Perhaps the most celebrated— and certainly the oldest— on the list of this year’s list of Restaurant Week participants reveals that even before making its menu public, it has already logged over 100 Restaurant Week reservations.
“That’s really something, huh; and it’s still two weeks out,” says Dave Simpson, who has been operating the C&O since the 1980s.
Founded in the year of America’s Bicentennial, the C&O now unveils its menu, which includes its famous vegetable soup and steak chinoise, among eight choices for discerning diners who appear eager for the chance to dine for $25.
“For people who’ve never been here,” explains Simpson, “we wanted to make available flagship pieces of our menu.”
Simpson says that his Restaurant Week menu will also include roasted Niman Ranch chicken and a vegetarian entree based on what’s available fresh during the event, which run July 13 through 19.
Shortly after it opened, the C&O got a positive write-up from none other than legendary New York Times reviewer Craig Claiborne. And the rest has been an evolving history of glowing write-ups and subtle changes which included ditching a coat-and-tie and French language requirement– along with a more expensive menu– in its upstairs.
“It was a real piece of show business,” says Simpson. “We’re less formal than we were, for sure.”
