One reason I'm so excited about procuring quality special products from smaller producers is that their products deserve to be, and can be, the focus of the dish. Swope's vegetarian dishes are real standouts. A recent vegetarian entree brought together asparagus baked with brie phyllo, sherried sweet potatoes, roasted roma tomatoes, smoked corn pudding, a roasted root vegetable salad and wilted spinach. Appetizers such as grilled lamb and dried cherry sausage and the red chili duck quesadilla with grilled pineapples and red onion are truly infatuating. With such great food, you may not focus on the fun, modern atmosphere smack in the middle of the MCI Center neighborhood downtown.
Love is blind.
Chef Terrell Danley hasn't left a trail of bread crumbs, but his fans have tracked him down from his first stints at the Occidental and Twenty-One Federal under Bob Kinkead to his executive chef work at Georgia Brown's, the River Club and Clyde's of Chevy Chase. Black Entertainment Television's culinary endeavor combines Danley's talent with music and video, creating a kind of new-age supper club for the hip and happening. Cozy booths rim the room. Huge video screens band the high ceilings. The bar and bandstand vie for center stage, and the glassed-in kitchen showcases the chef and his team at work.