T Eats Bone Marrow

I was interested in a nice dinner after a fantastic dance performance by Aysha Upchurch's Life, Rhythm, Move project last night--another appearance at Corduroy certainly seemed to be in order. Unfortunately, that bastion of spectacular food preparation is currently closed for its hop, skip, and jump a couple of blocks to a new location. But Blue Duck Tavern is supposed to be one of the better restaurants in DC, so I thought I would give it a try...

Oops.

I didn't have reservations, but I called ahead of time to gauge their business on a Sunday night. Not knowing when the show would end, I didn't find it prudent to make an arbitrarily timed reservation; I wanted to just be able to walk in and get a table. So as we walked into a mostly empty restaurant, I figured I was in good shape. But the hostess' response to my request for a table for two was that "she would see what she could do." Five minutes later she comes back and informs me I can have a table, but I have to be gone in two hours. Fine. Whatever.

We sit down to a menu that seemed numerically ambitious for a fine dining establishment. Sure, when I walk into Applebees I expect an abundance of choices, all of which will be prepared in a mediocre fashion. But most of the good meals I've had are chosen from a limited menu. Perhaps 6 or 7 choices for 1st and 2nd courses...but here, a list of a dozen first courses, a score of main dishes, and a dozen more side dishes? Raised an eyebrow...that's all.

So I'm glancing down the menu of starters when something catches my eye. Does that say bone marrow? At that precise moment, the server approaches the table and asks for our orders. I look up, mostly stupefied, and ask.

"What is bone marrow?"

I'm THINKING it must be a metaphor. Perhaps a preparation of something served in bone. Or a like Corduroy's "Buffalo Porcupines" which, rest assured, did not actually contain porcupine.

Nope. Bone marrow. Braised. Spiced. Bone Marrow. It's the house specialty for a first course. You can't really find it anywhere else in DC.

"I'll take it."

Sure enough, three halves of bone arrive a few minutes later alongside some toasted ciabatta bread. Scoop the marrow onto the bread and enjoy, the server tells me. Turns out bone marrow is much thinner than you might expect. But it basically had the taste and texture of....fat. Soft, salted, peppered, fat. Served on a piece of bread. I made it through one half of a bone before I had my fill. Nice to have tried, but certainly won't be ordering it again.

I had opted for a second course of duck breast and leg--also a house specialty--which came out soon after the bone marrow. Interestingly, as I look around, the restaurant is still mostly empty. Just why was it so hard to get us a table? Anyway, the duck is served in a very simple, non flashy presentation. No color, no flair...just a bit of sliced duck and a twig of rosemary. It's ok--I'll forgive that lack of thought in plating if it's tasty.

It wasn't. The duck skin was overly fatty (made all the worse by the fact that I had just consumed what felt like fat on a cracker for an entire first course) and the duck itself was a bit dry. No interesting or robust flavors. A date puree that was decent, but almost overpoweringly sweet. Long story short, I've made duck twice and I think both preparations were better.

I finished with a chocolate cake flambe that was the highlight of the night. Dense without being too rich, I finished all of it happily and glanced around. The restaurant was still empty.

In the overall scheme of DC restaurants, Blue Duck Tavern finishes a healthy few steps behind Jaleo, probably tied with the Oceanaire Seafood Room. But it definitely loses points for the aura of exclusivity it tried to hard to create. You want exclusivity? Make your food good enough to where you'll actually need to be concerned about an overbooked Sunday night. Overall Grade: C+