Bistro D'oc...a fine dinner

Monday, September 15, dinner with friends at Bistro D'oc, 518-10th Street, NW, Washington.

Bistro D'oc is small, very old, in a building across the street from Ford's Theater. It's normally a very touristy street, but at 8pm on a Monday night it was less than busy. On arrival we waited at the bar with an Alsace pinot gris for Ben and Stella D'artois beers for me and our host. We were seated after the wait staff cleaned off a table and along came the board of specials, all very French, and I gather, often representative of the food of the southern part of France, Languedoc.

As an aside, Languedoc means language of oc, which is how the southern French from that region pronounced the word "yes".

We made our decisions: Starters were lamb brains for me, watercress soup, to replace the lobster bisque which had run out, for Ben and our host, and a boudin noir for our fourth. Then the mains were tripe with capers for me, beef small ribs for our host, lamb's liver for our fourth and mussels with frites for Ben. We enjoyed the meals though our host found the watercress soup ordinary. Ben enjoyed his. Our fourth asked for a side of frites, but they tended to be a bit underdone. When told, the waiter did not charge us for them.

The wine list tends to be a bit pricey, but we had a very nice Languedoc syrah and a Gigondas from the Rhone, both about $45.

The atmosphere is very bistro with an old tin ceiling, lots of bright lights and old fashioned chairs and tables scattered about the room. There is a bar with stools and a bay window out to 10th Street. A pleasant room, though we found the lights a bit glaring.

A good meal. If you avoid the wines you can eat reasonably. Probably $40 per person with a drink and tip. Our's was more, of course, because of two rounds of drinks and two bottles of wine.