Where to Eat in Washington
Merrill, Jill
Where to Eat in Washington by Jill Merrill CAPITOL HILL Club 11, 210 D Street N.E., 544-0102. Open Monday-Fxiday, 11 a.m. - 11 p.m.; closed weekends. The Italianate decor is...
...seven days a week...
...midnight...
...All are open only to staff and guests at peak lunch times (roughly noon to 1:30, though it varies some) and to the general public from (again, roughly) 8 a.m...
...The pizza is excellent here, but everything else is fairly expensive and not very subtle...
...The crab cakes and butterfly shrimp, in particular, as well as the cheap beer, rescue the Tune-In from being the dive it longs to be...
...Reservations recommended at lunch...
...2 a.m...
...This is a marvelous place where the secret rednecks on the Hill (and they are legion) hang out...
...2 a.m...
...Reservations recommended at lunch...
...The genial, back-slapping atmosphere is annoying, but the food isn’t bad...
...It consists of a series of small rooms with vaulted ceilings and tile floors, and it’s open to the public...
...Open every day, 8 a.m...
...No credit cards or reservations...
...3 a.m...
...It’s been transformed into yet another California-style place, full of redwood and plants...
...2:30 p.m...
...2 a.m...
...Monday-Saturday, 11:30 a.m...
...Open 11 a.m...
...S.E., 544-6600...
...It’s cheerful and airy, with a dining room downstairs and a bar, tables, and comfortable sofas upstairs...
...Friday and Saturday, 5 p.m...
...Downstairs is a bar and dance floor...
...Hyatt Regency, 400 New Jersey Ave...
...It’s very popular, but the herding is efficient so the service doesn’t suffer...
...The specialties of the house are Senate bean soup (45 cents) and hot Southern pecan pie (75 cents...
...It’s on the roof of the hotel-an impressive setting-and the food, like the Hyatt itself, is expensive and more pleasing to the eye than the soul...
...The seafood quiche and the pastries are especially good...
...N.E., 5474774...
...Rating them is a little like choosing between long and short knives to kill oneself, but the Senate cafeterias are a bit more cheerful and conducive to digestion...
...Otherwise, it’s just good American pub food at moderate prices...
...This is a new delicafe on the Senate side of the Hill that can seat up to 80 people when it’s nice enough for the outdoor tables...
...No reservations...
...For $7.95 you get all the champagne, eggs, meat, and seafood you can eat...
...The restaurant is open from 10 am...
...to noon and 1:30 to 3:OO...
...This is a singles bar first and a restaurant second...
...10:30 p.m...
...No reservations...
...Friday and Saturday, 11:30 a.m...
...Expensive...
...Mike Palm’s, 231 Pennsylvania Ave...
...Many congressional aides like the Dubliner, so if you don’t like crowds, avoid lunch and happy hour...
...when Congress isn’t in session, it’s open 8 a.m...
...2 a.m...
...The food is mercifully American (Irish cuisine is a contradiction in terms) and 26 moderately priced...
...Here’s another place strictly for the expense-account crowd: it’s expensive, with unctuous service and mediocre food and the slightly sinister atmosphere of a legislative bookie joint...
...closed for lunch Saturday and all day Sunday...
...N.E., 5464488...
...Sunday-Thursday, 11 :30 a.m...
...midnight...
...Jonah’s Oyster Kitchen serves lunch 11 :30 a.m...
...Open seven days, 7 a.m...
...to 3 p.m...
...Machiavelli’s, 613 Pennsylvania Ave...
...A gandy dancer is an old-time railroad worker...
...closed Sunday...
...S.E., 546-2255...
...Tune-In, 331% Pennsylvania Ave...
...There’s a jukebox full of old tunes, and a cheerfully decadent atmosphere prevails...
...N.E., 546-9154...
...until whenever the senators leave the floor for the day...
...MondayFriday, 11 :30 am...
...Although this restaurant is attractive, it’s so crowded and noisy at lunch it should be called Crow and Raven...
