Enzo Fargione

“Sometimes in the frenetic first few weeks of opening and operating a new business, decisions are made that, though they seem to make sense at the time, ultimately prove to be the wrong decisions. The easy thing to do would be to stand pat and weather the storm that a wrong decision might cause, but we’re not afraid to admit that our initial and subsequent water charges did not best meet the needs of our guests. In an effort to best serve our valued guests, Elisir has decided to do away completely with charges for our in-house filtered and bottled sparkling and still water."

This is not a formal review, but rather an off-the-cuff first-impressions-style riff on a brand-spankin' new D.C. restaurant.

Of the various al la carte offerings at chef Enzo Fargione's new Elisir restaurant (roughly pronounced ale-ee-zeer), which opened on Wednesday, the smoked carpaccio di branzino immediately snagged my attention. The $18 fish dish comes served in a cigar box. The server pops the lid and—poof!—a visible cloud of Applewood smoke fills your nostrils.

Initial impressions: The aromatic presentation immediately recalls chef R.J. Cooper's "Fowl Play" dish at Rogue 24 (No. 8 on the Coop's 24-course journey, during my visit), but the morsels here are far more substantial. Several bite-sized slices of seabass line the bottom of the serving tray, drizzled with a citrus dressing and topped with shaved mushrooms, pea tendrils and blood oranges. I enjoyed the combination of flavors—salty, sweet and a little peppery—but wondered whether the thing might be just a tad overdressed. The fish is really buried under all that stuff. It is altogether tasty, nonetheless. Finishing up, I noticed a few stray shards of crystalized salt in the box and promptly popped 'em. The salt really seems to really trap the smoke.

The cooking process breaks down like this, according to a server (you can also find the recipe here): the fish is cut right off the loin, dressed and put in the cigar box. (The restaurant has about a dozen of the boxes on hand, he says.) Meanwhile, he tells me, the wood chips are placed on the grill and heated briefly to get 'em to start smoking. Then the chips are put in a little ramekin, which goes into the cigar box with the fish and the lid comes down.  The box is then basically left alone to cook for about four minutes while it makes its way to your table. "It's perfect timing," the server says, "because it gets to the table and it's been about four minutes and the server will just open the box and, of course, remove the wood chips." He laughs, "We don't want anyone eating the wood chips."

Photos by Chris Shott

For some perspective, Y&H reached out to Sarah Neiderer of the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority, who first took the opportunity to shoot down the restaurant's reasoning for the water surcharge in the first place (basically, that the quality of D.C. tap water is "notoriously bad").

In fact, Neiderer tells me she had just gotten off the phone with the restaurant's general manager during what I'm presuming was a very pleasant chat about water quality. Says Neiderer, "We hope, in the future, that if they are giving a justification for why they're providing filtered tap water at a cost, that they don't use the quality of the D.C. tap water as a reasoning for that, because our tap water is safe—and cheaper."

How cheap are we talking? Neiderer tells me that District residents pay around a "penny per gallon" for their water at home. That means you're getting about 29 gallons out of your faucet for the cost of filtered tap water at Elisir.

Of course, the restaurant is filtering the stuff through some fancy machinery, specifically, a Vivreau water bottling system that purifies tap water into both still and sparkling varieties. That undoubtedly adds to the the restaurant's aqua overhead.

Helpfully, Neiderer had already crunched the numbers on that part of the equation, too. Similar machines cost around $4,000, she tells me, meaning that a restaurant would need to charge some 15,000 customers that 29-cent rate to recoup its investment in the filtration equipment.

[Editor's Note: An earlier version of this post identified the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority by its old acronym: WASA. The agency has abandoned that moniker and the item has been updated to reflect that change. Also: the original write-up mistakenly stated that Elisir's 29-cent surcharge applied to each glass. To the contrary, the restaurant says the surcharge will be applied per guest, allowing for unlimited bottled water at the table. The item has been updated to correct that error, as well. The author regrets these oversights.]

Photo by Jorge Barrios

915 15th St. NW (202) 628-2220

Fargione has made good on his word — to a point. He has just signed a letter of intent to open ELISIR at 427 11th St. NW in the same building at Central Michel Richard and Ten Penh. As promised Fargione will offer two different tasting menus — one with eight courses and another with 12-14 courses — but he'll also provide a la carte options for dinner as well as a $15 bistro lunch.

The restaurant concept expanded and developed "because of the area, and it's developed because of the economy," Fargione tells Y&H. "I had to be completely honest with myself, with what I can and can't do."

The chef says he never wants to dictate to his customers.  He says he doesn't believe in the philosophy: "You eat the way I want or you don't eat...I don't think that's a good way to do business these days."

ELISIR, which is Italian for "elixir," will be located in the space currently occupied by Via Cucina, which will vacate the spot soon. Fargione has hired the design and architecture firm, Grupo 7, to completely renovate the old space. It will be transformed into a 90-seat restaurant with a semi-open kitchen, a bar, a private dining room, and a wine cellar. Both the bar and private dining room will offer an additional 20-25 seats. The kitchen, incidentally, will also become something of a showcase for diners who want to watch the chef and his team work; it will feature HD cameras focused on work stations with feeds going to screens placed above the bar.

