Hook

For my last outing of this year's DC restaurant week, I decided to finally check out Hook, given all the buzz around town about this place.  It's a fish restaurant.  Not seafood, but fish.  Seafood restaurants are on the coast and serve hushpuppies and buckets of shrimp.  They are messy, smell of the sea and usually have a large fish tank in them.  Hook serves fish.  All different kinds of fish, but specializes in finding regional products that support a sustainable, earth-friendly philosophy.  But don't throw on your birkenstocks and think you can come in here. Hook has clearly made its mark as a place to see and be seen before drinking the night away at one of the many posh lounges nearby.  This was evidenced by the table of sparkly girls next to us.  But if you're a big girl, request a bench seat.  The awkward round chairs of Hook will not fit a big ass.  We watched uncomfortably as an amazon sized woman tried to pry her way between the arms of this poor chair.  I don't think she ever got all the way into it.  As for the food... I have to give restaurants who serve their normal menu as their restaurant week menu some props... Hook did this.  It says to me that they don't need the money, they just want you to experience the food.  That's what this week is all about.  My meal started with a bit of a shocker... it was the bread on the table.  One bite and I went for the water.  I'm not a horse.  I don't lick salt.  This cornbread was salt cornbread -- I had never hear of such a thing.  Dining with Monica, Ty, Jen and Nancy... one of them tried to convince me that this was a southern thing.  I'm southern.  The only way you're going to have cornbread that salty in my part of the South is if you mistook the salt jar for the sugar on the counter.  My appetizer continued the theme of salt.  How good does this sound?  Yellow and red beats thinly sliced with a vinaigrette, whipped goat cheese and pistachios?  YUM.  Now the waitress did say this was a sweet and salty dish... the juxtaposition enticed me.  But again, all I tasted was the salt of the nuts.  Now that my blood pressure was raised from all that salt, I chose the Barramundi from Massachusetts for my entree.  I just wanted a different kind of fish I'd never had before.  To the waitress' credit, she did say this was a medium to bold fish... which means it tastes like fish.  I'm not a fan of fishy fish... but again, I wanted to step out a bit and ordered this.  I primarily ordered it for the parsnips, which I love... otherwise, I'd have chosen the char, which Ty hand and looked great.  Jen had the steak, so there is an option for the fish-haters, although there was only that one option.  The accolades for this evening's meal do not go to executive chef Jonathan Seningen and all his fish variations, but to Hook's pastry chef Heather Chittum.  My desert was the apple tart with a side of vanilla ice cream (which I traded for the nutella ice cream from Monica's Chocolate thing).  Very thinly slice apples layered and designed on a light puff pastry made for a wonderful finish to the evening.  It's no wonder she's so good.  Her lineage includes being the Pastry Chef for Chef Richard from Citronelle, arguably the best restaurant in DC -- Chef Richard of course having been a pastry chef for 15 years himself.  Overall, it rates as a restaurant I'd like to bring my mom to for a DC dining experience, but probably not a place I'd frequent.  The best part of the evening by far was simply the company.