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Very Best Restaurants: 1789 Restaurant

Very Best Listing | Very Best by Cuisine | Very Best by Location

1789 Restaurant **
Washington, $$$

If you want to dine grandly in the style of old Washington and still be assured that the cooking will be uniformly very good, make a reservation at the 1789. Set in a massive Federal townhouse that looms over its corner of 36th and Prospect streets, 1789 is one of those restaurants dominated by the Georgetown old guarda combination of denizens from both campus and villagewhere there is enough tweed at the tables to restock half the Brooks Brothers chain.

The folk who pack this place nightlyand know well enough to call weeks in advance for Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve tableshave conservative tastes: Their measure of a good restaurant centers on copious portions of familiar ingredients. From a brothy plate of seafood accented with Mediterranean seasonings to a rack of lamb with an impeccable Merlot sauce, chef Ris Lacoste provides comfort for her clientele. With her salmon ravioli wrapped in the thinnest possible dough and a dessert of pistachio cannoli with bitter-orange sauce, she may well be converting her conservative audience into believing that her brand of Modern American cooking has found a home at 1789.

1789 Restaurant , 1226 36th St. NW, Washington; 202-965-1789. Open daily for dinner. MapIt!

QUALITY: ****Excellent; *** Superior; **Very Good; * Good
PRICE RANGE: $$$= Very Expensive; $$ Expensive; $=Moderate; ¢=Inexpensive

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