2008 Dining Guide 2008 Fall Dining Guide By Tom Sietsema Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, Oct. 12, 2008 Launched in a former mansion on the main drag in Frederick in July, Volt packs in everything you might picture in a luxury American restaurant. There are fancy cocktails and house-filtered water to start, frequent nods on the menu to area farmers and growers, tables in the kitchen where you can watch the cooks whip up your meal and house-made chocolates to sweeten the presentation of the check. Oh, yeah: The young waiters wear sneakers as part of their uniform (If you haven't noticed, even haute American restaurants are more relaxed these days). The face behind the name is 32-year-old Bryan Voltaggio (hence, the restaurant's name), late of Charlie Palmer Steak in Washington. That should be your tip to order red meat. Indeed, the chef's hanger steak, marinated in soy sauce and cherry juice, is as explosively juicy as that cut gets. But Voltaggio proves equally adept with fish, be it Kona kampachi poised on pinches of black sticky rice and accented with a lemon grass sauce or branzino seared in butter and enhanced with marble-size potatoes and a vivid emulsion of carrots and tarragon. The latter is lovely and luscious, like something you'd see in a food temple in Paris. Not every dish soars. Voltaggio is prone to gimmicks here and there, and some dishes could benefit from tighter editing. As young as it is, however, Volt pulses with passion. When I caught up with the chef on his cellphone one day last month, he was in his car, headed to bid on a pig at a local fair. Could great charcuterie be far behind?
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