Late Thursday afternoon, I needed comfort food. And I found it at the Colorado Kitchen - one of the few real restaurants near my home in Northwest Washington.
It's located on Colorado Avenue just east of 14th Street. A friend and I pulled into a parking space at the front door at 6:05, only to find a big old "Closed" sign on the door, right above the sign on the door promising they opend at 6:00 pm; Oh dear, were they closed on Thursdays? But when the staff spotted us, the immediately ran up and switched it to "Open".
If we'd gotten there a bit later, we might have had to wait for a table. This place is often mobbed with a long wait for at the tiny bar, but at 6:05, we were seated immediately. Before taking our order, the server brought us little sake cups with samples of the soup de jour, a golden pea and yummy.
Chef and co-owner, Gillian Clark, used to be a real estate agent, and she was pretty good at it. But her real passion was food, so she left houses and condos behind, donned her chef's hat and opened her restaurant. In a neighborhood that was food-impaired, the Colorado Kitchen was a welcome addition, and soon drew crowds.
Now, if you're one of these people who like to make substitutions on the menu, forget about it! Chef Gillian plans the menu with love and care, and she does not take kindly to diners who want to substitute elements of her amazing dishes.
But I've never wanted to.
We started with these biscuits. Was she channeling my grandmother when she came up with this recipe?
Then we had goat cheese fritters served with delicious red peppers and fava beans. This was on the menu of "Firsts". Then we had a choice of "Small Food" which is prepared in a few minutes or "Large Food" that takes a while to prepare.
We ordered a bunch of "Smalls", one of which was a memorable chicken tart. Yum!
Her pork chops and chicken "Large Food" are delicious. So are her desserts - we had an apple cake that was worth every calorie.
Now, this place is a little quirky, or so I'm told. Don't take unruly children or they will be scolded.
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