Thursday, September 11, 2008

Is the Doctor in?



The wife and I met a friend at Granville Moore's on Saturday. It's an out of the way Belgian beer bar located in the "up and coming" atlas district of DC. On your trip down H Street you might be asking yourself is there really a cool beer bar in this somewhat sketchy part of the city? The answer is you betcha. The restaurant is apparently named for the previous tenant of the space. Dr. Granville Moore was apparently a doctor who worked pro bono twice a week on H street.

To start, on a busy Saturday apparently the wait can be quite long for a table. As we approached the front door a lady was taking names and phone numbers and we were told that it was going to be close to a 2 hour wait to get a table. Fortunately, we were able to find standing room at the bar which quickly parlayed itself into three bar stools opening up. We started off with some beers on draft, Meg and Kevin got a Brasserie Caracole Nostradamus, and I got a Pauwel Kwak. A year or two ago I had a Kwak and wasn't overly impressed, but this time it was on point. We started off with an order of frites. The frites were done right twice fried, salted, and seasoned. Unfortunately the frites were so good that I think I ate too many. After awhile we placed our order, Meg and I both went with the Steak et Fromage sandwich(which came with a mountain of frites). My friend ordered a pair of scallops to start along with a bowl of gazpacho. To break up the wait for the dishes and to continue the revelry we moved on to another round of beers. Meg went with a Brasserie Lefèbvre Barbar, I can't remember what Kevin ordered, and I got a De Dolle Ara Bier. The Ara was very interesting. It started off with a nice Belgian yeasty-ness (is this a word?), moved onto a tart lemony flavor, and finished big with a wall o' hop bitterness. That was one unique Belgian beer. The food came and I think everyone was content. My steak et fromage was served on an onion brioche with a nice hunk of cheddar cheese, and a creamy horseradish sauce. Meg got the same thing and her opinion of the food was that she thought "it was something she could make at home." I got the opportunity to taste Kevin's scallops and they tasted very fresh and meaty (not rubbery at all).

All in all I think this is a cool little place tucked away in a part of the city that is still flying under the radar. I definitely recommend it to anyone who is up for a little adventuring away from the typical stomping grounds in NoVa and DC.

Keep it Belgian,

HolzBrew

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not sure what radar you are operating under but the chef of Granville's beat Bobby Flay in an episode of Throwdown.

he talks about it here...
http://www.washingtonian.com/blogarticles/restaurants/bestbites/8634.html

you could find on on the food network's site too

HolzBrew said...

Anonymous,

The under the radar comment was in reference to this part of the city, the atlas district. If you live in or around DC, I think you would agree that the atlas district is not as highly trafficked as say G-town or Adams Morgan.

Thanks for the link!

-HolzBrew