Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Chef José Andrés has seven restaurants, but you'll most likely find him at Minibar, which seats only
12 diners a night.
a restaurant, fiesta-like Café Atlantico,
since he turned over the reins there to his
talented chef de cuisine Katsuya Fukush-
ima. But you can usually find him right
upstairs at Minibar, a restaurant-within
a-restaurant where he serves an incredible
tasting menu of 25 to 30 small dishes for a
single six-seat table 5 nights a week. There
are two seatings per night, so do the
math—only 60 people per week can have
this insider experience, fewer than most
restaurants serve in a single hour.
Counting on a self-selecting audience of
curious gourmets, the Minibar goes for
avant-garde cooking, the kind that may be
a bit too daring for the three-level party
that goes on every night in Café Atlantico
and its super-popular spinoffs Oyamel and
Zaytinya. Though Andrés describes his
style as Nuevo Latino, the emphasis is way
more on the “nuevo” up here on the sec-
ond floor. It's full of head games like
“bacon and eggs” (
kurobuta
pork belly
confit with a soft egg, lentils, tamarind,
and a puff of maple-flavored “air”); the
“deconstructed glass of white wine” (a
rectangular tile dotted with discreet flavor
elements like grass, vanilla, and lemon);
the huge transparent bubble called “light
bulb of flavor”; a series of “meat and pota-
toes” ice cubes; foie gras in a coccoon of
cotton candy; filaments of beet whipped
into a tumbleweed. Items like seared
cigala
(prawn) with sea asparagus, a glass
of vanilla and potato foam topped with
caviar, or salmon-and-pineapple raviolis
seem downright simple in comparison,
though still delectable.
Reservations can be made (by phone
only) a month in advance. The table fills up
fast. You've been warned.
405 8th St. NW (
&
202/393-0812;
www.
cafeatlantico.com/minibar).
(
Reagan National (3 miles/5km); Dulles
International (26 miles/41km); Baltimore-
Washington International (35 miles/56km).
L
$$
Four Points by Sheraton,
1201 K
St. NW (
&
202/289-7600;
www.fourpoints.
com/washingtondcdowntown). $$
George-
town Suites,
1111 30th St. NW (
&
202/298-
1600;
www.georgetownsuites.com).
