There are a number of restaurants in Georgetown that, for whatever reason, I’ve simply never noticed. In fact, a large cluster of restaurants barely a block away from one another, just a few steps south of M street. On a whim, Jen and I decided to give one of the Italian restaurants, il Canale, a go.

This two story restaurant greets you with a host table to your left, and a giant wood burning pizza oven to your right, where pies are cooked to D.O.C. Neapolitan perfection, certainly close to being as good as 2Amy’s but without the hike or the wait.

We were seated on the 2nd floor of the restaurant, which has a private patio for additional seating during warm DC spring and summer months.  Seating is cozy, but not so tight that you have to contend for elbow room at your own table with the people sitting next to you.

So let’s get to brass tacks.

The Frittura Di Calamari E Zucchine, crispy calamari and zucchini with a marinara sauce, is executed in superb fashion. A nice crisp batter on fresh calamari, not too much oil, and the wrapped lemon is nice touch. A highly recommended appetizer.

The Margherita D.O.C. pizza (well done, of course) here is, as I said, about as good as some of the other top Neapolitan pizzeria houses in the District. Buffalo mozzarella and fresh basil to top it off,  This one barely made it on camera before being completely devoured by me the two of us.

But just because you order a pizza, doesn’t mean you can’t still put in an order for some pasta, too. So we did just that, ordering up the Gnocchi Al Filetto Di Pomodoro- ricotta dumplings drowning in a pool of cherry tomato sauce, served with just a hint of buffalo mozzarella and olive oil, topped with a few more leaves of fresh basil. Pow.

There aren’t many reason NOT to like il Canale. The restaurant is contemporary, service is good, and the Italian food is as good and unpretentious as it gets. Prices for everything we ordered were more than fair, and portions sizes, one of my biggest gripes at many supposedly top tier restaurants, is not even remotely an issue.

The one thing that this restaurant does have going against it is that it competes in a sea of Italian establishments all over DC, without many notable exceptions that really make it stand out from the rest, which very realistically, is quite a feat to accomplish. Like dropping your aunt’s heirloom ceramic egg when drunkenly admiring it over Thanksgiving dinner after one too many bourbons and catching it in mid-air from utter destruction.

I don’t know where that was going.

I’d happy go back and try this place again.

See il Canale on a map here.

Recommended For:

• Vatican Visitations
• Vegetarians
• Blind Dates
• Pastafarians

Not Recommended For:

• Papal Paleoheads
• Zone Dieters
• Taking Out the Dalai Lama to Dinner
• Boozy Fourthmeals

Jen and I had to really keep an eye out in trying to find Aditi at night. The evening air was electric with life in Georgetown. We almost passed by the restaurant twice in our search for the place, with a tiny awning just above the front door barely proclaiming its existence, squelched to barely a murmur next to the bright lights of Georgetown Cupcake across the street. I’ve roamed up and down M street (the main street that cuts through Georgetown’s Business District) many times, and I can’t say I’ve ever seen or heard of this place. My lack of knowledge, however, should not speak as the brevity of Aditi’s existence, as their menu states that they’ve held their very location for well over 20 years.

The first floor you come to greets you to a hostess stand, with a short set of stairs up to a bar. Another flight of stairs leads you farther up to the main dining area, lined with more floor to ceiling mirrors and dimly glowing lights than a porn star’s bedroom at night. Jen noted that it gave the space a much larger appearance, while I noted that it was great for people watching as from our seats, you could see every single other patron in the room.

Nobody’s going to come running up behind me to stab a knife into my back.

I ordered the Majaraha Platter (natch), a cornucopia of meat, which the French would kindly call “La Degustation”.  Everything from lamb, chicken, beef, and shrimp, this was probably the best way to sample all of Aditi’s meats.  Nothing extraordinary, but the quality was good, with nary a dry meat offering on the plate.  The sauteed vegetables were fairly mediocre, but the fact that the order comes with a small basket of naan makes up for where the vegetables and rice lack.

If I had realized this dish came with it’s own bread, I don’t think we would have ordered a separate basket of mixed breads as well.

Stacked with enough puffed grains covered in butter to give a flock of pigeons all coronaries, the breads here are very good, especially to wrap the meats in the Majaraha Platter.  I particularly liked the onion bread, but given that I don’t eat breads or grains at all during the week, this stuff was little more than a basket of delicious crack to me.

