Capital Spice

A few weeks ago I coldly abandoned Mike in DC for a quick girls’ getaway in San Francisco with two great friends BabeBQ and The Librarian. It was the first visit to San Francisco for both of them. Giving the uninitiated a tour of my favorite city is no small feat. Type A geeks like me don’t just wing it. We spend weeks plotting out itineraries, checking lists, creating back up plans for unbearably rainy weather.  Touristy or not, some activities can’t be ignored for first-timers. I wanted to be sure we tried a few more insider options, too. (Sure the cable cars are nice but did you know you can ride an 1930s Italian streetcar into the Castro?)

This philosophy went double for food. I knew certain cozy homeruns would make our agenda, namely Cha Cha Cha’s and Crepes on Cole which BabeBQ declared “the perfect neighborhood breakfast spot.” Except I didn’t want to limit our palates to tried and true favorites. I was ready for a little strange on the menu.

Acme Bread Company at the Ferry Building
No food sojurn to San Francisco is complete without paying homage to the Ferry Building. What was once a pass-through warehouse for tourists heading to Sausalito and commuters going home to Marin County is now a delicious destination. The building hosts San Francisco staples Cowgirl Creamery and the Slanted Door as well as less known options like Boccalone Salumeri (boasting “tasty salted pig parts”) and Far West Funghi, a must-visit for any mushroom lover.

Taking advantage of our DC-based internal clocks, BabeBQ and I took an early morning walk over to the Ferry Building for breakfast. We wandered through the vendor hallway, taking in the options as proprieters rattled their doors open. In the end, we were both drawn to the same thing: freshly baked bread from Acme Bread Company. The Acme Bread Compnay is a Berekley-based bread institution in the Bay Area, frequently credited for leading the artisinal bread revolution. The Ferry Building outpost carries the full selection of Acme bread and we lingered over baguettes, croissants and other yeasty delicacies before settling on a perfect small round of sourdough bread. We paired our loaves with ruby-red, sweet organic strawberries from Farm Fresh to You, a gourmet grocery store that seems tailor-made for yuppie picnic baskets, and found a bench outside in the early morning mist.

The bread, baked with a golden, crispy crust and pliant, still-warm, tangy white middle, was perhaps the single best way to start a vacation day. It was amazing we were civilized enough to eat with our hands rather than dive face first into the world’s best comfort food. We tore into our breakfast as rush hour approached and commuters streamed past us, fresh off ferries from Marin County. “You know,” BabeBQ said between bites, “I always see people having a leisurely breakfast or coffee on a weekday and wonder who they are and why they aren’t headed into work like me. It’s nice to be on this side for a change.” I couldn’t have agreed more. 

Acme Bread Company
1 Ferry Building
San Francisco, CA 94111

After the jump: Dim sum in Chinatown, Italian in North Beach, and what Mike was most jealous he missed. (more…)

Each year, the release of Washingtonian’s annual 100 Best Restaurants issue is a reminder of just how many worthwhile ways there are to avoid cooking at home in DC.  We’re still in awe of From Komi to Marvin’s attempt to work her way through the entirety of the 2009 list in a year (she’s got until February 8th to finish, and we’re definitely rooting for her). Here at Capital Spice, on the other hand, we tend to measure ourselves against the list over the course of our dining careers – as opposed to one season – and we try to check off a few more of the ‘bests’ each year.

We’ve only been writing here since 2008, but our Washington restaurant experiences go back quite a bit further than that (more than a decade for Mike).  As a result, there are a number of perennial favorites on the list that we haven’t talked about.  We don’t feel comfortable writing about a restaurant we haven’t visited in years; even if we could describe the meal with perfect recall, there are too many things that could have changed since our experience.

But that leaves us with that classic dilemma that every diner faces each time they go out to eat: Do you go back to a place where you had a positive experience, or do you spend your dining dollars trying something new and exciting?

For Elizabeth’s birthday this year, I decided to take her to Corduroy, one of those restaurants that had always stuck with us as a memorable dining experience.  It was a gamble; even though Chef Tom Power* is widely praised for his creativity and his steady hand with updated classics, you just don’t hear enough about it to keep Corduroy at the top of the “must visit” list.  But I had it all planned out – first we’d do dinner on 9th Street, then we’d head over to a show in the Warehouse Theatre and cap off the evening with libations at The Passenger.

