Welcome to Penn 6
Considering myself a hedonist by definition, a couple of dimly lit hours in the now open Penn 6, is enough to woo over anyone to their more visceral alter ego. DC is notorious for its hardliner mentalities but boldly sprouted on I Street NW, in the heart of downtown DC is a new den where even the most tightly wound bun can be let down. The third in the Penn 6 line, the DC location is the pinnacle of toeing the line between a classic sexiness and finely tailored sophistication. Speaking of raw, bare flesh … the aptly named, “Royal Plateau” helped us welcome the evening with a gleaming pile of lobster, a spectrum of oysters, shrimp, clams and crab. Delicious, fresh fare is to be expected from what is being touted as one of DC’s premiere raw bars, but I was easily won over by fresh ground horseradish.
Personally, there is nothing more riveting than a beautifully briny and bright Kushi Oyster (a rare find on this coastline) with fresh horseradish. Simple. Beautiful. Of course, other half shell offerings included more local finds such as Holygrails from Maryland but what makes this bar distinct is their brining process and the West coast offerings that bring softer, pinier oysters with a range of brininess and textures not available in our nook of the states. We could’ve ended the night here, partnered with Sommelier, Mark Slater’s expert pairing of Verdicchio di Matelica and I could have slept soundly with a mildly basic (not like girls in Uggs, basic like pH) hinting white wine that according to Mark is almost slightly salty itself and indicative of the mineral nature of the sea. But alas, this was just the cabaret show starter for the evening. Had anyone of us known what was in store, we would have all left the Spanx at home. No less impressive, the Penn 6 raw bar offers some fleshy options with some “clothes.” Offered separately as well as a sampler, I suggest trying trying the Crudo sampler that showcases Kampachi, Wahoo, and Yellowfin Tuna with additions ranging from serrano pepper with the wahoo to yuzo-miso on the tuna and interestingly, gooseberries and cumin salt with the kampachi. If you’re the type of easily bored eater that needs every bite to remind you why you took the last one, then by all means, do yourself a favor and try this crudo plate.
Royal Plateau
Appetizers are the peep show of a menu: being just as alluring and satisfying as going inside to the entrees because this is often where creativity is often the most robust and can be a brilliant showcasing for food sourcing and quality. Foie gras being present, especially listed as the first appetizer option is an immediate source of comfort and sign foretelling good things are to come for those who don’t fill up on the first courses. Needless to say, my foodie senses were tingling eagerly awaiting for the first round from the kitchen, specifically the foie. Personally, there is nothing, and I will repeat: nothing, better than a crispy seared, piece of foie gras with a nice sultry fruity companion, but for once in my life I can say I legitimately enjoyed cold liver.
Treaty of Paris: Elderflower and Champagne cocktail with muddled melon and prosciutto
Again with the lurid allusions, beautiful plating is the boob job of the food world: not necessary but really nice to have. So, as five plates descended upon our table, the peacocking began. Every plate was beautifully undone, appearing effortless and natural, the Monica Belluci of food items. Chef Mark Plessis, being of French birth, knows the art of entropic, natural beauty and that is so evident in his food, and as such, my eye immediately went to the most understated plate on the table. A small jar on a bread board with three small dollops of richly toned accoutrement and hearty grilled bread. Here, the foie gras. Red onion jam, pommery mustard and apple cider gelée accented perfectly the smooth, rich earthiness of the foie gras without competing for the attention of the palette, being over acidic or too sweet. Overall, earthy and familiar, making this a comforting treat for a chilly evening when paired with the warm atmosphere of Penn 6.
Dry Aged Beef Carpaccio
The next two plates to catch my eye were the Carpaccio and the Charred octopus. Being recently back from a trip to Greece, the Charred Spanish Octopus was beckoning with promises of reminiscing on a time slightly warmer and miles from downtown DC, but in this dish I found an unexpected melee of flavors as well as a visually appealing dish for the eye. The light green of the shaved fennel salad works to lighten the dish both in flavor and the eyes creating a dish that is both balanced and hearty. Gigande beans serve as the base and if you’ve never seen one, imagine the magic beans from the story of Jack and the beanstalk. Being the color of a garbanzo, but rather flat and large, this bean serves as a creamy and starchy foundation to the above piled octopus and fennel salad; however, the real soul of this dish is in the ‘nduja. The spice of this spreadable Spanish sausage adds the kick needed to counteract the heaviness of the gigande beans and establishes a bit of fat in an otherwise lean ensemble creating an additional note of paprika-y richness that worked in perfect symbiosis with the fennel. This was my personal favorite of the night, one that I have since gone back to enjoy on Penn 6’s opening night, and it was just as intriguing at round two as it was when we first met.
