D.C. Slices I absolutely love a good food truck. In practice I should hate them—I can’t stand waiting in line, I don’t really like standing in the heat and I usually like to eat my food at a table instead of teetering it on my elbow while checking my blackberry. All those things aside, I am a full on evangelical in the church of the food cart. Today I finally tried out D.C. Slices, the pizza oven on wheels coming to a densely populated location near you. I work on Capitol Hill and with all the restrictions for trucks in our general area, you really have to want it to trek down past North Capitol Street to get yourself some grub. And today, I wanted it. D.C. Slices is probably the most no frills of all the trucks in town—just pizza, on a paper plate. I went with the veggie, which was hot out of the oven and a Diet Coke for $5. My friend thought that was a deal, to me it seemed expensive. We’ll have to agree to disagree. The slices are huge—JUMBO you might even call them. And how did it taste? Good. Not great, but good. It really tasted like a way less greasy Jumbo Slice, which for most people is a great thing. I say if you are in the mood for pizza and the truck is roving your way that day, be there or be square. And since they make their pizza in the truck (sounds grosser than it is, radiator grilled cheese this is not) they are able to make whole pizzas with only about 10 minutes notice. So the next time you’ve made your office really mad by fighting loudly with your girlfriend about whether or not to change your Facebook relationship status to “in a relationship” or “it’s complicated” you can pick up a little something for the group. D.C. Slices

D.C. Slices

I absolutely love a good food truck. In practice I should hate them—I can’t stand waiting in line, I don’t really like standing in the heat and I usually like to eat my food at a table instead of teetering it on my elbow while checking my blackberry. All those things aside, I am a full on evangelical in the church of the food cart. Today I finally tried out D.C. Slices, the pizza oven on wheels coming to a densely populated location near you. I work on Capitol Hill and with all the restrictions for trucks in our general area, you really have to want it to trek down past North Capitol Street to get yourself some grub. And today, I wanted it.

D.C. Slices is probably the most no frills of all the trucks in town—just pizza, on a paper plate. I went with the veggie, which was hot out of the oven and a Diet Coke for $5. My friend thought that was a deal, to me it seemed expensive. We’ll have to agree to disagree. The slices are huge—JUMBO you might even call them. And how did it taste? Good. Not great, but good. It really tasted like a way less greasy Jumbo Slice, which for most people is a great thing. I say if you are in the mood for pizza and the truck is roving your way that day, be there or be square.

And since they make their pizza in the truck (sounds grosser than it is, radiator grilled cheese this is not) they are able to make whole pizzas with only about 10 minutes notice. So the next time you’ve made your office really mad by fighting loudly with your girlfriend about whether or not to change your Facebook relationship status to “in a relationship” or “it’s complicated” you can pick up a little something for the group.

D.C. Slices

Jul 20 2010

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View Food Trucks for Wednesday, July 7th in a larger map With this shortened week, none of us are actually doing any real work at our desks, right? Just mindlessly clicking Stumble, or hoping Lindsay Lohan does something insane enough to take up some of our day obsessing over. Well it’s a great big city out there, so why not take advantage of one of the city’s roaming food truck on your lunchbreak. Stuff that crappy turkey sandwich in a drawer, because it’s beautiful outside and the food is flowing. Since it’s so hot, making walking and thinking difficult, I’ve put together a little map to help you find all the tasty treats. But make sure to follow them on Twitter, because I won’t always feel this industrious. Curbside Cupcakes- (@curbsidecupcake) - 15th and M St. NW (only until noon!) D.C. Slices- (@dcslices) - 7th and Maryland, SW District Taco- (@districttaco) - Too hot today, in the garage El Floridano- (@FLmeetsDC) - Near the Foggy Bottom Metro Food Chain- (@foodchaindc) - 14th and U St. NW, North Capitol St. and E St. Fojol Brothers- (@fojolbros) - 7th and Maryland SW Rebel Heroes- (@rebelheroes) - N. Stuart Dr. & Fairfax Dr. (Ballston) Sauca 1- (@wheresauca) - North Capitol St. and Massachusetts Ave. NW Sauca 2- (@wheresauca) - Private parties all week Sweet Bites- (@sweetbitestruck) - 7th and Maryland SW Sweetflow Mobile- (@sweetflowmobile) - New Jersey Ave. and N St. SE There are a few more trucks coming to town in the near future, so put them on your radar too: Red Hook Lobster Truck - (@lobstertruckdc) I could not be more excited about the prospect of buying a lobster roll out of a truck. When I stop to think about it, it seems pretty dicey, but come on—you know these are going to be good. The truck has been popping up at events around town from time to time, but it looks like they’ll be up in full swing soon. Eat Wonky - (@eatwonky) Without a website up and running, it’s hard to tell what exactly they’ll be serving, but judging by their Facebook page, everything will have gravy on it. Nothing wrong with that. They are expected to be roaming the streets by August.


