Capital Cooking with Lauren DeSantis: Review: Cafe du Parc

Friday, July 16, 2010

Review: Cafe du Parc

Fresh was the word.

Cafe du Parc offers plentiful outdoor seating with beautiful live guitar music.

We tried dishes from the special menu in honor of Bastille Day.

We started the evening with a refreshing and bubbly Kir Royal and a Blueberry Cosmo made with fresh blueberry puree for a fun twist.

I started with the most delicious and creamy tomato soup with crunchy croutons. This dish is awesome for summer.

Corey started with the Salade nicoise, served with seared rare tuna, green beans, hard boiled egg, anchovies, nicoise olives and mesclun greens tossed lightly with balsamic vinaigrette. The salad was extraordinarily fresh and colorful. Warning: This salad is very large. I'd recommend splitting it as an appetizer or even ordering it for your main course.

Onto Chef Arnaud Perreau's surprise course... smoked salmon, tuna, and chilled pea soup. Chef Perreau stopped by to say hello and insisted that we try some of the dishes from the other menu. We were completely pleased!

The eight ounce, perfectly cooked, filet mignon with bearnaise sauce melted in our mouths. Our server, Terrant Olds, was so helpful and made the perfect pairing suggestion with the Domaine Bursset, Gigondas from Southern Rhone (Granache, Syrah). This wine is low in tannins, goes down smooth and has no acidic after taste.

Do you see the size of those shrimp? We're talking JUMBO. We paired the skewered shrimp with another fabulous suggestion from Terrant, the Domaine Christian Lauverjat, Sancere, Loire (Sauvignon Blanc).

These dessert crepes had just the right amount of sweetness and paired well with the Chateau Puy Servain, Haut Montravel (Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc).

I just couldn't leave without trying the Creme Brulee with caramelized pistachios. We also tried the Domaine du Mas Blanc, Banyuls, Rimage (Grenache). The Banyuls' silky flavor could serve as a dessert on its own.