2941 Restaurant

It tasted as if Bertrand Chemel was playing it safe in his first few months at this glamorous lakeside restaurant in Falls Church. No more. These days, the 33-year-old import from New York is turning out food that puts him in the upper echelons of Washington's culinary elite. The French native's ideas read simple on paper but translate into great taste on the plate. Order the seafood salad, and out comes a delicate arrangement of perfect shrimp and squid set atop a base of black beans, framed in droplets of green oil and small, sweet scallops capped with slivers of tingling jalape?o. Ask for saddle of lamb, and what follows are rounds of some of the most exquisite roasted meat your lips have ever met, dappled with leek sauce and poised atop a lush but light herbed risotto. Almost every dish comes with a subtle surprise: Bacon vinaigrette adds a lush smokiness to grilled swordfish, for instance. Great restaurants are team efforts, and the crew here is tops, which means a diner can also expect superb wine advice and eat as well at the end as at the start of a meal. (That's a hint to indulge in the exquisite handiwork of pastry chef Anthony Chavez.) 2941, hung with giant mirrors tilted to take in the outdoor scenery and inviting with fabrics in tangerine and eggplant, has always been beautiful. Under Chemel and company, the restaurant has become one of the area's most thrilling places to pick up a fork.