Courtney and I went on a quick trip to DC on Thursday to pick up Jack and we went out to eat at some good places.
Thursday, 6/7/12; Firefly
After an action packed day we ended up in Dupont Circle where I made a reservation at Firefly after looking through Open Table reviews. It turned out to be a good pick. We had a dinner reservation for 7:30 but still had to wait 20 minutes for a table as the place was hopping. It was a beautiful evening and everyone was out. After having a beer at the bar we eventually made it to our table. For firsts, Jack had a bowl of matzah ball soup and Courtney and I split a plate of shrimp and grits. The shrimp and grits were great – creamy and cheesey. I don’t think I have ever had grits before… I like them. For seconds Jack had a plate of sausage and greens, Courtney had a vegetable casserole of braised endive, asian mushrooms and other veggies over polenta and I had a soft shell crab. All were good. The soft shell crab was a work of art. I wish I would have taken a picture. It tasted as good as it looked – crispy, chewy and just a little bit spicy. One of the best dishes I have had in a long time. We skipped dessert and had ice cream at a place a few blocks down the street.
Friday, 6/8/12; Pizza Paradiso
After walking and walking and walking we stopped for lunch at Pizza Paradiso in Georgetown. Courtney was happy and officially declared it vacation as she had a peroni on draft for lunch. We split a big salad of greens, white beans and artichokes and ordered two big pizzas…a margarita and one with pepperoni. The margarita was the best…it always is. The pizzas were very good; crust nice and crispy and charred, chewy in the center, with fresh mozarella and just a small amount of sauce. Just the way we like it. Again, a good place to be.
Friday, 6/8/12; Graffiato
I made a reservation at Graffiato about three or four weeks ago once we knew for sure when we were going. Graffiato is Top Chef contestant Mike Isabella’s restauraunt in China Town and is a hot ticket. It reminds me a lot of Cleveland’s Lola but a lot more casual. Everything is small plates and we tried a lot of good stuff. We split six plates: red and yellow beats with a citrus sauce; flatbread with pepperoni sauce; a platter of six different cheeses that we chose; hangar steak with a green sauce served with little chunks of deep fried polenta (mmmmmm); pecorino tortellini with peas, pea tendrils and mint; and salmon served over a bean puree with arthichokes and capers. All were excellent. We split three desserts: chocolate cake with salted caramel gelato; blood orange cheesecake with passion fruit sauce; and a serving of mango sorbet. Again, all were excellent.
Grace texted me Friday afternoon at work and said she was looking at my blog and thought I needed a new update and would be happy to go out to eat with us so I can post something. Sneaky. It doesn’t take much to talk us into going out so we decided to head out to Bar Cento on West 25th when we got home from work. Grace wanted to go there for her birthday back in March but we never made it. We went early as it was Friday night and got a table right away. It actually wasn’t crowded at all. The Market Garden Brewery across the street was packed though. We ended up ordering a bunch of different things and sharing. We had some warm olives, mussels, frites, a large plate of different meats, cheeses and pickles and two pizzas. Quite the smorgasbord. We had a pizza blanco, just oil, and cheese, and an olive pizza that we have had before here and is really good. The mussels were good and buttery and the fries were great as always with three different types of mayonnaise to dip in. The meat platter had a nice selection with a little bit of everything. I tried goose liver for the first time so am proud of myself. I liked it too. We ate pretty much everything. Just brought home some of the pizza and some of the meat that was left over.
