RSS FeedA Meal Almost Fit For The King
- TCB Baby, TCB
Walking down E street last week we caught the above sidewalk advertisement for the daily lunch special at Zola Wine & Kitchen. We applaud Zola for this choice, peanut butter sandwiches are a rarity at most eateries, no matter how they’re made, but one with both bacon and bananas? Outside of Graceland that’s almost unheard of. Now it’s true that Potbellies has a PB&J on their menu (or used to anyway, we didn’t see it on their online menu), and Busboys & Poets offers a peanut butter and banana panini (panini?? George Washington Carver is no doubt rolling over in his grave), but the addition of bacon propels this Zola offering to a whole new level.
Now we’ve always preferred the more soulful (fat) Elvis, so maybe that’s why our only regret is that they didn’t go all the way and deep-fry this beast. Still, we can’t help falling in love with this sandwich.
DC Link Roundup: Heard In The ‘Hood
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Here’s what we were reading recently about neighborhood news in DC. Have something to add? Leave it in the comments!
Chinatown – Tom Sietsema reviews Graffiato (707 6th St NW) and we are in accord with his views. The food is good but the place is really loud. [WaPo]
Downtown – W. Curtis Draper, the tobacconist, completes the move to 699 15th St across the street from the Old Ebbitt Grill. More space is a key benefit at the new location. [Urban Daddy]
All Over DC – DC will have an $89 million budget surplus this year. Wow! That’s actually a really good thing as not many states are in the same good shape. [WaPo]
Penn Quarter – A Leica camera store is coming to Carroll Square next to Le Pain Quotidien in the 10th and F St NW region. For those of you who are camera buffs from the days of film, you’ll know that Leica is la creme de la creme of cameras. We can’t wait to check this one out. Opening is planned to be before the end of 2011 and it will be the first store of its kind for Leica. Carroll Square’s retail bays will now officially be full. [Carroll Square press release] Hat tip: Anonymous PQ Living reader
Mount Vernon Square – A man was assaulted at 7th and K St NW. Local reactions and a link to the story follow. [The Triangle]
Penn Quarter – Tom Sietsema also reviews America Eats Tavern, the former Cafe Atlantico, and we are also in accord with his views. The food is good but it’s also pretty darn loud. [WaPo]
National Mall – The National Book Festival is next weekend on the Mall. This is always a good event! [Library of Congress website]
National Mall – The Solar Decathlon starts next weekend on the Mall. This time it’s in West Potomac Park where teams from all over the U.S. will compete to see who has the best solar powered house. This is worth the walk if you are into architecture or all things solar. [Dept of Energy Solar Decathlon website]
Five Fibs We Tell Tourists
Tourists often stop us on the street asking for information about Washington, and we usually give them straight answers. After all, they are spending their hard earned dollars (or Euros or yen) in our fair city, and we want to be gracious hosts so that they continue to lay out the dough to the business owners in the neighborhood. Once in a while though, we are tempted to fib and we will shade the truth to see how they react. Once the joke’s done, we bring them in on it and have a good laugh together. (To be perfectly fair, we prank some of our family members too.)
Which ones are our favorites? We present the top five:
1. The Washington Monument has two different shadings in its stone due to the Great Patowmack Flood of 1854.
Preposterous. The stone takes on a different shading just over a quarter of the way up. That would make it a 150 foot tall flood from the bottom of the monument which is above sea level to begin with. The real reason there is different shading is that the monument was constructed in two phases with about a twenty year hiatus in between, and the stone is different in color.
2. Looking for a Starbucks? You can find one at the mall, the National Mall, which is right down the street.
Some fall for this one too easily. The National Mall is not indoors, it does not have a Starbucks (or a Spencer’s Gifts), and it is not air conditioned.
3. If you buy an FBI hat or shirt, you get a free tour. Walk through the front door with the hat on and they’ll let you check out the building.
Tourists absolutely LOVE the FBI merch and buy it with abandon. Although this fairy tale does not have a good rate of success, we have been able to pull it off a few times. Thankfully, we caught the tourists before they started down 9th Street towards the entrance and warned them not to try it. As this page on the FBI’s website plainly says, “The FBI Tour is presently closed. No date has been set for its reopening.” We actually find that unfortunate because we’re the first to admit that we’d love to take a tour of the interior of the hulking building at 935 Pennsylvania Ave NW. We understand that security is an issue though.
4. On the Metro escalators, stand left and walk right.
Tourists do this without being told anyway. In fact, they stand left AND right. We don’t need to speak this untruth. It’s in their brains by default.
5. Washington, DC, is actually a state but they left the star off the flag.
This falsehood sometimes works and we like to tell it because it allows us to point out that DC residents don’t get a vote in Congress. Americans and non-Americans alike don’t all know that DC residents have no voting representation because DC is NOT actually a state. We think the lack of voting power is a raw deal, and this is an opportunity to do a little bit of outreach.
What do you tell tourists who stop you and ask for help? What is the most outrageous fable you’ve heard about Washington?
Bonjour Penn Quarter
New signs in the window at the under construction District Architecture Center (421 7th Street) highlight one of several offerings when the space opens – a downtown location for DC’s Alliance Francaise. Now I have no excuse for not taking those french classes I’ve been wanting to take for years! Merci beaucoup!