Just FYI: I don't do "maybe a drink after the wife & I have had an evening alone." If you're gonna be a bear be a Grizzly.
Convention center area for you again?
Hopefully we can get together.
Bump for 2019.
Spending two days (Saturday and Sunday) in DC with the wife. I've never been. The in-laws are coming up on Sunday and I'm sure they'll have a whole itinerary so really I have one full day. What should I do/see? I've always lived out west so interested to experience the history, culture, and politics that I don't get in CO.
Also, updated restaurant recs welcome. We're staying at an AirBnB at 20th and F Street.
All the museums are free and there's a ton of them (Air and Space is always good one but it's under renovation and partially closed, so I dunno). This recent thread has some info: https://www.tetongravity.com/forums/...ght=washington
Walking down by the White House should get you some feeling for politics, The Old Ebbitt Grill is right around the corner and has something for everyone. Tons of good restaurants in town, it comes down to what you like and want pretty much.
Was there not long ago for a convention, so we stayed at the Marriott at the convention center, duh. Outsider's perspective:
Ate at Old Ebbitt, which I wouldn't do again, but I would go to the place for a drink and check it out.
Loved All Purpose Shaw for pizza. Especially since we ate at a lot of more fancy places.
I went to African American, Holocaust, Space, Natural History, Sackler, and Gallery of Art. The surprise was the International Spy Museum, which is private, but was way cooler than I thought it would be. All the monuments are cool.
Well maybe I'm the faggot America
I'm not a part of a redneck agenda
Re: breakfast
Cheap grab n go bacon & egg places:
- GW delicatessen
- Uptowner cafe (less remarkable)
Coop/farm to table, little more expensive but not crazy:
- founding farmers
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For where you are, Founding Farmers is a good sit down breakfast per the above. The GW student center on 21st between G and H has a bunch of grab options in two locations, not sure about how early on weekends they open, my office is around there.
If there are no Five Guys where you are, great burger and fries, they are all over. Ebbit for drinks, not food, just make sure you go to the old front bar with gas lights and animal heads. Another old school DC bar is the Occidental, very near Ebbit but will be less active, or walk through the Willard Hotel lobby, where the term lobbyist originates, and have a drink at the Round Robin. For restaurants, the Blue Duck, nearish to where you are staying, is very very good. If you want to go a bit less expensive in that neighborhood, Rasika for Indian or RIS. If you have time for only one Smithsonian, go to American History, it’s all the stuff you’ve heard of (Dorothy’s ruby slippers, Julia Child’s kitchen, star spangled banner, etc). If you are around the Penn Quarter area, RedApron, above, makes awesome sandwiches. Also lots of decent lunch choices in that area.
If you are a fan of western landscapes/Hudson River School, very good collection at the National Portrait Gallery.
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I wouldn't go out for dinner at the Ebbitt but for lunch it's pretty decent. It's convenient, it's a big place and they can get you in and out, the surroundings are nice and they have a wide variety of stuff to eat. I stand by it. It's not a great restaurant but they're really good at what they do there.
But I'm sure I'm prejudiced since I worked for Clyde's and opened that restaurant (I was a minor part of what was a major undertaking) about 30 years ago. Executive chef is still the same guy as back then.
A good place for lunch or a light dinner just a few blocks from the Ebbitt is Central Michel Richard, or at least it was good before Michel Richard died back in 2016, it's probably still good. http://www.centralmichelrichard.com
Last edited by iceman; 12-20-2019 at 02:52 PM.
^ agree with Iceman, for a decent timely lunch +1. Destination dinner, not so much. Back in the day, a great after work spot.
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Wow, almost 14 years later…PAGING TIPPSTER! (I PM’d Rontele, reply was in Austrian?)
Is most of the stuff in this thread still relevant? Going for Spring Break with 16 y.o. Kiddo. Looking for great ethnic foods, but not really looking for pricey. Will Uber to whatever. Assuming the Mall stuff is generally still relevant.
Requested a W. H. Tour through our lovely senator.
I did most of the common stuff as a kid, but whatever.
Any new beta since the world got all fucked?
Wanna meet for crab cakes?
Peruvian?
Oaxacan?
Forum Cross Pollinator, gratuitously strident
Haven’t read the above thread. Was there in November. This was my third time in DC.
Did a tour of the capitol building this time and got passes to go in to see senate and Congress in session - worth it IMHO.
Had tickets timed for just after that so we could go through the underground tunnel to library of congress - the library probably isn’t gonna be that interesting to a lot of teenagers - but I thought it was worth half an hour of looking around but not much more.
Had tickets to skip the line to the National Archives - again probably not gonna be engaging for teenagers beyond a quick glance at the Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution - but there is a small museum with other displays of some interesting stuff.
Got tickets to go up the monument by showing up at the ticket booth in the morning - was super easy - tickets were for later in the day. Was more interesting than I thought it would be going up to the top.
The air and space museum’s 2nd location out at Dulles airport was amazing - space shuttle, SR71, F14, the Ebola Gay etc. Worth seeing in addition to the one on the mall - downside is that it’s a drive to get out there and back and you’d want to time that around traffic (or go out earlier on the day of departure if flying out of Dulles)
Ask your cab driver where he's from and then where his favorite ethnic restaurants are at.
So much great stuff hidden in DC besides the world class art and history. Amazing small art galleries, food stores, historical places. Museum of Natural history, American history and the Corcoran gallery, National Gallery of Art. Air and space is mindboggling too. Dulles location is best.
I get up really early and ride the Capital Ride Share bikes thru the Mall. You can knock off almost all the Monuments in a couple hours.
havent been there in forever but the local local places were strip malls in the never ending burbia, DC proper was higher end (and not bad). Embassy type things could have good stuff or be proximate to it.
you used to be able to get a reader card at the LOC for no cost; they had weird ski books. Like a book by Anselme Baude
I don’t know what happened post 9/11 at the Capitol but at one point visitors could ride the subway between the office building at the Capitol.
All kinds of weird rituals in DC, and weird cultural opportunities, and to me DC is some blend of sleazy politicians fucking their interns, popped collar polo shirt dickheads that drop their wedding ring on the floor to try and get laid, people from one of 190+ countries desperately proud of themselves and willing to share weird corners of the world, and smart people trying to get shit done
We might do a night or two in Baltimore as a change of scene. I lived there as a kid, and would love to go back and drive by the tiny family home we could afford, tour the John’s Hopkins Campus (my dad worked there), etc, etc.
Forum Cross Pollinator, gratuitously strident
Planet Word, (Word Museum), was waaay better than expected. Pow Pow vegan next door was way better than expected as well. Spy Museum, (private museum), was fun too. Kids would like both places. The word museum had karaoke that one pile of kids after another would do. Cracked me up.
Well maybe I'm the faggot America
I'm not a part of a redneck agenda
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