The title refers to both my husband of 12 years and what I consider to be one of the best restaurants ever, Obelisk at Dupont Circle. This was our restaurant of choice for our 12th anniversary. It is telling that there is no photo to accompany this short post. It is not that kind of restaurant where you whip out your cell phone to take a picture of the food. It would be irreverent to do so.
It is simply a bastion of good, unpretentious food. Perfect, attentive service. The decor is very bare and in a way respectful of the food. The whole restaurant is so well run it makes me we weep at how much money we’ve spent on bad restaurants. The meal was $75.00 a person but worth so much more than that.
They do everything really well. I would have licked every plate if I could.
The Antipasti consisted of four or five (I lost count!) small dishes. The Burrata was, as always, so fresh and deliciously runny. It was so very simply drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with salt and freshly ground pepper. There was also a small piece of Porchetta which had a nice crispy skin. They brought out a portion of sardines sitting on a bed of onions, pine nuts and what appeared to be golden raisins. It has flecks of orange in it as well. Just so delicious.
For my first course, I chose the gnocchi with pesto. Sounds simple and plain? Gnocchi at Obelisk is like no other. They are soft airy pillows that just melt in your mouth. A far cry from the rubbery stuff that you get from even really good Italian groceries.
I chose the lamb with a stuffed artichoke and my husband chose the grouper with Pancetta and fava beans for our second course. The lamb was marinated in garlic and herbs and grilled to medium rare. So, so tasty!
For dessert, I had the black pepper ice cream with balsamic marinated strawberries and a piece of shortbread. My husband had the hazelnut torte with a caramel whipped cream. The black pepper ice cream was just something that jumped out at me. I instantly wanted to try it and was not disappointed. However, when I has the balsamic strawberries and shortbread together with the ice cream, it was perfection! It just plain worked. Sweet and savory at the same time. So refined. So clever.
This is the third time I’ve had dinner here and every single time makes me just want to keep coming back. Is it possible that there is nothing wrong with this restaurant? Is this culinary nirvana? I think so.
Obelisk , 2029 P Street, Washington DC, 20036 (202) 872 – 1180
Leave a comment