View Food Trucks for Wednesday, July 7th in a larger map

With this shortened week, none of us are actually doing any real work at our desks, right? Just mindlessly clicking Stumble, or hoping Lindsay Lohan does something insane enough to take up some of our day obsessing over. Well it’s a great big city out there, so why not take advantage of one of the city’s roaming food truck on your lunchbreak. Stuff that crappy turkey sandwich in a drawer, because it’s beautiful outside and the food is flowing. Since it’s so hot, making walking and thinking difficult, I’ve put together a little map to help you find all the tasty treats. But make sure to follow them on Twitter, because I won’t always feel this industrious.

There are a few more trucks coming to town in the near future, so put them on your radar too:

Jul 7 2010

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As a tride and true Washingtonian, I’m out of here for the 4th. I’ll be hopping on the uber-American Amtrak and heading to patriotic New York City to visit friends and hide from the sweaty tourists trying to find the Mall. If you are staying in town, read up on my suggestions for upscale picnic options on Sunday. What will I be doing, you ask? Well, I’m trying my very first pickle back shot which will either be the greatest or most disgusting thing I’ve ever had (follow me on Twitter for the play-by-play). I’m also going to try my hand at some patriotic cupcakes, which will most likely be a bust and turn in to me just covered in blue frosting, and I can’t think of anything more American than that. Enjoy the 4th and stay cool, Washington!

As a tride and true Washingtonian, I’m out of here for the 4th. I’ll be hopping on the uber-American Amtrak and heading to patriotic New York City to visit friends and hide from the sweaty tourists trying to find the Mall. If you are staying in town, read up on my suggestions for upscale picnic options on Sunday. What will I be doing, you ask? Well, I’m trying my very first pickle back shot which will either be the greatest or most disgusting thing I’ve ever had (follow me on Twitter for the play-by-play). I’m also going to try my hand at some patriotic cupcakes, which will most likely be a bust and turn in to me just covered in blue frosting, and I can’t think of anything more American than that. Enjoy the 4th and stay cool, Washington!

Jul 2 2010

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Check me out in this month’s DC Modern Luxury Magazine. I’m the one VERY INTENTLY taking a picture of my food. Pick it up in the store, or the digital version is online.

Check me out in this month’s DC Modern Luxury Magazine. I’m the one VERY INTENTLY taking a picture of my food. Pick it up in the store, or the digital version is online.

