Thursday Nights at Elizabeth’s Gone Raw: The Raw Vegan Happy Hour Experience

Earlier this week, I told you all about my awesome dinner at Elizabeth’s Gone Raw, D.C.’s premier raw vegan restaurant that is only open for dinner on Friday nights.  Well, due to popular demand, Elizabeth’s recently added a happy hour one night a week with raw vegan small plates and organic beer, wine, and hand-crafted cocktails.  Of course I had to check it out.  At first I was nervous about how crowded we might be in the small downstairs bar, but when I arrived I was thrilled to find out we could also order off of the happy hour menu from a table upstairs.  We quickly sat down at a table for ten. 

The happy hour drink specials goes all night, and like the food options, the cocktail menu also changes each week.  I started with a Manzamelon Highball, a refreshing watermelon cocktail which I sucked down far too easily on a hot D.C. day.  At $10 the cocktails are still quite pricey, but you’ll find beer and wine options for $7.  A word to the wise: order your drink before you think you need it.  With only the small bar downstairs, there can be quite a wait, even for wine.  

If you arrive before 7:00pm, you can try all of the evening’s small plates for $55.  Split amongst four, this was a total steal.  In fact, I would make a strong argument for moving your date night to Thursday, snagging a cozy table upstairs and sharing a selection of small plates with someone special!  My one complaint was that all of the dishes, even dessert, came all at once, which I found overwhelming.  I would have enjoyed it more had they been staggered.  Luckily you don’t have to worry about your food getting cold – it’s raw!

Another thing I really loved about the happy hour menu was that none of the dishes overlapped with the ones we tried when we came for dinner.  And it’s not like most bars where the happy hour dishes are often sub-par to what the restaurant serves for dinner.  Elizabeth’s holds it’s happy hour food to the same very high standards as the ones you’ll enjoy for Friday evening dinners.  I am someone who always wants to eat when I go out for drinks, but sometimes I regret tater tots and chicken wings.  I love, love, love the concept of being able to get happy hour food that I actually feel good about putting in my body.

Although priced such that you really don’t have to choose, if you decide to select only a dish or two, you really mustn’t miss the grape leaves.  They are stuffed with walnuts and served with cucumber sticks and a out-of-this-world cashew tzatziki sauce.  The sundried tomato flat bread was another favorite at our table, followed closely by the fried green tomato (or maybe just a plate of that bacon they put on it?!) and the crab cake, which very closely resembles crab and is served with an aioli that I may or may not have scraped off the plate and eaten with my finger.   Save room for dessert!  The strawberry crumble is to die for.

Johanna