Urbana Begins
In a summer of high-profile restaurant openings, the handlers of Urbana -- the new restaurant inside the new Hotel Palomar just west of Dupont Circle on P Street -- don't want their charge to get lost in the crowd. And so, last night, they hosted a flashy preview of their eatery to get the word out about the restaurant that replaces the old Gabriel restaurant in the former Radisson-Barceló.
Hotel Palomar is a link in the hip Kimpton chain of hotels -- known for its quirkily comfortable rooms and solid hotel restaurants. Far from the first Kimpton entry into the city's saturated accommodations market, Hotel Palomar joins Kimpton's Hotel Monaco, Hotel Helix, Hotel Rouge, Topaz Hotel, Hotel Madera, and Hotel George in the District. Indeed, outside of its home base in San Francisco, Kimpton's largest presence is right here in Washington.
Although Kimpton has already propagated its Hotel Monaco brand across the country, D.C.'s Hotel Palomar represents the first time that Kimpton has opened a branch of another of its properties elsewhere. Indeed, the original Hotel Palomar resides in San Francisco and has an excellent reputation of its own on all fronts. Not only are its rooms spectacular and its location superb, its in-house restaurant -- the Fifth Floor -- is among the best restaurants in a star-studded culinary town.
Wisely, the Kimpton folks have opted not to replicate the Fifth Floor here in Washington. Perhaps mindful of both Urbana's neighborhood location and its need to stand on its own, the chain has created in Urbana a restaurant that -- like the Dude in Los Angeles in the early 1990s -- seems to fit its time and place.
Although it's far too early to make anything but a speculative judgment on the food (last night's preview showed off corn-battered figs, potato-heavy brandade beignets, and fabulous profiteroles, among other nibbles), chef Richard Brandenberg's "French-meets-Italian" menu will include dishes that won't scare off anyone. That is to say, dishes such as brick-oven roasted chicken saltimbocca and olive oil-poached Atlantic cod sound quite tasty but certainly won't challenge more adventurous diners. And for a hotel restaurant catering to all sorts of people, that tends to be a positive. What's more, in a town with inflated entree prices, Urbana's prices are relatively moderate: no entree runs more than $24. Indeed, Urbana's closest relative in Washington is the very reliable Firefly -- which just so happens to be inside Kimpton's Hotel Madera.
Located just below ground level, Urbana faces a problem that Firefly doesn't: how to ensure that the space feels open and light without the benefit of windows. The architects have tried to resolve this problem with light woods, shiny surfaces, an open kitchen, and strategically placed mirrors. But the most stunning features of the restaurant are the entryways -- a massive revolving door from inside the hotel and a lit wall of projected wine bottles from the steps leading up to the street. The latter makes it seem as if it's light outside even if you're leaving at midnight.
Urbana opens today for dinner and cocktails and for lunch on July 31 -- a development that the folks at the nearby 21P can't be very happy about.
Urbana
2121 P Street NW
(202) 956-6650