Blue 44 Restaurant and Bar, Chevy Chase, Washington, DC

I used to go to Blue 44 often, and reported on it here. Indeed, our Old Guys group used to meet there for lunch every month. Then along came COVID and all routines seem to have been disrupted, and Blue 44 somehow fell out of the picture. The same sort of thing had happened earlier with Le Chat Noir, and with other routines.

Nancy and I went back for dinner recently with our close friends Doug “The Kansas City Barbecue Maven” and Emily Jacobson, the blog’s Senior Art Restoration Consultant. It turns out that when Doug travels for work or mountain climbing, Emily’s go-to is dinner with a friend at Blue 44. We arrived during a lull in the rain, settled in, and ordered.

Nancy ordered the fish of the day, roasted trout.

Emily, who’s a fan of Blue 44’s burgers, performed a stunning juke and ordered chicken piccata. (See the “here” link above for my take on it.)

Doug ordered a crab cake sandwich, which came with a nice salad.

And I ordered a bowl of their famous gumbo, the gumbo that inspired a $2,000 tip. I did something strange with the photo, so you’ll have to look at their website. I added some Tabasco sauce, as usual, but it would have been fine without it.

We’d recently been Doug and Emily’s guests at a lovely event for the National Philharmonic that featured some wonderful performances, and I didn’t take detailed notes amid the sparkling conversation about the event. The reactions, however, ranged from satisfaction to delight. Emily was especially enthusiastic, and pleased to take home enough for lunch. Nancy mentioned again the next day how much she had enjoyed the trout. I enjoyed the gumbo — I don’t know of a better gumbo in the area — although I tipped less than $2,000.

That was a Sunday evening, and on Tuesday, our Old Guys group returned to Blue 44 after our long hiatus. There’d been some interesting menu changes, and I thought seriously of Sony’s Egg Sammich (bacon, egg, and cheese on ciabatta) and the blackened chicken with bacon and arugula, but in the end five of our six reverted to the daily special deal, a bowl of soup and half of the grilled cheese sandwich du jour for $15. On this day the soup was a fish chowder and the grilled cheese had pulled chicken and apricot jam. Isn’t that grilled beautifully?

Bob Berendt reverted to fish tacos ($18), his regular order in days of yore, and Marc Rosenbaum went with the tomato soup instead of chowder.

It was a grand meal, with good food and fellowship. We all enjoyed the chowder, which was very flavorful, very rich, and a meal in itself. That didn’t stop anyone from polishing off the grilled cheese as well. The tariff for each of us was, including a round of beers from $7.00 to $8.50 each and the Mayor’s vigorish, was $26.30 each, and then there was fair tip. That’s a good deal in this neck of the woods, a great one considering the quality and conversation.

It was good to get back to Blue 44. You should, too.

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