Jul 1 2010

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Reader Request: Best Non-Delivery Pizza Well folks, as you can see above, I make major sacrifices for this website. That would be seven pieces of pizza on my plate—actually, mostly in my belly but I don’t have a good enough camera to show you that. This past Friday night, four friends and I put our game faces on and took down enough pizza to feed the Gosselins AND the Duggars. Before we get in to the results, I first have to discuss the controversy among my friends. We will call it: Toppingsgate. Being a nice girl, I decided I would forgo the control group pizzas (which would be plain cheese pizza in this case) and just get different toppings on everything so we wouldn’t get bored. Apparently, this wasn’t received well by my friends. They believed that they couldn’t be objective when some samples had mushrooms, some had no sauce and some had no toppings at all. But, they put their issues aside and ate. Everyone ranked each slice on a one to five scale, with one being the worst pizza they ever had and five being life changing. Here are the results: 7. 2 Amys (3715 Macomb St. NW) - Shock me, shock me—2 Amys was the big loser of the night. I made a fatal flaw here in my ordering (the pizza had arugula that wilted as it sat a bit) but this was clearly the least favorite. The famous Neapolitan-style crust with it’s blistered bits didn’t go over very well at all. I’m usually a big fan of 2 Amys, but I have to agree with the crowd on this particular occasion—not good at all. EIGHT POINTS. 6. Pete’s New Haven Style Apizza (4940 Wisconsin Ave. NW) - Since Pete’s new Tenleytown location doesn’t have delivery established yet, they were still eligible for our taste test. Pete’s was the only thicker crust pizza on our menu, and it got mixed reviews and points mostly deducted for a too-sweet sauce. And though it didn’t effect the results, it should be noted that Pete’s was far and away the most expensive of all the pizzas at well over $20 for a large pizza with mushrooms. FOURTEEN POINTS.5. Comet Ping Pong (5037 Connecticut Ave. NW) - I’m a big fan of Comet Ping Pong, but it’s probably true that I love the restaurant itself enough to make the pizza taste a little better. That being said, Comet had a very good showing in our experiment. Keeping in mind that one taste tester hated my choice of toppings so much (potato, gorgonzola, lamb sausage and dates) that she tried to give it a zero rating. Not allowed, friend. Another friend wrote “potato, bleh” on his ballot. But still, Comet persevered. SIXTEEN POINTS.4. Radius (3155 Mr. Pleasant St. NW) - Radius made the list of participants only because I thought it would be the terrible pizza we would make funny comments about. In all honesty, I had never eaten at Radius before this little experiment, and hadn’t heard much about it, so just assumed it was nothing special. Well, I was quite wrong. It was like a really, really good frozen pizza—not much to look at, but a crispy crust with great flavor and not a bit greasy. We got the white pizza, and Julie wanted me to point out to everyone that she loved it even though she normally hates white pizza. A (Mt.) pleasant surprise! Zing! SEVENTEEN POINTS.3. Vace (3315 Connecticut Ave. NW) - I would go as far as to say that going in to Friday, Vace was the favorite. Or at least it had the most vocal fans. I am one such fan. The testers were once again torn, going as far as to write on their ballots “salty but awesome” and “salty but not awesome” in bigger and bigger font. The pizza was quite salty, but I didn’t really care. Vace has the best crust hands down, and a really flavorful sauce. Someone was a little heavy handed with the salt that night though. EIGHTEEN POINTS.2. SeventhHill (327 7th St. SE) - SeventhHill was the real dark horse in this competition. I stopped calling it by it’s name after a while and just called it “a pizza place near Eastern Market” because I got tired of no one knowing what I was talking about. Well colored me glad I picked this one up, because it was a total hit. Michelle deemed it “DELICIOUS” (written in humongous cartoon lettering) and Mike, die hard Vace fan that he is dubbed it “very tasty” and gave it the same score as his beloved Vace. NINETEEN POINTS.And the winner…by one tiny point is…1. Listrani’s (5100 MacArthur Blvd. NW) - Even with a score of one from Michelle, Listrani’s eeked out a win. It had a great crust that was somewhere between thin and thick, and the chicken, roasted red pepper and spicy tomato sauce topping was perfect. I’d go as far as to say it was the perfect amount of cheese too. And it’s true—Listrani’s does deliver, but I didn’t know that until after I had picked up our pizza, so it still counts, right? TWENTY POINTS. So there you have it folks. It was a tough competition and everyone gave it there all (well maybe not 2 Amys), but in the end it was the little guy from the ‘burbs that brought it home.

Reader Request: Best Non-Delivery Pizza

Well folks, as you can see above, I make major sacrifices for this website. That would be seven pieces of pizza on my plate—actually, mostly in my belly but I don’t have a good enough camera to show you that. This past Friday night, four friends and I put our game faces on and took down enough pizza to feed the Gosselins AND the Duggars. Before we get in to the results, I first have to discuss the controversy among my friends. We will call it: Toppingsgate.

