Plume in The Jefferson
We arrived a little early there and a concierge kindly took us a tour of the hotel before dinner. The hotel, originally built in 1923 as a luxury residential building and changed into a hotel in 1955, had a lot of charms. It was very interesting to see beautifully decorated spaces, period artifacts and antiques, including documents signed by Thomas Jefferson, and learned a couple of fascinating secrets unveiled during the hotel's major renovation in 2009.
We were the first guest on the day! The table setting was elegant. We had a little company on our table - a silver bird. Each table had a bird. How cute! What more impressive was a small ottoman that was placed next to my chair and that I could put my handbag on neatly. They know how uncomfortable people like me feel to sit down with a bag or place it on the floor.
We made a sweet toast with champagne! Some fluffy Gougers, French cheese pastry puffs with Espelette pepper were served at that time. Yum.
Amuse-bouches - tuna tartar with cucumber puree (which looked like wasabi), beets with greek yogurt mousse, and raspberry gazpacho. Everything was tasty!
My appetizer - Chesapeake Bay Blue Crab Tea. It was like a chemical experiment. By heating, broth in the bottom glass container eventually went up to the top container that contained a whole blue crab, vegetables and etc.
J's Foie Gras Terrine. Brioche in a little cute terra-cotta dish came with the dish. It was "melt-in-mouth" smooth, like high-end chocolate truffles, and sophisticated.
My entree was Pan-seared Muscovy duck breast. It was served with fresh cherries and cherry gelée (I think), snap peas, some kind of cream, a paper-thin butter cookie like "langue de chat", and two pieces of popcorns. Yes, popcorns. The unexpected items made me smile. Duck was perfectly cooked according to my specific request - between medium-rare and medium, and tasted wonderful with the rich fruity sauce.
J's entree was Bison Strip Loin with corn soufflé, green beans, roasted tomato, baked potato wrapped with edible silver leaf. The plate looked very charming. The steak was right cute and volume, and boldly BBQ-spiced. Also, corn soufflé was unforgettable. I would like to try to recreate it by myself!
Avant dessert - strawberry gelato, strawberry compote and something creamy that I don't remember, which doesn't mean this was less interesting. On the contrary, for me, a strawberry lover, this could be the best item in the entire meal! It was refreshing and heavenly after rich entree.
My dessert was Exotic Bomb - a white chocolate “bomb” filled with tropical fruit ice cream and meringue (I think), caramelized golden pineapple, coconut-flavored , rum raisins, and fresh passion fruit. I thought it looked like a new planet in the space. Not just the astonishing design but also the taste was marvelous.
J's dessert was Morello Cherry Creme Brûlée with lemon verbena marshmallow, almond crumble, morello cherry compote, and yuzu ice cream. It was very delightful, too. How did I know it? Because I tasted all J's dishes a little bit.
Petit-Fours - chocolate sablé and passion-fruit gelée. I managed to find a space in my tummy for them. What a enjoyable ending!
No, actually Plume extended our memorable dinner to home, giving us a petite box souvenir.
The inside was four chocolate gems. They were absolutely delicious. By the way, Plume was awarded the Forbes 5-Star rating in Washington DC as a piece of the chocolate was proud of it.
The food was excellent and remarkable; the atmosphere was romantic and intimate, the service was attendable and thoughtful - precisely what I envision for our anniversary dinner. Thanks to Plume and a special thanks to J who made this day possible, it was a magical happy anniversary!
Plume
The Jefferson
1200 16th Street, NW
Washington, DC, 20036
http://www.plumedc.com/
