One of the many things that I love about my neighborhood favorite, Chef Geoff’s Tysons, is that the menu changes seasonally. The Fall menu that is being featured right now is pretty fantastic. Some of the standouts are:
The duck confit appetizer – a nice big piece of duck on the bone, served over spatzle in a whole grain mustard cream sauce. The meat can be a bit difficult to cut off the bone, so just pick that sucker up and gnaw on it rib style. The spatzle is perfect – light with no hint of gumminess – and the mustard sauce is nicely balanced.
The apple and butternut squash bisque – this is your classic fall soup combo, with some unique garnishes in the form of ginger crème fraiche and crispy, fried, sweet, and a little spicy lotus chips.
The duck confit pizza – with roasted pears, blue cheese, and balsamic caramelized onions. It’s a great balance of sweet and salty, and they are not fooling around with the confit – there is a TON piled on there. This is definitely a two-person pizza.
The pear and gorgonzola agnolotti – with Swiss chard, in an Amaretto butter sauce, topped with amaretti (Amaretto cookie) crumbles. I am crushing on this dish in a major way – I long for it. The agnolotti are fantastic, of course, but I want to talk about the chard – drenched in that sweet butter sauce with chunks of pear and the crunch of the amaretti cookies. Oh my goodness, I have honestly never had better tasting Swiss chard. I want to develop a recipe for this sauce just so that I can use it with chard.
There a few great looking dishes that I haven’t had the chance to try yet: a burger topped with barbequed short ribs, Havarti, and green tomato; a butternut squash risotto with Taleggio; a rabbit bolognese with black pepper pappardelle, fennel, and grana padano. I will update this post after I have eaten more of the Fall dishes!
And let’s not forget the drink menu – CG’s is always coming up with great new cocktails. The Fall standout is the Saint Rosemary Sour, combining my favorite liquors – Pisco and St. Germain – with fresh lime juice, egg white, house made citrus syrup, and rosemary tincture, and topping it off with bitters and a rosemary sprig. Absolutely fantastic.