Being a nice girl, I decided I would forgo the control group pizzas (which would be plain cheese pizza in this case) and just get different toppings on everything so we wouldn’t get bored. Apparently, this wasn’t received well by my friends. They believed that they couldn’t be objective when some samples had mushrooms, some had no sauce and some had no toppings at all. But, they put their issues aside and ate. Everyone ranked each slice on a one to five scale, with one being the worst pizza they ever had and five being life changing. Here are the results:

7. 2 Amys (3715 Macomb St. NW) - Shock me, shock me—2 Amys was the big loser of the night. I made a fatal flaw here in my ordering (the pizza had arugula that wilted as it sat a bit) but this was clearly the least favorite. The famous Neapolitan-style crust with it’s blistered bits didn’t go over very well at all. I’m usually a big fan of 2 Amys, but I have to agree with the crowd on this particular occasion—not good at all. EIGHT POINTS.
6. Pete’s New Haven Style Apizza (4940 Wisconsin Ave. NW) - Since Pete’s new Tenleytown location doesn’t have delivery established yet, they were still eligible for our taste test. Pete’s was the only thicker crust pizza on our menu, and it got mixed reviews and points mostly deducted for a too-sweet sauce. And though it didn’t effect the results, it should be noted that Pete’s was far and away the most expensive of all the pizzas at well over $20 for a large pizza with mushrooms. FOURTEEN POINTS.
5. Comet Ping Pong (5037 Connecticut Ave. NW) - I’m a big fan of Comet Ping Pong, but it’s probably true that I love the restaurant itself enough to make the pizza taste a little better. That being said, Comet had a very good showing in our experiment. Keeping in mind that one taste tester hated my choice of toppings so much (potato, gorgonzola, lamb sausage and dates) that she tried to give it a zero rating. Not allowed, friend. Another friend wrote “potato, bleh” on his ballot. But still, Comet persevered. SIXTEEN POINTS.
4. Radius (3155 Mr. Pleasant St. NW) - Radius made the list of participants only because I thought it would be the terrible pizza we would make funny comments about. In all honesty, I had never eaten at Radius before this little experiment, and hadn’t heard much about it, so just assumed it was nothing special. Well, I was quite wrong. It was like a really, really good frozen pizza—not much to look at, but a crispy crust with great flavor and not a bit greasy. We got the white pizza, and Julie wanted me to point out to everyone that she loved it even though she normally hates white pizza. A (Mt.) pleasant surprise! Zing! SEVENTEEN POINTS.
3. Vace (3315 Connecticut Ave. NW) - I would go as far as to say that going in to Friday, Vace was the favorite. Or at least it had the most vocal fans. I am one such fan. The testers were once again torn, going as far as to write on their ballots “salty but awesome” and “salty but not awesome” in bigger and bigger font. The pizza was quite salty, but I didn’t really care. Vace has the best crust hands down, and a really flavorful sauce. Someone was a little heavy handed with the salt that night though. EIGHTEEN POINTS.
2. SeventhHill (327 7th St. SE) - SeventhHill was the real dark horse in this competition. I stopped calling it by it’s name after a while and just called it “a pizza place near Eastern Market” because I got tired of no one knowing what I was talking about. Well colored me glad I picked this one up, because it was a total hit. Michelle deemed it “DELICIOUS” (written in humongous cartoon lettering) and Mike, die hard Vace fan that he is dubbed it “very tasty” and gave it the same score as his beloved Vace. NINETEEN POINTS.
And the winner…by one tiny point is…
1. Listrani’s (5100 MacArthur Blvd. NW) - Even with a score of one from Michelle, Listrani’s eeked out a win. It had a great crust that was somewhere between thin and thick, and the chicken, roasted red pepper and spicy tomato sauce topping was perfect. I’d go as far as to say it was the perfect amount of cheese too. And it’s true—Listrani’s does deliver, but I didn’t know that until after I had picked up our pizza, so it still counts, right? TWENTY POINTS.

So there you have it folks. It was a tough competition and everyone gave it there all (well maybe not 2 Amys), but in the end it was the little guy from the ‘burbs that brought it home.

Jun 29 2010

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Come one, come all! Though I don’t agree with the classification of Comet Ping Pong as a diner, drive-in or dive, the peeps over at Food Network certainly do and they are highlighting my favorite hipster pizza spot tonight on the aforementioned show. If you get too scared watching Guy Fieri’s hair without a few friends around, head over to Comet tonight for their viewing party. The details: Where: Comet Ping Pong (5037 Connecticut Ave. NW)When: Monday, June 28thWhat time: Party starts at 8pm, show starts at 10pm

Come one, come all!

