A Tale of Two Lunches

I recently revisited two old favorites for lunch to see how they held up, particularly in the deepening recession and, in one case, following a change in kitchen leadership.

On one Friday recently I went to Notti Bianche in the Foggy Bottom area. I had been here once before for lunch and a few times over the last couple of years for dinner. It is, as the name suggests, an italian restaurant, and a quite good one at that. Since the Washington Post's Tom Siemtsa's original review of this restaurant, the young chef has moved on and been replaced by Chef Cox, Equinox alumnus and chef also at Circle Bistro on the other side of Washington Circle. It would be unfair of me to compare the two chefs' products, since I have only ever had lunch during Cox's reign and dinner under his predecesser. I will say that Notti Bianche is still quite good, though perhaps not quite as good as before. I started with a mushroom minestrone with tiny sausage meatballs that was delicious and warming. The seasoning was perhaps a little subtle and could have been emphasized a little more. I had more trouble with the clam and sausage bucatini, which lacked a real sauce and had some pecorino that seemed to have bound itself to bread crumbs for a sand-like texture (which is not pleasant when you cut into it along with some strange greens -- think fingernails on blackboard, if you're old enough to remember real blackboards). The service was fine, but then I was the only one in the place for the first 45 minutes of my meal. Two other gentlemen showed up close to one o'clock, but no one seemed to be beating down the door for a moderately priced lunch. I won't rate the restaurant until I've gone back to try some other dishes.

The next day I went to Addie's Restaurant, part of the mini-empire Chefs Jeff and Barbara Black have built up around the Maryland suburban DC area. This place was much busier (admittedly on a Saturday, but later in the afternoon), and I must say the food was excellent. I had a fried artichoke and pine nut salad. The artichokes were perfectly light and tasty, the salad was not overdressed, except for far too many pine nuts and golden raisins, but you don't have to eat all those. I made a small pile on the side of my plate. For my secondo I had gulf shrimp pasta with lemon sauce that was divine -- the shrimp were sweet and had a mild smokiness to them, while the sauce brought some flavor that wasn't overpowering or too acidic or buttery. An great place to eat and the staff are very welcoming and attentive without being overbearing.