What?

What do you mean crack’s not delicious?

Jen went with her Indian cuisine favorite, the Chana Masala.  I think she’s the region leading expert on Chana Masala by now.  Her verdict?  The dish was good, but it lacked any sort of spiciness that she was expecting.  In fact, it turns out this version of the chickpea dish was about as spicy as a glass of milk.

The service here is reasonable, with several wait staff always hovering about, quick to fill your glass of water and attend to your every need.  The location is also great for that post shopping meal when you’re looking for something slightly more ethnic than pizza, but just ever so.  The indian cuisine here has been dulled down to the basic ingredients and offerings, with none of the exoticness of true Indian fare.  It’s not to say that any of the food here is bad, but the dishes do their best to be as inoffensive to the palette as possible.

The portions and prices here are, however, quite appealing, and it’s nice to have something different than what you’d expect to find in the neighborhood.

See Aditi Indian Cuisine on a map here.

Recommended For:

• Plain Janes
• Vegetarians
• Bread Buffs
• People Who Own Rotating Beds

Not Recommended For:

• A Party In Your Mouth
• Palette Discos
• First Dates
• Wedding Receptions
• People Who Like To Play Bloody Mary

Georgetown is filled with numerous unique concept restaurants, but despite being along the waterfront, the neighborhood doesn’t exactly evoke images of fine seafood offerings. In fact, I can’t think of any place that really emphasizes seafood as the focus of the establishment. Most places here are generally focused around the retail shops, the bar scene, and a scattering of restaurants, each pursuing their own theme and goals. So why not a seafood setup?

Two, in fact.

Hook and Tacklebox are a pair two seafood focused dining establishments; the former, a more upscale dining experience, while the latter is more of a rustic, beach shack, fast seafood type of experience.  Both are owned by the same group, located directly next to one another on M Street, serving two different groups of clientele built upon the idea of serving sustainably caught fish.  A good, forward thinking notion, no?

I went all out for lunch at Tacklebox, starting with the Fish Tacos.  Two tilapia tacos with cole slaw served on warm corn tortillas for $8, these things are spectacular.  Feel free to up the ante to three tacos for an additional $3, and be sure to not spill any on yourself, a disaster I narrowly avoided.  These things are off the hook good.

Fish Tacos

I also ordered the Maine meal: Your choice of fish, two sides, and a sauce.  I opted for bluefish, accompanied by sweet potato fries, mac and cheese, and a bit of tartar sauce to dunk everything in for $13.

Some people might complain that, for $13, you’re not really getting your money’s worth here.  The crispy grilled fish fillet is a tad on the small size, weighing in somewhere around 2.5 to 3 oz, and the sides are tasty, but not outstanding.  To that, you have to remember that most meats in this country are HEAVY subsidized or acquired through non-sustainable practices, so what’s the real cost here?  A few extra dollars towards a few more days in our lives with fish as a viable source of food is worth it, in my opinion.  The mac and cheese here is actually pretty good- a thick, creamy consistency, with soft elbow macaroni noodles, done just right. The sweet potato fries are a nice offering on the menu, but were less crispy and more soggy and limp upon arrival.  Luckily, the fish here is perfect.  Flaky and slightly charred on the outside, tender and soft on the inside, I was tempted to go back and order another fillet.

The Maine Meal

Except I had already ordered and received the coup de grace, their famous and self-proclaimed “Best Blueberry Pie in DC”.  How did it do?

Blueberry Pie

This this is PACKED with blueberries and light on the sugar and other fillers, topped with a thick crust and served on a paper plate, this thing had no chance in hell making it out alive.  I’m no blueberry pie connoisseur,  but this is a damn good blueberry pie, and an excellent way to finish off a meal here.

