted chestnuts, certain in wealthy bechamel and cheese, hinting of speck (smoked ham) and scented with sage. Your eating companion has stopped speaking to you as a result of his gnocchi draped with duck ragu is demanding his full consideration. In contrast to in some locations, the mouth-melting orbs style of potato, not flour. After all you turn plates. After all you may’t declare a favourite. Each pastas are prizes.
Your selections may not be mine, for the straightforward motive Lee modifications her menu each week. If she’s providing pork, hope that it’s one thing much like the plump brined chop I encountered not way back. A server let me know the meat wasn’t shy on seasoning, and she or he was proper. Each slice burst with what the chef calls “porchetta” spice — black pepper, fennel, coriander — and improved within the firm of a mattress of creamy cranberry beans and grill-wizened radicchio. If fish is an choice, anticipate dorade, crisped on one facet and accompanied by a salad of carrots and braised artichokes and a scoop of olivada, a tapenade coaxed from inexperienced olives, parsley and garlic that Lee ought to contemplate promoting as merch.
Are you able to squeeze in some cheese? Sure, you may. The plate is a altering trio of small tastes, a continuing of which is housemade fig jam in winter, which pairs fantastically with the dab of earthy-salty Gorgonzola I acquired. By some means, you rally for dessert as effectively. Silken panna cotta, brilliant with Meyer lemon and draped with golden caramel, appears like the proper finish to the evening, though I admit to leaving no crumb of a companion’s walnut cake, veined with chocolate chips, behind. A scoop of coffee-caramel ice cream negated any want for an espresso.
On this planet of Italian eating places in Washington, Filomena is the place you go for a present, Tosca is the place you go to seal a deal, and Fiola is the place you need to suggest. In distinction, Obelisk appears like a poetry studying graced with chic meals.
Diners who like their meals on the quiet facet will rejoice within the relative peace at Obelisk, which even at prime time registers “dialog is straightforward,” a uncommon prevalence in a great restaurant. Shock No. 2: There’s no musical distraction. The loudest Obelisk will get is the clinking of glasses or muted laughter within the kitchen from time to time.
Is Lee having enjoyable? My ears counsel she is. So does my tongue.
2029 P St. NW. 202-872-1180. obeliskdc.com. Open for indoor eating 5 p.m. to eight:30 p.m. Thursday by means of Saturday. Costs: 5-course chef’s menu $123, elective wine pairings $83. Sound examine: 64 decibels/Dialog is straightforward. Accessibility: The doorway is reached by way of steep stairs; wheelchair customers can’t be accommodated. Pandemic protocols: Employees are masked and vaccinated.