Cure Bar & Bistro

Kevin Ray Villalovos, Chef de Cuisine of the newly opened Cure Bar & Bistro, works wonders with salt. He's using it to cure salmon, to salt meats and to season his home-made garlic sausage.

Ken Hood, the general manager, gets his wait staff to set out dishes of American salts, each different from the other, on the tables of diners as soon as they sit. They're encouraged to sample them with the good butter and bread, a different take on other restaurants' ubiquitous bowl of olive oil and one that emphasizes how vital salt is in Villalovos' cooking.

"The early colonials preserved their foods with salt and sugar and smoking," says Hood.

Villalovos buys his produce locally. He has a local purveyor who sends him a weekly list of what's fresh. His ham comes from Virginia and others of his meats from Pennsylvania. There's a range of American Artisan Cheese that he's picked to serve with seasonal preserves, candied pecans and local honeys.

He's having particular fun with the two smokers in his kitchen. In them he smokes his home-made garlic sausages and the Smithfield ham for his Mac 'n Cheese that is already a dining hit.

A Texas native, he went through a charcuterie course in his home state. He's enthusiastic about the challenge of taking traditional techniques and adding modern tastes. "When I cure our salmon, I use mint and tarragon and licorice for the gravlax. When I do duck confit, I use a vanilla bean in the fat."

Diners, he says, are intrigued by what he's up to and "pleasantly surprised" by the food.

Ken Hood explains that key to how they introduce it is the idea that guests should be encouraged to identify their favorite tastes rather than have the house special thrust upon them. Then wait staff will guide them towards the dishes and the wines and beers that are most likely to excite them. "I think restaurants have lost touch with their guests."

Cure Bar & Bistro is a complete redesign by local architects Adamstein & Demetriou of the space that used to be the Cigar Bar.

Cure Bar & Bistro is located on the corner of 10th & H Sts NW, 202 637 4906.