Bin 1700

Staying at the Crystal City Marriott for work, I got quite familiar with Bin 1700. It was a go-​to place to eat a fairly late dinner and get a glass of wine, when I was to tired or too lazy to go into DC. The food isn’t going to win any awards and the service is decent, but not spectacular. All in all, if you are stuck in the Crystal City area, you can rely on Bin 1700 for a pretty good meal that won’t cost you a ton of money.

What beholds he who entereth the mythical Crystal City? When I used to visit this area and passed through that Metro station, I imagined a veritable Oz, with series of underground atria made of Waterford, though I figured subdivisions and strip malls were more likely. Well, the real Crystal City lacks crystal, but it is nonetheless weird, made up of intersecting underground corridors populated with stores that seem to appeal to the same people who enjoy browsing hotel gift shops. If you walk through one particularly odd grey tunnel that progresses on an incline, you arrive in an airy, modern Marriott with a giant lobby, where you are finally afforded a glimpse of the outdoors.
Bin 1700 is in a corner of this expansive lobby, a dimly lit, spacious room with a fireplace, a few plasmas on either side, red upholstered booths and trendy lounge chairs that are awkward to actually sit in. Not too surprisingly, the walls and tables look smooth and sleek, clad in the currently popular cherry wood. The specialty is wine and small plates, though they are not that small. We entertained the idea of ordering 3 plates for 2 people, but settled on 2 at first, and boy we were glad we didn’t spring for the tandoori chicken. Our pizza with scallops and red pepper and our bison sandwich with chipotle sauce were plenty. The bison was savory, pleasantly chewy, and had a nice, smoky flavor. The chipotle sauce was a great accompaniment but could have stood to be a little spicier. The pizza, or «pizza,» as one Gourmet P. would advise, was very cheesy and paired well with the baked-​in fish.
The wine was actually the biggest disappointment here. We ordered a chardonnay that was way too tannic for I think either of our likings. It outweighed any sense of the nice buttery taste that sometimes comes through some chardonnays. The wine list is nicely organized, by its intensity and by how dry it is. I don’t really advise going to Crystal City in general, but if you find yourself spelunking through those tunnels, Bin 1700 is a decent place to visit, and considering we only had to order two plates, it wasn’t terribly pricey either (though springing for a bottle of wine set me back a bit).