So bring on the burgers! We rarely eat red meat at home. But I love a good burger. We've hit most of the top-rated D.C. burger joints...Ray's Hell-Burger (here), Shake Shack (here), Good Stuff Eatery (here), Elevation Burger (here), Burger Tap and Shake (here), Burger 7 (here), Five Guys, BGR (here), and most recently, Palena. What am I missing?
Ben took me to Palena last week for an early birthday dinner (Italian and French cuisine from Chef Frank Ruta and rated one of the ten best restaurants in D.C.). While not a burger joint in the least, it does boast one of the best burgers in D.C. It's all about the beef, served with only Italian truffle cheese and house mayonnaise on a homemade brioche bun with pickles on the side (actually an assortment of pickled items which were quite good). The burger is cooked in truffle oil and was so juicy. (And this is coming from someone who orders her burgers well done. I know this is burger blasphemy but I just can't do pink.) It was delicious.
But enough about burgers. We also ordered the gnocchi which was excellent–Yukon gold potato gnocchi with sweet potatoes, shiimeji and shiitake mushrooms, creamy and crumbled goat cheese and a drizzle of aged balsamico. On a whim I decided to try their homemade vanilla and grapefruit soda. It was tangy and sweet and awesome.
We had the lemon posset for dessert and it. was. amazing. Creamy, custardy, lemony goodness with lemon sorbet and tiny little lemon meringues. The perfect end to our meal.
We didn't go out until after the kids were in bed. Amelia informed me the next day that she read an entire 120-page chapter book in her bed while we were gone. I love her passion for reading and wish that I could read for longer than five minutes at night before falling asleep.
