Central Michel Richard

by Mort Hochstein
January 26, 2010

CENTRAL CASSOULET
1001 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20004
202-626-0015

As I entered Central Michel Richard in Washington, D.C., I thought immediately of Artisanal, a smaller but equally appealing bistro in New York City. Places like Central and Artisanal exude an air of comfortable informality that immediately puts me at ease. Interestingly, each owner is better known for his haute cuisine establishment, Terrance Brennan for Picholine in New York, and the colorful and playful Michel Richard for Citronelle, one of the capital’s best restaurants.

I visited Central on a late autumn day and was immediately struck by its open and festive air. Transparency is a popular political term in Washington these days, and it definitely applies to Central with its huge open kitchen running alongside one wall and a glass-enclosed wine cellar at one corner of the dining room. We chose a table where we could watch the cooks and servers rushing by with fragrant, steaming hot onion soup, crab cakes dressed with a leek tartare, oversized meaty lamb shanks plated with a creamy corn polenta and a variety of burgers — tuna, lobster, chicken and, of course, good old American hamburger.

Watching all those goodies pass by only made our decision more difficult. We’d started with a plate of gougères for the table. A signature bistro dish, this puffy, light pâte à choux, fluffed around a light cheese filling is a palate pleaser that eases the way for more serious dishes. Our batch was a bit dry, but they weren’t on the table long as we washed them down with a spritzy Verdejo from Spain.

More substantial food arrived quickly. We ordered a dozen oysters for the table — plump and juicy Malaspinas from British Columbia; firm, intensely flavored Kumamotos; and plump golden Miyagis — with just a slight aftertaste of watermelon tempering the brine. Surprisingly, there was no representation of nearby Chesapeake Bay, but who could be disappointed with these briny, fresh-from-the-sea delicacies accompanied by a tangy mignonette sauce and good old basic horseradish.

Rollie’s goat cheese Caesar salad was on the table as soon as the empty oyster platter was whisked away, and it was unlike any Caesar we’d ever had. Instead of the usual toss of greens and croutons, our waiter brought us a small sculpture: two-inch coiled sections of Romaine lettuce standing tall in circles and splashed with a creamy goat cheese dressing.

And then there were the frog’s legs, meatier than expected, gamey, sautéed lightly in butter and tossed in a thin barbecue sauce, again anything but traditional presentation.

Too often, appetizers outclass mains, but not in Chef Richard’s playpen. His cassoulet arrived steaming hot in the traditional earthenware pot, redolent with the deep, warm scent of slow cooking. It’s a pork lover’s delight — or downfall. That huge pot holds a swarm of pork sausage, fall-off the-bone, no-need-for-a-knife pork butt and pork belly immersed in a white bean sauce and just plain rich, fatty confit. Forget the cholesterol and let the hog-lover loose. It is worth two detours and a traffic jam to arrive at this throwback to the food of ancient France and the time when no one worried about fat.

There’s something indulgent about almost everything that emerges from the Richard kitchen, and the playfulness peaks with his hold-everything banana split. It’s a tanker-sized boat, brimming over with bananas, chocolate and vanilla ice cream buried in chocolate sauce, dotted with berries and enough whipped cream for two wedding cakes. It’s enough for four people and the two of us hardly made a dent in that Vesuvian explosion of sweetness, which exemplifies the go-for-it, live-it-up-ness that makes a visit to Central memorable and sets it far apart from the normal dining experience.

Also in American, French, Ice Cream, Pork, Salad, Washington, D.C.