DC Guide: Where to Eat

Illustration by Molly Jacques for Oh So Beautiful Paper

We really, really love to go out to eat, and over the past few years DC has become quite the foodie town!  There are a gazillion amazing restaurants and it seems like a new restaurant opens every other week.  There’s no way I could cover everything, but here is a quick list (in no particular order) of our favorite restaurants in DC:

Photo Credits: Birch & Barley (Left); Star Chefs (right)

Birch & Barley (14th Street/Logan Circle)  Truly fantastic German-inspired nouveau cuisine, and one of our long-time favorite restaurants in DC.  If it were just about the food, Birch & Barley would still be one of our favorite spots, but they also have a wonderful beer director who really knows his stuff and a huge beer list with amazing rotation on tap.  I took my husband here for his first nice dinner after returning from a 6-month deployment in Iraq, and for special occasions we love to order the tasting menu – which comes with beer pairings selected by the beer director that truly enhance each course.

Photo Credit: Standard via Leo Schmidt

Standard (14th Street)  With outdoor-only dining, Standard is a perfect way to spend a warm summer evening with a group of friends.  Somewhere between a BBQ joint and a beer garden, Standard has fantastic sandwiches, hot dogs and bratwurst (my husband had a fabulous mustard currywurst), and a plethora of battered and fried sides, along with a long list of American and German craft beers.  A quick head’s up: they run out of the brisket really early, particularly on busy nights – so plan ahead!

Photo Credits: Eater DC

Fiola (Penn Quarter)  Fiola has quickly become one of our favorite places to both eat and drink in DC.  Everything is amazing, from the antipasti (we love the charcuterie and cheese plate) to the secondi.  We’re huge fans of the gnocchi and pappardelle, and definitely don’t forget to save room for dessert!

Photo Credits: Toki Underground (left) and Thrillist (right)

Toki Underground (H Street) They serve the most amazing Taiwanese-style ramen noodle bowls – and it’s the best ramen you’ll ever have.  Seriously.  The restaurant is very small, so expect a wait even on weekday evenings, but you won’t be disappointed.

Photo Credit: Smith Commons

Smith Commons (H Street) A fun bistro-style restaurant, we’re big fans of both the food and cocktails at Smith Commons – and the dessert menu is simply amazing.  They offer outdoor dining in nice weather and a cozy indoor dining room that is perfect for date nights or larger functions – we brought our in-laws here with us during their last visit and they loved it!

Photo Credits: Washington Post

Seventh Hill (Eastern Market)  For a casual Friday night out, we love the terrific Neapolitan-style pizza made with super-fresh ingredients.  I also love that the pizzas are named for Capitol Hill locales, like the Navy Yard, Potomac Ave, and Lincoln Park.

Photo Credit: Washingtonian

DC-3 (Barracks Row)  I’m probably the only person who would count an aviation-inspired casual restaurant dedicated to gourmet hot dogs as one of my favorite spots, but it really just is that good.  From traditional Coney Island hot dogs with mustard and chili to a California-inspired falafel dog with avocado and tzatziki sauce, you really just can’t go wrong here.  Also, BEST FRIED PICKLES in all of DC.  Sooo good…

Read below for more a few more restaurant recommendations!
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DC Guide: The Gardens of Dumbarton Oaks

I couldn’t really capture the beauty of the gardens at Dumbarton Oaks in just a couple of images, so I hope you’ll indulge me with a few more photos!  The gardens were designed over the course of 30 years by landscape artist Beatrix Farrand – today the gardens feature wisteria everywhere, multiple garden terraces, an indoor “orangerie,” and beautifully landscaped flower beds.  So pretty!

 

Continue reading below for more from the gardens at Dumbarton Oaks…

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Happy News!

You guys, I’m thrilled to share some extra-special news with you today â€“ my husband and I are expecting our first baby!  I’m in my second trimester and we’re due in early October.  I’ll admit, I was really surprised by how tough the first trimester was, at least for me.  Exhaustion and nausea both kicked in right around 6 weeks, which made it really difficult for me to keep up with my normal work schedule and left me unable to eat anything other than crackers (and maybe a little fruit) up until a couple of weeks ago.  But thankfully my energy levels are back up and my appetite is mostly back, so now we’re feeling incredibly happy and excited to embark on this amazing journey!

