A surprising element of our business is the level of intimacy established with clients, resulting, as a consequence, in the requirement, albeit a greatly pleasurable one, of making house calls. Another fact of our business is how far afield our clients can be and, consequently, we have the opportunity to travel for no reason other than that clients wish to show us how they’ve deployed the pieces they’ve purchased from us, and seek our advice on future collecting objectives.
For the last week or so, the upshot of all this was an extended visit to Washington, DC. Discretion, of course, prevents me from discussing clients in specific, but the auxiliary facets of our business- meals out, gallery and historic site visits, were pleasant in the extreme, and a brief mention of some of these might be of interest to my loyal cadre of blogophiles.
Coincident with the soft-shell crab season, we were fortunate enough to enjoy each of us a fantastic meal of two each, pan fried, atop a bed of succotash at DC Coast. I often forget, coming from San Francisco, the bastion of nouvelle cuisine, that when one travels, one can experience what we term ‘big food’. Suffice to say, the meal was ample, with the freshness of the crab indicating that the poor creatures were doubtless alive not very long before they gave up the ghost to provide Keith and me sustenance. The succotash, so called, was a bed of sweet corn and peas very lightly sautéed in butter- seems simple enough, but it was exquisitely done, and the perfect vector for the pair of soft-shells.
One other feature- the bar. Rarely do we have anything other than our whiskey related standbys to precede a meal, but the bar at DC Coast really surprised us. The Manhattans that are our favorite tipple included, in addition to rye and a whisper of vermouths, bitters that absolutely made the drink. Angostura is perfectly fine and typically what we use at home, but the house made bitters, with, amongst other things, a bit more cinnamon than nutmeg and mace, made for a wonderful difference. Frankly, if I couldn’t have a meal at DC Coast, we’d go back just for a Manhattan at the bar.
DC Coast, 1401 K Street, NW, near Franklin Park.