Going to meet a friend for dinner one night some time ago, we had some trouble deciding where to go. As usual, it became a matter of geography over all else

Alright, we took our sweet time about it, but as promised, here are the final
results from DCFUD Rates DC. Not happy with the outcomes? Then you should have voted twice.

Best Place to Be a Local
Gold:
Bardia’s New Orleans Café

Runners Up:
Murphy’s of DC
Faidley’s
Pumpernickel’s
amsterdam falafel
Florida Ave Grill

Honorable Mention:
New York City

Best Bakery to Break a Diet
Gold:
Cakelove

Runners up:
Firehook Bakery
Vaccaro’s
Marvelous Market
Patisserie Poupon

Honorable Mention:
Zaf’s awesome peanut butter cookies.

Best Coffee Shop to Tell Your Boss You’re “Telecommuting”
From
Gold:
Soho tea and Coffee

Runners Up:
Tryst
Steam
One World Café

Honorable Mention:
Camelot

Click here to view all results

Read the rest of this entry »

The Vienna Inn is one of those places that doesn’t look like much from the outside, and when you step inside it still isn’t much to look at. No design consultant has ever swooped into the building and mandated mood lighting and art deco furniture. Instead, photos of local sports teams and beer paraphernalia pepper the walls. It’s the kind of brik-a-brak that places like T.G.I. Friday’s, Applebee’s and Ruby Tuesday aspire to, but they fail miserably because they don’t have customers that personally hand-color letters in crayon for them. It’s that kind of place — a throwback to times before “community” was overwhelmed by the relentless sprawl of the suburbs and it seems the menu prices still reflect that as well. You can eat like a king for $10.
And at these prices, don’t expect service. You fill your own drink order at the soda fountain, may be asked multiple times if you’ve ordered and you won’t receive a check at the end of your meal. Payments are taken through the honor system at the counter. On the other side of the restaurant, you might find some creaky-looking regulars perched at the bar, quietly disappearing their drafts from frost-rimmed mugs and commenting on the game playing on one of several TVs.
I sampled three items from a surprisingly extensive menu that included a breakfast menu with your standard diner favorites to sandwiches and other bar munchie staples. First the cheese fries, thin and crisp, were dusted with salt seasoning and given a generous pour of gooey cheddar cheese. If you’re sharing these, eat all the extra-cheesy fries first or someone else will eat them for you. Next the Fried Red Chili Peppers, nugget-sized rounds filled, not with poisonous Cheese Wiz-like filling, but soft cream cheese cradled on top of a red pepper, all contained in a wonderfully fried coating with a firm crunch. Dip one of these endearing little bites into the habanero plum sauce and you are in heaven. The habanero sauce looks deceptively like jelly, but adds a sweet heat to the creamy crunch of the popper. Lastly, there were the chili dogs. I ordered mine “loaded” and it arrived on a small paper tray. The dog was tucked into a soft bun, coated with a slick of chili and hot melted cheese, and counter-pointed by crunchy bits of white onion and the tang of spicy brown mustard. Like all good chili dogs it requires two hands, a big mouth and plenty of napkins.
If you like your servers surly, your atmosphere no-nonsense and your food down-home good, make the trip to the Vienna Inn. You can even start at the Eastern end of the W&OD trail and bike your way to the Vienna Inn for a refreshing pit stop, or if you choose to drive, rent a keg or two on your way out. I’ll be there with one hand in the habanero sauce and chili-cheese dripping down my chin.
Vienna Inn
123 Maple Avenue East
Vienna, VA 22180

April 19: The day Joan of Arc was declared a saint. The 1995 Oklahoma City bombings. The death of Charles Darwin. My friend Margeau

‘Hello! How ya doing? What can I get ya today?’ booms the grey-haired guy behind the counter. I immediately assume that my lunch partner amg is a frequent customer and good acquaintance. But one delectable ham, turkey, and Swiss with Russian dressing on pumpernickel later it becomes obvious that this enthusiastic greeting is standard treatment for all customers. I

Fellow DCFUD-blogger rj3, who regularly blogs over at Smorgasblog partner DCSOB has posted the list of Washington DC’s 28 Most Loathsome People. Coming in at #17 is the Jeff Tunks, owner of Ceiba, TenPenh, and DC Coast. RJ3 has this to say:

17. Restaurateur Jeff Tunks: Have you ever wondered why downtown eating sucks so much? Blame Jeffy, owner/partner of the fusion trifecta of Ceiba, TenPenh and DC Coast. Each of these joints are one carefully-planned degree from the traditional Washington power steakhouse, calibrated for expense-account lawyers and lobbyists to have a good meal at a posh setting without having to deal with any of those scary New York/LA restaurant trends (sitting on the floor, raw food, Lindsay Lohan puking in your soup, etc.). So take your Malpeque oysters and your cr*p on a stick (sorry, skewers) — I’ll be at Ben’s.

What’s your verdict? Is the CEIBA/TenPenh/DC Coast conglomerate truly loathsome? We, of course, have our own opinions, but we’d love to hear yours.

When a lab rat discovers that he can receive a tasty food pellet by pressing a certain pattern of buttons, he’ll continue pressing those same buttons even when the food pellets start being distributed at random. Or he’ll do cute little paw motions depending on what he thinks might have worked in the past. This is superstition at its finest and it is the key to understanding why I keep on going back to My Bothers Place in Capitol Hill. Like our lab rats, I return each time with hope renewed despite objective criteria.
My conditioning process was complete and thorough. I had three good meals there back to back last year- a great burger, some fabulously tangy chicken wings piled high, and a sandwich of some delectable description. The beer and the service were good, the d

Witness the poor server at Rumors Bar and Restaurant in Farragut North. He is the only guy working the entire deck area. Customers are getting anxious and annoyed. A table of four well-dressed college kids who have been there drinking and eating for at least an hour decide it would be cool to leave without paying. He accidentally brings things to the wrong table or forgets them altogether. He thinks that things just couldn’t get any better when he finds out