Bonz

Yes, the Dry Dock is the most special place that Solomons has to offer. I've been eating here either before or after most sailing trips (old salt that I am!) for almost 20 years. Joe, the Drydock may have escaped earlier mention because it what you experienced is really the "new" Dry Dock. For folks who don't know, this restaurant is located on the grounds of Zahniser's Marina. The original was upstairs over the old bath house, where the kitchen was as small as a sailboat's galley. The entire restaurant was maybe half the size of the current one, and had no outdoor porch seating. But the food was awfully good! The marina built more a "upscale" bathhouse and, in deference to history, moved the Drydock upstairs to new space over the new construction. More upscale surroundings with the porch over the water that Joe mentioned. Sometimes I eat outside, but sometimes I prefer the tablecloths and air conditioning inside. My one constant disappointment has been the Drydock crabcake. But I too have found that, as Joe noted, whatever fresh fish is available has always satisfied.

I did go today, for lunch, so I will mark my first Rockwellian post by making a report. Perhaps I will go on to long, but there seems to be enough curiosity. The restaurant is divided into a take-out front and a small dine-in back where most of the seats (all but two booths) are around the sushi conveyor bar. The menu they have been handing out is for the take-out operation -- which was stocked but I did not sample -- while the dine-in operates on a color-coded plate system. Grab what you like off the conveyor with the yellow rimmed plates costing $2, $2.75 for orange, etc., all the way up to $5 plates. The sushi, sashimi and rolls we had were all good. Excellent tuna sashimi, and very good spicy tuna roll. Avocado and pepper roll was also very good. Perhaps the best edamame I've had in DC (while I really liked the sea salt version, I did not like the version called "wasabi's edamame" with a sticky brown sauce). However, the selection was limited to whatever was on the belt . . . and not scarfed up by the folks positioned on an earlier part of the conveyor. That meant we had more salmon than we would have liked, and also some fried chicken nuggets that the manager assured us were very good (but were in fact greasy). Never did see any unagi. We ordered a miso soup from the waiter (which was fine), and I'm glad we did: the open bowl of soup later making its lonely trip around the conveyor was particularly unappetizing. After we were all full, we saw some things we would have liked to try, like some varieties of tiradito and chicken anticucho. They don't yet have their liquor license, so I can't say anything about Wasabi's sake (not that I know my saki anyway). But the sake menu presents thirteen different varieties and professes (contrary to expectations) that "like fine champagne, premium sake is best enjoyed chilled." So only one appears available hot. And they also had no hot tea, although it appears on the menu. The iced tea was bottled. We ate past full and the bill (before being halved) came to $45. We were so pleasantly surprised that we wondered if the still-new new crew had lost count of our plates.