Washington Street Station Has Potential, Needs Development
Washington Street Station has potential, needs development
NEWS PHOTO • COLLEEN FITZGERALD
Chef David Daggett, center, and owners David Tims, left, and Tony Thompson gather 'round the gas pump at Washington Street Station.
By CONSTANCE CRUMP
NEWS RESTAURANT REVIEWER
Awash with fear and loathing, I returned to the former Preston’s, now Washington Street Station. It was semi-transformed - and I was happy to be wrong. The new incarnation has real potential, though it still needs considerable development.
Washington Street Station’s atmosphere is far more conducive to a good time than its predecessor. An owner is almost always in evidence, an excellent sign. The wait staff doesn’t act embarrassed any more, either.
If the kitchen keeps making progress, the restaurant will be a solid addition to downtown. Chef David Daggett graduated from the California Culinary Institute and worked with Bradley Ogden at San Francisco’s Campton Place Hotel.
The food can improve, but I enjoyed several dishes. Sweet onion rings were nicely cooked indeed, but oversalted. Cajun popcorn was made with shrimp, not crawfish tails. Its horseradish cocktail sauce had zip. The shrimp didn’t.
Homegrown fries were excellent, skin-on and crispy. Catfish fingers with cilantro chutney were extraordinary, the chutney a great combination of coriander, garlic and jalapeno. Washington Street Station’s Caesar salad is among the best in town, huge (pieces of romaine are huge, too - too huge) with garlicky, lemon dressing, visible anchovies and homemade croutons.
Shrimp and chicken jambalaya had well-spiced sauce with bits of pork, served over rice but excess tomato paste made the dish bitter. Stir-fried shrimp and beef with Chinese noodles lacked personality. “Tastes like it was made from a recipe on the LaChoy can,” a peripatetic Crumpet said.
Similar conceptual problems waylaid fettuccine with poppyseeds and vegetables in cream. Why would anyone put such a dish on the menu - and why would anyone order it? Seafood fettuccine was better than the poppyseed noodles, although it had a near-identical ingredient list. The seafood would have been better if the mussels had been cooked three minutes less.
Rubbery mussels came with the monkfish fricasee, too, along with an interesting blend of cream and vegetables, including perky tomatoes that had gotten friendly with some hot peppers. The dish had an over-fishy odor.
Chicken pot pie with a crackling phyllo crust was sodium-free - completely sodium free - and gluey with white sauce. The chicken tasted good - some seasoning and a good hit of reduced chicken broth would make it a winner.
Grilled yellowfin tuna sandwich with herb mayonnaise was a good choice, the housemade mayo seasoned with a fine hand, garnished with thinly sliced red onions. House salads had good mixed greens and mustard vinaigrette. A basket of bread and butter (foil-wrapped, ugh) comes with entrees.
Desserts were passable, including a good chocolate chip cookie sandwich wrapped around vanilla ice cream with hot fudge for a condiment. Fresh fruit parfait was less appealing, its whipped cream separated from the brandy which flavored it. Promised raspberries were lacking in the straw/blue-berrymix.
One dessert was rejected - a strawberry shortcake’s biscuits were rocklike. Apple pie a la mode looked magnificent and tasted good, but the apples were mushy. I liked the passionfruit sorbet from Guernsey Dairy, beautifully colored and lightly scented with its namesake.
Service is pretty good - excellent on the night that a friend served my booth — although one waitress tried to sneak dirty silverware back on the table. Washington Street Station is a very good value if you like the kitchen’s style. Cocktail hour snacks in the bar are free and worth checking out.
Washington Street Station
116 E. Washington St.
663-0070
FOOD 6 out of 10
SERVICE 7 out of 10
ATMOSPHERE 8 out of 10
HOURS: Daily, 11 a.m. until 2 a.m.; kitchen open until 11 p.m. weekdays, midnight on weekends; the bar serves snacks until closing.
LIQUOR: Full bar and wine list, wines by the glass.
PLASTIC: VISA MC, AMEX.
PRICES: Moderate; dinner for five, $84; dinner for two, $40, both with tax, wine and tip.
WHEELCHAIR ACCESS: Excellent.
Someone with a sense of humor had corrected typos on one menu, finding rich territory: beef vegetable soup “with large pieces on tender beef,” for example. The menu is illustrated with wonderful vintage photos of A-square from the Michigan Historical Collections at the Bentley Library. The photos are typical of the warm atmosphere now in evidence - including a swell model train that circles through parts of the bar and dining room near the ceiling.