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    Travel: Washington DC via Amtrak

    Previous Page: Getting Around the City

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    Food!

    What would a trip to any city be without taking in as many types of food as possible? We made sure to research our options, ask friends for recommendations, and also saved a few meals to give ourselves a chance to stumble into something random along the way.

    A bowl of Charmthai soup at Charm Thai in the West End neighborhood of Washington DC.

    We found Charm Thai at 2514 L Street NW in the West End when looking for a late lunch on our first day in DC. There’s a lot of Thai food all over the city, but this one had positive reviews online and seemed reasonably priced, so we decided to give it a shot. Anne had the Pad See-Ew with the addition of scallops, which were large and plentiful. I ordered a bowl of the namesake Charmthai Soup, a spicy creamy bowl of seafood and veggies that I enjoyed entirely. The venue was dark and seemed like a good spot for drinks in the evening, not unlike Basil Thai in the Short North. Located on a busy stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue, it offers some decent people-watching as pedestrians walk back and forth into Georgetown for shopping.

    The “parranda” at Panas Gourmet Empanadas is an amazing cheap lunch for two people.

    We decided to try Panas Gourmet Empanadas for lunch one day at the recommendation of Sam from Columbus food blog Pie are Round. This Dupont Circle eatery is located at 2029 P Street NW and offers 14 different types of empanadas with four different sauces, for endless flavor combinations. We opted to get the Parranda “boat” of 8 choices with sauces and plantain chips which was a great deal for two people at $14. Our favorites included Smoked Eggplant, Chipotle Steak, Cuba Novo and the Chicken Melodia. The decor is bright with pop-modern flourishes while spanish hip-hop plays over the restaurant speakers. With two DC locations under their belt, I wouldn’t mind seeing Panas expand outside of the region and into Columbus one day.

    The Foggy Bottom SweetGreen, located at 2221 I Street NW.

    Even though we were spending much of our vacation walking, we didn’t want to fall into the trap of overeating at every meal and decided to seek out a salad for lunch one day at the seemingly ubiquitous SweetGreen. This DC original has only been around for six years, but already has 14 regional locations and 2 more in Philadelphia. The concept is very similar to the popular NYC-based Chop’t (which also has many locations in DC) as well as the Columbus-based Market 65. You pick a pre-designed salad or make up your own from the large list of ingredients and dressings. It’s easy to go overboard and wind up with a $12 salad that probably has more calories that you originally had in mind, so keeping it simple is key. Overall, not a bad experience, but also not unlike what you can already find in Columbus.

    Great food from Founding Farmers in Downtown DC.

    The culinary highlight of our trip was found at Founding Farmers, a farm-to-table restaurant located at 1924 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Downtown DC, and our love of the place was not alone. On a Wednesday night, the earliest reservation that could be made a day in advance was at 9pm, and the bustling crowds gave it a friendly energy in a space that would otherwise seem a little more upscale at a quieter volume. We met up with our good friend Greg Schultz for dinner that night who originally recommended the restaurant. The three of us split some small plates of fried green tomatoes and bacon lollis — candied bacon strips glazed with a cinnamon and brown sugar mix. Anne ordered the Slow-Braised Beef Short Ribs, I had the Dogs & Rolls trio, and Greg ordered the Farmer’s Meatloaf. Everything was absolutely delicious, which left no room for dessert.

    Two dishes from Graffiato (left) and two dishes from Belga Cafe (right).

    As fans of the TV cooking competition show Top Chef, Anne & I decided to do a little research before our trip to see if there were any previous chef contestants who had restaurants located in DC. It turns out that there are two. One is Graffiato by Mike Isabella (Season 6), located in Chinatown. The other is Belga Café by Bart Vandaele (Season 10) located in Capitol Hill. Graffiato is a semi-casual two-story modern Italian eatery with an urban decor (ie: lots of graffiti-inspired art on the walls) and a menu focused on small plates, pizzas and pastas. Anne ordered the scallops served with kohlrabi, blood orange and radish which she found flavorful but a small portion of food for the price. I ordered the “Jersey Shore” pizza that came topped with fried calamari, provolone and a cherry pepper aioli, which was absolutely delicious and quite a lot of food for the price. The cocktail menu left both of us displeased with many crazy concoctions filled with obscure or barely-recognizable ingredients that left us wanting something that just tasted good. Belga Café was a bit more upscale, but served a casual crowd for late lunch on the day we visited. We shared a bowl of the Belgian onion soup made with gruyère and raclette cheeses, which was the best bowl of onion soup I think I’ve ever had. Anne followed it with the Mais Wafel, made from cornbread and topped with pulled pork, a fried egg and avocado. I had the Gerookte Zalm Wafel, made from puff pastry and stuffed with smoked salmon, roasted tomatoes and a chive cream. Both dishes were total knockouts and we wondered what it might take to get a similar Belgian eatery to set up shop in Columbus (I’m looking at you Taste of Belgium Bistro in OTR!). The only issue we had was with a brusk waiter who seemed annoyed that we didn’t want alcohol for lunch and never came back after taking our order.

    Overall, the winner of our personal Top Chef challenge was Bart Vandaele for Belga Cafe. Highly recommended.

    Serving up some intolerance to go at the Chik-Fil-A Food Truck.

    As we walked the streets of DC over the course of five days, there were three things I found a distinct lack of: local coffee shops/roasters, microbreweries/brewpubs, and food trucks. All three of those things are booming trends in Columbus right now, so I assumed that surely we’d see even more of all three in the nation’s capital. While there was a Starbucks located on just about every block, and Caribou on most other blocks, the independent local coffee shops were pretty few and far between. My assumption would be that the higher rents are keeping some of them priced out of these well established areas. Some googling for local coffee roasters turned up very few options within the District of Columbia, so it’s probably safe to say Columbus has more. The same could probably be said for microbreweries about the higher cost of doing business. I counted six actual breweries within DC, so once again I think it’s safe to say Columbus has more. As for food trucks, I’m willing to give them a pass. It was early April when we visited and most days were a brisk 50-something degrees. We found a couple of trucks hanging out around the campus of GWU and on Friday we stumbled upon a mini food truck court  in a small park in the middle of Downtown. If you’re looking for food trucks on your visit to DC, you’ll probably want to stake them out via social media first. But with so many good brick-and-mortar restaurants to try, we didn’t even bother with them during this trip.

    Next Page: Fun and Entertainment

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    Walker Evans
    Walker Evanshttps://columbusunderground.com
    Walker Evans is the co-founder of Columbus Underground, along with his wife and business partner Anne Evans. Walker has turned local media into a full time career over the past decade and serves on multiple boards and committees throughout the community.
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