finally made it over to le diplomate for brunch on sunday, it was so amazing! i mentioned in my friday five post that i was excited to go and i have to say it far surpassed my expectations.
i have been driving past this place for months, and every time i remind myself that i’ve been wanting to try it so when i actually thought to make a reservation two weeks ago i was so proud of myself. and on sunday, i put on a sun dress and jumped in the car! after driving around for 20 minutes looking for a spot i finally parked a few blocks away and walked/skipped to the front door because i was so excited. when i walked in it was like stepping into my own slice of paris. but in washington d.c. the sounds, smells and atmosphere had hit it spot on. i was instantly transported to when i went to paris as an exchange student about 7 years ago, it felt exactly like this cafe that was around the corner from our hotel. i was over the moon excited. before making my way to our table (i was a tad late and the girls were already there) i was entranced by the bread table, it sits right in front of the gorgeous (and very well stocked, this is dc afterall) bar and faces the entrance. it’s impossible to miss, stacked high with different types of delicious looking bread, i was prepared to sit there and just order the bread basket and call it a day.
we sat in the area shown above and it was perfect, it had an indoor-outdoor feel with the skylights above us and the patio right behind us, without the super hot, sticky weather. we ended up getting the pastry basket which was phenomenal, it had 2 different croissants, a blueberry muffin, a cinnamon sugar beignet, an austrian pastry that our waiter told us was brought into france by marie antoinette because she loved them so much and a few other little pastries. we also got a bread basket, i justified the outrageous amount of carbs in my head by constantly reminding myself that my dopey challenge training started this week so i needed to carb load. right? the rest of the menu is solid, they have a great selection of fruits de mer (raw bar and chilled seafood), and les oefs (eggs) as well as sandwiches and entrees. the girls each got eggs and i opted for the smoked salmon tartine. 
you can see our demolished pastry basket on the right! also how gorgeous are those marble tables?
everyone loved their meals, my tartine was delicious, served as an open faced sandwich on a baguette (i know what you’re thinking- more bread! remember i started training), the salmon and egg combination was perfect. i loved it.
we were so stuffed by the end that we couldn’t bring ourselves to try the desert but it looked amazing so i’ll definitely try it next time i’m there, which happens to be this coming weekend because it was just that good!
the food was great, the service was great and the atmosphere really made the whole thing perfect- definitely one of my new favorites, and since i’m just starting to explore the dupont area in the last few weeks it’s nice to have a go to spot for when i want to go over there! let me know if you’ve been or are going and what you had!
