Georgia Brown's

Yay! I'm beating ant to the punch. so georgia's browns was Thursday night, for restaurant week. we got all dressed up and, typically, arrived half an hour early. we left time for parking, but thankfully GB's supplies valets-- much appreciated. we were meeting a big crew of people, and it was early, so we hung around in the snazzy bar for a while. the restaurant is fairly small, and exudes an earthy-yet-hip vibe facilitated by curving cherry wood walls, amber wall-sconces, and ceiling art that somehow invokes both metallic linguine and the underside of a mangrove tree. pretty shwanky. once our whole crew (10 of us) was assembled, we waited another 15 minutes or so past our reservation time, but then we were herded to our comfortably placed white-tableclothed round table, which shot me down memory lane directly to 11th grade prom. anyway. drinks were ordered (i had an over-priced mai tai-- yummy, but disapointingly weak) and bread was delivered-- flaky biscuits and corn bread muffins with sweet whipped butter. tasty. although our reservation was later in the evening, service was a little slow, and we didnt place our dinner orders for at least 20 minutes after we'd been seated. i had the oysters rockefeller and the talapia. the oysters were fine-- three good-sized, very fresh specimens topped with rather bland little hunks of crawfish, a little cheddar cheese, and some un-cooked green-ness-- watercress, maybe? in any case, they were bland. and cold. but maybe they were supposed to bland and cold, in which case, they were perfect. the talapia was also fine-- a large hunk of juicy, breaded fish, deliciously deep fried and topped with a pile of tomato/olive chutney/salsa business. the salsa was a little too salty for the fish, and there wasnt enough to have a little with every bite, but i do like just about anything involving olives, so i was happy. under the fish was a sweet-potato date "salad" which seemed more to be chunks of luke-warm, plain sweet potatoes. next to the whole shebang was a mass of skinny little haricots verts, a tad oily but fine. sensing a theme here? "fine." all in all, the talapia was good. it had clearly been sitting out a while before delivery, which didnt help its cause, but that can be forgiven, and i didnt really feel that all the individual elements went together astoundingly well (maybe i'm just unsophisticated, but sweet potatoes and sour green olives is a weird combination), but it wasn't bad. maybe a 7/10. dessert was a peanut-butter-cup bread pudding, and bread pudding being one of my favorite genres of food, this held promise. it came as a muffin-sized mass of ooey chocolatey goodness, tasting much like a white-bread peanut-butter sandwhich covered in hershey's syrup. not refined per say, but satisfying. i wasnt particularly excited about the sauce that came on the plate under it, which was kind of a watery chocolate mess. think slightly-congealed hot chocolate. but considering how dense the pudding was, i guess it did the job. our dinner took over 2 hours from start to finish, which seems excessive, but the company was great (not just "fine") and the atmosphere pleasant. the only real sour note came after we left the restaurant; half of us had caught cabs, and me and ant and two other girls were in the process of getting into our car when our waitress, an older women (not some GW undergrad) came out with the check to let us know were were $13 short of the bill+pre-added tip total. what we'd left covered the actual food bill, but apparently not the prescribed %18 percent gratuity that is automatically added to every check. this bothered me a little bit, because the waitress was basically demanding that we cover the rest of her tip, (which was pretty sizable, on a $445 check); we gave her the cash to cover the difference, but i wonder if she would have chased down a group of men in business suits. i dont like thinking that i'm being treated differently because i'm young and with a group of young people. i dont know. maybe i'm snotty. anyway. dinner was good, the company was grand, and i certainly wouldnt mind going back to georgia brown's sometime when its less crowded and i'm more likely to get my dinner fresh. next up: lunch at zola.

Georgia Brown's
950 15th St NW
Washington, DC 20005
www.gbrowns.com