DC Eats: The Dabney

Does it feel like a long time since I posted an actual D.C. Eat?  Feels like it.  Well, this past weekend we had a girls night starting with dinner at a new restaurant, The Dabney.  Of course I perused the dinner menu a few days before (I like to plan - at least when it comes to food) and it looked like southern cuisine, but a little fancier.  I was hoping it wasn't going to be like Vidalia, ok, no offense to that restaurant, but, really? what's the big deal?  I guess I prefer my southern food not fancy? Anyway enough of the hate, Vidalia is unique and not bad, and so was The Dabney.  The cocktails were good, the food was good, but I think we all left deciding that we wouldn't come back except for a cocktail or two.  Just a heads up most of us decided this is NOT the place to take a guy, the food portions would not suffice a guy who is not a foodie, so beware!

My rating?  B-

We started off with drinks.  The drinks were great, but my favorite was the American Trilogy - a take on a Manhattan - apple brandy, bourbon and stone fruit bitters, the perfect cold winter weather drink.  This one will definitely warm you up. 

Then we shared a few appetizers:  sweet potato roll with fried whitestone oyster and pickled chili tartar sauce; crispy sweet potatoes with smoked trout roe and horseradish cream; and, crispy catfish with buttermilk dressing, pickled onion and cilantro.  The appetizers were hands down my favorite part of the dinner, each was absolutely delicious.  The sweet potato rolls were light and buttery, with the crunch of the fried oyster and then the creamy sour tang of the sauce perfectly complimenting the mini sliders - talk about layers of flavor!  

The crispy sweet potatoes with roe and horseradish - another example of great flavor layering.  

I'm not even a huge fan of catfish, but the perfectly fried fish was dusted with some red chili powder which seriously gave it a slight hint of heat, delicious!

Seared trout with confit potatoes and a beurre blanc sauce.  The skin was crispy and layered on top of the perfectly cooked trout.  The beurre blanc sauce was creamy and delicious with the trout and the confit potatoes it sat upon.

The cornbread we shared at dinner.  It was ok, but would have been a lot better if it was sweet!!

For dessert we shared delicious cinnamon dusted donuts.