...Tuesday-Thursday and Sunday, 5 p.m...
...S.E., 543-8337...
...Monday-Friday, 10 am...
...S.E., 544-2338...
...Like its twin in Georgetown, this charming French cafe offers pleasant, airy surroundings and excellent food...
...At lunchtime on weekdays there’s a soup/salad/sandwich buffet that’s a bargain at $2.95...
...Monday-Thursday, 10 a.m...
...Monocle, 107 D St...
...The service is terrible, but the soups are good, and the atmosphere improves markedly in the evening...
...this restaurant is so called because it’s near Union Station...
...There are two cafeterias on the House side and two on the Senate side, all four open Monday-Friday when Congress is in session...
...The Italianate decor is rather unfortunate, but the Club I1 serves reasonably good food at moderate prices...
...Saturday, noon - 7, p.m...
...MondayFriday, 11:30 a.m...
...midnight, seven days a week...
...Sunday, 10:30 a.m...
...Friday and Saturday, 11 :30 - 3 a.m...
...No credit cards or reservations...
...very little has changed since that incarnation...
...Dubliner Restaurant and Pub, 4 F St...
...Saturday, lunch only...
...Candy Dancer, 200 E St...
...Rotunda, 30 Ivy St...
...I miss the old grubbiness, but it’s still good food at good prices, with good people-watching too...
...As the timetable suggests, this is a place for working meals...
...There are three restaurants in this hotel...
...The worst of the lot is the Longworth Building cafeteria on the House side, which used to be a garage...
...upstairs is Yolanda’s, named after the Italian cook there...
...Sunday, 11 a.m...
...midnight...
...The homemade soups and specialities and the Greek salad are particularly good...
...The wall-hangings alone make this place a must (there’s kitsch of every description), but it also happens, rather incidentally, I think, that the food is quite good...
...The best deal at the Hyatt is the Sunday buffet brunch, sewed in the lobby from 11 a.m...
...Park Promenade offers three meals seven days a week, and is convenient, but not much else...
...Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m...
...Congressional Cafeterias...
...Hugo’s serves dinner only, 6 p.m...
...The Refectory, Capitol Building (ground floor, North Wing, Senate side), 2244870...
...You’ll get a good, light meal here...
...S.E., 543-1930...
...It’s justifiably uncrowded, but that means good service...
...10 p.m...
...S.E., 543-2725...
...The people who make Uncle Sammy run are out in force here, and the intangible air of self-importance is amusing-once...
...The service is attentive, and the prices moderate...
...closed Monday...
...Deli-Phone, 515 2nd St...
...The food is healthy, attractively prepared, and moderate in price...
...This used to be a cranky, unpretentious restaurant with no-nonsense waitresses and menu...
...Yolanda cooks only at dinner, when she produces sublime pastas...
...Though it’s not at a Joycean level of grubbiness, the Dubliner does have a noisy charm...
...weekdays, and until 11 p.m...
...Friday until 3 a.m...
...It’s expensive, but this is a good town for seafood, and it’s prepared appealingly here...
...Monday-Thursday, 10:30 a.m...
...4 p.m...
...N.W., 737-3773...
...Here you’ll find good, moderately priced Southern Italian cooking in a decor right out of a Jean Harlow movie...
...N.E., 546-3377...
...9 pm...
...2 a.m...
...One drawback: the tables are napkin-sized...
...This is by far the best government-operated restaurant on Capitol Hill...
...on weekends...
...Hawk and Dove, 329 Pennsylvania Ave...
...2 a.m...
...closed Sunday...
...Toscanini’s, 313 Pennsylvania Ave...
...and dinner 5:30 p.m...
...Jenkins Hill, 223 Pennsylvania Ave...
...S.E., 543-3300...
...La Ruche, 239 Massachusetts Ave...
...N.W., 737-1234...
...A popular singles place...
...closed Sunday...
Vol. 9 • December 1977 • No. 10
