Tom Sietsema
Washington Post Magazine, April 17, 2005
IT WAS A COLD WINTER NIGHT when I first wandered into Circle Bistro to taste the cooking of its new chef, Brendan Cox,
and I was primed for something special. The chef had worked with Todd Gray at the respected Equinox and had performed so
well that Gray had installed him as the lead chef when he opened a second restaurant, Market Salamander in Middleburg.
I must have caught Cox on an off night. Most of the food I encountered that late January evening was upstaged by the West
End hotel's cozy dining room, which seems to glow orange and gold. An onion tart -- featuring a whole charred onion on a wisp
of pastry -- was awkward to deconstruct, while roast chicken had had the juiciness cooked right out of it. Roast lamb served
with Swiss chard was pleasant enough, but hardly special. Dessert proved to be the lone inspired course that evening: warm,
feather-light madeleines with a not-too-sweet tangerine jam for dipping.
More than a month later, I found myself at Circle Bistro again, eating a sublime beef tartare shocked with capers and
pickle juice and presented with a cone of delicate, house-made potato chips. No wonder this classic endures. An elegant
soup was its equal, and it came in two parts: a roux-thickened, saffron-infused blend of mussel liquor and cream, alongside
a little dish of warm mussels buried in airy herbed crumbs. A bite of tender sea-food followed by a spoonful of the hot soup
was pure pleasure. Those refined appetizers were trailed by additional seductions, entrees of crisp-skinned duck sliced over
red cabbage and wilted spinach, and halibut swaddled in bacon and poised on leaves of Brussels sprouts.
Another day, another pleasure: head-on trout, its skin dusted with lemon zest and strewn with some bright, glazed green
beans, then simply garnished with slivered almonds and a hint of butter sauce. The faintly sweet fish tasted as if it had
been caught that morning.
Cox hasn't forgotten that's he's working in a hotel near the Kennedy Center, so he also offers a crowd-pleasing hamburger
on the lunch menu, and a three-course, pre-theater menu for $40 (until 7 p.m.).
Pastry chef Heather Chittum, also an Equinox alum, leads diners into temptation with her sophisticated desserts. In
addition to those madeleines, her fine finishes have included a mille-feuille pastry fashioned with wine-infused pears
and fluffy sabayon; an excellent cappuccino-flavored creme brulee served with a bite of ultramoist coffeecake and a doll-size
eclair; and sorbets that honor their fruits (grapefruit and blood orange are particularly refreshing).
Dessert is a restaurant's last chance to make a good impression, and Circle Bistro does just that.