We finally made it Lola after trying several times over the years to make a reservation without thinking weeks ahead. I made this reservation about three weeks ahead of time. I surprised Courtney on Friday and instead of going home after work we took a left turn instead of a right turn and went to downtown Cleveland and spent the night at the Ritz and went out to dinner at Lola. We had a great night…more details on my personal blog…eventually. Lola is of course Michael Simon’s flagship restauraunt that is now located on East 4th Street. We were at the orginial Lola probably about ten years ago when it was over on the west side. After a glass of wine in our beautiful room at the Ritz and a complimentary cocktail in the lounge, we headed to East 4th. Lola is very dark, with a beautiful bar, looking out on the street, with an alibaster top lighted from underneath with a huge wall of wine behind the bar. Very cool. We had a nice table right in the middle overlooking the open kitchen. We ordered ourselves a bottle of white burgandy and relaxed. I had beef cheek pierogies for an appetizer and Courtney had the artichoke soup. The pierogies were filled with tender pot roast like beef with a gravy like sauce and some horseradish sauce drizzled over it. Very rich and delicious. The artichoke soup was earthy, tasty with hazelnuts sprinkled in it as well as chuncks of bacon. I had the smoked pork shop that came sliced on top of creamy polenta sauced with a barbeque sauce. Courtney had hangar steak which came with a tasty, coarsley chopped gremolata sauce that was very good. The hangar steak also came with an order of fries…which won the prize for the night as they were perfectly done. Overall I would say that the meal was great…but not over the top. I think we are becoming food snobs. We probably ordered too many heavy things though. The menu is almost all meat. But I would definately recommend going there and would like to go back and eat at the bar.
We have been trying to arrange going to dinner at 
We stopped in Montgomery, Alabama on the drive down and went to 
We went to the 
We went to the 
We went to 
We did a quick errand run out to Legacy Village Saturday afternoon in-between Big Shows and stopped at Brio for a quick dinner. We have been there several times and always have a nice meal. We sat at a table at the bar and had the wedge salad with blue cheese, bacon and tomatoes. It is delicious and I always get this when we go here. 
(Why does salad taste so good at a restauraunt and it just doesn’t taste the same at home?) I had penne with a blue cheese sauce, chicken and asparagus. Sinful and tastey. Courtney has pasta with sun dried tomatoes and spinach in a white wine sauce. Claire had similar with chicken and mushrooms. The food came too fastwasn’t that was ok as we had to get back.
Well we woke up really late this morning and it was our car pool week which means I ran out the door without any lunch. The good news is that I had nothing scheduled at noon and the sun was shining so I headed out to Presti’s for lunch. I have been there probably dozens of times over the past 5 years and always get the same thing: a piece of artichoke pizza and a piece of pepperoni and sausage pizza. Today was no different but was a bonus in that I got to sit outside in the sun all by myself and enjoy the tasty treats. Life is good and pizza makes it even better.
Marvin
the night: chicken and waffles. It was a boneless piece of crispy fried chicken over a belgian waffle over collard greens with a thing of syrup on the side. I have always been scared to order it but will definately next time. Along with the good belgian beers and the atmosphere I would definately recommend as a nice place to go. Stephanie was off to meet friends after and Jack and I went in search of a bar to watch the NCAA games going on. We couldn’t find anywhere on U street as everywhere was packed so we hopped back on the Metro and went to somewhere across from the Verizon center…and could not resisting stopping at 
Matchbox
as Ellen and Wally arrived. Hot and delicious. I had a waffle with fresh fruit, Ellen and Wally each had the banana bread french toast with raspberries and rum spiked syrup and Jack ordered off the regular menu and got a chicken pesto pizza. Everything was great. The place was hopping and by the time we left it was totally full and a there was a small jazz group playing in the background. Very nice. Actually the whole block was full of people doing Sunday brunch and lots of different restaurants. It was nice to be able to spend time with Ellen and Wally. (
You name it and it happened…plus it was happening everywhere, the runners kept bringing stuff out to tables and people told them they didn’t order it, or they already had it…someone gave us a plate of fries for no reason. On the plus side the food was very good. I love raw oysters and the ones I had were super fresh and wonderful. I could have sat there and ate oysters all night. I also had a crabcake and old bay fries…two orders :). Jack got fried chicken with side of potatoes and mac and cheese (he’s on his own for the next two months so needed to load up on the carbs). I had a couple of tasty Grolsch’s and enjoyed the scenery. The parade of people outside was great to watch. It was a good thing we weren’t in any rush.
Eat On Edgecliff 