The Atlas Room: Dinner on H Street

It appears we are making the seven block walk north to the Atlas District on H Street NE with some regularity.   Not only did I bike up there late last week to pick up a rhubarb pie at Dangerously Delicious Pies, but we dined at a new-ish fine dining establishment, which we loved:   The Atlas Room.

We made a 7 pm reservation and were seated immediately in a room that was not too loud to hear each other.   We started with two separate wines by the glass:  a chenin blanc for John and a sauvignon blanc for Ben as we perused the menu.  The menu does have a group of fascinating cocktails, including a sazarac, but we were more in the mood for wine.

The menu has three different sizes of dishes:   the taste, which is really a starter size, the small plate, which is big enough to be half a course, and the full size meal.  They are arranged as three different sizes of three different substances, by type of basic material, such as fish, mean, vegetable, etc.

Ben began with the signature beef ravioli, which were superb while John had a pulled dark-meat chicken on pan bread with arugula and parmesan.  The main courses were a cobia fish for Ben, which he thoroughly enjoyed and stuffed red capsicum pepper with quinoa inside for John.   We had a Napa valley Charbono from Tofanelli Winery in Napa, a rich dark red that went well with the substantial fish for Ben and John's red pepper.

Dessert was an excellent cake, sans chocolate.  The bill was not outrageous for the quality and the uniqueness of the wine.   The wine list is short but has a variety of wineries seldom if ever seen in Washington (which has no shortage of wines).  

We give the restaurant our top ranking and will go there again.