Dauphine’s is the newest restaurant concept from Long Shot Hospitality, the team behind Washington, D.C.’s The Salt Line. Led by critically acclaimed Chef Kristen Essig, Dauphine’s is inspired by the playful spirit and iconic cuisine of New Orleans. Dauphine’s is located within Washington, D.C.’s Midtown Center, a new development at the site of the former Washington Post building at 15th and L Streets NW.
Chef Essig will work closely with Long Shot Hospitality Chef/Partner Kyle Bailey to utilize Mid-Atlantic ingredients to prepare classic Louisiana fare while also creating original dishes inspired by the city of New Orleans.
The restaurant opened on May 7, 2021. It is open daily but only dinner.
Brady, Bev, Debbie, and I were there on October 17, 2021.
There are a variety of eating areas in which the restaurant can seat hundreds of people: The Breezeway, the Outdoor bar, the Garden, the Upstairs Mezzanine, the Main dining room, and the Inside Bar and lounge.
To get to the Breezeway, where our reservation was apparently set, we walked down a half dozen steps to one area of the restaurant walked along a flat area and then walked up another half dozen stairs to get to the Breezeway. Had I understood what was involved WW would have asked to be seated somewhere else.
The Breezeway is what its name suggests, it is within the building but open to the outside. In fact, we could have walked outside from the greeter’s stand, then walked the length of the seating area in the Breezeway, which has a waist high metal fence and in thru a gate at the far end and then to our 4 tops, which was one among a series 2 tops and 4 tops.
It was chilly in the breezeway, even though it was in the mid-50s the night we were there. There are large heaters which were lighted at our request, but it is not clear how this will work when it is really cold outside. It will be easy to simply not use this area when it is really cold.
The chairs were not particularly comfortable.
The music was too loud, and it was lowered at Brady’s request.
We ordered some white fish salad with special crackers to nibble on while we decided what to order.
There is a $10 charge for bread service which includes Buttermilk biscuits, Baguette and Sweet Potato Brioche.
The night we were there the restaurant did not have espresso available.
Bev ordered raw oysters and Oysters Spaghetti, Brady ordered Rockfish Amandine, Debbie ordered Oysters Dauphine and Paneed Skate Wing.
I ordered – Pommes Souffle with sauce bearnaise and Spanish Mackerel Amandine. We shared two orders of Baked Alaska.
I requested a non-alcoholic beer which the restaurant did not have but I did drink a mocktail called a Hurricane which was quite good.
Our server was Al who had been working at the restaurant for about a week. All of the servers were men.
I did not check out the restroom because it was too hard to get to from our location.
There were a number of things about this restaurant that were not that great and ordinarily WW does not report on such restaurants, but this report is being included because the food is really good.
Dauphine’s
1100 15th St NW
Midtown Center
Washington DC
202-758-3785