I recently
had the pleasure of eating at The Inn at Little Washington. A friend and I arrived in the historic town of
Washington, Virginia, set in the rolling foothills of the Blue Mountains, and quickly
drove right past the Inn. I think I saw
the valets waving our car down as we followed the GPS orders and turned the
corner before it misleadingly announced that we were ‘arriving at
destination on right.’ We didn’t see a sign
or parking. Oh Betty, Betty, Betty, you’ve
led me astray again… everyone names their GPS, right? Betty assumed she had finished her work and stopped
barking orders, and we continued down the street another 100 yards before spotting
a dark lot full of cars to the left and assumed we had to be close. We parked, got out of the car and stepped
back in history.
Chef Patrick
O’Connell established his restaurant in the historic little town in 1978, but the
town has been around since George Washington laid out the street plan back in
1749. Many of the town’s historic buildings
have since been bought up by Chef O’Connell as he expanded his enterprise from
a mobile catering business, to a restaurant - establish in what was once the
town garage - to a multi-building Inn, shops, garden, and farm. Rather than The Inn at Little Washington, I
had mistakenly called it The Little
Inn at Washington, which is far from true since the Inn has expanded over the
years and now Chef O’Connell owns half of the little town.
When we
entered the Inn, we were greeted by a welcoming party of under-employed valets,
receptionists, and coat attendants.
After their warm welcome, we continued into a two-story foyer warmed
with a fireplace. The room was lit by soft,
low light, and felt like the den in a home from the 18th century
complete with a wall of period-portrait prints, a large marble bust above the
fireplace, and comfortable parlor chairs at a small table. We passed through the den and into the
smoking parlor/bar, which was painted in a whimsical garden mural with monkeys
dressed in fine period attire of barmen, waiters and the like hanging from the
lattice work. After soaking in the
scene, we continued into the dining room, which continued the 18th
century décor theme. The Inn’s website
notes that the Inn has become the life work of Joyce Evans, a renowned stage
and set designer from England. The
webpage also notes that she has shipped many of the furnishings from England
and believes that one should, “never use one William Morris print in a room
when five will do.”
I have a
hard time sticking to one job for more than three to five years. I believe that variety is the spice of life, however
Chef O’Connell appears to feel that life is mastering the variety of spice. As he states on his menu, “With every meal, a
cook is given a blank canvas and another chance to create a masterpiece.” He is a self-taught chef and has been
dedicated to the art of culinary excellence for over forty years. His Nouveau American cuisine has been winning
accolades since he opened the restaurant.
The list
of accolades includes being ranked #1 restaurant in Washington D.C. by the Washingtonian Magazine and Washington Zagat Survey, where it has
been awarded Zagat’s highest rating all categories for the last 14 years; Travel + Leisure ranked it #1 in the
United States for Hotels for Foodies; International
Herald Tribune rated it one of the top ten restaurants in the world; AAA’s
highest award of five diamonds; and it has received five James Beard Awards, including Chef and Restaurant of the Year. So, if you think you might only experience
fine dining once in your life, this Inn is a pretty safe bet. Though some reviewers have concluded that
the food and experience is “worth every penny,” you must also expect that it is
going to cost a lot of pennies.
I joked that
I had to sell off my brokerage account to afford it. Though it is true that I sold off and closed
my brokerage account before going to the Inn, it was not to pay for the
dinner. In fact it was because, unlike
the impeccable service at the Inn, AXA has little to no service, and cost me
much more than dinner. As I stated in the
Letter of Intent I sent to AXA to close my account:
I have found your service lacking or
non-existant, fund performance sub-par, and investment and insurance selection self-serving. I hope you find it difficult to find and
fleece future clients, and I hope I can work toward supporting that goal.
I guess
this blog helps support that goal as well, and on that note, I’d like to
recommend that you do not do any business with AXA, and advise your friends and
family avoid them as well. They
apparently believe that a brokerage ‘service’ should serve to make their
clients broker with age. But I digress.
Back at
the Inn, we decided the best way to experience Chef O’Connell’s work was the
ten-course Gastronaut’s Menu. I assume
it sounds a bit like Astronaut’s menu because the astronomic price tag is out
of this world, but then again, I am not accustomed to fine dining. After all, I did drive right by the valets,
and parked my own car, setting the night’s theme for uncouth conduct in a fine
dining environment. Actually, I think I
may have set the bar low even earlier in the evening while selecting my attire
and failing to include a suit jacket. My
friend wore a little grey sweater – instead of a fancy coat – which the staff
received with slight bafflement and gingerly took it in two fingers as if he
had never held such a humble, dispirited-looking garment. Despite our innocent disregard for fine
dining protocols, the staff handled the situation with the utmost of
professionalism, and care.
