THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Restaurant Insignia

THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Restaurant Insignia Restaurant Review:

Chef Jason Dady and his family have attacked every kind of cuisine from fine dining with a Mediterranean bent to barbecue---leaving out only overt Asian. Now comes the latest in the ever-expanding empire, which claims to speak American, though with a fairly heavy accent. Plates such as Wagyu meatballs with mole sauce, pizzas topped with barbacoa and fried chicken with waffles testify to the range of options offered in the slick setting in The Fairmount hotel. The most successful small plates (we aren’t altogether fond of the fancy meatballs or the way-too rich bone marrow quenelle with intense barbacoa) have been the crab cakes with fennel slaw and Thai red curry, the pan-seared scallops with a barbacoa sidekick and the shrimp ceviche topped with crumbled pork cracklings. The first-rate house salad with peeled cherry tomatoes and pistachios is recommended as a palate cleanser between plates. Among the entrées, a striped bass, skin nicely crisped and served with a green peppercorn jus, is the standout. And as absurd as it seems, the bacon-studded praline, served with a dollop of salted caramel mousse, actually works.