Charred Spanish Octopus
Wild Burgundy Snails
The dry aged beef carpaccio was without a doubt, the center of the table and the first dish that really grabs the attention, at least visually. Billowing on a large plate, this expanse of sheeted beef is a beautiful hue of meaty red scattered in Penn 6’s effortlessly perfect plating technique with shaved celery, shallots and a mildly aged Italian hard cheese called Grana Padano but the surprise in this dish was the violet mustard. The bright acidity of mustard is always a perfect compliment for beef, and reminds me of my childhood favorite Rouladen; but Chef Plessis paid homage to the country of his birth by introducing violet mustard to the plate. By this point it was becoming more clear that the fun of eating at Penn 6 was that it was somewhat like a game of I spy for adults except in this case, its finding the austere flavor homage left ingeniously by the chef. Violet mustard is an almost forgotten French concoction that utilizes freshly presses grape juice blended with a coarsely ground mustard creating something that is both tart, spicy and sweetly savory. Yes, the perfect pairing for aged beef, but brilliant as a partner in carpaccio where the almost musty background of the aged meat can shine through unaltered.
Crab croquettes also graced the table and were the very first dish our table dug into because as Americans, we will always dive into a plate of fried anything. The southern adage is true, anything can be fried and made delicious with a sauce and the same holds true here with these fairly classic croquettes served with an equally classic egg based gribiche sauce. For the less technical and diction prone foodie out there, don’t let the name fool you. Mayonnaise is a close cousin. Yes, it was good…. But in comparison to even the garnishes in the other dishes, this appetizer failed to wow me. However, in defense of the dish, I am comparing it to dry aged carpaccio, foie gras and charred octopus at this point. Pair this appetizer with any of Penn 6’s raw seafood and a couple of beers, I would dare say you have the makings for a great evening.
Croquettes
Not for lack of impact, the last dish brought to us was another rustically assembled board sporting some of my favorite bites of the evening. I will preface any statement following this sentence with the caveat that I am not a fan of ricotta, never have been and never thought I would be. Until this night. The difference is in freshness and Penn 6 offers fresh, house-made ricotta BUT not only ricotta. Please heed my words. Ricotta the way I imagine the overseeing food gods intended it to be eaten, with earthy thyme and black pepper, olive oil and orange-fig jam. Every bite of creamy, light ricotta with the crunchy richness of the figs took me back to a time when my great grandmother made fresh fig jam from the tree in her yard…and again. Thank you Chef Plessis for taking me down memory lane with another flavor in your immaculately mapped menu. We hadn’t even made it to the main course and I had to catch myself time after time from reminiscing too far from the present reality, and it hit me. This is the greatest genius of Chef Mark Plessis, his ability to assemble layers of memories mixed with new nuances resulting in a dining experience that is both comforting yet memorable itself. Back to the ricotta: this is the type of dish that you find yourself craving at inopportune moments. It is simple. It is refined. It speaks for itself: beautiful food harmonizing in a chorus. Personally, I would eat this at breakfast, as a snack, or even ending the evening with a glass of wine or port. Side note: if you ever need the perfect dish to break up with someone over, this might be it. They will surely find comfort in the soft sweetness of this cheese.
Such as foie gras, snails are one of those dishes that you just cannot help but love. Rich fatty goodness with pungent earthy tones and of course, Penn 6 did a great job of letting the dish speak. Wild burgundy snails are just that, wild snails from the Burgundy region in France, paired in the aptly named dish here with mushroom duxelle instead of the more typically accompaniment of herbed butter alone. The mushroom duxelle with butter and herbs encompasses all of the traditional escargot sidekicks with a twist. These snails were served out of the shell in a traditional escargot plate that was packed to the brim with the duxelle, topped with garlic, parsley and lemon. Sorry for the spoiler, but this dish was taken a step further by the addition of bone marrow butter on top. Bone marrow is hands down my favorite animal part and is now thankfully gaining popularity in the American palette. It is essentially meat butter: proteinaceous, decadent, fatty perfection that can stand alone but is worthy of sacrilege when paired with other fatty foods. The science behind this is quite simple: like dissolves like, so in the equation we have butter plus bone marrow equaling a meddling of fats that work to emulsify one another creating an experience that compounds the two tastes in a truly unique manner. Snails are naturally pretty lean, so this is an absolutely necessary aspect of eating them. Truth be told, once the snails were just fragments of our memory, I shamelessly finished the remaining mushroom duxelle and bone marrow butter with the grilled bread this dish is served with. While I can appreciate a high quality snail that is not neither gamey nor chewy, I was far more attentive to the bedding the snails were delivered in…like a child more enthralled with the box the toy came wrapped in.