So what’s missing?  What’s the one side dish that you think of when you picture beach restaurants in your head?  For me, it came down to just one thing, the seasoned and fried bread balls known as hush puppies.  Maybe it’s the the fact that they things are so bad for you that only adds to the appeal to me, but they simply aren’t on the menu.  A conversation with the staff informed me that it was a conscientious decision by the owners to omit the offering from the menu board.  Without speaking to the owner as to why the decision was made, I can’t see how you can see any seafood restaurant worth its salt without them, but then again, I’m sure there’s a good reason for it.  Maybe they’re still working on the perfect recipe for them.  Maybe they can’t find a way to sustainably acquire the ingredients for them.  Maybe there’s an opportunity here for me to run a food cart selling them outside…but without them, I can’t justifiably say that I totally had my cravings fulfilled.

So what’s the cost of investing in the future?  Is it worth the hike in price?  Or can the high prices just be attributed to the exorbitant rent fees of having an establishment in the heart of Georgetown’s commercial district?  Luckily, I was able to shave off half of my meal through the likes of online group-coupon sites like Living Social, so a $30 meal turned into $15 seemed perfect.  Had I not, however, maybe I would have made an entirely different selection of dishes. Still, it’s nice to see that some people are considering what world we’ll have in a few decades, and if they can make taste as good as the fish from Tacklebox, I might just have to do it.

‘Might’ can be transformed into ‘definitely’ if you guys started making some hush puppies, Tacklebox.  Hint, hint!

See Tacklebox on a map here.

Recommended for:

• Pescetarians
• Beach lovers
• Paleo heads
• Blueberry Buffs
• Sea Captain Horatio McAllister

Not Recommended for:

• Vegans
• Vegetarians
• Landlubbers
• Zone Dieters
• Frugalistas

As a disclaimer, I’ve covered this place before, but I felt it deserved it’s own writeup.

Baked & Wired is a little shop just off M St., the main road that cuts through Georgetown in DC. It doesn’t particularly stand out with its storefront sign, mostly discernible with the bright ass neon Barbie pink Huffy parked out front. How the hell can you miss that thing? If aliens decided to attach Earth starting with Georgetown (if aliens attacked Earth the should start with Georgetown), they’d probably see how bright this bike is and get scurred off from the intensity.

Baked & Wired's storefront. Check for cryptic Masonic writings in chalk on the brick outside.

Once you’re inside, you’ll notice that the place is split into the coffee bar on the right, and the baked goods extravaganza on the left. The coffee bar offers every sort of caffeinated drink you could want, and a host of quiches as well.

The real draw of this place, though, are the cupcakes. Pharaohs have traveled halfway across the world for these cupcakes. Michael Jackson gave up the other white rhinestone glove for the last Pretty Bitchin’ Cupcake before his passing. Axl Rose was given a charity cupcake if he promised to never to release another Guns’N'Roses album after Chinese Democracy.

True stories. That’s how good these things are.

Cupcakes make a better display that severed heads. Happy Halloween!

Jen and I popped in for our Sunday morning cupcakes. We split two between us, the Spice cupcake, which had hints of Chai, and the Pumpkin cupcake, both of which are seasonal cupcakes that aren’t in the regular rotation.

Spice Cupcake

Both of the cupcakes were phenomenal, although the Pumpkin cupcake had a better serving of frosting on top, and a much moister cake base. The Spice cupcake held it’s own, although was slightly less satisfying of the two.

If you’re ever in Georgetown or are looking for a good cupcake, I would say you’d be pretty hard pressed to find a better one that the ones at Baked and Wired. You can view them on a map here.

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Dark restaraunts and point'n'shoot cameras do not mix well.

Agraria Farmers & Fishers is one of a string of businesses that have taken up residence at a large space on the Georgetown waterfront. Having been by that place numerous times throughout the years, it would seem that that particular location just has some bad luck running through it with the amount of turnover, and Agraria is the latest in establishments who are out to see if they can break that streak.

The restaurant is huge. Absolutely huge. For a place that’s owned by the North Dakota Farmer’s Union, you’d think these country boys have more money than they know what to do with. The decor is a strange mix of down-home country details with modern textures and architecture which takes a little while to get used to, but turns out to be a really well executed implementation of the idea. Giant mason jars of preserves line the bar, back-lit with soft lights and coupled with hard liquor. The tableclothes are the vinyl checkered pattern you see at country BBQ restaurants, and the floral covered booths are a nod to the look so popular in the Midwest. Even the wait staff is decked out in rumpled plaid shirts and jeans, all tying in to the theme of a modern, high-end country restaurant.

