Interior Redesign: 701 Restaurant

| Print Post This | Like (6) | Comments (0)

WHEN LOCAL RESTAURATEUR Ashok Bajaj decided to renovate his Pennsylvania Avenue restaurant, 701, this past summer, he did so to appeal to younger diners.

"There are a lot more younger people in the vicinity of Penn Quarter than there were when we opened 19 years ago," he said.

Bajaj added two more private rooms as part of the $800,000 renovation. He also revamped the lounge, which is now a perfect place for one of the restaurant's tasty cocktails.

His interior designer in London helped him decide what he was looking for in creating a sophisticated room. That means a striped rug, blue and brown hues in the rug and chairs, tall windows and cream tablecloths.

The changes also brought in a new chef, Adam Longworth, and new pastry chef Roger Potter. Longworth, who previously cooked at Gotham Bar and Grill in New York, said that he's been redoing the menu at 701.

"I'm going to continue to change the menu here constantly just to adapt to how people in D.C. want to eat," he said. "For example, we had one pasta on the menu and it was very popular, so now we have three."

He said he would adjust the menu until he finds "a recipe that fits." So far, that means dishes like grilled branzino with olives, potato confit, garlic aioli, Serrano ham and chardonnay vinegar; mushroom tortellini with goat cheese, pine nuts, cauliflower, poached egg yolk and white truffle oil; and free-range chicken with basmati rice, mango chutney, macadamia nuts and brown butter.

"I've traveled a lot," Longworth said. "So, I tell cooks what I do is take dishes from around the country and around the world and bastardize them. I pull the best influences from a region."

He says that on the menu right now, you can find "some Asian, some Indian-esque and Spanish style food. It all just goes into the big American melting pot of contemporary American cooking."

Potter, who attended l'Academie de Cuisine's pastry arts program, has worked at a number of restaurants, including 1789, Clyde's and Rock Creek at Mazza locally. Look for sweet endings such as vanilla angel food cake with sliced plum compote, apricot-moscato soup and chocolate peanut pave.

While D.C. hasn't reached New York's reputation as a dining Mecca, Longworth said he loves it down here.

"I feel like D.C. is just on the verge of becoming a dining town," he said. "We're so close, and there are a lot of great chefs here."

» 701 Pennsylvania Ave. NW; 202-393-0701, 701restaurant.com. (Archives-Navy Memorial-Penn Quarter)

Written by Express contributor Amy Cavanaugh
Photos courtesy Mike Olliver, Len de Pas