Photo by me

Aaron + Harper’s Fingerprint Heart Wedding Invitations

Happy Monday everyone – I hope you all had a good weekend!  Fingerprints are such a sweet detail to incorporate into wedding invitations, so I was thrilled when husband-to-be Aaron Leshtz sent over the gorgeous invitations that he and his fiancée, Harper, designed for their upcoming wedding.  I’m also loving the playful RSVP card and fun kraft paper accents!

From Aaron and Harper: We designed our own wedding invitation suite.  We’re both architects and wanted to put together a clean, modern invitation suite that also had some playful elements (the “learning curve” font, overlapping fingerprints, etc.).  We’ve always loved brown kraft paper and the way it contrasts with crisp white paper, so we made sure to use it as an accent material in the suite.

 

For the fingerprints, we individually scanned our ring fingers and then traced the prints in AutoCAD (nerds, I know).  We overlayed the two fingerprints to create the heart and are using is as a graphic thread to tie together elements of the wedding.

Our wedding invitations were letterpress printed by Norman’s Printery in Wyckoff, New Jersey.  It is a 2-color design printed on cotton Lettra #110, ecru paper.

Thanks Aaron and Harper!

Design: Aaron Leshtz

Letterpress Printing: Norman’s Printery

Check out the Designer Rolodex for more tal­ented wed­ding invi­ta­tion design­ers and the real invi­ta­tions gallery for more wedding invitation ideas!

Photo Credits: Aaron Young Photography

Friday Happy Hour: The Mint Julep

Born and raised in the state of New York, I am a Yankee through and through – even though I now reside in the decidedly southern* city of Washington, DC.   That does not, however, preclude me from enjoying one of the South’s greatest culinary gifts to the world, the Mint Julep.

Read below for the full recipe!

The Mint Julep

2 oz Bourbon
1/2 oz + 1-2 Dashes Simple Syrup
Fresh Mint
Powdered Sugar

Fill a highball glass or, better yet, a silver julep cup a third to half full with fresh mint leaves (the smaller the better as these are the most fragrant).  Add 1/2 oz simple syrup and muddle gently – press down firmly but don’t grind up the leaves. Discard the mint, pressing out as much of the sugar and mint oils as you can. Fill the glass halfway with crushed ice, then add your Bourbon and a dash or two more of simple syrup, to replace what you lost with the mint leaves. Top with more crushed ice until there’s a nice mound on top.  Garnish with a sprig of mint (slap it against your palm a few times first to release the fragrance).  Get your straw, give it a bit of a stir, and dust it with some powdered sugar.

 

Sip slowly on the veranda.

The Mint Julep is a deeply refreshing drink.  Your Julep should taste, first, of Bourbon, but also minty, sweet, smooth, and ice cold.  Don’t skimp on the mint, but use it wisely: discard the mint once muddled, and don’t over-do it by grinding up the leaves.  You want to bruise the leaves to extract the flavorful oils, not unleash the leaves’ powerful and not-too-pleasant underlying vegetal flavors (much less end up with mint in your teeth).  Stop once the leaves start to change from bright green to brown or black.

Do not settle for Juleps with a paltry handful of mint leaves or, worse, artificial mint syrup.  You’re better than that!

 

The Julep goes back over a thousand years as a macerated, flavorful concoction, intended as medicinal but with dubious effect.  But the Julep we know and love today began to take shape in the late 1700s, and David Wonrich traced the first mention of mint in a Julep to 1802.  The Mint Julep was once widely popular throughout the country and widely imbibed in the North and the South, city and country.  Some time over the last century or so, the Mint Julep came to be closely associated with the rural, agrarian South – but that’s no reason we can’t enjoy them wherever we happen to be.  Especially in the summer.  Especially on a veranda.

Does it have to be Bourbon?  To a Southerner, anything else might be heresy.  But the earliest Mint Juleps were more likely to be made with Brandy than Bourbon.  Play around with this one: equal parts Brandy and Rye could be amazing in a drink like this.

*If it’s south of the Mason-Dixon Line (the border between Maryland and Pennsylvania), it’s in the South.  QED.

Photo Credits: Nole Garey for Oh So Beautiful Paper