Quick Notes 11/16

“What was it like to cook for Oprah?” I asked. “She was the best boss in the world,” answered Art Smith at the opening of his restaurant Art and Soul in the new hotel Liaison (the former New Jersey Avenue Holiday Inn on the Hill). The hotel has been handsomely remodeled, but who wouldn’t look good with a $12 million face-lift? It’s a stylish gray and black, with red accents, chain mail curtains and red faux ostrich-leather banquettes in the restaurant.

Art Smith, a renowned author/chef in Chicago, is a two-time James Beard Award winner, and will oversee the restaurant with local Ryan Morgan as the executive chef. The regional cuisine has a Southern twist.

Check out the Shadow Room, an intriguing addition to the K Street bar scene. On K at 21st, it has interesting lighting, good music and high-tech action, thanks to electronic-savvy Swaptak Das, who with two college pals, Stephen Acott and Pat Khunachak, started it all.

Without leaving your seat, you can work the controls to order your drink (with variations!), get bar snacks, summon your coat, get your bill, and have your car at the door when you want it, all without having to vie for the waiter’s attention.

The bar’s concept is to give you a personal servant at your elbow, but you’re on your own for happy talk with a partner, and you have to swallow your own drinks.