Dining in La Plata

[Tweaked]

Friday I will be trekking up and down the 301 and through the La Plata area. What places will make a good early evening pit stop? Probably looking around 6pm.

Looks like Johnny Boy Ribs is the only place that's been reviewed.

I'm willing to make a short 5-10 minute side trip off the 301, but not looking to road trip from my road trip. Thanks!

[DonRocks]

Friday I will be trekking up and down the 301 and through the La Plata area. What places will make a good early evening pit stop? Probably looking around 6pm.

Looks like Johnny Boy Ribs is the only place that's been reviewed.

I'm willing to make a short 5-10 minute side trip off the 301, but not looking to road trip from my road trip. Thanks!

The best individual food item in La Plata may well be the ribs at Johnny Boy's, but you might want to do some digging to see if the Crossing at Casey Jones still has a good wine list. Not having access to any other information, if I were looking for a sitdown dinner in LaPlata, I would go there. That said, my knowledge of it is waaaaay outdated, and you should do some research before you commit, just because the internet is here now and you can.

Listen up: is there any interest in my doing a piece like this again? We can't do a group vote because it's such specialized knowledge that it needs to be done by one person. It is a *massive* undertaking, involving hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars if you want to do it thoroughly (which I did, for two years, at Washingtonian). It is utterly exhausting, because doing this correctly involves visiting every restaurant (whether it made the final cut or not), ordering wine, and actually counting the entries in the wine list. God I am lying here becoming *exhausted* just thinking about the work that's involved. I suspect this will be never be done again, by anyone, or at least done properly. I can't do this for free. If any medium out there wants me to do it, I will, but it's going to cost you a hell of a lot more than what Washingtonian was paying me. I suggest TV as the medium, not a magazine because it's an expensive thing to do well and nobody is going to be as foolish as I was seven years ago.

"Luxurious lifestyle" my eye - this is grunt, ditch-digging, ball-busting, back-breaking toil. Oh God it's hard work to do correctly. And someone like Eater will come up with a top 10 list in one hour and it will have JUST AS MUCH EFFECT on the general public, who doesn't know the difference. God, what a lame, superficial fucking world we live in. Nobody cares. Nobody cares at all.

[Tweaked]

definitely looking more along the lines of bbq/fried chicken joints.

[DonRocks]

definitely looking more along the lines of bbq/fried chicken joints.

Well, know that Crossing at Casey Jones is, or was, informal, and *shockingly* cheap when it came to their wine prices, like *the* least expensive restaurant in the entire DC area considering what was on the list - this is the only reason you would ever hear about them (when articles like mine came out). I was skeptical the first time I went, but page-after-page of jaw-dropping wines and prices made a believer out of me in short order. You can go here in t-shirt in shorts if you want to, though I wouldn't dress like a complete hobo because people do go here for their Saturday night dinner and I remember the service as being very polite and professional.

Even if you're not interested, Crossing at Casey Jones merits having been brought up on this website, if only for historical reasons. They were bow-down-and-kiss-the-ground fantastic when it came to wines and wine pricing. I asked to purchase some bottles to take home, and they politely refused, saying the wines were priced this way only so customers would come into their restaurant and enjoy them with food. (Why can't more places do this?) They were, and hopefully still are, champions, though a well-established auction market has probably made their program from mid-2000s unsustainable. Regardless, there's at least one person in this world who gives this restaurant his full respect for what once was.

Are you limited to La Plata? I had a really nice lunch down in St. Mary's County, and if you're interested, I'll go dig up my info for you, but that's *way* south of La Plata. If you're heading way north on 301, you could do worse than the fried chicken at Rip's Country Inn in Bowie - I haven't been there in years, but they're "known" for their fried chicken (as well as for selling bait and tackle). Hopefully, a more knowledgable local will chime in and help you. Our representation from every county in Maryland that isn't Montgomery is distressingly weak, and I urge any non-Montgomery-Country Maryland resident to step forward - work with me, and I'll groom you into becoming a restaurant megastud. I'll get you laid. You'll be the envy of all your friends. You'll be *the* go-to guy, and can launch a career freelancing that knows no earthly boundaries - your only limits will be your own. Yes, these past few phrases have been chauvinistic as hell, and I'd be every bit if not more interested in a female superstar to groom. Come out, come out, wherever you are. I'm here to help you - where are you?