Agraria's booths

The menu is extensive, to the point where it’s completely overwhelming. Menu items are broken out to sections, but still, there are a number of choices of delicious dishes, all using locally sourced foods (when possible) straight to salivating mouth. So locavores will be extremely happy to see that Agraria meets their own dietary restrictions and needs.

The one problem that we encountered was that the restaurant was out of bleu cheese sauce and goat cheese, so all the dishes using those two ingredients were off the availability list. This turned out to be a fairly big problem for Jen, as almost all the dishes she could eat as a vegetarian were immediately stricken from the list. Still, she’s a trooper, and made do with her selections.

She started off with the butternut squash soup. Creamy and sweet, it’s a perfect dish to enjoy as the weather starts getting colder outside. A definite winner for both of us. Much better than the Steamy Bowl of Rocks and Salty Cheese Soup, which I’ve heard they have removed from the menu from rather unanimous (un)popularity.

Butternut Squash Soup

Her main course was the Housemade Papardelle with Heirloom Tomatoes and Roasted Garlic. She wasn’t a fan of this at all, but she doesn’t really enjoy savory starches, and the flavor was very subtle with this dish, with an emphasis on the garlic flavor rather than being covered in a thick creamy sauce, which probably would have appealed to her more. She gave up on this dish less than a third of the way through, to which, as her doting boyfriend, I resigned to finishing it for her. That included the mandatory thumping of my chest and screaming in triumph after I had done so.

Every.

Last.

Bite.

Papardelle Noodles with Heirloom Tomatoes and Garlic

I thought the Papardelle noodles were off the chain good. I love thick cut noodles like this, even thicker and wider than fettuccine, which is a rarity to see being offered.

I ordered the Chocolate Dipped Bacon Lollipops, which were fantastic. If I had one complaint, it would be that there just wasn’t enough bacon that came with the dish for the price. Six chunks of bacon skewered and dipped in milk chocolate, served on an apple. It’s been a concoction I’ve been waiting for the right opportunity to try, and it did not disappoint. Who would have though that bacon and chocolate were as natural of a combination as some of the finer things in life. Kool-Aid and sugar. Peanut butter and jelly. Ham and burger. Classic.

Chocolate Dipped Bacon Lollipops

Next up, I ordered the Grilled Baja Heritage Truck-Style Tacos. A triplet of tacos in fresh made corn tortillas, served with a cup of fresh salsa and a cup of cream sauce (I wasn’t sure exactly what the sauce was, but damn it was tasty) and well put together. The tacos were just filled enough so that none of the ingredients would fall out (sturdy tortillas that don’t break are also crucial here) but not under-filled to the point where you would feel that you’re not getting your dollahs worth. Not the best tacos I’ve had in DC, but decent.

Heritage Truck-Style Baja Fish Tacos

And then there’s the main course. The Sweet Potato Gnudi. These people don’t dick around, you either the full Gnudi here, or you get shown the door.

All Gnudi...but tastefully done!

Really though, in comparison to Kora’s gnudi, this one doesn’t even compete at the same level. Kora’s gnudi wins, hands down. The amount of gnudi on the plate was a bit lacking, so it was good that I had ordered the tacos as a second appetizer, and the fact that I had Jen’s Pappardelle to close. The gnudi here isn’t nearly as smooth and has a texture reminiscent of gnocchi. It still satisfies my dumpling desires, but their version of a full gnudi is really a half gnudi. And as anyone can tell you, when you only get a half of the amount gnudi you’re expecting at night, you’re going to go home with some sadness in the pants.

Sweet Potato Gnudi in a Sage and Citrus Butter Sauce and a Balsamic Glaze

It’s nice to have a restaurant that subscribes to sustainable agriculture and poses as a super friendly environment to those who might be interested in high society eatin’, but without the silly pretense. Agraria Farmers & Fishes does just that. Their dishes can be hit or miss depending on your tastes, although they definitely go and take some risks and come with winners. Jen and I would give this place a second try, but not without a precursory call to make sure they’re not out of the goat cheese again.

Plus, they have some wicked awesome knives. I think the waiter said that these knives were the ones our predecessors used to kill raptors and land roving sharks in prehistoric times.

That's a knife.

See Agraria Farmers & Fishers on a map here.

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