This is my twice yearly public service blog about Restaurant Week in DC (August 16 – 22). Do you take advantage of this? Restaurant Week takes place twice a year, once in the frigid cold of the post-holidays and then again in the dog days of August. Times when diners are likely to be few. For all the details, Google “restaurant week dc.” For those out of the area, many cities schedule these. A three course lunch (starter, main, and dessert) is only $20.10.
We’ve been doing this for a few years now. We have a group in our office that book lunch at some participating eatery every day of the bargain week. Not the same folks for every place. You know, some really like Italian, but aren’t so keen on Indian, whatever. I’m pretty adventurous when it comes to food; Ethiopian, Peruvian, bring it on. Pass the curried goat, would you? Some folks, eh. Meat and potatoes. If you like to explore new cuisines, like I do, it helps to know a lot of different folks. I usually book for six and we always manage to fill the table. The upshot for the customer is that you get to try one of those $50 and up places at a discount price. And the restaurant hopes that if you like the meal, you will be back.
We have our favorites, places we revisit anytime we can get a deal. Our group likes any place by chef Jeff Tunks; DC Coast, Ceiba, Acadiana, or TenPenh. This time we’re revisiting Acadiana but we try to check out places we have never been before. This year, we are going to Vidalia and the J&G Steakhouse in the W Hotel (formerly the Hotel Washington). We have also booked The Palm and 14K, perennial favorites.
Well, you get the idea. Events like this are a great benefit of working in Washington and make a welcome change from that styrofoam container of noodles from the grazing bar. Its only a week, budget for it both diet-wise and monetarily and you should survive. The best part of it is that you get to eat with friends, always a plus. You can book online for most of these at www.opentable.com a free reservation service. The tables go quickly.
The next week (August 20 – 29) is Restaurant Week in Alexandria, Virginia.
Oh, yes, I started a group here on Gov Loop called Gov Gourmet which is dedicated to discussions on food and drink. If you are interested, please feel welcome!
Since Frederick City is wanting to be a hip and happening place, they should start a restaurant week for Frederick County. That would be awesome! Now that I’ve moved from Alexandria it’s hard to get to the restaurant week activities, it makes me sad. Oh well.
Gee, Pam, maybe you can “schedule” a meeting at Main Commerce that week and take the shuttle… 🙂
Here’s a list of the restaurants participating, with links to make a reservation:
http://washington.org/restaurantwk/
It will also tell you if they are doing lunch or dinner or both!
Great! The Open Table link (in the blog) will take you right to the DC Restaurant Week reservation page, with links for lunch and dinner reservations. With Open Table garner enough points (100 points per reservation) and you can get checks good at all the restaurants. I’m sitting on a $20 credit right now.. 🙂
There is also Bethesda-Chevy Chase’s and Alexandria’s Restaurant Weeks to take advantage of. Bon Appétit!
Yummm…jealous.