April in Review
You know what’s wrong with these ‘in review’ posts? How aware they make me of where the time goes. As in, it makes me a little too aware. Well, April was a good month so I suppose I won’t complain.
Best Cheap Eat
DC-3
I should probably go ahead and say that in this category, DC-3 is kind of winning by default… I haven’t had many good cheap eatz this month. I’ve been wanting to check this place out for a while, and finally made a recess lunch out of it last week. At this point, quite frankly, this place is over-priced and over-reviewed. I won’t lie, my Bay Bridge Pretzel dog was pretty tasty… but for $5.99 it better be! The old-bay crab dip was fresh and the pretzel bun was delicious… but I probably could have eaten three of them. The fried pickles were also excellent… couldn’t tell you about the Frips, since they apparently were out!? Regardless, I’ll be back at least one more time… I’m completely intrigued by the Seoul Bulgogi and Kimchi dog.
Best Brunch
Granville Moore’s
This most definitely did not win by default… this was one heckova brunch. Granville Moore’s is the perfect joint for a hangover brunch, completely underground with no natural light and an impressive Bloody Mary menu. After much debate, I went with the Bison Bruchetta: pulled bison brisket atop French bread with runny fried eggs and tomato-basil salad. Definitely didn’t disappoint, but MC’s Bison burger (which I was more than pleased she couldn’t finish) may have been the best burger I’ve had this year. Just make sure you add the applewood smoked bacon to it. Our server recommended this, with the pretense ‘it doesn’t really taste like typical bacon’, and he wasn’t lying… it was so smokey and delicious it could be a bacon genre all of its own. Also, don’t pass up on the home frites! What I expected to be mediocre hashbrowns turned out to be perfectly seasoned rosemary fries.
Best Happy Hour
Lounge 201
While Wednesday 1/2 priced wine night has been a long-time (albeit recently neglected) staple of my office, I had never been in for Lounge 201′s Tuesday’s half priced martinis. While I must say that we’re pushing the limit on inside happy hours going out of season, a group of my girl friends went for a happy hour to celebrate Holly’s little sister’s 21st birthday and made quite the night out of it. We managed to try all of their happy hour martinis, with the verdict being that everything that does not involve their raspberry vodka is delicious. Anything that does, you may as well spill on the table. Honestly, next time I’d probably just stick to the dirty.
I’m also a big fan of their food, which as I think I’ve mentioned is huge for me on happy hours… If I’m hungry, I’ll probably leave early. You aren’t going to get a deal on food at Lounge 201, but I’d much rather pay $10 for something tasty than $5 for the crappy fried special of the day. This time I went with the grilled salmon with watermelon salsa and mixed greens, which never disappoints.
Best New Find:
Ethiopic
This was actually not only my first time to Ethiopic, but my first ever experience with Ethiopian food. I won’t re-call the very un-PC joke I made upon moving to D.C. and seeing my first Ethiopian restaurant, I will just say that I was proven very, very wrong. I’d been waiting for an adventurous eater of a friend to take me up on my desire to try this place, practically just around the corner from my house. MC of course was down. We definitely lucked out when what started off as a two hour wait turned into twenty minutes, but once I had seen (and smelled) the food, I couldn’t have left regardless. We decided to share the veggie platter for two, which ended up with more food than we could possible finish! Part of this, of course, is because you can’t take a bite without a piece of Injera, the spongey bread that serves as silverware. All of their vegetarian dishes are vegan as well.
- Miser Wot (red lentils), Kik Aletcha (curried yellow split peas), Fosolia (string beans and carrots), Gomen (collard greens), Dinich Wot (curried potatoes), Shimbra Asa (chickpea dumplings) and Tikile Gomen (cabbage with carrots) served with a tomato salad atop spongey Injera bread. While this picture resembles piles our cats left on my rug growing up, we had a very difficult time making ourselves stop eating.
The service was awesome. They set an extra table up just for us, and our server let me try the honey wine before ordering, which I was grateful for; while tasty, it would have been way to sweet to accompany a meal and we definitely would have regretted buying a bottle. The ethipian beers on the other hand complimented the spicey food wonderfully. She also let us know that if you get the smaller vegetarian platter, you can choose any of these four vegetables (I would go with the Miser Wot, Kik Aletcha, Dinich Wot and Tikile Gomen). In fact, just reviewing this is making me crave it again, but next time I must try the lamb tibs!
