ROB SCHMITZ, HOST:
For many years, if you were a power player in the nation's capital, steakhouses were where you went to talk shop and cut deals, often over a martini. Charlie Palmer Steak was one of the best. But today, the pricey steakhouse closes its doors. In 2007, NPR reporter Ben Bergman brought us inside the Capitol Hill destination.
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BEN BERGMAN: In the dining room of Charlie Palmer Steak, a rock pool decorated with flowers chills the massive wine cellar perched above. You can take your pick of thousands of wines, including ones from every state. Once you've ordered drinks, time to consider the main course.
BRYAN VOLTAGGIO: Right now we have hickory-smoked salmon over ragu of leeks and fingerling potatoes or cured tomatoes.
SCHMITZ: That sounds wonderful. That was former executive chef Bryan Voltaggio. When the restaurant's D.C. location opened in 2003, it made a splash, explains Jessica Sidman, food editor for Washingtonian magazine.
JESSICA SIDMAN: Charlie Palmer Steak is really a fixture of Capitol Hill.
SCHMITZ: Sidman says the location of Charlie Palmer Steak in the shadow of the Capitol made it a go-to for lobbyists and legislators.
SIDMAN: It's going to end up being a cafeteria of Congress in a lot of ways - right? - at least if you're willing to spend a certain amount of money.
SCHMITZ: Sidman says Charlie Palmer is, in many ways, a backroom to history.
SIDMAN: People who work in places like that, they hear the news before it's on the news, right?
SCHMITZ: And perhaps so did Palmer himself.
CHARLIE PALMER: So my name is Charlie Palmer. I'm a chef and restaurateur and hotelier at this point.
SCHMITZ: Palmer says when the restaurant first opened in D.C., the goal was to present a new kind of steakhouse.
DANIEL PERRON: Charlie's mantra was always genuine American hospitality.
SCHMITZ: That's Daniel Perron, another former executive chef at Charlie Palmer. He says what set the restaurant apart was how it treated diners. Palmer says that's the most important ingredient for any restaurant.
PALMER: What is a restaurant to most diners, you know, especially regular diners? Yes, the food has to be good, and the service has to be good. But really, what they're wanting or what they are looking for is someone to take care of them.
SCHMITZ: He says the D.C. restaurant couldn't make a deal with its landlord to stay open. But Palmer says he has not ruled out opening another one in the nation's capital.
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