happy first day of summer!

yes, i'll drink to that!

co co sala

my sister met me downtown last night after work for a fun night on the town before she leaves town for all of her travels. the plan of the night was to get dessert at the new dessert bar - co co sala. wanting to have something a little substantial before a large dessert we went to oya and grabbed so sushi. four rolls later we left oya and walked the few blocks over to ccs (not to be confused with css). we didn't even make it to g street before the skies erupted and the storms they had been calling for all day finally blew through.

earlier in the afternoon i had checked on opentable to maybe snag a reservation for ccs. there were literally reservations available at every single fifteen minute interval and since i didn't know the timing of the evening i decided we could probably just risk it. well we walked in at about 7:30 and there were no tables for two! but luckily they have two bars where you can order from the full menu. so we squeezed into two seats (they had a few too many barstools stuffed around the bar) and began to examine the menu.

here's the deal: there are four dessert tasting menus all with five courses. all four menus are based on a different theme (indian, italian, aztec and childhood favorites), but have the same five basic courses: a main dessert, two snacks, a cheese and a cleansing sorbet course. you can either get all five courses for $30 or three courses (no cheese or sorbet) for $20. in addition to the desserts there are cocktails that pair well with the themes. and if your parents trained you right and you have to eat dinner before dessert they have that covered too. on the "real food" menu you have a choice of mac and cheese, crab cakes, sliders or salad. and keeping with the theme of the restaurant all of these savory dishes incorporate chocolate in some way.

since we had already had dinner we went straight for dessert and opted for the five course aztec dessert menu. not up for cocktails we went with the trio of hot chocolate. we ordered milk chocolate, dark chocolate and lavender white chocolate (lauren's choice, not mine). fifteen minutes later we got dark chocolate, white chocolate and white chocolate lavender. the dark chocolate was delicious the others were pretty disgusting. we didn't even bother complaining though, since it had already taken forever to get these drinks. plus we could tell the bartender had no idea what he was doing (every question we had about the menu was met with a "sure" or
"i don't know" or "let me check").

so how was the dessert? well it was delicious! let's look at each course:

1. amuse - churros with cinnamon cream and dulce de leche dip.
such a great way to start! we got two churros, but i wonder if that amount changes based on the number in your group. every part of this dish was delectable.

2. main dessert - hot chocolate soufflé with fiery chocolate center and kahlua soother.
wow, they should have bolded that fiery part. the chocolate center was definitely spicy, but good nonetheless. i guess that was the point of the kahlua soother (yes, i copied that directly from the menu).

3. intermezzo - papaya and lime margarita sorbet with papaya stick.
a perfect refreshment after that spicy chocolate soufflé.

4. cheese course - pepper cheese enchilada with guava sauce.
wow. this was just delicious. and not spicy at all (despite the pepper description on the menu). the guava flavoring made the dish sweet without overpowering the gooey jack cheese.

5. petit fours - chocolate infused horchata and mexican wedding cookie.
this was a great, light way to end the meal. i could have done without the sesame seed sticks, but the shortbread cookie was delicious.

and of course i have some other random comments on the place. first off i went to check out the bathrooms (come on - you know me). i can't decide if i liked them or not - the floor to ceiling mirrors really threw me off. and the lighting in the restaurant (or at least at the bar) was way too bright. the ambiance was so sheek and sexy but then they had bright lights everywhere. maybe it was just a timing thing, but about halfway through our meal all the lights dimmed - it was much better. the best part about sitting at the bar? the flat screen tvs that streamed flowing chocolate. it was like straight out of willy wonka. as i mentioned earlier the service was pretty lousy (steer clear of the bartender lorenzo!), but i can cut them a break since they just recently opened the place. and i do have to give credit to the kitchen - they really timed the courses well. you don't realize how much such small dessert courses can fill you up!

i would definitely be up for giving ccs another try - any takers? it's a really fun lounge atmosphere complete with a dj booth. i see it as a fun spot to hang out at between dinner and going out - and being located in the heart of penn quarter makes it perfect for that exact purpose! plus there are three other dessert menus to try...

obama!

wooooooooo!
watching his speech right now - SO exciting!
but will hillary ever concede?
and more importantly - will virginia finally go blue in november??

everyone is going green

my company's color is green so it only makes sense that we are making a big push to be carbon neutral by 2010. that means our new office space is leed certified (gold i think) with automatic toilets and sinks (waterless urinals for the guys), motion sensor lights and glasses and mugs (no more solo cups).

and at the penny dive at dl this past weekend they announced that "dunn loring is going green" by not having all those crappy plastic toys in the kiddie section.

and even the nationals are going green! on wednesday discovery is launching their new network, planet green, and the nats are supporting the silver spring based company by wearing green caps. and the best part is my cousin is throwing out the first pitch!

random segue... fingers crossed that zim's shoulder gets better soon!