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Birthday Thoughts and Ideas - Focusing on Restaurants We Haven't Tried in DC-Proper.


ktmoomau

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Ok, so Hubby and I were supposed to be going to Connecticut for my birthday, but that didn't pan out.  Trying to figure out an alternative for this Saturday night.  I was thinking either dinner and then cocktail bar, or kind of a leisurely crawl to a couple different venues that have good cocktails and snacks.  But of course I only have one week notice, so reservations are probably going to be a little tricky.  I know for sure there will be at least 6 of us, but there could be more, at least for the drinking part.  I was thinking Shaw/U St/ Convention Center as areas in which to peruse choices.  If you wanted to go out with your friends and have a good, but civilized evening, where would you go?

Ok, so to edit- for instance, I haven't been to Dino's Grotto yet, but don't know could you have a group there?  I thought about it, Baby Whale and Mockingbird Hill, but I haven't been to any of them- so this could potentially be silly.

Another thought was The Gibson and a restaurant in that area.  Or perhaps Hogo since it is their last night, but would it be too crazy?  Birthday Tiki sounds particularly good.  Where else would you eat, drink or snack in those areas?

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2 Birds 1 Stone was surprisingly civilized during prime time on a recent Saturday night.  Between 8:30 and about 9:45 there were always several tables and spots at the bar open.  So that's one idea...I don't think you'd be fighting the crowds there the way you would at several of the other area bars.  For dinner, if your plans allow you to eat early enough, a place that doesn't take reservations might be your best bet, and there are certainly plenty of those in the Logan/U Street areas. 

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What about Beuchert's, which has both cocktails and good food, and they might have a reservation available.  I enjoyed my birthday there last year.  It might be cool to pair that with a visit to Harold Black, the speakeasy a short walk away. It looks like they have something at 10:30 PM on your night.

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One could do worse then Perry's/Mintwood/Cashion's/Bedrock for an Adams Morgan romp the *civilized* way; Black Squirrel for great burgers and Mixtec for decent Mexican merely lay a drunken stoner's throw away down 18th

It would have to be a *very* drunken stoner's throw because Mixtec closed. :)

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It still might be too early to write about this adventure.  I am not still green around the gills, but the memory of that feeling is not that far away as I also caught a bit of something at the same time because last night I had a headache and a temperature.  But we had a great time.  I probably should have eaten more along the way or beforehand.   Oh well.

We started at Southern Efficiency and to be honest, this was far and away our favorite of the night.  We ordered mint julep on tap and red in the afternoon another cocktail on tap and we got a jar of the ginger and lemon cocktail.  All were well balanced, thoughtful and tasty.  How you can have a cocktail on tap I am not quite sure, but it was pretty cool.  We had stools, but I wish there was a table here because we liked the food here a lot.  We got the pork and kale sausage on pretzel bun which was so good.  A really nicely made sausage that was just excellent.  Pimento cheese which was classic and good.  Chicken liver and gizzard mousse which was also very good, but we needed more corn cake, we ended up finishing it with saltines which wasn't bad either.  And... I forget what else.  I was a little sad that the menu was not the same as what was online as there were a few dishes online that looked good to me that weren't there when we showed up.  We moved onto other cocktails.  I had one from there list on the wall and then ended up with a Belle Meade bourbon on the rocks.  We had friends running late so we definitely spent more time here.

We then moved onto Eat the Rich.  Were we had oyster shooters, and a couple pitchers of Buck Hunter.  Things start getting fuzzier from here.  I tasted the chowderhead, oysters and the fry plate.  I would like to say more about the food, but honestly after all the booze my palate really started getting shot here.  I only had a bite of the chowderhead because of the cream, but it was excellent.

Lastly was Mockingbird Hill.  I have to say that apparently sherry is either not my thing or I ordered really wrong- I got a flight.  I love port, so I thought I would probably like sherry, but we just didn't get along and this I think kind of sent my tummy on a downward spiral.  The ham though was good.

Doing it all over again I would start at Dino, which we thought about doing, but we had friends running late and friends that were early so we ended up staying where we didn't really need to worry about seats.  But I definitely needed more food than we had.  We could have ordered more at any one place it just didn't really happen.  We should have eaten more earlier, or well I should have.  Anyway it was still very very fun, I just ended up getting tanked and the sherry just didn't agree with the other contents in my tummy.  Luckily the egg sandwich at Green Pig Bistro the next day was a pretty good hangover cure.

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Alas, another year has passed and I need new ideas for restaurants.  We aren't doing a blow out going "out" night this year, but it will be a series of dinner with friends/family.  There are a lot of places in the district, well actually everywhere that I haven't been yet, but focusing on DC right now.

Going to try out Mango Tree with a friend tomorrow night we needed a central location.  Dinner with my brother later this week, yadda yadda yadda.  This is kind of the time I milk trying new restaurants so where should I go?  I really like pretty much everything, and since it is for my birthday I can con other people into going where I want.

For example still haven't been to:

Le Diplomate

Soi 38

Fiola Mare (which I have a friend *cough *cough that should take me to)

Grill Room

Malmaison

Macon Bistro & Larder

Bar Civita (have a personal love for Liam he was kind of my chef for a while here in Arlington)

Little Serow

Iron Gate Inn

Crane and Turtle

Fishnook

Izakaya Seki

Etto

Lupo Verde

Ghibellina

The list goes on, unfortunately.  There are also some H Street places I haven't been that I want to go, but thats harder for me to get people to go with.  Where are you completely shocked I haven't been and think I need to go?  Opinions from people that don't know me completely welcome to opine.

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That's quite a list you have and you'd do well at most of those places.  However, given what everyone's been saying about Rob Weland's new restaurant on Barracks Row, Garrison, I'd go there.

As an FYI, Fishnook is not happening right now because Fishnet in Shaw has been temporarily closed (since August 2nd).  Supposed to reopen in the fall.

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