DC Restaurant Review: Montmarte

I remeber wandering around Paris...going to Pere Lechaise to find the lizzard King. Eating crepes et sucre, walking around with bagguettes, reading Love in the Time of Cholera, and trying to buy cigarettes at corner stores. One of my favorite memories of the trip was wandering through Montmarte stopping at a cafe for a smoke and a cafe au lait and my brother geting duped by the waiter and ordering une biere grande. I mean this was a massive stein of beer. I think by the time he killed it he was pretty drunk and we were going to meet up with our parents at notre Dame. i dont know why i like that memory, its nothing special. its nothing like staring at the Mona Lisa or storming the Bastille but it was just a good brother moment.

I just had dinner witha friend at Monmarte on the Hill. Great french cuisine with real french wait staff. Thre bread was alittle off. Dinner was pumpkin soup with bacon and onglet, hanger steak with caramlized onions in a red wine reduction. My friend had a salad and soup. Too many martinis forced my friend into a lighter less stomach rumbling agenda. The food at Monmartre is quite good, it is flavorful, impactful with a nice layering of artistry in the food. For exmaple the pumpkin soup was creamy but almost on the verge of foamy. The bacon was yummy. My only concern was that it was too much soup. The onglet was excellent and it came with fingerling potatoes. The potatoes tasted like they had just pulled them from the ground. the steak was perfectly cooked the wine reduction was good but way too many onions.

The coffee....i ordered a capuccino and it was delightful not as good as murky's but as far as restaurant coffee it exceeded expectations.

Monmarte is must, not so pricey that a lobbyist has to take you and not so fancy that it stays a place to clebrate a promotion from LC to LA. This is a good neighborhood french restaurant. This place has passed out of committte by voice and is heaidng to the suspension calendar.