I am and will never be a city gal. Raised in an overpopulated but small city that never slept (or more like was on Crystal Meth), moving to Northern Virginia was like a breathe of fresh air. This place gave me the right to boast on living in the capital city but also the ability to become a Southern Bell whenever I please; Northern Virginia fulfilled my greed of wanting the best of the both worlds.
As my passion for food grew, I quickly realized that in DC food scene (and when I say DC, I am referring to the actual city), there are so much to enjoy and indulge in. We don't need skyscrapers and snobby financiers to have restaurants that offer world class cuisine; we have big shots like Jose Andres who are present in the city holding it down for all of us. When I first started seeing and taking food a bit more seriously, I became obsessed with DC fine dining scene. I wanted to get my foot and taste buds into all of the critically acclaimed DC restaurants, which prompted me to surrender huge portions of my paychecks to places like CitiZen, Citronnelle, MiniBar and the list goes on. But even with my much enthused Washingtonian pride, I do get sick of running through the strangely positioned (it is on the side, not up top) red lights and being cussed out by on-crack cab drivers just to go to a nice dinner. I don't like the stiffness in the air when I go to the "fancy" restaurants with dim lights. I bring my expensive handbags and wear brand name clothes when I go to these fine dining places because I know I'm being judged. I want to look like a big shot spending big money. Shamefully so, I'm admitting that these place bring out such shallowness in me. (Disclaimer: I'm not putting down anyone or making assumptions about any thing/people/place - I'm just too immature to think/act this way) The pretentiousness along with 10% food tax though, definitely gets old. So I started looking outside.
During my quest to look for the best "local fancy", I came across a cozy restaurant in Clifton, Va, named "Trummers on Main". It is owned by Mr & Mrs. Trummers on the Main street of Old Town Clifton. Far, far away from the city, this place still gave me the delightful enlightment on my taste buds along with warmth of the local joint I was yearning for. Now let me do the "showing" part of this Show and Tell... here are the poorly taken pictures from my last two visits -
Cocktails - Trummers is known for their bar specialties
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| Root Beer Float with house made peanut foam which tastes like ice cream. Very dangerous drink... |
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| Strawberries, basil, Cachaca. Stronger than it looks |
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| House specialty - Titanic! Champagne ice is the iceberg |
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| Muddled grapes on the bottom is the sunken ship. I love humor in food - and this tastes delicious! |
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| Apple soup w. shimp, dried apple, and yuzu sorbet. |
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| Corn soup with fresh corn, corn bread and fresh truffles. This soup made corn the king - Dish like this is thoughtful. |
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| Duck breast salad w. foir gras, chantelle mushrooms, and seaweed |
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| Salad w. shaved beets, fish row, snow peas, mushrooms, white/black potatoes |
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| Albacore tuna with coconut sorbet and avocado mousse. Simply put, amazing! |
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| Ribeye steak w. simple salad and watercress puree |
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| Ribeye steak with balsamic glaze, dehydrated tomato, and indian egg plants on top of watercress puree |
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| Cheese platter. Local cheese and local honey with house baked bread. No fancy, just solid. |
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| Piece of cheese, fresh baked bred, toasted nuts and a dollop of thyme infused honey. There is my heaven |
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| What? Free booze? Love the locally made dessert wine. Take that Napa Valley! |
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| Brown sugar pudding with dairy free chocolate sorbet, Chocolate perls from Paris, and coco meringue. Speechless |
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| Brown sugar pudding with strawberry sorbet, frozen strawberry meringue and frosted pecans |
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| Humble yet delicate petit four for two - house made chocolate/peanut butter truffles |
So if you care to know, what did I think? Before I begin, let me just make this a written record that I visited this place twice in one week - For the Sunday brunch and the 7 course dinner. Trummers may not have servers with bow ties calling you "sirs and "ma'ams" or a sommelier with a medal on his neck that is the size of his actual head, but this place has the atmosphere that makes you feel special, serves the mind-blowingly good food cooked by one of Thomas Keller's proteges, and gives you the service that makes you want to come back. Trummers on main is just plain good, no other adjectives needed.
Don't get me wrong; I love the City. But my passion for suburbs remains strong, especially thanks to places like this.
- HungryAsian
