A Weekend in DC's Neighboroods

12 Oct 2015 restaurantreview

Mel had a conference in DC this weekend, right in the Woodley Park/Adams Morgan neighborhood. This part of DC is a lot like some old parts of Madison like Vilas/Monroe and the waterfront near Atwood/Jenny St. Lots of mature, old trees, walkable streets with moderate traffic and gorgeous hundred-year-old houses that are fun to stroll by and imagine life in.

We stayed right near the Metro stop in Woodley Park, which has one of the longest escalators in the Western Hemisphere. After a late ride from the airport, we were hungry and not in the mood to travel far. Luckily, Open City was just around the corner

Open City, Woodley Park, Washington D.C.

Open City has a cloistered, cozy, shrub-lined patio out front and narrow front doors. Inside, it feels busy and vibrant and has soft lighting - I watched another customer take her phone out and use it to illuminate the menu.

I was glad I had the chance to try some new regional beers. I had a 3 Stars Peppercorn Saison that was spicy and flavorful. The peppercorns took away the cloying aftertaste that some saisons (like my most recent homebrew) have. For dinner, we split pimiento mac & cheese and a Meridian Hill Mushroom Reuben sandwich.

I’m firmly of the belief that nowhere will get mac & cheese as right as Wisconsin. Nowhere else puts in the insane amount of cheese it deserves. Open City’s was no exception, but they made up for it by basing it on orecchiette pasta. ‘Orecchiette’ is Italian for ‘little ears.’ If you think about the shape of an ear, there are thick parts and the thinner parts that burn outdoors in the winter, and lots of folds. The pasta is formed in this shape and so part of each bite is thick and doughy like a pierogi and part is thin and firm like spaghetti.

After this tidy midnight snack, I didn’t need another meal until nearly 11 the next morning - a muffin from Open City :)

I worked most of Friday from my hotel room, and when I wanted to get out in the afternoon I headed to Mt. Vernon Square to try a neighborhood I’d never been to before. When Mel lived in D.C. last summer, we had an incredible brunch at Busboys and Poets on U Street, so I tried another location for work and a late lunch.

Busboys and Poets - 5th and K, Mt. Vernon Square, Washington D.C.###

By all accounts, this restaurant has become an instant success in the D.C. metro area. Despite 7 locations in urban and suburban Washington, both locations I’ve been to have their own style and different charm.

The Busboys and Poets in Mt. Vernon Square attracted business clients on this Friday afternoon. It’s an impeccably dressed town and lots of lunch meetings took place around me. Everyone was young and polite and eating food to match. It’s definitely a place you can take your laptop and park for a while without feeling hurried.

The menu is extensive, with almost too much variety to choose from. Breakfast is served all day, too. I picked a vegan tuna sandwich with mashed potatoes for a side.

The vegan tuna salad satisfied my inner elementary school kid. My Dad’s family makes tuna with tons of paprika, a concoction they call “orange tuna”. He used to trade his sandwich for all kinds of treats at school lunches - by the time I grew up I think tuna had gone out of favor among the recess crowd. However, I’ve always loved it and it’s something I miss in a meatless diet. Busboys and Poets’ interpretation of vegan tuna consists of smashed chickpeas, mustard and vegan mayo with crunchy bits of celery, carrot, and sprouts on great sandwich bread - the kind of bread that makes you feel healthy. The mashed potatoes were kind of meh, I was surprised to find - a little bland and porridge-like rather than stiff and whipped. I’ll get fries next time.

The main event of my weekend with Mel was a night out in Adams Morgan with law school friends of hers, Matt and Mia. The real highlight came before drinks, though, in the form of my 2nd favorite restaurant on the whole planet.

Smoke & Barrel - Adams Morgan, Washington D.C.

I first had Smoke & Barrel last year during Mel’s summer internship. We had a very pretty but kind of dippy waiter who was plainly inept. We ordered some vegan wings and took greedy first bites before looking up at each other in concern - he had obviously not heard ‘vegan’ when we had ordered and now we were left with mouths full of chicken and a plate of wings that would be wasted. After chewing a few more bites, the realization dawned on us that it wasn’t meat, but rather the best fake meat we had ever tasted - a perfect vegan wing.

Smoke & Barrel’s Twitter handle and the billing out front say “@beerbbqbourbon,” and that’s exactly what you’ll get here. The space is crammed full of tables and you’ll fight the wait staff for walking space to get back to the restrooms. It’s dim and has really beautiful industrial lighting. The walls are wood-paneled and there’s an array of hundreds of bottles of bourbon on rough-hewn wooden shelves behind the bar.

The bartender was knowledgeable - I asked for a bourbon that I couldn’t find outside of D.C. that was a little sweeter. He poured me Fairchild’s Bourbon aged in sherry barrels. It was delicious, oaky and fruity with a sweet wine aftertaste.

Mel and I had the fabled vegan wings again. We almost ordered 3 plates full. Then we almost ordered some to go to pack on the plane back home. I savored every bite of those wings enveloped in warmth and comfort. Carnivores will find dinners for 2, 4, and 8 served in aluminum pans lined with butcher paper and piled high with meat or an array of BBQ sandwiches which you can slather in the sauces found tableside. Veg*ns can get BBQ plates or sandwiches full of seitan and peppers. Mel and I got sides instead. We split jalapeno cheddar grits and sweet potato fries. Those sweet potato fries were beyond amazing. I was kind of surprised at how consistently delicious the food from this restaurant was. The fries were crunchy and not soggy, light and crisp and not greasy with oil.

We had another drink or two with Matt, Mia, and their neighbor Sara, and hit up a few rooftop bars in Adams Morgan before closing down the bar in our hotel lobby. After a lie-in and drinking plenty of water the next day, I went to Columbia Heights for brunch with my coworker Shauna and her old roommate, Brad.

Crème - 18th and U, Columbia Heights, Washington D.C.

I got to Crème a while before Shauna and Brad and I had plenty of time to people watch and get some more water. It was pretty dead for noon on a Saturday. Crème seems to have a lot of regulars - almost everyone who came through the door greeted the bartender and servers and asked about the goings-on in the city that day and how their weeks were.

Once Shauna and Brad arrived, we got our menus. Crème has a short but mighty menu, with 5 or 6 benedicts, some omelets, and breakfast carbs like pancakes. There’s a unique twist though; several of the items have a Cajun influence. I think that was my favorite part about Crème. Shauna and Brad both got a Louisiana benedict, with spicy andouille sausage and shrimp. I got a mushroom benedict. They poached my egg perfectly, and the benedicts came with lightly dressed spring greens - a nice and unexpected surprise. Shauna’s egg was overdone, and despite the greens there really wasn’t enough there to justify the high-even-for-D.C. price.

Pret a Manger - K Street - Farragut North, Washington D.C.

We rode the metro back through downtown, and I stopped at Pret a Manger on Farragut Square to get a sandwich for the plane ride home. Mel used to work in this part of town and Pret was a frequent stop of hers for lunch. I am desperate for one to come to Madison, but you can find them in Chicago and New York as well as D.C.

They specialize in grab-‘n-go sandwiches, soup, housemade popcorn, desserts, and coffee drinks. The food is made simply but with high-quality ingredients. The food is made fresh in store every day, and anything left at the end of the day is donated to food banks.

Satisfied and with my wallet much lighter, Mel and I flew back home to Madison.