RANT - Jaleo, in Washington DC

See my review of Cafe Atlantico for one of José Andrés' other restaurants in DC, and the one that is absolutely, completely and undeniably better than this horrible TGIF-like excuse for a top notch eaterie.

Jaleo looks, sounds and acts like a budget, city-center spot for office parties, and provides appropriately down-market food. Either celebrity chef Andrés intentionally set a low bar for food and service, or he's just not bothered to visit his own restaurant lately, but it was definitely not a place to which I'd return.

Being "high-end" tapas, our dinner included:

• Jamón Ibérico de bellota ‘Fermin’cured ham from the legendary, acorn-fed, black-footed Ibérico pigs of Spain. 
• Arroz de pato ‘Jean-Louis Palladin’ rice with duck confit, duck breast and foie gras cream.
• Tortilla de patatas al momento, spanish omelet with potatoes and onions cooked to order.

The food wasn't that bad, but was seriously let down by the ambiance.

RAVE - Cafe Atlantico, Washington DC

I don't know how to translate 1 win, 1 draw, and 1 loss into American sports stats, seeing as there's no such thing as a draw, or tie, in most sports here. So, I can't tell George he's 1.5 for 3 in his restaurant recommendations for Washington, DC.

Without doubt, his recommendation of Cafe Atlantico, or more specifically, of chef José Andrés, resulted in a fantastic night out at this Andrés Nuevo Latino restaurant in DC.

The nine course Chef's Tasting Menu dazzled, delighted and delicioused us, and made us completely forget about having to wait 20 minutes past our reserved table time. Well, alright, I didn't completely forget that bit. Nor did I forget my disappointment in seeing guests arrive after 9.30pm still dressed in shorts and other Saturday shopping gear. It's not that we were over-dressed (Mrs. Page as always looked drop-dead gorgeous, but I had forgotten my tuxedo and black tie), but it seemed somewhat disrespectful of the chef and restaurant to have made no effort whatsoever.

For being a James Beard Award-winning chef/owner, and celebrity TV chef, the two of his restaurants we tried in DC this week were hit and miss. For the "miss", and George's "loss", see my review of Jaleo DC. It was horrible!

REVIEW - PJ Harvey at The Warfield

This is a momentous post. No, that's not the line from 2001, when the astronauts come across the black monolith. But it's just as unusual.

I never thought I'd give a PJ Harvey performance anything less than a 'Rave', but last night the lady under-whelmed. The usually rock-steady performer seems to have contracted a bad case of the Mumfords, because her set was full of folk-friendly gentleness, acoustic instruments and that silly Autoharp she's sporting of late.

Would I have been one of those who boo'ed at Bob Dylan when he went electric? Maybe, but this seems different. I've got the latest CD, "Let England Shake", but haven't yet fallen in love with it enough to applaud the reverse trend, ditching a suggestively dirty vibe for the Pied Piperish-ness of the new PJ Harvey.

The critics universally applaud the new CD, but all talk about the theme, and the lyrics rather than the music.

Shame.

RANT - Country Strong

One little-discussed consequence of being a tender, considerate husband is having to watch the tripe the subject of that tender consideration decides to watch. 

Last night that tripe was Country Strong, a lame story of recovery and relapse into alcoholism and drugs for a country singer. Not a patch on Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart, the novelty of Gwyneth Paltrow's singing voice quickly died under the weight of schmaltz and sugar - an apparently unavoidable pair of supporting elements in this film.

It was strange - although I wasn't anxious to hear him - the only recognized country singer in the film was Tim McGraw, and he didn't sing a note.

Perhaps it was inevitable that a film about possibly the dullest and least original music genre turned out to be dull and unoriginal.

RAVE - DC Tourists

I'm here in Washington, DC for 10 days. Pavey is here for the first 5, and my brother Lawrence for the last 4. Squeezed in there I've got a few days of work to do, at a trade show.

So, tourism, trade, tourism. The first few days have included The Washington Monument, The White House, The Lincoln Memorial, the Arlington Cemetery, the excellent Air and Space Museum, The US Capitol, and some very good restaurants.

Washington, DC is strangely (or not, depending on how many times you've been here) more like Paris in its tourist areas than any other US city. It's laid out intelligently and evenly, positively spacious and - at least over this past weekend - not too tangled up with traffic.

Admittedly, the buildings themselves are only 'inspired' by their European forebears, and there's an unavoidable sniff of Disney about them. I know that's horribly European of me to say that, but there are obelisks, statues, and columned monuments in every major European city, so it's unavoidable that DC's versions would be copies compared to the originals.

Nevertheless, it's good to have your picture taken 100 yards from the White House, through railings that make it appear like you're in a cell, looking out on the Presidential palace.