District Commons is a new restaurant on Washington Circle in Foggy Bottom. Like the last restaurant review I did, Foggy Bottom is really stepping it upscale with retail, residential, dining. I’m thinking high-end boutique stores next. College campus or not, it could happen – Georgetown?

Atmosphere: They get an A. The decor is a mix of rustic materials with modern designs. The space is big and open with glass outer walls allowing everyone on the outside to look in and vice-versa. There are booths on both sides with tables in between and a glass wall wine rack that is very impressive. Made me feel like I was living in NYC again – especially the decibel level. NYC restaurants are crazy loud. Looks like WDC is fast becoming the new NYC…

Food: The food was good – We’re gonna give them a B- on this. One strange thing was that they didn’t have appetizers/starters… exactly. They just had sections of foods for which I’m guessing they hope you improvise your courses. We improvised…

Started with the Shrimp and Grits. It was good, but, I’ve had better at one of their sister restaurants – Acadiana. But it was good. Then I had the Ribeye. Also good, but, the whiskey peppercorn sauce didn’t add much. It was like a flat au jus. I think it might have worked better as a marinade or as a glaze in which to sear the Ribeye. A thicker house steak sauce would have been nice to condiment. My seafood expert had the Trout and said it was really good. We finished with sorbet, as usual. Nothing to speak of – it was sorbet. They also had this pretzel bread which was quite unique and really, really good. It was the standout in this meal. Not convinced the bread should be the standout in the meal, but…

Service: The service was prompt and complete. Don’t know how else to describe it. Our server seemed a bit pensive. They’ve only been open for a month and are clearly still learning the menu, changing the menu, getting their footing. He was very apologetic for his minor missteps and we cut him slack for them. He seemed like he was a total computer geek/genuis working his way through college as a server. Totally. But, we wanted for nothing and that is the ultimate litmus test. B for service.

The final word for District Commons: They get an overall B. It was good, but not great. But, I have to leave this review with one glaring fault: They were light in their bar. No first-class restaurant should exist without top-shelf booze. The professional drinker in me won’t allow me to consume impostors and a special note of thanks to the server for not thinking he could trick me with a fake. I bet if they’d had my drink-of-choice, my review would have been an A. 🙂

I’ll go back to see how they evolve, having only been open for a month. They’re off to a good start – My thought is this restaurant has the potential to be one of the best in WDC. You should go…