Last night we took Samuel and some dear friends of ours to the newest "in" spot in Bethesda. RELIC (www.relicinbethesda.com) is a modern place that turns into a disco at 11pm nightly; no surprise there as it is clearly NOT geared for dining. The are high tables with high chairs (in a French provincial whitewash style which matches nothing and looks way out of place), many low tables of beautiful drfitwood in odd shapes with low leather and "zebra" sofas and stools and such. Our table was as crammed as it gets and narrowed oddly at my end making it difficult to find a place t put a plate or glass. The bar at the rear (which we were told is not open yet) has about 7 full fledged leather saddles around it which are meant to be stools, but you can't reach the bar from them and have no place to put your drink....in the words of Arte Johnson, "very interesting...."
The staff tries, but fell way short. They have only been open a month and have a very short wine list, so I picked a medium priced red (Eos Estate) and our server returned about 5 minutes later to say they were out of it, so I went with the Tamas Sangiovese....5 minutes later she returned with the same words. I asked which wines they DID have and she said she was sorry, but few folks order wine by the bottle and she was not familiar with the wines at all and which were out. I tried MONTECILLO 2005 Crianza from Rioja which was also served by the glass (they had to have that!?) and it was quite nice. Our server had to observe the manager open the wine as she had never done that before!
Our friend asked for iced tea; they don't have that.
We got Samuel started on a plate of superb PENNE BOLOGNESE which was no the normal intense red sauce, but a bolognese of VEAL lightened to pink with some cream; it was the best dish all night, and at the tapas size of $7 or $8, a real steal.
We chose some of the $3 hapy hour tapas options:
FROGS LEGS in SPICY GARLIC SAUCE were meaty and tasty witht he sauce almost Asian in essence; another hit for me.
LAMB MERGUEZ SAUSAGE with spicy harissa and olives was probably the biggest hit of the tapas while the CRAB CAKES which were pan seared with LEMON BEURRE BLANC also doing well.
The BEEF SLIDERS were simple with a spicy relish and sauteed onion and the POTATO CHICKPEA CAKES were uneventful and actually dry.
We went on to entrees and ordered a side tapas of th GRUILLED VEGGIES with SHERRY which was nice. It had sliced portobellos and a tiny pile of spinach that barely made a bite and a half!
The main courses we chose were the SEAFOOD SKEWERS of shrimp, tuna and salmon which Will declared as tasteless. The MIXED GRILL choice was better with a decent ROSEMARY LAMB CHOP and some mediocre diced rosemary potatoes, but highlighted by a superb Skirt STEAK and a gorgeous whole boned QUAIL. The quail was stuffed with extremely fatty bacon which we skipped, but the meats were all tasty and a sauce on the side was nice as well.
This is the place to go for a bite like at happy hour for those $3 tapas and a drink, but not really a meal if you wish to sit comfortably and dine for a while.
