This review was written by DCFüd contributors Liz G. and Carl T. – MAW

As part of the ongoing yuppification of Mt. Vernon Triangle, Taylor Gourmet has opened up a new storefront in the City Vista building, next door to the newest Busboys & Poets and around the corner from the Urban Lifestyle Safeway. Taylor draws its inspiration from the hoagies* served in Philly — and trucks in its bread every day from the City of Brotherly Love.

Taylor’s menu divides its hoagies into three categories: specialties, cold cut hoagies, and chicken cutlets. We sampled a few of the offerings at a recent visit.

We were very impressed that they are the first place either of us has seen to offer Boylan’s soda on tap. Boylan’s sodas are sweetened with cane sugar, not high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), which should delight those of you who can taste the difference. (My med school biochem professor almost goes into an apoplectic fit when he rails about the corn lobby’s “evilness” and how HFCS will give you diabetes and make you fat, so I defer to his professional judgment on that topic.) We had the ginger ale, which our tasting notes indicate was “nice and gingery, but not overpowering.”

The Callowhill Street comes from the “Specialties” menu and has meatballs dressed with marinara and provolone. Some might call this a meatball grinder. It’s a good way of testing out a sub shop, because a careless joint can easily screw it up with soggy bread, watery sauce, or bland meatballs. The meatballs in the Callowhill were peppery (maybe a little too peppery) but balanced overall. The bread stood up well to the marinara sauce, remaining crisp and firm even after it patiently waited for us to photograph it. We were a bit disappointed at the parsimonious serving of provolone — instead of being melted over the sauce, there were just a handful of small flakes dusted on top. Other than that, though, it was a tasty example of the genre.

The Delaware Avenue is a fried chicken cutlet with roasted red peppers, red onion, and Gorgonzola. The cutlet was pressed flat and nicely fried, with a good crunchy exterior. The onions dominated the flavor of the sandwich. We appreciated the Gorgonzola crumbles, and there were some nice textures, but we agreed the sandwich felt under-seasoned.

Overall, we were pleased with the food, but are torn. The place feels hipper and more daring than its menu suggests. The sandwiches we’ve had have been very respectable, but nothing surprised us or was completely out of the park. We want desperately to like the place more. And we don’t dislike it — we do plan to go back and try more sandwiches. Perhaps we just haven’t found the grinder which fits our personalities perfectly?

Taylor adds a much-needed almost-fast-food option in the neighborhood which seems to be populated exclusively by higher end restaurants. Not that we’re complaining, but when Zaytinya is your most relaxed dining option you sometimes yearn for a place you could comfortably run to in your sweats. (If you had sweats. Which I’m sure you don’t. I don’t.) It has a great garage-front for its street side, which opens all the way in good weather, and lends the place a pleasing cafe air. It’s decorated in what might be called hipster mechanic shop, with cement walls and floors, and 55-gallon oil drums serving as chandeliers. The background music is gently pulsing and pretty chill; if you close your eyes, you could be forgiven for thinking you were inside a West Elm store.**

Finally, one of us can’t write a review without doing a bathroom viewing as well. They’ve extended the industrial-chic look to the ladies room as well.

Taylor Gourmet
1116 H Street Northeast,
Washington, DC
(202) 684-7001

*One of us spent most of his adult life in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, and has great difficulty calling these sandwiches “hoagies” rather than “grinders.” Still, it’s probably a lesser offense than using the New York term “heros,” and less puzzling than the St. Louis variant, “poor boy.” See Wikipedia for further explication.

**Whether you count that a plus or not is up to you.