Taste the Tropics: Cafe Trope

REMEMBER THOSE glorious college days at the beginning of March, counting down the minutes, hours, seconds until the week to end all weeks? The week filled with cheap beer, cheap food and cheap hook-ups. Spring break!

Well, you've grown up now. But the lure of island life -- perhaps a more sedate and less communal version -- lingers. Although traveling to the islands may be out of reach, that doesn't mean tropical food can't be on the agenda.

With the construction finally finished on P Street NW, foot traffic will surely find its way to Cafe Trope. With bright walls and colorful, original artwork, this space welcomes the hungry to enjoy equally bright and colorful food.

The French Caribbean cuisine of chef-owner Howsoon Cham (of Red Ginger) aims to please all sorts of diners. There's an entire section dedicated to vegetarian fare; carnivores will have trouble choosing among the duck, pork and beef options; and the lactose-intolerant and gluten-free diner can request anything on the menu to be made to his or her liking.

Plates are meant to be shared, so bring a posse or at least a date. While you browse the menu, split open a fresh-from-the-oven roll and spread it with the addictive artichoke and lentil tapenade.

The menu offers some light salad options -- a boon for diners who are interested in diving into one of the many hearty meat or seafood dishes.

The lemon-marinated artichoke and zucchini salad ($8) is rewardingly tangy. The quinoa, pumpkin and spinach salad ($8) dressed with a house-made basil vinaigrette is an effortless way to consume one's quota of whole grains and fresh vegetables.

The Jamaican jerk chicken lollipops -- two drumsticks plated with a cabbage, potato and onion hash for $10 -- leaves a lingering scorch of the heat expected from Caribbean cuisine.

But the rum- and apple cider-cured pork tenderloin ($13) is perfectly juicy and comes with collard greens and sweet potato puree; it's an easy dish to share and a treat for those who shy away from the eye-wateringly spicy.

Cafe Trope's seafood offerings are just as fine and well-priced as the land-animal versions and include a jumpo shrimp entree ($12) that lives up to its name -- two perfectly plump jumbo shrimp with an avocado-horseradish salsa that is flawlessly balanced in heat and mellowness.

Desserts range from the sweets-staple chocolate lava cake to the more adventurous persimmon crepes with vanilla ice cream and Earl Gray custard sauce.

Being stuck in the District could be the tastiest thing to happen to you this spring.

» Cafe Trope, 2121 P St. NW; 202-223-9335. (Dupont Circle)

Written by Express contributor Stefanie Gans
Photo Courtesy Heather Freeman