Lima

After some sleuthing through my old gmail archives, I determined that June 21 is the anniversary of my arrival in the great "state" of District of Columbia*, and so to celebrate my making it four years here without succumbing to this city's migratory bug (or ever having to meet a lobbyist—-that I'm aware of), I decided to check out Lima. I seriously walk by this place constantly, seeing as it's about a block from my house, so it was high time to actually see what it was about.

It was approximately 1,000 degrees out, but we still braved the outdoor couches on the patio (I know, classy right? What place has outdoor couches?). Lima has happy hour specials on certain beers, wines and cocktails, but the main event was mojitos, which we ordered in big $29 pitchers...and promptly drank roughly a pitcher each**. They had mango!

The clear highlight of the night though was when this guy walked past the patio a couple times, and Ebo pointed out that he really looked like a character on Lost, to which Christina responded that she was 100 percent positive he was. Even cableless and TV-phobic as I am, I was pretty excited that this dude who kept passing us looking confused and "lost"*** may have actually been on television at some point. Just when we thought we'd missed our window of opportunity though, he walked toward us again and we nominated Ebo our ambassador to fame. He made the introduction and we got to talk to the guy for a while.

He was apparently there to go to a benefit for a refugee charity, cause, as he put it, now that he's been on TV and people know him he should, you know, probably actually do something. Later we also saw another dude from Lost that I totally didn't recognize (it may have been this guy? ...I could be totally wrong about that). So woohoo for me, only four years in this city and I finally see someone who's recognizable...just not to me.

Afterward we went to the Post Pub and got pitchers of Sam Summer, diner food and free shots from the waitress cause she enjoyed all of our best drunk stories. And at one point someone put my favorite INXS song on the jukebox.

Best anniversary ever.

*I technically started out in Maryland, but.....shhhh
**But who's counting?
***I'm so hilarious

Kushi

For my K, I decided to check out the new sushi bar and "izakaya" in Mount Vernon Square, Kushi. You could still wear your shoes and there wasn't any raw horse on the menu, but it still felt pretty authentically Japanese to me (cute bartender and all).

Kushi is part of the new revival just east of my place, which is awesome for me. The CityVista condo building has a host of cool eateries, including another Busboys and Poets location and a (squee!!!) Taylor Gourmet sandwich shop. Even the New York Times recognized that good things are happening in this area.

The place has a hip and classy vibe, and the drinks were priced as you might expect in that setting, but they had pretty decent happy hour specials until 8. We had *strong* Japanese-style margaritas (and the cutie bartender gave us an extra that he had "accidentally" left over), so we made out pretty well for under $10. I also appreciated the wide selection of Japanese liquors, like shochu, that aren't always that easy to find here.

We didn't try the sushi this time, but the selection here also seemed pretty broad. They even offer otoro, though they do specify that it's limited. I didn't think the sushi prices seemed all that unreasonable either, especially considering that everything we saw looked pretty amazing.

My verdict is that I will definitely go back, and I will try to have a shot at that sushi if I can stop myself from ordering Taylor's when I'm right next door....

J Paul's

I'd had some experience with J Paul's back at last fall's Buffalo Battle wing contest. Definitely enjoyed the wings then, but I'd never made it to the bar, so it was about time. With specials on rail drinks and oysters, I was plenty glad I did. Never met an oyster I didn't like.

Irish Channel

I've had no shortage of experience with the area's Irish bars, but for some reason the Irish Channel hadn't yet made my list.

I knew they poured a good pint of Guinness from watching their bartenders at Fadó's Perfect Pint Pouring Competition, so I figured it was time to see for myself. And since my birthday is two days before St. Paddy's day and I'm full blown Irish, I figured this might not be a bad place to celebrate (before the crowds descended).

The bar struck me as one of most authentic Irish place's in the city. It managed to transport me to the Emerald Isle without any of the Disneyland theatrics of some of the region's other Irish bars (what's the thinking behind that Druid corner of Fadó anyway?). The bartenders were friendly and smart, and all in all it was a great time.

Their happy hour special is a dollar off drafts, but it sadly doesn't include Guinness or cider.

Harry's Saloon

For my H, I had originally picked Hard Times Cafe, a DC-area chili chain that serves things like spaghetti covered in chili and tater tots covered in chili (as you may know, my next endeavor is going to be mapping all the places that serve tater tots, so that part's exciting to me). They also randomly have discounted martinis on Wednesdays and one of them has Tang in it. I've since been here, but before that I decided to switch it up and make it Harry's Saloon instead.

The reason behind this was really pretty basic. It's only a few blocks from my house and really close to The Occidental, which was having an awesome special that we were taking advantage of. So I thought, why not? We'll kill my H bar now.

This certainly wasn't a bad place, but I can't say I'm dying to go back. It was really more like a diner, with a bunch of families around who were probably staying at the weird ass "tourist hotel". Whatever that means. It kind of reminded me of a place like the Post Pub, kinda cool in its dirty way, but you can't really figure out why it's lasted so long in the middle of downtown.

They had big frosty mugs of beer though, which is always a plus. Not too expensive either.

Glory Days Grill

The G bar was a bit of a sticking point. I originally picked Gin and Tonic, but since it's not metro accessible, nobody ever really wanted to go. Plus I realized I'd actually been there before (sort of) when it used to be the Grog and Tankard.

The solution fell into my lap when we went to a Caps game and the team scored five goals--this means everyone in attendance gets free wings at Glory Days Grill. It's a little bit of a pain, since there are exactly 0 locations within D.C. proper, but the lure of freeness motivated us and we trekked out to wherever the f. Fairfax or something. I don't know, I didn't drive.

Strip mall country does have its advantages though, and there was cheap beer to be had. They also had a $5 burger special and Ebo got that in addition to his 12 wings (somehow).

The best part was that they had boneless wings...delicious fried crispy chicken-like niblets covered in spicy sauce without anything resembling an animal body part. Love it.

And did I mention that they were free? That part was great.