Washington
JEWISH WEEK

Cafe Renaissance
Fine French and Italian dining

We are always happy to return to Cafe Renaissance and we are made to feel the staff is happy to see us, too. Even placing a reservation is a pleasant exercise in hospitality. "You've dined with us before, haven't you," said the voice at the other end of the phone. "We're so pleased you'll be with us again."

Make no mistake. This is not obsequious, insincere behavior to ingratiate patrons. At Cafe Renaissance, we have simply felt a bit more than well treated. We feel something close to being honored guests. (Please note, restaurants are not aware we are on a reviewing expedition, we critique under our noms d'eat.)

The restaurant is rather small but through tidbits of quiet conversations overheard, table to table, it is obvious most of the guests are returning customers. The warmth of the welcome and the helpful service alone would not be enough to entice so many repeat guests to Cafe Renaissance.

Certainly, the food has to offer something special, and at good value. You get it all at this small, out-of-the-way restaurant. It has an attractive dining room, decorated with some tasteful prints on white walls. Warm lighting turns low for evening dining. It's classy but cozy.
There's a standard menu and always many specials to enable the kitchen to take advantage of seasonal blessings and market availability. Though usually too much for us to absorb, and though we are diners who prefer luxury of having everything written for our consideration, we enjoyed the recitation of the specials because it came with editorial comments.

"And for a special appetizer tonight we have a calves liver dish that is excellent and really nutritious and will make you healthy again," we were told. This was address to Joyce who was obviously working on a cold. While we were left to decide on our order we enjoyed some tasty bread and rosemary-accented foccacia dribbled with a fine extras virgin olive oil. A simple nod to the waiter and he was ready to take our order. The evening's special pasta appetizer ($5.50) was a beautiful plate of potato gnocchi with gorgonzola sauce and spinach ravioli on a pooled basil tomato sauce, white and green on red. "A thing of beauty is a joy forever." Don't you wish? This thing of beauty was consumed with gusto. Gone but not forgotten. The gnocchi were particularly appreciated. The making of light gnocchi is an art. As for the gorgonzola--it's a vice we recently acquired. The creamy cheese, when of good quality and served in the right mix (as with the pasta), is wickedly (oh no, the calories and cholesterol) luscious.

The beef carpaccio appetizer ($6.00) was a different experience. It's an exquisite plate covered in a pretty circular placement of exceedingly thin slices of raw beef flavored with fine olive oil and served with a few adornments like chopped onion and capers. The bland taste of the beef, despite the garnishes, had insufficient zip for our taste.

Our entree orders weren't ready when we finished the appetizers so the maitre d'  asked if he might serve us a house salad while we waited. This complimentary addition of a crisp, green, lightly dressed salad was appreciated and paced our meal perfectly. Fresh ground pepper was offered with the advice, "It has vitamin C, very healthy!" The dinner plates arrived soon after we polished off the salad.

Wine by the glass is a good choice here. The house wines are satisfactory, the glass size is substantial and the price is more than fair. 
Grilled Norwegian salmon with a béarnaise sauce ($16.50) is a generously sized filet, nicely cooked and well complemented by the sauce. Béarnaise, a classic for grilled fish, is flavored with shallots, tarragon, chervil, thyme, and made rich with egg yolks and butter. Atlantic salmon is almost exclusively farm-raised and a tasty sauce is needed to add excitement. They did well here. The plate looked like a rainbow with vegetables of various colors surrounding the main attraction. Julienne carrots, red cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, parsley, potato and sliced canned peach comprised the array.

Rack of Lamb ($21.95) was ordered with specificity requested by the waiter. "Well done, medium, rare, really pink or more pink," he asked. Three lovely chops, cut off the bone, flavored with a bit of an herbed wine sauce were cooked to the requested degree of rareness.
Dinners come with varieties of crisp, slightly cooked seasonal vegetables, all placed on the plate to complement the main item and to provide a colorful, attractive dish.

The regular menu has tempting dishes but definitely needs the supplement of daily specials. The poultry dishes run under $10 for lunch and around $15 for dinner. Fish dishes (trout nicoise; flounder with vermouth; the salmon; and swordfish) are in the $11 range at lunch and up to $18 at dinner. The lunch and dinner menu choices are almost the same except in the meat category where there are a few more plates listed at dinner and prices, similarly, are a few dollars higher in the evening. Full entree dishes of pasta (spaghetti in meat sauce or farafalle primavera) are under $10.

Cafe Renaissance offers a twelve-minute soufflé. We can't figure that out, as at many places we may be asked about our desire for a soufflé at the start of the meal. Our own home versions take about 45 minutes. Be that as it may, neither the soufflé ($6.50) nor the mousse or pastry tray tempted us. We were sated and satisfied. Cups of cappuccino and espresso did the trick--we thought.

When we were offered a complimentary coup de grace--a glass of Sambucca--how could we turn it down? We left Cafe Renaissance feeling mellow and cared for.

By Joyce and Alan Rogers
Special to WJW - September 1999