And then came SnOMG.  The Snowpocalypse socked us in and kept us from Corduroy (though the intrepid staff actually braved the weather to show up and put on a dinner service for braver souls than us).  The best laid plans…

Once we did get to the restaurant later in the week, Chef Power wasted no time showing us why Corduroy was a very good choice, indeed. (more…)

Photo from dc.metromix.com

A few months ago, we wrote about one of our consistent favorites in Penn Quarter, PS 7′s.  We praised Chef Peter Smith’s approach to his menu and his commitment to using the best ingredients available to make inventive dishes with satisfying, complex flavors.  We mentioned Gina Chersevani’s cocktails in passing, but we largely focused on the meal.

For a lot of guests at PS 7′s, that’s the way they experience the menu.  But it doesn’t have to be that way.  A few of our fellow bloggers (as well as the not-long-for-DC Daily Candy) have written about a way to have your cake and eat it too, in a manner of speaking.  If you know to order it, you can actually enjoy a seven-course tasting menu that comes paired with seven of Gina’s amazing cocktails in the lounge.

Don’t expect to see a menu (they abandoned the mysterious wax-sealed menus that the guys at the Scofflaw’s Den experienced), but do come prepared to eat and drink well.

How well?  Find out after the jump. (more…)

Click on the image to go to our Google Map that locates all of the critics' picks for best restaurants in DC.

About a month ago, we unveiled our latest Google map, which highlighted all of the top-rated restaurants in the area as determined by the critics at the Washington Post, the Washington City Paper and Washingtonian Magazine.  Judging by the response, it was an idea whose time had come.  But it wasn’t complete.

One of the first comments we received when we posted the map was “Where’s Northern Virginia Magazine’s 50 Best list?”  The regional monthly has been serving NoVA since February 2006, and they publish an annual list of best restaurants in the area compiled by Dining Editor Warren Rojas.

We posted our map just as the issue with the 2009 list in it hit newstands.  It should have been perfect timing for inclusion, right?  Wrong. 

Find out what caused the delay after the jump. (more…)

We had it all planned out.  After Wednesday night’s Food Blogger Happy Hour at the Black Squirrel in Adams Morgan, we’d head up to Columbia Road.  Our intention: to check out a Mexican joint that Coffee Shop Girl recommended as having the best horchata in all of Washington.  She told us about it over dinner at her place, and we’ve been dying for an excuse to check it out ever since.

Photo by Sergio J. via Yelp

Thankfully, Elizabeth had a great idea for a fallback…another Mexican establishment that came highly recommended.  So we kept driving until we hit 14th Street in Columbia Heights, and then we paid our first visit to Taqueria Distrito Federal. 

This recommendation came from a trio of completely unrelated sources, each time in response to our complaints about the lack of really good Mexican food in the District.  We figured that was as good a sign as any that we might find what we’d been looking for in this hole-in-the-wall taco joint.

More signs of good things to come (and those good things themselves) after the jump. (more…)

Last year, we tipped you off to Taqueria Nacional, Ann Cashion’s Mexican carryout whose limited hours justify a sick day just to check them out.  This time, we’re here to clue you in to some of the best Italian sandwiches you’ll find inside the District.  You just need to be able to get there by 3 PM on a weekday if you want to try them yourself.

Mangialardo & Sons has been in the sandwich-making business for more than fifty years now.  What started as a typical Italian general store (picture A. Litteri with less floor space) has since edited its offerings significantly.  There are a few products for sale on the shelves that line the walls, but Mangialardo’s is now a sub shop, first and foremost. 

Walk in and take a deep breath – if you’re lucky, you’ll catch a whiff of the marinara sauce they use for the meatball and pizza sandwiches.  Head over to the coolers that line the right-hand wall – in among the sodas and other beverages you’ll see classic sides like macaroni salad and cole slaw as well as some more authentically Italian offerings like olives and stuffed peppers.

But enough dawdling – you’ve come for the sandwiches, piled high with cold cuts and bearing names like the “G-Man” and the “Super Sub.”  The names may be unique to Mangialardo’s, but the flavors are the ones you’ve come to expect in classic Italian deli sandwiches up and down the East Coast. 

So what makes them worth a special trip?  Find out after the jump. (more…)

Live polka, sausages, dozens of German beers, a crowded dance floor, an authentic bier hall setting, a low cover at the door for live entertainment. Everything on this list is awesome. I shouldn’t have to convince you that this is a good idea. A weekend visit to Blob’s Park is, intrinsically, a good idea.

