reVOLT

I've been looking forward to my trip to DC for a long time.  Because I'd get to see my friends Sam and Emily and their son Zach (who has to be one of the cutest and most well adjusted youngsters I've ever seen).  I had big plans for this trip.  It started with the flight there. I arrived at the airport unusually early and was able to score an earlier flight to DC.  The flight I was on was relatively empty and I was able to get the whole row to myself.  It was my first time flying United in a while and they quickly became one of my favorite airlines.  I now place United Airlines firmly below Virgin America and Jet Blue.

After my flight I would get my rental car from Alamo.  The kiosk that they suggested I use was slightly annoying.  It took quite a while to get my information (which I think should have been automatically populated somehow) entered and it took several attempts to get my driver's license to scan.  After all of these small issues I was on my way about DC in a VW Passat.  One minor problem, my phone was experiencing major problems with the GPS on my phone almost the entire time.  Weirdly enough these GPS problems only really occurred when I was driving.  I found it very strange but that aside the Passat was kind of fun to drive.  It took me a bit to figure out the cruise control, which was also integrated with the turn signal weirdly enough.  Bluetooth pairing went fine, allowing me to have access to my music throughout my trip.

After my flight I had held out on eating breakfast because I was planning on grabbing something from Tortas Frontera at O'Hare, but I was starving after getting off of the plane and couldn't wait any longer.  I made a quick stop at the Good Stuff Eatery on Crystal Drive.  I had been wanting to try the place, being a top chef fan and see just how good the burgers are.  I wish I didn't have dinner reservations at Volt later because I was trying not to have too much to eat.  I ended up deciding on the Obama burger, and it was a tender and juicy burger, but in hindsight I wish I would have gotten the Spike's Sunnyside.  Then again, a burger with a fired egg would have likely been much to messy to eat while driving.  I loved that the burger was not over powered by the blue cheese, and you could really taste the sweetness of the onions and the salty smoky flavor of the bacon.  Somewhere along the lines the horseradish mayo gets completely lost.

The fries were nothing to really write home about they were good and tasted and I definitely appreciated their freshness.  They also had several dipping sauces to choose from.  The Old Bay one was a little strange, but I get it being in the Maryland area, and I kind of like Old Bay Seasoning.  I don't think the average person would go for it but it was quite tasty to me.  The sriracha sauce sauce was tasty and approachable without being too spicy.  The mango sauce was sweet and interesting and something that I wouldn't combine with just about anything save chicken or fish.  I wish I could have tried some of the shakes they sounded awesome.

And then there was traffic.  Mind blowingly amazingly horrid.  The 50 mile drive took me a total of 4 hours.  I guess it kind of made sense considering that I was leaving the DC area at around 2 pm on a Friday afternoon.  I finally made it to Federick for my 5:45 pm reservation at 6pm.  It was a good thing I got that early flight I suppose.

I think this might be a case where I hyped up what I thought the food should taste like in my mind to a completely unattainable level.  I've been to restaurants of many Top Chef competitors.  Season 4 winner Stephanie Izard's Girl and the Goat and Little Goat.  Aria and Spiagga of season 9 runner ups Beverley Kim and Sarah Grueneberg.  I expected to be wowed by every dish that was the product of the imagination of Season 6 runner up Bryan Voltaggio.

The restaurant did a very good job of playing up the fine dining aspects but not coming across as stuffy and pretentious via very subtle means, like the burgundy pairs of Chuck Taylor All Stars that all of the servers wore.    It relaxed what would have otherwise made you feel as though the place was a jacket required sort of affair.

Dinner stared with me ordering the Manhattan, which was expertly crafted and to my liking  along with ordering the tasting menu after about 15 mins of painful deliberation about courses that sounded so much better than what was on the tasting menu.  In actuality I should have taken lots more time to read over the menu.  Ordering from a tasting menu seemed so much easier though.

Trio of Amuse-bouche

The dinner got off to a very good start with a trio of amuse-bouche.  My favorite of the three was a spring roll with rabbit and a soy foam.  It was delicate and light start to the meal while being bold and slightly earthy with the gaminess of the rabbit and the added depth of flavor from the salty soy foam.  Alongside the spring roll was a beat macaroon with a chicken liver mouse.  I am very particular about liver.  I will only eat the liver of poultry but even then it has to have the right preparation to get me to enjoy it.  even the slightest bit overcooked and it takes on that horrid acrid taste akin to calf's liver.  The macaroon was quite enjoyable though.  Then there was the ramp aranchini.  I love ramps, there short season is a reminder of the upcoming spring season.

The first course was green strawberries.  I could only describe this course as interesting.  It wasn't necessarily bad but not anything that I would ever order again by any means.  I've never had greens strawberries before and I can understand the thought process behind the dish.  The green strawberries were extremely tart and I thought could have benefited from some additional sweetness.  It was almost like a deconstructed PB&J sandwich once you throw in the peanut praline.  Then there was the serrano ham.  While delicious I didn't feel like it belonged at all.  All of the individual elements of the dish were great but this is one of those cases where the individual elements didn't exactly sing together.

The next course was morel mushrooms.  It was over steel cut oats.  This particular dish bode well for me in reawakening my desire for steel cut oats.  I really forgot how great they are despite the pound or two of them I have in my pantry.   The moment the dish arrives at the table you get the big aroma of the beautiful morel mushrooms.  You also have the great textural differences that you get from the sea lettuce.  It was my first time having sea lettuce and the texture can be best described as crisp and a bit plasticy.  My only critisim of the dish is that the star of the show, the morels almost play second fiddle to everything else involved.  They almost get lost behind everything else though it was still tasty.

Corn Dumplings with Crab

The third course was one that I should have known better than to get.  In hindsight when I review the menu, I find out that it had one ingredient that I absolutely hate and can't bring myself to eat.  I don't understand people's obsession with kimchi.  I consider myself to be a pretty much adventurous eater but the Korean staple of fermented cabbage is where I draw the line. The pasta was cooked perfectly in the dish.  I couldn't get past the strong flavor of the kimchi which I originally attributed to the miso, which I am also not a huge fan of.  I had to send it back, but in hindsight I feel  kind of bad because if I knew that kimchi was in the dish I would have requested something different.  I know from now on when it comes to allergies, to mention my aversion to kimchi.

They brought out  corn dumplings to replace the calamari bolognase that I despised.  The dumplings were light and perfectly pillowly soft.  They were so light and delicate that I'm surprised that they weren't  defying gravity and floating in mid air before me.  They were perfectly complemented by fava beans and a light broth that had subtle tomato notes.  I would have enjoyed a bit more crab, it is Maryland afterall...

Best Halibut Ever

One way to really impress me is to perfectly cook a piece of fish.  The halibut that I had was absolutely perfect in every way.  It had that perfect golden brown carmelization without creating that crust of dry overcooked fish that you almost want to cut away.  This was a sublime display of perfected technique in action.  You had the bright green apple juice in the background along with the sherry vinegar you get the acid to complement the fish well and cut ever so slightly through the richness of the chirizo.  The halibut was absoultely the star of the show as far as I was concerned.

Lamb

Next up was the spring lamb, and to be honest I don't really remember the dish at all. I have a picture of it.  I remember eating eat, but I guess it would be like trying the remember the person who went on stage after Michael Jackson preformed.  The only thing you can think about at that point is just how awesome of a performance you've just seen even though you might be experiencing a great show still.

For dessert there was the beet sorbet.  At this point I was far too full to eat anything else and though the beet sorbet was  very good, especially since I'm not big on overly sweet deserts it was a perfect way to end the meal.