The Willard Room

Those of you who know me know that I am no epicure. However, this weekend I have a special relative in town and wanted to treat her to something memorable. After reading several reviews online I selected the Willard Room. It was much fancier than I expected, and we felt underdressed in just jeans (in fact, we had to get special permission to dine there since the dress code prohibits jeans). I didn't realize until we arrived and started reading the displays on the walls that the Willard Intercontinental Washington hotel is a historic site that many famous people have stayed at, among them Abraham Lincoln and Walt Whitman. The oak-paneling, stunning chandeliers and classy decor make the dining room incredibly elegant and gives a sense of the history of the establishment.

The concierge advised us to order items off the menu that had the symbol of two pieces of crossed silverware next to them because they would be served tableside. I had no idea what he was talking about and was too embarrassed to ask. It turns out tableside means the meal is prepared in front of you, just as the name suggests.

We had a Caesar salad served tableside, and while it was being made were entertained with a story about the history of the salad. According to one version, Cesar Cardini invented the salad when he ran out of ingredients for his regular dishes at his restaurant in Tijuana, Mexico on the fourth of July 1924. Presented with a large number of hungry customers, he threw together the salad using just the remaining scraps.

The salad was amazing, but best of all was the dessert. I had American Spice Cake and it had both a beautiful presentation and a divine taste. And I don't even usually like dessert.

I highly recommend this restaurant to anyone in the area looking for someplace with great atmosphere and food. I know my former co-worker Monkeybutt would have gotten a real kick out of it, the place made me think of her and the delicious dishes she concocted for those folk lucky enough to work at the emergency clinic with her. The interior of the restaurant, and the highbrow crowd also reminded me quite a bit of La Foret in San Jose, a four star French restaurant I was lucky enough to be wined and dined at more than once while I lived there. For those of you back in California, you can have a similar experience by dining there.