PSA: Ripple and Pearl & Ash Team Up

Posted by | Posted in Wine Events | Posted on 05-29-2014

pearl ashrippleIt’s cliché to praise Patrick Cappiello’s wine program at Pearl & Ash in New York. But if an oenophile had carte blanche to create the restaurant of her dreams, she’d save herself a lot of time by simply replicating the Bowery hotspot. 

As Pete Wells wrote in the opening paragraph of his glowing New York Times review, “Going to Pearl & Ash without opening a bottle or two is like buying a chocolate bar and not unwrapping it. Since it opened in February, the restaurant has become the city’s most exciting place to drink wine.”

After visiting last June, I was floored. I’ve since been back twice, and the food program is as impressive as the wine program. In fact, when I last dined there, I had eaten at Per Se the previous evening. And plate for plate, the food was on par with everything I’d had at the Thomas Keller hot spot.

The chef at Pearl & Ash, Richard Kuo, is a superstar.  And next Wednesday (June 4), he’s coming to DC to team up with Marjorie Meek-Bradley of Ripple to craft a 9-course wine dinner.

Ripple is the closest thing D.C. has to Pearl & Ash. The extensive wine list is geeky yet approachable and the markups are reasonable. Like Cappiello, Ripple’s wine director, Danny Fisher, even sabers an occasional bottle of Champagne.

And Ripple’s chef, Marjorie Meek-Bradley, is absolutely amazing. This February, she was named a semifinalist in the James Beard Award’s “Rising Star Chef of the Year.” In mid-March, Food & Wine listed Meek-Bradley as one of just ten contenders for the mid-Atlantic’s best new chef. One week later, the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington nominated her for a major award. She rocks.

Be sure to reserve your spot soon before all the seats fill up!

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