81. Comet Ping Pong
Last night I finally tried out Comet Ping Pong, a neighborhood joint in a no-mans-land area of (I guess) Van Ness. Located among three picturesque gas stations in a particularly dark portion of Connecticut Ave, even with the giant Comet sign you might drive by every day and never notice this place. The outside is misleading though, once you’re inside the restaurant is expansive with mega-high ceilings which seem inspired by a middle school gym. The tables are reconstituted ping pong tables, and the chairs are mismatched flea market style finds. My only issue with the decor is the benches at the side tables are so uncomfortable it made metal bleachers seem like barcaloungers. Luckily though, it’s a restaurant with no pretense of formality so I felt no need to keep both feet on the floor and proceeded to get comfortable as soon as I sat down.
The menu is small but mighty, a couple appetizers of standard pizza place fare (wings, garden salads) and a few signature pizzas as well as a make your own option. The booze menu was twice as long as food menu with such hipster favorites as Dan’s Pale Ale (served in cans!) and Pabst. Wine service was a bottle uncorked and plopped on a table, with as many juice glasses as you needed. I have a feeling that stemmed wine glasses and ping pong do not mix. As for food, the four of us shared the lentil dip (which resembled hummus, but was more…lentil-y), and then three of the signature pizzas. The first we tried was The Smokey (smoked Gouda, sauteed mushrooms and onions, smoked mozzarella)—delicious and smokey (duh.). Next was the BBQuack (roasted duck, watercress and hoisin sauce), I ended up picking off most of the watercress since it seemed like it was just tossed on there right before being served. But once I got rid of the greenery it was seriously yummy and didn’t resemble the Peking Duck Tower of Pizza from California Pizza Kitchen in the least. Last we chose the Time Out (merguez sausage, potato, melted onions, Gorgonzola and dates), to be honest there were so many things on this one that I don’t think I really tasted any of the ingredients but nonetheless it was unique and tasty. And a great way to get sausage in to the meal. The crusts on all the pizza is really the showstopper, thin and salty but crispy enough to hold up all the toppings (especially a feat of physics with the Time Out). They are the size of large personal pizzas, so three pizzas with an appetizer was perfect for four girls.
The whole restaurant has a funny vibe—the Peach Pit meets some dude’s basement meets artisan pizza joint. We never actually got to play ping pong, even on a Sunday night there was a pretty long wait, but I had pizza in my belly so I didn’t care. I will have to go back though because the table of eight next to us ordered ice cream, and it came out in individual plastic kiddie cups that looked like they had been stolen from TGI Fridays. This is a place that I wish I had known about in high school, not only would I have eaten like a pizza king, but I would have finally reached my long time goal of becoming a ping pong hustler. There’s always next time though.
