Illustration by Josh Kramer.
By DCist Contributor Josh Kramer
Who needs a cellphone camera when you have a pen and paper? Drawn to Flavor highlights local dishes and drinks in vivid watercolor. In these posts, Illustrator and journalist Josh Kramer tries to honor all the energy and creativity that goes into making food beautiful and delicious.
Of all the hyped-up D.C. restaurant openings this year, only one was the subject of a ten part series in the Washington Post: The Dabney (122 Blagden Alley NW). If you’re already thinking “tl;dr” I’ll sum it up for you.
Before Chef Jeremiah Langhorne was a master forager, he was a skateboarding teen in Virginia. He was inducted into the cult of Sean Brock, the giggly food hero of Charleston, SC, and one of the hosts on the PBS show Mind of a Chef. After getting serious about looking for tasty treats in highway medians, he considered opening a restaurant here. He secured a space in Blagden Alley last October that was promptly built new to look old. Since then, he’s been plucking up greens and testing out vinegars in Union Kitchen. Now his restaurant, The Dabney, is finally open.
Everyone seems eager to know if Langhorne can do what Brock, Gjerde, and Redzepi did for their cities. Is there a D.C. locavore cuisine? Is The Dabney really something new, or just capitalizing on trends?
I had the “Sunburst Farms Trout,” with pork-stewed black eyed peas, tomato and grilled pickled okra. Google tells me that Sunburst Trout Farms in Canton, NC, uses environmentally friendly practices and fresh water to farm their rainbow trout. My tastebuds tell me that the trout is citrusy and tender. The black eyed peas are so wonderfully porky and rich with no smoke. The pickled okra and tomato provide just enough acid to balance everything out.
The trick of course, is that if you go tonight, you may not be able to order the trout. The hyperlocal sourcing virtually guarantees that this small menu will rotate quickly.
If this is Mid-Atlantic cuisine… I’m all in. Teach me Chef Langhorne. You don’t have to take me to your secret ramp nursery in the forest. Just keep cooking.