After
choosing our menu, we then had the arduous task of choosing a wine to accompany
the wide array of flavors, savors, sweets and heats we were about to
experience. For a mere $200 more, we
could have made the choice simple and selected the wine pairing for our menu,
but we decided to ask for the wine menu instead. It arrived in a leather-bound three ring
binder with 80 pages of wines to choose from.
I guess this is why they have also won awards from Wine Spectator and
Cigar Aficionado for their extensive wine list.
We deftly narrowed our choice to a Pinot Noir or Chardonnay, and after
further consultation with our ‘captain,’ - fine restaurants don’t have waiters
- and the sommelier, we settled on an oaked Chardonnay from a local Virginian
vineyard.
Before the
first course arrived, we were pleasantly surprised with a few extra tastes to
begin our gastronomic tour de force. The
first was like a mini cannoli made with a lightly salted potato chip shell
filled with American caviar and a light, creamy cheese. It was decoratively presented on a small black
stone, which our captain was quick to warn us not to eat. The warning made me wonder what circumstances
led to the requirement to include this warning, or was it prompted by our
glaring inexperience in fine dining.
Throughout
the dinner, we peppered our captain with questions about the chef and
menu. We asked if the chef was in, and
learned he rarely takes a night off.
With the restaurant opening in 1978, it seems like he may be due for a vacation,
but then again he is doing what he loves in an office he designed with garden
views from the window. During his many days at the ‘office,’ he has
also prepared meals for a laundry list of Who’s Who in global politics and
cuisine. Tucked away in the hall to the
restrooms are several pictures and letters from grateful diners to include President
Obama, First Lady Laura Bush, the Queen of England and Chef Julia Child who
celebrated her 90th birthday at the Inn.
We also
learned that the menu varies by season, but otherwise any changes are very
subtle. Patrick was once asked what an
aspiring chef should do and his advice was “Mastery. All you need to do in life is master one thing. So choose one
menu: A first course, a main course, and a dessert, and make it every
Sunday for nine years until it’s perfect.” If each recipe took 9 years to perfect, his
menu has nearly half a century of masterpiece selections crammed into a few pages.
Beyond the
food, the Inn also prides itself on their service and strives to make subtle
changes in their service to ensure every guest leaves feeling better than when
they arrived. For our visit they started
by adding a personalized birthday message to the menu for my friend’s
birthday. Then they quietly noted our interest
in the Chef, and arranged for us to meet him and tour the kitchen after
dinner. The kitchen was everything you’d
expect it to be, since it was designed by someone referred to as the pope of
American cuisine. A cathedral to food,
complete with tables beside the fire place for the devoted to dine in the
presence of masters at work. The walls
are done in blue and white Portuguese tiles and the massive hood over the
Vulcan Range altar – built to order in France – was designed to look like King
Author’s tent.
Patrick
greeted us with a warm smile and happily posed for a picture with us before we
began chatting. He was disappointed to
hear that we had arrived only a few minutes before our reservation and had not
had a chance to see the town during the day in order to tour the gardens, and
see the llamas among other highlights. Our
Captain had mentioned how Patrick had felt a sense of home when he moved to Washington,
which led him to establish the restaurant there. Hearing him speak about it, I could tell he
was proud of the house he’d created, and wished to showcase it for his guests. The llamas led to a discussion of my visits
to Peru, and he was keen to hear about their budding gastro-tourism. This man
is truly all about cuisine.
Speaking
about food, I guess I should give it a mention. The meal was a sublime, cooked-to-perfection theatric performance for the
taste buds. Like any good show, our menu
started with popcorn, but being part of the performance, it was flavored with Parmesan and Australian truffle shavings.
I would not do the tastes, textures, and overall experience justice by
attempting a blow by blow run down of delights, but here are a few of the menu’s
standouts: the Chilled Maine Lobster with Heart of Palm, Blood Oranges
and Pistachios; Nantucket Bay Scallops with Chanterelles, Curried Cauliflower,
Sultans and Pine Nuts; the Antarctic Sea Bass in an Asian inspired Broth
Perfumed with Ginger; Truffle-Stuffed Breast of Pheasant on Savoy Cabbage
Braised in Champagne; Herb Crusted Lamb with Winter Vegetable Stew on Celery
Root Puree; and for desert the Pear Sorbet with Riesling Poached Asian Pear.
Mmmmm, Mmmmm, Mmmmm!
In short,
if you ever sell off a large sum of investments and are looking for a place to
put the money, avoid AXA Advisors, and invest in an amazing dining experience
at The Inn at Little Washington.
