"Cut — the fanciest steakhouse chain in celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck’s worldwide restaurant group — opened inside the glitzy Rosewood Hotel in Georgetown over the weekend. The romantic mid-Atlantic restaurant replaces the hotel’s dark Grill Room. A raw bar — an amenity found at only one other Cut — shows off sashimi, oysters, and three types of ceviche. Nose-to-tail cooking is also a big focus. There are offal cuts like a wagyu beef heart “a la plancha” with Thai dipping sauce, cucumber, lime, and coriander. Another is beef cheek with apricot, almond, and green harissa. Veal Holstein schnitzel, a nod to the Austrian-born chef’s upbringing, comes with capers, white anchovies, and Path Valley eggs. A short “from the nest” section includes a half Jurgielewicz Farm duck, prepared Peking-style with Einkorn flour tortillas, Bing cherries, coriander, and habanero salt. Puck protege Andrew Skala presides over the open kitchen in a brick-lined a dining room filled with velvet couches and chairs. Skala has clocked over a dozen years working at Spago in Las Vegas; Wolfgang Puck at Hotel Bel-Air; and, most recently, at the Cut in New York City’s Four Seasons downtown. Skala worked alongside Puck over the past year to craft a Cut 2.0 for Georgetown, putting an emphasis on working with local purveyors. Finding plateware was also a time-intensive endeavor. Skala and co. commissioned several sculptors around the U.S. Instead of going the traditional silver route, a seafood tower is made of detailed white ceramic. Restaurant and bar director Evan Moore curated a wine list of more than 500 labels that play up Austrian grapes alongside local makers like RdV Vineyards and Thibautt-Janisson, which has created a 100-percent Chardonnay made from Tete de Cuvee exclusively for the restaurant. The bar, flanked with scallop-shaped gold chairs, also has an exclusive partnership with Catoctin Creek Distillery in Virginia for a private label rye whiskey. The cocktail menu is big on the Negroni, with five different types. There’s also a roving beverage cart serving made-to-order Old Fashioneds. A revamped bar and lounge, dubbed Cut Above, pairs panoramic views of the city with woven lounge furniture and a stone-lined pool accessible to guests. A pared-down menu there includes Maine diver scallops; steak tartare with crispy beef tendon, capers, chives, and yolk jam; and a Maine lobster roll on Parker House rolls. Puck’s only other D.C. restaurant is The Source downtown, which has been around for 12 years. Cut has locations in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New York, London, Singapore, Bahrain, and Doha. The original, in Beverly Hills, just received one Michelin star in the tire company’s new California guide." - Tierney Plumb
