Blacksalt for Lunch

I had a nice loaner car from my local car dealer as the station wagon was once again in the shop (sigh) so since Michael loves cars as well I proposed that I pick him up for lunch so he could have fun driving the car himself. He readily agreed and the question was where to go from Georgetown that was far enough but not too far and where we could get in and out in a reasonable period of time. Blacksalt fit the bill on all counts so off we went.

It was very quiet in the restaurant on a Thursday afternoon and in fact there was only one other person at the bar. Blacksalt was running a special on some of their wines with bottles at half price. We had a bottle of some French rose (I cannot remember the exact name, and for some reason browsing through Blacksalt's menus on line causes Firefox to crash: beware). However, it was very pleasant and for half price of $13.50, was cheaper than two glasses (normally we would never order a bottle of wine during a workday but I can't resist a bargain. In our defense we didn't finish the bottle. Naturally I forgot to take the leftovers home...oh well, a little extra tip for the excellent bartender). In general Blacksalt's wine list is well chosen and very fairly priced by the bottle...the prices by the glass are, as usual, a little less friendly.

For lunch we had an app of fried oysters (which I hoped Michael would share with me, but I could only convince him to eat one). Large, perfectly cooked, very delicious. Probably not totally healthy. We each had a fish sandwich...mine was tuna with a provencal garnish, very moist and tasty. The tuna was minimally cooked. The oil-based garnish made the whole thing a little messy but impossible to put down...in a couple of ways, it was so good and also I suspected if I put it down I would never be able to pick it up again. Michael's sandwich was based on some sort of white fish (see caution about a flaw in their on line menu) and was also delicious based on the one bite I got.

The bill for this was about $70 which is rather extravagant for lunch, but we deserve a little extravagance every once in a while. The quality of the food was, unlike Rod Blagojevich, unimpeachable. The setting was not nearly as glamorous as at night, we both agreed, as the bar and casual seating area looks a bit forlorn in the light of day especially when it is not full. But it was a very enjoyable splurge and I am glad we went.