Though I don’t agree with the classification of Comet Ping Pong as a diner, drive-in or dive, the peeps over at Food Network certainly do and they are highlighting my favorite hipster pizza spot tonight on the aforementioned show. If you get too scared watching Guy Fieri’s hair without a few friends around, head over to Comet tonight for their viewing party. The details:

Where: Comet Ping Pong (5037 Connecticut Ave. NW)
When: Monday, June 28th
What time: Party starts at 8pm, show starts at 10pm

Jun 28 2010

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Well hello, best day of my life.

Well hello, best day of my life.

Jun 27 2010

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Catch me if you can...I'll be periodically blogging at We Love D.C. now, so check me out there! Don't worry From Komi to Marvin fans, I haven't abandoned you.

Jun 25 2010

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Reader Request: Best Independent Ice Cream Shop

I have a real problem in the summer—I blame absolutely everything on the heat. And as a result I forget things, don’t blow dry my hair, don’t wear as much make-up, don’t really work out and am generally cranky. All in all, I’m a real hot mess. The only good thing about the heat is that it gives me a justifiable reason to eat ice cream. LOTS of ice cream. So yesterday, when the sign outside the Chinatown movie theater told me it was 105 degrees (hopefully that was a glitch, but it was damn hot) I took it upon myself to answer the reader request for the best independent ice cream shop. Surprisingly, there were only four of note in the lesser D.C. area. The results, as follows:

3. Larry’s Ice Cream (1633 Connecticut Ave. NW): Sadly, this joint was a real disappointment. It offered some interesting flavors (we tried banana split) but the control cup of vanilla was just gross. I thought it tasted really chemically, and a bit like it had melted and been refrozen. My friend was downright offended at how bad it was. The banana split flavor was better, but still not that great. The place does get points for hot duwop tunes and having the air conditioning turned to sub zero.

2. Thomas Sweet (3214 P St. NW): The award for longest line of the day goes to Thomas Sweet. I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that there are just too many delicious flavors and they give out tons of free samples. Master taster Lea was freaking out in line trying to decide what to get. She ended up with the chocolate malt with hot pink sprinkles. I had vanilla (got to get that control group) with Snickers on top. The toppings are serious business here—including but not limited to whole peppermint patties and nilla wafers. Lea was dead on with her observation that mine looked like “Snickers meatloaf on ice cream”. In the end, the ice cream was good, but not exactly ground breaking. Go for the ice cream, stay for the selection.
1. Max’s Best (2416 Wisconsin Ave. NW): In the end, our hearts were with Max’s Best ice cream. The vanilla was the most flavorful and creamy, and our special flavor, mango, was refreshing and not too sweet. I also love Max’s because they have a million pictures on the wall of kids post-soccer game and they close in the winter, which is just so mom-and-pop and adorable. I hope the rumors of a Sweetgreen opening next door aren’t true, I would hate to see Max driven out by corporate frozen yogurt.

So there’s your winner, folks: Max’s Best in Glover Park.

We also visited the Dairy Godmother in Del Ray, since it seemed unholy to not try the quintessential independent cutie pie shop. In the end though, they serve custard and I couldn’t really compare it to ice cream since they are just plain different. I will say that the Dairy Godmother was everything I thought it would be—wonderful custard and a kid-a-palooza. And you know it has to be a popular place with the kiddos if it had a sign like this on the door:

Jun 21 2010

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Kudos to Kushi (that’s a mouthful) for making their food accessible for the little ones without totally falling in to the grilled cheese and pizza pit of despair. For all the kiddos out there and the loved ones who take them to dinner, Restaurant Week for Kids is going on all week. eatkushi: Attention to all families with kids under 11yrs old: we’re featuring kids menu as part of DC Restaurant Week for Kids 6/20-6/27. You pay their age w/ purchase of adult entrée.

Kudos to Kushi (that’s a mouthful) for making their food accessible for the little ones without totally falling in to the grilled cheese and pizza pit of despair. For all the kiddos out there and the loved ones who take them to dinner, Restaurant Week for Kids is going on all week.

eatkushi:

Attention to all families with kids under 11yrs old: we’re featuring kids menu as part of DC Restaurant Week for Kids 6/20-6/27. You pay their age w/ purchase of adult entrée.

Jun 20 2010

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