Haha, sorry the shot is bad. We only had a sec at the traffic light and I had to get my S3 out of the pocket since I was navigating with the other phone.
Alright, so dinner at Ink:
Started at the bar for drinks since we were quite early (well early enough we went somewhere else for drinks first!).
I was interested in two cocktails and asked the bartender (super friendly and chatty) which he thought was better. Wife said she'd get one and I'd get the other:
Me - Gin, oro blanco, aperol, grapefruit, IPA foam, salt
Wife - Aqauvit, gruner vetliner, chamomile, honey, orange oil, bee pollen
They were both great! It's been some time since we've had quite inventive drinks (Charleston last). DC certainly has some great mixologists, we just haven't been to their places in a while.
So, I had to go to the bathroom, come back seeing the wife chatty some more with the bartender and she ends up ordering one of their dessert drinks.
It's essentially their take on a cherry coke float:
fernet branca, fernet vallet, vanilla, cherry heering, cola cream
It was really, really good. We sat down for dinner after that.
Waiter was a little sluggish, but nice, service was fine, nothing spectacular.
Food we ordered (it's basically a place to share plates; they're not "small plates" or tapas, but just not app/entree size either):
little gems, burrata, anchovy cracker, lemon dressing
- This one was essentially their salad. A halved mini Romaine lettuce dressed lightly with a creamy vinaigrette, burrata ice cream and a super savory rice cracker. Taken altogether, it was delicious. Wife loved the crackers (she loves anything with anchovies) and the ice cream tasted exactly like burrata!
corn, housemade doritos, nori, green onion
-This was quite good. It was a hot, sort of cheesy corn dip with their spiced corn chips. However, the chip was more of a puffed corn texture rather than a tortilla chip. Only problem was WAY too much "dip" and not enough chip! (We ate it with spoons anyway
)
potato charcoal, housemade sour cream, black vinegar
-This was essentially all about presentation. Small, new potatoes were blackened and served with the sour cream in a clay pot with a screen on top to make it look like it was a grill. Hehe, whatever. The aroma on the potatoes was exactly that of smokey charcoal. The black vinegar was served alongside in a mister we could spray on the potatoes. It was super simple, but the potatoes were delicious. My guess is that were baked in salt whole and then smoked. They were intensely seasoned and awesome with the sour cream.
lamb belly, salsify, mushroom hay, garlic ricotta, gremolata
-I've never had lamb belly, so wanted to try it. Wife said it just tasted like spare ribs, which if memory serves me right, was pretty spot on. But, they were delicious. Unlike pork belly, these weren't as fatty. And I loved that they grilled them, presumably after braising or sous vide-ing them (not sure which). It was a tasty dish, but as always, salsify is just a dumb root vegetable with no flavor.
halibut, liquid falafel, pickled onions, grilled cucumber (some black sauce, it's not online anymore)
-This was the kicker. I'm really not a fish person, trying to get a taste for it back. The fish was delicious!
However, the dish itself, was probably the biggest fail of the night. The rest of it was redolent of a falafel/gyro, and all the components and spices that go with it. What kind of meat generally is served in a gyro? LAMB! Not fish. Everything just killed the delicate flavor of the fish, so I ate the components separately.
By now we're full, but no way we're not getting dessert!
apple, caramel, walnut, burnt wood semifreddo
-This is what I wanted. It was fantastic. Essentially an apple pie deconstructed. The semifreddo was more vanilla than a burnt wood flavor, but put together with spheres of frozen green apple, apple gelee, candied walnuts and brown butter croutons of sort, it tasted just like an apple pie! Fantastic, loved it.
chocolate, coffee cake, chicory, raw milk, cream cheese frost
Wife is the chocoholic, so that's usually where she veres. I tried it a couple times. It was really good, but just one note.
The cake was super moist, fudgy. But, it was just chocolate over chocolate.
Overall, it was a really good time. I'd put it up there with some of our best dinners but there's plenty we've been to that have been more memorable. Hey, we're hyper critical!
I sat basically in full view of the kitchen with Voltaggio staring at me the whole night, it was hilarious. Wife's biggest beef was mostly with the guests, well some of them. And, I imagine this is an LA/Socal deal. There were quite a few guys in there just so slovenly dressed that they looked like they just rolled outta bed. Ratty t-shirt, nasty cargo pants, flip flops and hair that looked like it hadn't been washed in weeks. I mean, it's not a super high end, stuffy place (they played lots of White Stripes), but come on. Eh, I guess to drop a few hundred on dinner every week/day is nothing for these people. What are ya gonna do?
TL
R
Cocktails delicious, food adventurous, service fine, decor kinda blah, no celebrity sightings.
