Etes-vous intéressé?  Il y a un nouveau restaurant français à DC.

And now to English we go.  Was getting together with some long-lost friends the other day and they did the searching for where to meet.  There was rumor of a new French place that just opened its doors a few months back in the 14th street/Logan Circle area of DC so we wanted to check it out.  The name, Le Diplomate.

Tough to get reservations so we took the risk of walking in and got there early enough to not have to wait too long.  Two of us got there before the other tw0 and grabbed a drink at the bar.  My friend had a glass of wine and I had a house cocktail that can be served either straight up or on the rocks.  The Romarin – Absolut, St. Germain, rosemary, and grapefruit.  Very nice and refreshing!

Once we were seated, there were many options on the menu, traditional for French fare.  I will say, while looking it over, I had a great time talking to the waiter in French.  When I can, I’ll do it.  Have to practice.  While looking over the menu, they bring you AMAZING bread.  Baguette, wheat, cranberry-walnut stuff…waiter…another basket.  Dang, so so so good!  Two of my friends opted for raw oysters for appetizers and another for some (french) fries.  I waited for the main course.

Main course-wise, two at the table went for Steak Frites, another went for Lamb Shanks.  For me, because so much french food has dairy,  not having had it for so long, and the lack of ingredients in it, had to go for Steak Tartare.  Also ordered some grilled asparagus.
                                                                                       

Overall recap of the evening.  Great place, highly recommend trying it.  I would also recommend aiming for a reservation or getting there early.  It was packed 20 minutes after we arrived (6:15pm).  Also give yourself tons of time.  It took us 15 minutes to get a bottle of wine and water.  Raw oysters took 30 minutes.  Raw…  Main courses took awhile too.  We were so busy talking we didn’t really notice.  On the wine note, we had the Kim Crawford Pinot Noir.  We opted for a well priced option.

But, after dinner we were meeting some others and went across the street.  That’s where we found some wine I’d never tried or heard of.   It’s the Prima from Spain.  Check out their site — I can’t decide the exact name of the bottler/vintner because the names change a bit on the site so I don’t want to say the wrong one.  I just know this is where to visit — bodegasanroman.com.