blt steak

blt steak
1625 eye street, NW (between 16th street & 17th street), washington, DC 20006
tel: 202) 689-8999
hours: monday-friday 11:30am-2pm, monday-saturday 5:30pm-11pm

what was consumed: bar snacks (popcorn, olives, almonds), chicken liver pate, popovers, himachi (with avocadoes, tomatoes, jalapenos), and (of course) delicious beverages

there are quite a few steakhouses in the dc/metro area, but i've been to very few of them (i haven't been to ray's the steaks yet!) if any. i think it's because my friends and i find ourselves grilling our own steaks instead. anyway. on one of those illustrious bbq days, there was some conversation about popovers. one thing lead to another and we agreed to meet and enjoy popovers at blt. not steak. popovers.

so, friend k and i met up at blt steak post work (and all other "fun" stuff) to sit at the bar, enjoy some good libations, and have some yummy eats. we started off with some bar snacks (delicious salted and roasted almost, seasoned olives (omg, DELICOUS! i wanted to eat the entire bowl, but agreet to share with k ^^;; ), and flavored popcorn - YUM) to accompany our drinks. i had a refreshing and delicious house cocktail (fruity, but not sweet, with a spalsh of club soda) that came with a garnish of candied ginger and mint. yum~ perfect for the hot hot DC summer day that was tuesday (100+ degree weather! yikes).

after we put in our order, we were served a small mason jar with a bit of chicken liver pate. i love pate and was super excited to see that this was a part of the meal at blt (and secretly wished for more). in fact, k and i contemplated asking if we can each get a jar. hahaha ... the pate was so smooth and creamy, i wanted to slather it on everything that we were served.

our (hot) food began coming out (yay!), starting with the popovers. bw (the bartender) suggested that we share one popover. our response was to look at him with eyes that said, "but there are two popovers. and there are two of us. why should we share?" he just walked away, laughing. we kept looking at him, confused. now, about these popovers. i'm usually not a huge bread person and usually go easy on the bread when available, especially if i know that carbs will appear in another form. but there's something about these popovers that are just so delicious. they're light and fluffy, but super moist (i think it's the guyere cheese that is listed within the ingredients - yes, the popovers came with a recipe!) and not rough-ish in texture (as bread sometimes is). they came out, warm, smelling delicious, and just melted in my mouth. i went between slathering my popover with the chicken liver pate and butter with salt (on an aside, blt has some really rad, albeit rustic looking, salt shakers! k and i wanted to smuggle one out of there, but opted against it as these salt shakers literally were the same size as pint glasses).

we ordered the himachi to share as neither k nor i were super hungry (despite ultimately eating what ended up being boatloads of food). the himachi wrapped a sort of seasoned avocado mash, topped with jalapenos and some other veggies, in a small pool of a light citrus (though a bit too citron-y for me) soup. citron-y or not, totally delicious. as k said, the fattiness of the himachi and the avocado just brought out the creaminess of the entire dish, that ultimately just melted in our mouths.

my stomach is growling (again) as i write this ...

k and i opted to sit at the bar. and i'm glad we did! bw was awesome, as were other members of the bar staff (though we kept hiding our dish of olives from one of the guys as he insisted on taking it away! hands off, mister, we're not yet finished). great conversationalists who know their food and drink (that is the best!). in addition to everything else, they totally made me want to go back and visit them. i will!

one day, i'll have to go back and actually try the steak. rib eye, please. but in the meantime, i will dream about the chicken liver pate and delicious popovers that accompanied our meal. mmmmm~~~~

online: http://www.bltsteak.com/