The Source reopened this month after shuttering briefly for a refresh of the restaurant interior and menu. The touted feature of the revamped dining room at the Newseum is a custom designed hot pot table that seats four. A circular hole is carved out of the center to hold a basin of aromatic broth built from over 20 hours of slowly boiling all sorts of animal parts and peppers. It arrives on the table accompanied by a progression of wagyu beef, pork belly, local rockfish, wild mushrooms, noodles and dumplings. One party of four can be seated at the hot pot table per night at $65 per guest. A later evening seating where the kitchen experiments a little more with the hot pot ingredients may be in the future plans.
If you can’t get a hot pot party together, the dumpling menu offers a chance to get that hot pot taste, particularly on Monday when all dumplings are $5 all night. Drewno has become a dumpling specialist over his years at the helm of The Source. The most delicious of the fairly large dumpling menu may well be the smoked beef wontons served in a bowl of the same hot pot broth. The smoky brisket in a delicate wrapper is a robust bite. And when you’re done, you get to drink the juices remaining at the bottom of the small serving bowl. Drewno’s garlic chive crystal dumplings are also on the list, along with his crispy shrimp and lobster spring roll.
Other nights have features such as barbecue meats with buns on Tuesday, wok and wine Wednesday, and fish specials on Friday featuring sushi. And during weeknight happy hour, beers are $5 and $6 from 4:00 to 7:0 0.pm. Don’t miss the pull apart scallion rolls, added to the menu in response to requests for a bread basket option. It’s part of the trend of paying for your bread basket, but it’s a worthwhile expenditure.
The restaurant is also rolling out a shifting “kitchen at the moment” tasting menu that allows the chefs to play around with new recipes each day. Before 6:30 p.m. or after 9:00 p.m., the kitchen will present eight dishes featuring newly developed items. It’s seemingly a bargain at $55 per guest (the traditional seven course tasting menu is $135). Also new are chef’s counter stools where guests can watch as 16 bites from the downstairs dumpling, wok, and grill kitchen by the lounge bar are assembled and presented to them for $95 per guest.
