Michael Mina Opens BOURBON STEAK in the Nation's Capital

Acclaimed Chef/Restaurateur to debut his new restaurant in the Four Seasons Hotel

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. October 14, 2008

WASHINGTON, DC, September 7, 2008. Washington, D.C. Culinary master, internationally acclaimed chef and restaurateur Michael Mina will open BOURBON STEAK at the exclusive Four Seasons Hotel in Georgetown, featuring a menu that is artfully tailored to his new Washington dining audience, incorporating fresh East Coast produce, as well as West Coast treasures. The restaurant is slated to open this winter and will offer both lunch and dinner service with Mark Politzer as the newly appointed general manager. Politzer has been a presence in the Washington dining scene for many years.

Washington is in fact only the second Michael Mina restaurant to serve lunch, in keeping with the nation's capital's emphasis on power daytime dining. BOURBON STEAK guests will find a spacious 144-seat restaurant, plus a private dining room which can accommodate parties of 22, and a handsome bar/lounge with a total of 42 seats.

Mina, a two-time James Beard award-winning chef and culinary innovator remarks, "I'm excited about opening a restaurant in our nation's capital and collaborating with the exceptional team at the Four Seasons. To this end, I have crafted a menu that is unique and distinctive to the BOURBON STEAK in Washington, including the new salad entrees on our lunch menu. Our guests can anticipate homemade, fresh from the oven bread, each specifically created to complement the salad it is paired with, and lunch entrees of meat and fish will be served with three seasonal sides that will change daily as well."

"Michael Mina is bringing an exceptional, new dining experience to our award-winning hotel," explains Christian Clerc, Regional Vice President and General Manager of Four Seasons Hotel, Washington, D.C. "His previous endeavors and now this new venue, BOURBON STEAK, customized to reflect the dining preferences of our guests in Washington, characterize the kind of dynamic direction we are seeking."

BOURBON STEAK will open for lunch daily from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and dinner will be served nightly, beginning at 5:30 p.m. and ending at 10:30 p.m. on week nights and 11 p.m. on weekends. Mina and his team will deliver a modern menu that focuses on the finest meats and freshest seafood available both locally and worldwide. Guests can look forward to corn-fed, all-natural meat such as the prized Masami farms American Kobe beef, Japanese "A5" Kobe, and certified all-natural Angus steaks, which are cooked over seasoned wood-fueled flames. His upcoming menu for DC will also feature line-caught seafood, Maryland crab and fresh, seasonal produce.

A wood-burning grill is the centerpiece to Mina's kitchen. Prior to grilling, meats at BOURBON STEAK are first poached to mouthwatering tenderness - red meats in butter, lamb in olive oil and pork in bacon fat. "My signature slow-poaching style of cooking enhances the flavor and tenderness by heating the meat for several hours at a low temperature, while the mesquite-stoked grills infuse every cut with a subtle smokiness," says Mina

Highlights on the lunch menu include starters such as the Michael Mina caviar parfait or traditional selection of farm-raised caviars from around the world (market price), red wine-braised oxtail with bone marrow custard, fris'ee and grilled country bread ($17) and salads like the saffron-braised veal cheeks with chickpeas, roasted peppers, watercress gremolata and baby zucchini served with polenta spoon bread ($25) or the butter-poached Maine lobster with butternut squash, pumpkin seeds, mache and black truffles served with warm brioche ($27). Lunch entrees include four, wild caught fish: Halibut, Ahi tuna, Hawaiian ono and Alaskan salmon ($25-$29) and four steak choices: New York strip, dry-aged rib eye, filet mignon and sirloin ($28-$31); each steak is slow poached in butter and finished over wood coals.

The dinner menu includes Mina's classic dishes including appetizers such as his American Kobe shabu shabu with Matsutake mushrooms and dashi broth ($18); Ahi tuna tartare with Ancho chile, Asian pears, mint and toasted sesame oil ($17) and entrees choices ranging from crispy skin Atlantic stripped bass with red bliss potatoes, little gems, pea leaves and warm bacon dressing ($35) or lobster pot pie with truffled lobster cream and baby vegetables (market price). Noteworthy classic sides for indulging are the spinach souffl'e with parmesan cream ($8) and caramelized Brussels sprouts with bacon and black truffle ($9).

The Wagyu steak choices for dinner include two six-ounce, market price cuts of Japanese A5 rib eye or Japanese A5 filet as well as eight-ounce servings of American Kobe cap ($64) or American Kobe filet ($72). And complimentary to each table during dinner service is the delicious presentation of Mina's trio of duck fat fries with three dipping sauces, which are made to order once guests are seated, as well as his signature potato and truffle focaccia.

BOURBON STEAK will offer an impressive list of wine under the leadership of Mina's Wine Director Rajat Parr. He is creating a compelling list that emphasizes Burgundy and Rhone, accented with selections from California, Bordeaux, Spain, Australia and New Zealand. The collection includes Grand Cru Red and White Burgundies, First Growth Bordeaux, as well as unique and hard to find California producers. Guests will also discover a classic menu of handcrafted cocktails, incorporating a roster of fresh ingredients.

The design firm of record for the new 5,400 square foot BOURBON STEAK in Washington is Rockwell Group. This architecture and design company, based in New York with satellite offices in Madrid, specializes in cultural, hospitality, retail, product, and set design and was founded in 1984 by David Rockwell. Rockwell's interest in theater has influenced much of the firm's work, which ranges from the W Union Square Hotel; the Adour Alain Ducasse restaurant in New York; the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles; Nobu restaurants worldwide; groundbreaking set designs for Broadway productions of Hairspray and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels; and current projects including the interior work and brand conceptualization for the jetBlue terminal at the JFK Airport in New York, The Nobu Hotels and Residences in Hertzliya, Israel and New York City, and the Elinor Bunin-Munroe Film Center at Lincoln Center, New York.

Rockwell Group's design scheme for BOURBON STEAK will reflect the elegant informality of Mina's modern American cuisine, while also paying tribute to the classical stature of the hotel. To achieve this balance, the design of the restaurant was based on a modern interpretation of a tavern, with layered in details of cues to the hotel's traditional aesthetic. The furnishings are all custom-designed throughout the space, with the same level of tailoring and detail that Mina brings to his cuisine. Natural materials and crafted accents abound, from seeded and rubbed glass, to stitched leather and wood. All three components of the space, the bar lounge, main dining room and private dining room, afford views of Georgetown's famous C&O Canal.

BOURBON STEAK, A Michael Mina Restaurant, is located at the Four Seasons Hotel, 2800 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW.

Mina Group LLC is a San Francisco-based restaurant management company specializing in operating upscale, innovative restaurant concepts. President Michael Mina, was honored as Best San Francisco Chef 2005 by San Francisco magazine and Best California Chef 2002 by the James Beard Foundation.

Mina Group began operations in 2002 and currently operates the following restaurants: MICHAEL MINA and CLOCK BAR at the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco; NOBHILL and SEABLUE at MGM Grand in Las Vegas; STRIPSTEAK at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas; MICHAEL MINA Bellagio at Bellagio in Las Vegas; ARCADIA in San Jose; STONEHILL TAVERN at the St. Regis Monarch Beach in Dana Point; SEABLUE Borgata in Atlantic City; SALTWATER and BOURBON STEAK at MGM Grand in Detroit; BOURBON STEAK at the Fairmont Scottsdale in Scottsdale; BOURBON STEAK at the Fairmont Turnberry Isle Resort in Miami and NEMI in Mexico City.

Plans are underway for multiple openings in the future.