Fargione's long-time companion, Julia Saah, who operates her own money management company, will run the financial side of ELISIR, the chef says. Fargione noted, with admirable understatement, that some chefs aren't always so good with managing the financial side of restaurants.

The chef expects to re-introduce a number of modern Italian dishes that he made famous at Teatro, including his smoked branzino carpaccio and his tomato popsicles. He also wants to keep the prices down, or at least down for a restaurant devoted, in large part, to tasting menus. His eight-course menu will run about $75 per person, while the larger, 12-14 course menu will be around $100.

Fargione hopes to have ELISIR open by March of next year.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

R.J. Cooper's "24" tasting menu abruptly ended this month at Vidalia.

Putting together this year's Young & Hungry Dining Guide was an exercise in managing the chaos of the local dining scene. Several places that had all but secured a spot on my list of the 50 most fascinating restaurants — Inox, Teatro Goldoni, and Vidalia — suddenly found themselves on the outs. In Inox's case, it was unavoidable; the fine-dining operation closed after putting up a good fight in this poor excuse of an economy.

In Vidalia's case, R.J. Cooper's abrupt departure threw the kitchen into flux, lowering expectations enough to force me to give the downtown restaurant the boot. I say that even though Jeffrey "Mr. Obsessive" Buben continues to oversee Vidalia, no doubt applying the whip whenever his feverishly high standards are not maintained. But you cannot immediately replace one chef's vision, particularly Cooper's refined one, with another's and expect instant results.

The same holds true for Teatro Goldoni, whose owners gave chef Enzo Fargione his walking papers for doing nothing less than making that dated, commedia dell'arte restaurant relevant again. With Fargione out of the way, Goldoni installed a more casual, rustic Italian menu, which instantly put the K Street institution in the same league as about 1,000 other places.

After bumping these three destinations off the list, I ultimately selected only 10 fine-dining restaurants for this year's guide, which still represents 20 percent of my picks. The rest of the 40 slots have been taken up with casual or neighborhood or even fast-casual operations, which  makes sense. These kinds of eateries continue to multiply like bacteria on raw chicken.

One of the traps of putting together such a guide is to fall under the spell of the new. All the hype that surrounds freshly launched restaurants can distract a critic from the more mature restaurants that still deserve attention. I tried to be aware of that as I compiled this guide.  Seventeen restaurants from last year's list held their spots this time around. Of the 33 other spots, 15 are occupied by restaurants that have opened since the 2009 guide, which means 30 percent of the list features new eateries.

That's an uncomfortably high number for me. So I've decided to list the five veteran restaurants that just missed the cut.

• Corduroy: Chef Tom Power is a master at manipulating seasonal ingredients for maximum flavor.
• Blue Duck Tavern: The hotel restaurant still has one of the best brunches in the city.
• El Pollo Rico: The legion of Super Pollo fans is wrong. Those dry, lackluster birds don't begin to compare to EPR's.
• Poste Moderne Brasserie: Chef Rob Weland has turned his outdoor patio into a backyard farm for his kitchen — not to mention a backyard barbecue with his Poste Roasts.
• Joe's Noodle House: Still my favorite spot for authentic Szechuan cooking.

The top two items last week couldn't be further apart in terms of culinary aspiration, from the high-tech, high-concept imagination behind Enzo Fargione's chef's table at Teatro Goldoni to the Cereal Bowl's milky, hand-pour combo of Lucky Charms, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Fruity Pebbles, and other tooth-rotting "ingredients."

It seems we 're more than a nation polarized by politics. We're a nation polarized by food.

A look back at the week's most popular items:

1. Enzo Fargione Fired from Teatro Goldoni (*)
2. Cereal Bowl Set to Open March 27
3. Does This Photo Make You Mad?
4. Food News You Can Use: Top Chef in D.C. Edition
5. Are You All Quick-Fired-Up About Top Chef in D.C.?

* A certain light-drinking Budweiser beer was, once again, a popular item among readers, but we’ve stopped counting it.

"Apparently no one is very happy about the drastic changes or the new retro concept the owner wants to implement," says the anonymous tipster.

The owner is Michael Kosmides, who told Y&H last week that he had to dismiss his chef because "customers weren’t responding to the changes he made in the menu...Our sales declined significantly since he changed the menu and concept."

A spokeswoman for Teatro confirmed that GM Denny Lyon no longer works at the K Street restaurant. She couldn't yet confirm any details, like whether Lyon quit or was fired, or anything about the cooks.

In the meantime, in case you missed it, a Y&H reader wrote that she and her husband ate at Teatro on Saturday, post-Fargione. Marykay77 wasn't impressed:

I was there for dinner on Saturday with my husband. The dining room looked like a funeral procession of mourning servers. There was no bit to it. The maitre d’ older gentleman with white hair was as rude as he could be with the party that was sat before us as well…..bad day or poor customer service?

The food looked and tasted like a photobrushed postcard of Teatro’s better days: mediocre in taste and rough in execution. The pasta was very good.

On our way out a disco dance music from the 80’s started playing full blast: 8:35 pm. Is this restaurant really turning into a disco type gathering place for the youngsters? They told me a new menu will be starting soon: do not count on my vote for your re election.