Dinner at Station 9

I had an uneasy feeling last night as our appetizers arrived at Station 9, a restaurant which opened last fall in Washington, D.C.'s U Street district.

Why? We already had been told by our server that the kitchen was out of one starter and one entree. Normally, that wouldn't be a big deal, but this was a small menu — there were only about eight starters and eight entrees. Our server had also informed our table that they were out of three bottles of red wine. (That left nine bottles of red to choose from, and none of them was all that exciting so I ordered another cocktail instead.)

So, for these reasons, I was expecting our food to reflect a similar level of disorganization. As it turned out, however, our food was quite good.

My pulled pork and frisee starter was excellent. For my entree, the peanut chicken was a tasty breast, well seasoned and moist. My friends had strip steaks, and they were good, although one of them was overcooked a little — medium-rare turned out to be medium-well.

But, all in all, we had a pleasant dinner. I would definitely be willing to check this place out again. The cuisine is down-home South with Latin twists.

The space, a former post office, has super-high ceilings and is decorated in a glam-meets-postmodern style. The hip, upstairs lounge is also a cool place for late-night drinks, although the separate, velvet rope-line entrance to the lounge seems so New York and soooo not Washington. If Station 9 can work out some of the kinks, it could turn out to be a regular destination of mine.