August 13, 2008

food for thought

good evening all! before we begin, i'd like to make it clear that i am in NO WAY tipsy. nope. not me. tipsy-am-not, that's me.

(PSSSSSST. i'm lying! hee!)

so one of the fantastic things about dc, especially for a wannabe foodie like me, is the twice-annual Restaurant Week that a ton of local restaurants participate in. each place that plays along offers a prix fixe menu, generally 3 courses, with a few options per course to pick from. it used to be the price of the year - eg, $19.98 for dinner in 1998 - but inflation has gone up more than a penny per year, so in recent years it's been the year-amount for lunch ($20.07, for example) and an additional $10 for dinner ($30.07). inflation got involved this year, and dinner now runs $35.08... but for a three-course meal in places where the entrees run in the upper $20s to upper $30s, that's still a really decent price. and even more importantly, it's a really good excuse to go out to dinner a lot.

there are very few things that make me feel happier, more grown up, and more content with my life than heading to a nice restaurant, having a glass of good wine at the bar while i wait for people to show up, then sitting down to a full meal with friends.

last night i went classic french, tonight was american-infused continental, and tomorrow is all steak. saturday is moroccon, for my lovely friend alyssa's birthday.

i've always felt that i needed to live in - or somewhere with direct access to - a full city. this is one of the perfect examples of why. i need the people, the vibrancy, the bustle... but i also need the food :-)

12 comments:

  1. Sounds delicious! And I'm jealous at something that sounds so much fun!

    The economy ruins everything, huh?

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  2. Amen to that, sistah! Love how you're taking full advantage of the plate of opportunities! Kind of like Sweets and me with the theater. There's such great theater in Chicago and one of our favorites offers a "no-frills" subscription. 5 plays for $130. That's $26 per play. Really hard to beat. We just saw the last play in the series last night and loved it ... and moments ago, I just purchased our subscription again for next season. Isn't it great to really support the community in which you live?!

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  3. Ha! $35.08! They might as well give up connecting it to the year at this point.

    We have a local lunch place that's doing a "gas price special": lunch is the price of a gallon of gas at the nearby gas station.

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  4. That sounds awesome! Enjoy it!

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  5. Yum! And food is very, very important in life.

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  6. I LOVE restaurant week here! Can you believe I still haven't gone anywhere? I know, Marie big loser.

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  7. I always mean to do the NYC restaurant weeks too and never get around to it. I'm lame.

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  8. Torsten's landlord, whom I'd never even met, gave us a gift certificate to that steak place as an engagement gift (sweet, right?) and we went recently. It was great, actually. We were happily surprised. I hope it's great for you too! Have fun!

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  9. Mmmm I love good food. Vancouver also does that once a year - but they do it for two weeks. And then I am fat.

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  10. What an awesome idea! I wonder if Wellington ever does something like this...

    Even if it doesn't Wellington still rocks - We have a hotel here that does a chocolate buffet once a year for a week. All chocolate. All buffet.YUM

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  11. Gaaah! I'm so hungry now!

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  12. It's restaurant week here too! YAY!

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