Shaw Crawl – Second Stop, Convivial

We kicked off our mini Shaw Crawl with a bang at The Dabney, but we were far from finished. After a stellar brunch at Convivial last month, I was excited to return to try some of the dinner items. But first, wine.
We had a tasty French Pinot Noir, which was nice, light and versatile – perfect for the random assortment of dishes we ordered. Cocktails are also excellent at Convivial, which we learned later in the evening as our bartender displayed his excellent mixology skills.
Having already established a relationship with Convivial, I was ready to take it to the next level. Convivial, to keep up with the theme of my last post, is that effortlessly chic friend who always has a million things going on, but manages to do everything well. She’s also fun and a little bit flirty, and despite looking like a runway model refuses to take herself too seriously. (And I’m dropping this metaphor now as I fear I’ve taken it too far.)
We had a really hard time deciding what to order, but with help from our friendly bartender we got it done. First up, the cauliflower blanc-manger with tabbouleh, almond, grapefruit and herb salad. It was our second herb salad of the night and I wasn’t upset about it. All the rain really has local produce on point these days, and it’s been a pleasure to eat it.
This dish was lovely, nothing over the top spectacular but very good. It’s the sort of thing I’d love to have prepared for me every day at lunch if I had a private chef.
Our next order, the spring vegetable barigoule with artichoke, asparagus, fennel and ramps was a continuation of the fresh vegetable theme but didn’t excite quite as much.
The vegetables were cooked well and tasted good, but we’d wished we’d ordered something with a little more pizzazz. We’ll call it user error.
Our next dish, the fried chicken “coq a vin” was a no brainer not only because it sounded delicious but because I’ve seen it raved about on Instagram for months now.
One thing I know for sure, Chef Cedric can fry chicken like nobody’s business. We liked the brunch version so well we couldn’t wait to taste this spin on a classic French dish, which was executed to perfection. I loved the sweet and spicy glaze on the chicken that didn’t at all compromise the crunchiness of the breading. Inside, the chicken was juicy and tender, though I expected nothing less. I’ll reiterate what everyone else has been saying for months, this is a must order item at Convivial and a dish all DC food lovers should try at least once.
Last up was the grilled daurade with ratatouille and tapenade. I became a little obsessed with daurade fish while living in Brazil, so I was excited to try it stateside.
Another lovely plate of food. I loved the addition of the fried squash on top of everything, it added another element of texture and tasted delicious with the tapenade. The fish was really good with a nice, crispy skin that Lauren and Tom both loved.
In my last review of Convivial I made a slight knock to the service, which was a little slow during brunch. This experience was the complete opposite. Our bartender was friendly and informative and always ready to refill our glasses or answer a question. He even chatted with us about our experience at The Dabney, and raved about the food there as well. It’s nice to see a lack of competition among two great restaurants in an area.
When setting out on this little Shaw Crawl, I was kind of hoping to find a reason to quit wanting to spend all of my time and money in the booming neighborhood. But after two stops on the tour we were only falling more in love with this top-notch dining scene. Only one more to go!