Max Blob’s Park, in Jessup, MD, is easily the most authentically German-American experience to be had in the DC area. Note the intentional use of the hyphenate here. I don’t believe that your ubermodern, jelly-donut loving Berliner is going to walk into this bier hall and feel at home. It will, however, feel very familiar to folks of any age from Cincinnati to Chicago to Lubbock. You can see it in the audience which is full of everything from young parents to local enlisted to polka-loving gramps. I did not grow up in a polka house but on my first visit to Blob’s Park, I walked around the place with my mouth hanging open. “Everything okay?” Mike asked. I looked around. Everything my eyes landed on could have been lifted directly from my parents house, from the beer steins to the dusty Hummel figurines to the food to every third guy who looked like my uncle John. I was floored. Was this a polka hall or my family reunion? ”I had no idea I was so freaking German,” I told him.

Food, beer, and the Blob’s Park story after the jump. (more…)

Yesterday, Metrocurean raised the question of whether Washington’s options are improving when it comes to niche markets that operate in the middle ground between corner markets and gourmet shops.  She focused on newcomer Aroma Bakery and Market in her neighborhood and mentioned two others, Timor Bodega and Cornercopia. 

As luck would have it, we’ve been checking out Cornercopia since it opened a few weeks ago.  We’ve tried several of their made-to-order sandwiches, and we’ve followed owner Albert Oh on Twitter.  What we’ve seen so far is definitely promising.

For lunch-goers, Cornercopia offers six different sandwiches made from Boar’s Head meats and served on breads from Firehook Bakery specifically selected by Oh to complement the flavors of the fillings.  They also make fresh salads daily, and they received no small amount of attention when they announced that they would be carrying sushi from H Street’s Sticky Rice.  When word gets out on Capitol Hill, expect lines of staffers hungry for something new for lunch.

Details on the current sandwich offerings, the market’s stock and a great selection of beverages after the jump. (more…)

My work has always required me to spend at least some time on Capitol Hill, but until recently my office has been elsewhere.  Now that I’m working on the Hill full time, I’ve begun to explore the lunch options in much greater detail.  Lucky me, right?

I had always felt that the restaurants in closest proximity to the Congressional office buildings lacked a certain…I don’t know what. (Bet you thought I was going to toss off a French phrase there, didn’t you?)  Simply put, the majority of the choices seemed to be geared toward expediency – sandwich chains, steam table buffets, and coffee shops abound.  I was ready to start investing in brown bags.

But then I decided to stop into Le Bon Cafe, a quaint little storefront on 2nd Street SE between a FedEx Office and Pete’s Diner.  I had seen plenty of people streaming in and out of the bright blue doors and even some friendly gatherings at the tables outside, so I decided to check it out for myself.  The line, which ended just inside the door, struck me as a good sign (though it was lunchtime on Capitol Hill and that’s hardly unusual).

Breaking away from the Hill lunch rut after the jump. (more…)

When it comes to Vietnamese cooking, we’re certainly not experts by any means.  We’re lucky enough to live in an area where pho, Vietnamese noodle soup, is widely available, so we’ve had our share and can definitely make comparisons from one offering to another.  But when it comes to banh mi, those sandwiches on crusty bread that represent the best impact of French colonialism on Vietnamese culture, we were virgins before visiting Pho 14.

But a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, so we decided to take our first step toward banh mi enlightenment on a recent evening in Columbia Heights.  We had read several reviews of the recently-opened Pho 14 that spoke favorably of its sandwiches and their authenticity, so we stopped in for a bite. 

What we found was an amusing combination of flash and simplicity inside.  Shimmering translucent tabletops combined with a tiki-style bar in the back of the space to create a very scene-y vibe, but that was countered by decorations on the walls that seemed right out of World Market.  We certainly didn’t know what to expect as we looked at the menu and found a spare listing of appetizers, soups, rice and noodle dishes, and sandwiches.  We knew we wanted to try the sandwiches, but that was pretty much all we knew.  With no preconceptions about what a banh mi should be, we put ourselves in our waiter’s hands.

“Which of these is the most traditional?” we asked when he arrived to take our order.  We took it as a good sign that our server immediately identified the ‘Combination Sandwich’ but quickly qualified it by warning us that some people don’t like the combination of flavors and textures in it because they are unfamiliar.  We assured him that was what we were looking for, and he smiled.

More of our experience after the jump. (more…)