As a media preview night reached its conclusion, members of the Garces Group went over the schedule for trains back to Philadelphia that evening. They had been in town with their boss, Jose, to show off the latest piece of his growing empire, which also happened to be the latest celebrity chef opening in Washington, D.C. Jose Garces’ Rural Society is just about a two hour Amtrak ride to the his base, the City of Brotherly Love, where eight of his now 16 restaurants are located.
His latest is an Argentinian steakhouse, an anchor of the reinvigorated Lowes Madison hotel at the corner of 15th and M streets NW.
“I’ve been wanting to do steak for a long time,” said Garces. “Steak is a strong restaurant concept that travels well to many different markets. Using Argentina as a backdrop and gathering our inspiration for this concept and creating something new for D.C. has really been exciting.”
The Latin theme fits well in the Garces portfolio. The chef, born to Ecuadorian-American parents in Chicago, drew early influences working at an Argentinian grill and Peruvian ceviche concept restaurant in New York. His first restaurant was Amada, a renowned tapas purveyor in Philly. His diverse portfolio includes Mexican, Cuban and Basque concepts, and now Argentinian, with a focus on grilling as well as the Italian influences on the South American cuisine.
The old Federalist space is warmly redesigned with plenty of wood, photos of cattle, and ranching equipment. Walls stacked with firewood separate private dining spaces from a wood fired oven and grills in the center of the dining room.
“About 75 percent of the menu is cooked on a wood grill,” explains Garces. “A really fantastic set up. It’s wood and charcoal, and we’re able to build really beautiful fires and have the grates on the grill go up and down so we’re able to adjust temperature.”
Those grills are used to charbroil Uruguayan and domestic cuts of beef as well as some other meats, fish and lobster, which all take a slather of merlot butter before reaching your table. The food is executed by Louis Goral who was brought in from a Chicago tapas restaurant to serve as chef de cuisine. Morcilla, a blood sausage with pine nuts and raisins, is made in house. Sweet breads of lamb — not veal — are given a hard char on the grill and finished at a low temperature. They can be ordered a la carte or in combination with a beef, pork and provolone stuffed chorizo.
Fugazzas, small rectangles of Italian-Argentinian pizzas, are an unexpected highlight at the meat joint. The dough is par baked and, upon ordering, topped and finished off. The sweet tomato sauce with fior di latte and basil of the margarita is the taste that has stayed with me days later.
From the vegetable section of the menu, charred asparagus is topped with a crunchy, salty bagna cauda, a sauce made with anchovies and brown butter crumbs. Wood roasted carrots over a few circles of goat cheese are topped with carrot top chimichurri.
Aaron Beaver, the hotel’s beverage director, designed cocktails with slight and refreshing twists to classics. Gin goes with yerba mate and orange instead of tonic. The pisco sour is accented with grapefruit bitters and there’s tangerine in the caiprinhia. Drinks are local takes with an Argentinian spirit.
“Frenet and Coke is sort of a traditional drink of Argentina,” says Beaver from a booze bottle-lined corner window as he offers tastings of some of the grappas in his collection. “I’m not necessarily going to make a cocktail that’s 50/50 because the American palate is not going to enjoy that very much.” So he mixes Frenet with Tuaca, muddled brandied cherries, lime, and vanilla-chili sugar simple syrup.
The parrilla section of the menu is not cheap. Different cuts of steak are mostly in the $40 range. Other sections are quite reasonable with appetizers, sausages, veggies and potatoes, and those little Argentine pizzas hovering around the $10 range or just above.
Along with Victor Albisu’s Del Campo, through which menu comparisons will be natural, Rural Society adds some serious South American flavor to downtown D.C.
Rural Society
1177 15th Street NW
(202)-587-2617
