Caboose Cafe and Bakery, Rhoda Worku's Ethiopian with Pastries and Sandwiches in Two Alexandria Locations - Parker-Gray Outlet Has Closed

[Al Dente]

Finding ourselves near Taqueria Poblano, we decided to stop in for an early dinner, but I had no idea they're closed on Tuesdays. We couldn't bear to get back into the hot car, so we headed across the street and had a pleasant surprise of a dinner at the Caboose Cafe. They're kind of a bakery, kind of a sandwich shop, and oddly enough, they do Ethiopian too.

My wife's simple spinach and mozzarella panini was full of fresh good-quality ingredients and came with crisp roasted potato wedges dusted with spicy seasonings of some sort. Never having had Ethiopian outside of DC, I went ahead and ordered a combo platter of doro watt, zilzil tibbs, and beef alitcha along with some gomen and miser watt. It wasn't Etete, but it was pretty damn good.

So if you're on that side of the bridge and don't want to haul your ass to U St, this warm friendly joint might just do the trick.

[monavano]

Pretty good Cuban sandwich as well as nice ciabatta bread. They list thier daily bread specials and menu on the website. A very pleasant and affordable place to enjoy if your in Del Ray.

http://www.caboose-cafe.com/index.php

Looks like they cater too!

[crackers]

---> clickity <---

[Ellie]

Pretty good Cuban sandwich as well as nice ciabatta bread. They list thier daily bread specials and menu on the website. A very pleasant and affordable place to enjoy if your in Del Ray.

http://www.caboose-cafe.com/index.php

Looks like they cater too!

And I see they offer coupon discounts, too!

http://www.caboose-cafe.com/coupons.php

[lperry]

We walked to dinner at Caboose Cafe last night. We pick up sandwiches for lunch fairly often - I love the spinach and mozzarella on ciabatta - but this was our first dinner. We had a caprese salad (I had a craving despite the reality of the tomatoes right now) and the Ethiopian veg sampler. It was all good, it was nice to sit outside, and the service was excellent. We will be back.

[goldenticket]

Not wanting her to go without, I offered to join thistle in her foray into Ethiopian cuisine.

We, along with her lovely son and daughter, had dinner at Caboose tonight and tried out their Ethiopian menu. To make sure we had a good variety, we shared the vegan sampler and Combo I (see the Menu for specific dish names and descriptions), both of which were very good. I think we all enjoyed the Miser Watt (spicy lentils) which had a nice heat to them, as did the Beg Watt - spicy lamb cubes - which was the hottest dish of all. I haven't had Ethiopian in quite a while, so don't have a comparison, but I did think everything was nicely seasoned/spiced, the injera was springy and fresh, and the portions were very generous (we ordered the 1 person size of both samplers and had a decent amount of food left over).

At the request of our teenaged male dining companion, we started with the hummus appetizer, which also included several pieces of a nice, mild feta and some black olives.

I'll have to get in here more often - it was a very good meal!

[KMango]

Not wanting her to go without, I offered to join thistle in her foray into Ethiopian cuisine.

We, along with her lovely son and daughter, had dinner at Caboose tonight and tried out their Ethiopian menu. To make sure we had a good variety, we shared the vegan sampler and Combo I (see the Menu for specific dish names and descriptions), both of which were very good. I think we all enjoyed the Miser Watt (spicy lentils) which had a nice heat to them, as did the Beg Watt - spicy lamb cubes - which was the hottest dish of all. I haven't had Ethiopian in quite a while, so don't have a comparison, but I did think everything was nicely seasoned/spiced, the injera was springy and fresh, and the portions were very generous (we ordered the 1 person size of both samplers and had a decent amount of food left over).

At the request of our teenaged male dining companion, we started with the hummus appetizer, which also included several pieces of a nice, mild feta and some black olives.

I'll have to get in here more often - it was a very good meal!

Say selam next time.

I tried the Ethiopian food at Caboose for the first time this week as well. Like you, I also ordered the Vegan sampler for one ($12.95). Enjoyed all five dishes immensely, cabbage being my favorite. Found the flavors to be at least on par with Harar Mesob on 23rd street, but not as rich as the "on" days at Maeza near Bailey's Crossroads.

The takeout bag was heavy, a lot of food, can't imagine what the $19.95 portion for two must look like. Leftovers were even better the next day. Injera seemed to be mostly flour, but enough teff for intrigue.

Random Caboose-y Note: Cameron Cafe over in Cameron Station sells Caboose baked goods.

[thistle]

We all enjoyed our dinner, although my daughter's foray into Ethiopian food consisted of sniffing the injera, then ordering a grilled cheese sandwich-sometimes, I find it hard to believe she's my child. My favorites were the lamb (nice & spicy), the lentils & collards, & the injera. I thought the service was good, they kept our water carafes topped off, which I appreciated. Jackie, I'm so glad you told us that Dairy Godmother was right across the street-I'm not much of a dessert person, but that salt caramel custard was delicious! Now I'm going to have to brave the frighteningly narrow streets of Del Ray more often, to try other flavors (those ices were tempting)...

[goldenticket]

Well, this is a good news/bad news post. Apparently Caboose Cafe is expanding into the Parker Gray neighborhood. Yay, very exciting to have Ethopian, along with their other offerings, right around the corner!

The bad news is that they are taking over the former Cafe Nicole space I'm sorry things didn't work out for Nicole and her dad. They're great people and I wish them the very best in whatever they decide to do next.

[JBag57]

Caboose Café in Parker-Gray is no more.  I drove past yesterday, and a large banner announcing that a "Hunan Café" or something like that would be opening soon was draped in front.  This is not too surprising, as there was almost never anyone in there the many times I drove by.  I suppose I could have stopped in, but I was nearly always on my way to some other destination on the drive-bys.