In the Valencian language, “xiquet” means “kid.” The new Glover Park restaurant Xiquet, however, will present Valencian cuisine all grown up when it opens on Tuesday.
Xiquet (pronounced chee-KET) lures diners into its unassuming entrance in Glover Park with the promise of handcrafted, wood-fired paella and delivers an enthusiastic ode to the cuisine of restaurateur and chef Danny Lledó’s youth.
Before Slate and Xiquet, Lledó honed his paella panache at José Andrés’ restaurants Café Atlántico and Jaleo, and at Botín in Madrid, Spain, the world’s oldest restaurant in continuous operation (really). Lledó achieved significant accolades at international paella competitions: He won Best Paella at the Paella Wine and Beer Festival in Los Angeles in 2016 and 2018, and competed as a finalist at the prestigious Paella Valenciana de Sueca International Competition in September 2018.
Xiquet is built on top of seven-year-old neighborhood hangout Slate Wine Bar. Lledó says that when he started his tenure at the helm of Slate, he moved too far away from his original vision of a relaxed wine bar, making it instead more of a restaurant. He searched across the city for a place to plant his food-focused restaurant concept, finally landing back at home, just upstairs from Slate.
Slate closed in July during the construction, and scaled down from two floors to one on the street level. Xiquet takes the top two stories, including a second-floor mezzanine lounge which is both a physical amuse bouche to whet the appetite of diners, and a place to say adios to Xiquet over a glass of port.
In the small third-floor restaurant space–it seats only 30 people–Xiquet’s skylights and understated, minimalist design are an elegant alternative to Slate’s more relaxed environment, centered around a long black wooden bar.
When it comes to the food, Lledó prefers diners choose the prix-fixe route (though a full menu of a la carte dishes is available). Xiquet offers both a five-course ($90 per person, $140 with wine) and an eight-course ($130 per person, $210 with wine) option. Lledó will change the menu monthly based on available ingredients, the season, and inspiration.
“This is how I’d want to eat Valencian food,” says Lledó of his Menu del Xef (pronounced with a soft x to sound like “chef”). He’s asking diners to join him on a journey to his birthplace village of Dénia, where his father was also a chef. His passion is palpable when speaking about the opening menu, a romp through the seaside and rolling hills of his native lands in Spain. It’s an effort to show the three major pillars of Valencian cuisine: seafood, agriculture, and paella.
Daintiness, though, is not on the menu: One of the first dishes on the current menu is a plump and indulgent foie gras ravioli with oxtail.
“Valencia is the most Italian part of Spain, which is why there’s ravioli.” Lledó explains. “The dish is decadent and elevated.”
Other dishes that might appear on the menu are seared Mediterranean sea bream, a traditional catch, followed by grass-fed strip steak atop a bed of potatoes and artichokes, recalling the countryside fields. The meal’s crown, however, is one of Lledó’s award-winning paellas, delivered to the table in the same pan in which it was cooked over an open, wood-fired flame.
“I like to focus on fruit trees for the wood,” says Lledó of the cooking method, noting that they lend a softer smoke that pairs well with paella.
He chooses orangewood–echoes of Valencia–for the paella and leans on applewood for the meats. More than one paella populates the menu at any time: Two current options are the Paella de la Duquessa de Dénia (the duchess of Dénia paella), which comes with lobster, red prawn, and cuttlefish; and the Paella del Caçador (the hunter’s paella), which comes with roasted duck, venison, foie gras, asparagus, and black truffle.
When it comes to the beverage menu, Xiquet offers more than 100 wines by the bottle. Most are from the Mediterranean, and there are also diverse options from inside the Iberian peninsula, including vintage ports and madeiras. The bar also boasts a large selection of whiskeys.
“We chose to accent fortified wines as a category to honor the Portuguese side of Danny’s family, as well as to accentuate our dessert program,” says Rachael Buehrer, director of operations for Slate Wine Bar and Xiquet. “We wanted to be certain that this delicious portion of the meal was as excellent and well-thought-out as all the rest.”
Xiquet and Slate are located at 2404 Wisconsin Ave, NW. Xiquet opens Tuesday, and will be open open Tuesday-Saturday, 5 p.m.-10 p.m. Slate is open Tuesday-Thursday, 4 p.m.-10 p.m.; Friday-Saturday, 4 p.m.-12 a.m.
Menu Opening 2020 Media[1][1] by wamu885 on Scribd
