Happy Birthday to Us!

Last Saturday, BJ and I celebrated our birthday by spending the whole day together being DC tourists.  Yes, we have the same birthday.

The first stop was Art and Soul for lunch, which is owned by the fabulous Art Smith.  We are big fans of Art, especially after watching him on Top Chef Masters.  Art tweeted that he was going to be in town that day, so we quickly made a reservation.  We arrived at noon, hungry for chicken and waffles!  As it turned out, Art wasn't there yet, so I didn't get to be a fangirl, but we know he was there in spirit.  We shared the pimento cheese and crackers to start, which was a little spicy and a lot delicious. 

We also shared the homemade biscuits and seasonal preserves, which tasted to be blackberry and lemon.  Very flavorful, though I would have appreciated some butter on the side as well.  Each table was also given cinnamon raisin biscuits with icing and they were excellent.  Not too sweet and the right balance of icing and raisins.  I ordered the chicken and waffles and it came dressed with a chicken maple gravy and a lot of roasted peppers of all colors.  The waffle was just a vehicle for the amazing chicken.  I have never tasted breading that good or that crispy.  It was perfect and just what I wanted.  I'm not necessarily a sauce girl, so I would have preferred the gravy on the side, but it had nice flavor and was a good compliment.  BJ had shrimp and grits, which he ate so fast I didn't have a chance to even see what it looked like.  I guess it was good!

Our next stop was the E Street Cinema to see The Master.  I hadn't been to E Street in a long long time and forgot how great it was.  They show indie/artsy films and sell alcohol!  That's a good evening right there.  The movie was good, but definitely something you'd study in film class.  Joaquin Phoenix needs to win some kind of award for his performance.

We moved on to Taste of DC, which I am sad to admit I don't have much to say about.  It was super crowded and the lines were incredibly long, even at 4:30 pm.  I suppose if I was inclined to stay all day and walk around with a beer, it would have been more fun, but I wasn't and it wasn't.

Since we didn't get much to eat there, we decided to hit up 2 Amy's for dinner.  I LOVE this place.  They have the best margarita pizza ever and the atmosphere is always fun.  Even though we didn't not have our little one with us, I am happy to say they are extremely kid friendly.  Our pizzas and suppli telefono were perfect as always.

Last stop was Washington DC Ghost Tours.  We are big fans of these kinds of things, having been on similar tours in Ireland and Scotland (and BJ claims he saw a ghost, but I'm still skeptical).  We ended up joining our tour at the last minute, which was very easy, and off we went.  I was so disappointed.  The tour guide makes or breaks the experience and our guide was pitiful.  Pitiful!  Every other word out of her mouth was "ummm" and she just did a poor job of actually telling each study.  We overheard another tour going on at the same time and seriously considered joining up with them, as they guy seemed to be an excellent storyteller.  Alas, we stayed with our guide and ended up leaving about 30 minutes early because we just could not take it anymore.  We still had fun though!

Despite the hiccup there at the end, we had a really great day and were reminded of all the awesome things we have to do in our own backyard!

Another Trip to NYC

Long time, no post!  We've been on summer break and now that things are back to normal, we'll try to resume our regularly scheduled blogging. 

Something I've been meaning to post about for a very long time is a trip BJ and I took to New York way back in March.  He thought my trip in January sounded fun, so we booked a quick overnight trip so we could go see Once: The Musical, which happens to be based on one of BJ's favorite movies of all time.  Here's the quick version of our trip:

Megabus - wonderful, as always.  The pick-up place in the city had moved from the last trip and made life much easier. 

Shake Shack - this was on our must-list to try, even though we now have on in DC.  Go figure.  We loved it.  The burger was decadent and juicy and the crinkle cut fries were excellent.  We liked it better than Five Guys, Bobby's Burger Palace and some other trendy burger joints that are escaping me at the moment.

Laduree Macarons - We walked around the city and found ourselves nearby this little shop.  Having heard great things about these little cookie things, I waited patiently in the 20 minute line to try them.  It was hot.  And pretentious.  And insanely expensive.  And totally not worth it.  Not only were the macarons tiny and sickeningly sweet, the flavors tasted completely artificial to me.  I was seriously shocked.  With all the hype out there, you'd think they were made of gold.  I may get maimed for saying it, but they were just gross.  Avoid avoid avoid.

Colicchio & Sons Tap Room - this was our obligatory celebrity restaurant outing of the trip.  We love Tom Colicchio from Top Chef and his menu looked great, so off we went.  I had a squash soup with Brussels sprouts on top that was so creamy and silky, just delicious. 

If I remember correctly, BJ had bone marrow of some sort, that he also enjoyed.  We both ordered the ricotta cavatelli with a short rib ragout for our entrees, and as BJ said "it was good enough to weep over."  Also of note was the service.  Our waiter was fantastic, very attentive and gave great recommendation, and the manager even came over and chatted for a bit.  Everyone was so nice - highly recommended.

We ended the evening, after the show, with a slice of cheesecake from Juniors, which was fabulous as always.  I always have a good time in NYC and this was no exception.

Date Night in DC

BJ and I had an opportunity to have a mid-week date night this past Wednesday, thanks to Goldstar for cheap tickets, an unused giftcard, and willing grandparents for babysitting.  We purchased heavily discounted theatre tickets to see Oklahoma! and made a reservation at a place we'd been dying to try - America Eats Tavern.  This is the José Andrés pop-up restaurant in the old Cafe Atlantico space.  We've been a José fan for a long time and thought the combination of food and history was intriguing. 

We tried:

- fried chicken with blueberry ketchup:  great crust, but under-seasoned chicken.  The ketchup was good though.

- vermicelli prepared like pudding:  an old-fashioned mac and cheese.  Very delicate cheese flavor.  I could've eaten a whole plate of this.  The sauteed mushrooms on the side were amazing.

- crab cakes w/ pickled watermelon salad:  BJ said they were the best crab cakes he's ever had.  The salad was nice as well, a good combination of flavors.

- bbq shortrib with succotash:  this normally comes with cole slaw but I asked for a substitution.  The succotash was delish, very creamy and fresh tasting.  I really wanted to like the short rib, it had such good reviews, but it was incredibly salty and spicy.  Maybe the chef was having an off day.  It was cooked beautifully though.

- Kentucky burgoo: a stew of lamb, rabbit and squab  BJ liked it, was glad he ordered it, but wouldn't get it again.  He did say he'd eat rabbit again though. 

- strawberry shortcake:  a light shortcake and fresh berries, some even filled with strawberry gel.  Good, but not outstanding.

- pineapple upside-down cake:  this was awesome.  A light cake willed with warm pineapple sauce and fresh whipped cream.  Smooth and sweet.

So, maybe 3.5 stars out of 5.  We liked it and the overall experience was good.

Oklahoma! at Arena Stage was fanastic.  The cast was amazingly talented and they really brought out the humor in the script.  Definitely worth staying out too late on a school night!