Sunday, January 8, 2012

Georgia Brown - MacPherson Square

Georgia Brown is a southern, "low-country," restaurant located in the heart of downtown DC. Luckily, they provide a relatively inexpensive pre-fixe lunch menu in which you can have a leisurely paced power lunch where one can cut complex, bet the firm deals or gossip about the lovelife of your cubicle mate.

The ambiance is sedate, if a little dated. The color palette of the dining room is priarily earth toned (think light browns, reds, yellows...the colors of autumn). However, there is this tangled skein of undulating bronze affixed to the ceiling, as if a spider had decided to weave a web of metal, which quite frankly just confuses me. However, while a little busy and distracting, it does not detract from the dining experience too much. The clientele, at least during lunch, was primarily professional.

The food is generally well prepared and the portions are ample (in my opinion, they are too big). The fried green tomatoes consisted of two slices of green tomato with a layer of goat cheese int he middle. They were crispy on the outside, but meaty in the inside, and the ooze of goat cheese was quite welcome.

The fried chicken I ordered was juicy, although I didn't care for the sweetness of the accompanying collard greens. While I appreciated the tartness of the greens, I wish they were a little more savory. The mashed potatoes were also quite good, if unexceptional. Luckily, even unexceptional mash potatoes are delicious.

I also sampled the Charleston Perlau, a rice dish with tomatoes. The dish comes with head on shrimp (one if you order off the pre-fixe menu, three if you order the full entree) and sucking the organ meat out of the heads were a delight. The rice was tasty enough, a little al dente which was nice, but it did not absolutely exude a kaleidoscope of flavors. But, I would eat it again without complaint.

The desserts were unfortunately absolutely forgettable. I remember dryish cake and sundries.

In sum, for the pre-fixe price, Georgia Brown's is an ideal spot for lunch. And, even though the pre-fixe portions are smaller than the regular entree portions, they are still so ample that I would encourage people to get the pre-fixe just so they don't leave the restaurant too overstuffed.

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