The Oval Room’s location, just a few steps away from the White House and K Street, ensures a steady flow of West Wing denizens and the lobbyists who love them. 

The modern American restaurant’s new chef, Tony Conte, a veteran of acclaimed Jean George in New York, is giving patrons a reason to make power dining less about power and more about dining.  Conte has revamped the menu to reflect his sophisticated pedigree. The result is a familiar space where imaginative combinations of flavors enliven dishes and common ingredients take surprising forms. 

The best dishes are novel riffs on old standbys. The classic combination of fresh tomatoes, herbs, and cheese appears on every summertime menu. In Conte’s hands, though, the trio is creatively realized with hefty slices of four heirloom tomato varieties, served with a dollop of goat cheese sorbet, in which the familiar tang of the cheese is spun into a creamy, icy blend.  

Or take the beet appetizer, which puts a surprising twist on the traditional pairing of beets and horseradish. Cubes of glossy beets make friends with squares of passion fruit gel饠(think grown up Jell-O) and a shallot-spiked mignonette sauce. The whole dish gets a peppery counterpoint in a dusting of grated raw horseradish. 

Conte uses sweet elements in nearly every dish, mostly to good effect, but occasionally so much as to make me wish he had less of a sweet tooth. On the plus side, foie gras found a satisfying partner in juicy nectarines. The buttery liver and sweet-tart fruit, sprinkled with toasted slivered almonds, was a winsome combination.

A sugary foam enrobing a butter-poached lobster, however, was overwhelming. Touted on the menu as simply “summer flavors,” the foam essentially was a whipped froth of fruit juices that did nothing to set off the lobster’s already sweet flesh.

The success of the goat-cheese sorbet is a preview of the dessert menu, where frozen confections are the stars. Conte and his team double as pastry chefs, bringing the same quirky sensibility on display throughout the menu to the finale of the meal. 

A coffee granita with a crown of white-chocolate mousse and white-chocolate shavings is a pleaser, and so are the crisp cinnamon-sprinkled doughnuts served alongside it. And we were happy to polish off the almond sorbet that eclipsed the peach clafoutis with which it shared a plate. 

Subtle touches throughout the meal show that the restaurant is shooting for sophistication — and they justify the expense-account prices.  A small shot glass of chilled melon and cucumber soup rimmed with berry-infused salt, presented before the first course, is both a palate-pleaser and a welcome gift. And the kitchen seems to be equally concerned with style as with substance. So the tomato dish gets a sprinkling of colorful edible flowers and herbs, and sauces are attractively dabbed and swirled on plates. 

Unlike in many high-concept downtown spaces, The Oval Room’s d飯r is clearly meant to serve as backdrop, not a focal point. Soothing honeydew walls and bright splashes of modern art won’t offend diners or distract them from their Sunday talkshow-worthy discussions.

Owner Ashok Bajaj, (whose empire includes neighboring Bombay Club, 701, Ardeo, Bardeo and newcomer Rasika), has embarked on a minor makeover of the dining room to coincide with the introduction of the kitchen’s new cast. The menus are being redesigned, and waiters will sport sleek black high-buttoned jackets in place of Washingtonian standard-issue starched white shirts. The cocktail menu, too, is getting a shake-up.  

I found service to be gracious and professional, although the general effect was marred by a few moments where attentiveness turned overbearing. At one point, after my dining companion and I insisted we were finished with an appetizer even though half of it remained on the plate, the waiter actually spooned the remainder of the dish into the upturned spoons sitting on our serving plates before whisking it away. Um, thanks, Dad.  

Conte, who arrived in D.C. in mid July, isn’t the only Jean George veteran in the kitchen.  He convinced his former coworker, sous chef Nick Kennedy, to join him in the southward move.  And Conte says they’ll soon be expanding the ranks of the Jean George alumni club in the Oval Room’s kitchen with the addition of a yet-to-be-announced sous chef. 

That’s quite a coup for the DC dining scene, considering Jean George racked up a rare four-star review in The New York Times during Conte’s tenure. 

Conte says in his new digs he’s focusing on readily available products that lend themselves to innovative uses. “I’m not looking for unusual ingredients, just really high-quality ones and doing something interesting with them,” he says. 

Policy and politics will doubtless remain the topics du jour among the Oval Room’s power-tied patrons. But with Conte and his gang breathing fresh life into the food, even the most hardened of policy wonks just might find some new food for thought.