I realize by this point you are probably already in an uber, en route to Penn 6, but I still have to tell you about the entrees and yes, desert too. Since we were joined at the table with Jummy Olabanji from channel 7 news and her plus one, so we had the fortune of sampling four of the seven plates offered by the Penn 6 crew. Without a second thought, I ordered the lamb shoulder ragout because once again, comfort food on a cold evening is epitomized by well executed ragout. This rendition of a lamb ragout sports a salad of shaved crimini mushrooms, rigatocini pasta and goat cheese and yes it is a heavy as it sounds and is exactly the kind of meal that tells your hypothalamus that you’ll probably survive the winter. Deviating somewhat from all prior experience at Penn 6, this dish was exactly as I anticipated. Delicious but lacking some surprise element; the baby in the king cake I was becoming accustomed to.
Scallops
The lack of awe was vindicated with one bite of the scallop plate including black cardamom, one of the most under appreciated spices known to the western diet, one that graces the Penn 6 menu in numerous places including my favorite “Brooklyn Bound,” a twist on the traditional Manhattan with rye instead of bourbon. At places like this within the menu, the more eastern culinary influences of Chef Mark Plessis become more apparent and not being a fan of what many people would consider “fusion,” I can gladly say this is not something I would place in that category. Between the cardamom honey, the green puy lentils, slightly bitter mustard greens and curry, the Eastern inspiration cannot be denied but it doesn’t overshadow the technicalities of the plate. True, these are definitively flavors more indicative of Indian cuisine, but I shudder to categorize this in any fashion only because I didn’t feel torn between two worlds, or like I was experiencing a novelty idea produced by an eager or adventurous chef. This was the apex of Chef Plessis’s ability to own the striations of influences that color his menu and make them his own amalgamation. I can admit that perhaps I enjoyed eating other dishes more (i.e. the Spanish Charred Octopus), but I cannot deny that this was my favorite dish for the sheer fact that it showcased the more intricate and unique qualities of Chef Plessis’s food vision and capabilities while still showcasing his more foundational technical underpinnings in creating perfectly balanced bites ranging from texture to aroma to taste to after taste. Definitely, this dish is the Angelina Jolie of Penn 6’s current offerings. It may not be to everyone’s taste but no one can deny that it is a thing of beauty.
Bolivian Chocolate Terrine
Now. Finally, we made it to desert. I will be as honest with you as I was by this point in the evening, after numerous rounds of wine pairings by sommelier, Mark Slater. My advice for enjoying dessert at Penn 6 is being a little kinky and doing things backwards. Order it first if you want to enjoy it. Quite frankly, after everything written above, not even a maple bacon éclair could arouse me and my own personal preference would be to order the house made ricotta for dessert with an aperitif. If I had started the night with the Bolivian Chocolate Terrine, I may be singing a different tune but for now, my feeling on the dessert menu is that it is functional and personable but pales in comparison to the other offerings at Penn 6…and the terrine was damn good. Caramelized bananas and peanut brittle make this a more approachable dessert in my opinion while the chili pepper with the chocolate caters to people like myself. Considering chili and chocolate is one of my favorite combinations, this just didn’t move me as I expected. Personally, I would have shied away from heavier starchy companions to the terrine and would have edged closer to more acidic lenders like black berry, but then again, that would be far too expected to really fit in with a menu like this. So, since this is my new weekly haunt, I’ll be sure to try the Bread and Butter Pudding because deeply, that was the sugar muse calling my name. Overall, the dessert menu does the job and will surely satisfy any sucrose yearnings you may have but to be fair, I’m going to have to give it a thorough once over. Which is a duty I am amply prepared to undertake.
In vast conclusion, the ambiance includes red floors that are sexier than Louboutins, locally acquired art that demands a second look, a brilliant design scheme from Maggie O’Neal and Warren Wexler who helped transform the whopping 9,000 square foot space into a melange of welcoming nooks and crannies making a space that can feel romantic for two, comfortable for dinner with the family or perfect as a happy hour haunt for the DC professional. Lastly, the lively and knowledgeable staff that are eager to share the charm that is Penn 6 with the city of DC, clearly pull all aspects of this dynamic being to create the Penn 6 allure. Truly, I would have to write another piece entirely on the creation of the physical place that is Penn 6, aside from the food that lies at its core, and again, the vast bottle list (over 130 bottles, the last I checked…) and the craft cocktails would warrant another, and the people who birthed this progeny yet another. Without a doubt, the charming demeanor of Jonathan Ball, the regional partner, the flawless culinary experience created by culinary director, Brian Cook and Chef Mark Plesssis and the many other minds that create the Penn 6 team, coagulate to encompass one of my new and soon to be regular places in DC. I’ll admit that I am a fanboy, to say the least, of Chef Plessis’s quiet influences from the southern united states, eastern flares and a French background that speaks boldly to my own. Frankly, I cannot dismiss the atmosphere, that I have no shame in admitting, speaks to my homesick heart in way I couldn’t have anticipated, but frankly, at this point I must pass the mantle to you: the reader, the eater, the entire DMV area. Go experience our newest and most welcome addition, Penn 6. Given my great affinity to the place, it is highly likely you will find me there. Tell them Celia from DCFüd sent you, sit back and enjoy.
-CER (Celia)
