Tucked into the back of Cafe Atlantico on 8th St. in Washington is minibar, the capital's outpost of molecular gastronomy. With only six seats at the bar and only two seatings nightly, it's impossible to snag a last-minute invitation, but with a little begging on Wednesday night, I was able to convince Cafe Atlantico chef Katsuya Fukushima to let me sample some of the dishes he and partner José Andrés had prepared at a perch nearby. This request morphed into a 14-course chemistry lesson of their greatest hits, including a mojito "gusher" (i.e. a mojito shot suspended in gelatin that explodes in your mouth), a tuna ceviche wrapped in avocado with corn nuts, the last of which tasted exactly like Fritos (and was brilliant because of it.) There were three more alcohol courses (a cotton candy mojito, an Americano made with carbonated campari, and a piña colada desert course), along with more savory reinventions of scallops, veal cheeks and quail.

While Fukushima and Andrés are America's most direct link to molecular gastronomy's progenitor, El Bulli's Ferran Adria (Andrés returns every year to play in his mentor's kitchen), they've been somewhat left out of a conversation dominated by Wylie Dufresne at WD-50 in New York, and the dueling Alinea and Moto in Chicago, where chefs Grant Achatz (Alinea) and Homaro Cantu represent the polar extremes of the MG crowd, with the former striving for respectability and the latter embracing his mad scientist persona.

"We're not as far out as Homaro, but we're not as calm as Grant, either," Fukushima said after our meal. As weird as it sounds, minibar is middle-of-the-road as far as molecular gastronomy goes. And it's delicious.

Read more of Greg Lindsay's travel blog, IN TRANSIT.