Range

The food at Bryan Voltaggio's innovative restaurant is delicious, but the overall dining experience is an unsatisfying combination of precious and pedestrian. The spread-out space in Chevy Chase Pavilion made Andrea think of an upscale cafeteria while it reminded me of a restaurant at a European train station. Range even made up for the lack of train passengers by providing hordes of waitstaff bustling around and an amazing number of suits running around with little earphones to keep the 300-seat restaurant humming.

To our surprise, however, there were a lot of empty seats and no waiting on a Saturday night. Besides the tables (many which remained empty for much of the time we were there, though we were told none was available for an hour and a half) and the crowded bar, there were the marble lunch counters running along the various cooking stations and we sat at the first empty seats we saw, at the bread station, which of course was the least interesting to watch.

But we were there for the food, so it was fine. Everything we ate was excellent. However, it reinforced my animosity to small plates. It worked for us to get a "pizza" to split for a starter, order two meat dishes and a side of Brussels sprouts while sitting at a lunch counter and leave, barely, full. But I don't think it would be totally satisfying sitting at a table, especially if with friends, and counting it as a great meal.

The "pizza" was really just a flatbread with a sprinkling of bacon and onions and some dibs and dabs of fresh cheese. The ingredients were good but this was nothing faintly resembling a pizza. I ordered the veal sweetbreads, and they were exquisite -- creamy white with a thin crispiness on the outside. Andrea ordered the pork cheeks, and they, too, were tender and very fine, though the dish was not hot enough. Needless to say, the portions, while somewhat bigger than a Jaleo small plate, were smaller than a normal entree. The roast Brussels sprouts were also great, though they came tossed in a fish sauce, which the menu neglected to mention.

The menu, in fact, may have swung too far away from those flowery descriptions that used to distinguish menus and was a little terse. Perhaps we should have asked for details. The wine menu online is different and I didn't make an note, but Andrea had a Chablis, which was nice, and I had an Italian red.

The restaurant is new, and I suspect that after a year they will have backed off from some of the odder innovations. I will go back at some point, but I'm not in a hurry.