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The restaurant in D.C. I most wanted to visit was Little Serow, Johnny Monis’s Thai eatery just downstairs of his acclaimed Komi near Dupont Circle, where I had dinner in 2010.

Little Serow doesn’t take reservations. And by all accounts, the wait for a table can stretch into hours.  My friend, Balz, who is a regular there, urged me to get there early – like 16.30 early, an hour before the restaurant opens.  Thankfully, there wasn’t a wait when we arrived closer to 18.00 on a weekday night.  There were a few seats open at the counter, to which we were taken immediately.

Monis doesn’t allow photography inside komi.  Thankfully, he allows (no-flash) photography inside Little Serow, which is a surprisingly spartan, but lovely space.  Off the hot streets of D.C., the dimly lit interior, with light-turquoise painted-brick walls trimmed with white, enamel-coated fixtures is soothing, an effect that also seems to help temper the spiciness of the food there.

The set menu of seven courses ($45) changes weekly, and is served family-style.  My favorite dishes included a cold salad of shaved pork cheek with herbs and fresh noodles in a sweet and spicy dressing.  There was also a terrific cold salad of crispy tofu tossed with cilantro, cilantro root and peanuts that our server warned would start of mild, but by the third bite, would set our “faces on fire, just a little bit.”  She was right.

The shredded duck meat, mixed with Chinese long beans and basil and topped with a duck egg that spilled its velvety yolk upon entry, was surprisingly tender.  The pork ribs at the end, served with mekhong whiskey sauce beneath an avalanche of shaved red onions and dill, were fatty and flavorful, but mild, a mindfully tapering heat for the homestretch.  Everything was great, including the service, which was both efficient and friendly.  Our server Jill even tipped me off to a wonderful exhibit at my favorite museum in town, the National Portrait Gallery.  “American Cool” explores the concept of being “cool,” a specifically American term that, as the curators of this exhibit describe, “carries a social charge of rebellious self-expression, charisma, edge and mystery.”  The exhibit displays photograph portraits of the “coolest” Americans in the last century.  If you can’t make it to D.C. by the time the exhibit wraps in early September, you’ll find it bound in this book by the same name.