It’s hard to find a quiet spot this time of year. Everyone is so harried, running from party to get-together to mall to post office to airport. Not to mention entertaining out-of-town guests. Craziness usually ensues.
So it was a great pleasure to come across Bistro D’Oc Friday night. It’s a little French oasis downtown, located on the usually dead-but-for-school-groups block opposite Ford’s Theatre. Specializing in the regional food of the Languedoc of southern France, it’s the sort of place that lists daily specials on a blackboard, decorated in an eclectic homey style with orange smeared walls and a tin-pressed ceiling.
We wandered in around 9:30pm, on the off-chance that it would have desserts yummy enough to please a visiting friend from Rome (where do you take a guy who lives in a culinary nirvana??). It was the perfect nightcap – I had an almond brioche bread pudding, not too dense with just the right amount of almonds. My husband had a delicate fruit claufoutis, and the look of sublime contentment on the face of another friend digging into his triple chocolate ecstasy whatever-you-call-it was priceless. Of course our Roman visitor had tasted better crepes suzette in his day, but you can’t win all the time.
Perusing the dinner menu we kicked ourselves for not coming earlier. I think it’s just the ticket for a romantic winter date…
This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs