On a recent roadtrip up north, Jen and I stopped in Burlington, VT, situated next to Lake Champlain, the very same of Lake Champlain chocolate origin, but not the very same of Burlington Coat Factory origin. No, this Burlington happens to have a decidedly different set of industries that have nothing to do with coats, jackets, and frocks, but rather, snowboards*, chocolates**, and the patchouliest of crunchy, mother Earth-lovin’ hippies.

That’s not such a bad thing, as it turns out that being eco conscious can make for a decent business model, like it has for Magnolia Bistro. The restaurant engages in a plethora of green practices, including composting or recycling almost all of the waste created, using strictly non-GMO soy and grains in all the dishes, sourcing local farms for fresh ingredients, and using recycled materials throughout the restaurant.

Inside, exposed brick walls and floors alongside wood floors and tables lend a certain warmth to the interior, with plenty of local artwork adorning every free space throughout the restaurant.

The menu aims to satisfy the diets of almost all types of visitors: vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, local, and even some love for my fellow paleoheads.

There are a number of interesting dishes to have you salivating before it even hits your table, like the Banana Bread French Toast, which can be ordered as a full plate, or as a side dish, as pictured above. The french toast is made from organic grains and fair trade organic bananas which are baked in house, dipped in soy milk, rice milk, cinnamon, and vanilla, fried to a slight crisp and finally topped with a dash of powdered sugar.

There’s also the Crispy Steel Cut Oatmeal cakes, served here with vanilla cream sauce for dipping. The top and bottom are slightly crispy, as the name would suggest, with a soft, nutty interior, giving this dish a nice textural change from the traditional bowl of porridge like oatmeal, and a fantastic dish to share. Although if you’re eating with me, you might want to make it a double.

Omelets made here still use the highest quality of ingredients with locally sourced eggs and bacon, but I found the order to be a bit lacking in substance and presentation. In fact, I even put in for a double order of bacon on the side just to get in a bit more from our brunch. In retrospect, knowing full well that I’d stray from my paleo ways for this meal, I’d probably opt for a sammich or three as my main course. It’s hard to turn away from choices such as the Open-FaceSteak Sammich (local marinated steak topped with mushrooms, onions, and cheddar cheese) or the Smokey Mountain BBQ Pork (local slow cooked pork made in a house barbecue sauce).

The service here is good, and there are always a number of dishes written up on the chalkboard near the bar that list the daily specials, in the off chance that nothing sparks your interest on the 100% recycled paper menu. Prices seemed to be pretty reasonable to me, but I could see how some might think of it as being a bit on the high end for a college town. Just keep in mind that high quality ingredients don’t come by cheap, and high quality sourced goods is what this restaurant is all about.

All in all, Magnolia Bistro is an excellent place to stop in for an early meal before exploring Burlington, and a great addition to this small college town. It is better suited for the vegans and vegetarians, as evidenced by the other offerings on the menu, but it doesn’t discriminate to meat eaters, which is just fine by me.

And yes, they have pancakes, too.

See Magnolia Bistro on a map here. (Note: It’s tucked away in a multi use commercial building on the basement floor, so it’s a little hard to find. You’ll have to enter through the building doors first and go downstairs!)

Recommended For:

• Vegans
• Vegetarians
• Localvores
• Patchouli Princesses
• Canadian Campers

Not Recommended For:

• Rhinestone Cowboys
• Kenny Powers Powerlunches

* Burlington is the home of Burton Snowboards HQ.

** Burlington is also the home of Lake Champlain Chocolates HQ.

Pizzas are a hotly contested subject, once you’ve grown past the world of big chain pies like Pizza Hut, Domino’s, or Little Caesar’s (Little Caesar’s will ALWAYS hold a special place in my belly). What makes a perfect pizza? Hell, what makes a good pizza? There are endless variations of crust, toppings, and style, but I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a pretty big pizza floozy, as long it’s good, hot, and it tells me what a bad, bad non-paleo boy I’m being. I’ve been long wanting to get down to Capitol Hill to try out Spike Mendelsohn’s (of Top Chef fame) We, The Pizza ever since it opened last summer. So when Jen suggested we go check it out, I had no other choice but to oblige.

These days, Capitol Hill is a pretty gentrified place to hang out. You won’t find dealers selling crack on every corner like in the days of Marion Barry, but instead, brown flip flops flap-flap-flap down the sidewalks, and local residents have a wide array of family friendly establishments to choose from in the neighborhood.

Once you step inside, you’re immediately greeted by an open display case of all the by-the-slice pizzas available. The variety ranges from classics like the Fresh Buffalo Mozzarella and Roasted Tomato, a Spinach & Artichoke (with bechamel, sauteed spinach, roasted artichokes, aged provolone and parm), Coletti’s Notorious BBQ (slow roasted pulled pork, BBQ sauce, cheddar cheese and crispy onions) or a Buffalo Chicken (jumbo chunks of spicy chicken, creamy blue cheese, mozzarella, and hot sauce). These aren’t weak, floppy pizza crusts, and if you’re a gorger like me, you might be slightly disappointed that you can’t easily fold a slice in half and start shoving it into your face. Instead, patrons are forced to dutifully enjoy each flavorful, well balanced, and hearty bite, one at a time.

And maybe that sort of eating isn’t such a bad thing.

I order a slice each of the Buffalo Chicken and Coletti’s Notorious BBQ, both excellent choices that I highly recommend. Jen picked the traditional Buffalo Mozzarella, topped with generous chunks of fresh mozzarella and basil leaves big enough to keep you dry from a storm.

Make sure you try at least one of sodas made to order here. While there’s definite your traditional soda machine on tap in the back, the hand made sodas are mind blowingly good. I ordered the Ubet Manhattan Egg Cream soda, starting with chocolate syrup, a large serving of heavy egg cream, soda water, and POW! Instant chocolatey tastiness.

If you’re not entirely sold on having a pizza here, the restaurant also offers a reasonable selection of subs and 7, 14, 20 piece buckets of buffalo wings. Big buffalo wings. What exactly do you call jumbo buffalo wings? There’s no skimping on meat here, and the back bar has you covered with pretty much any kind of sauce you’d want to dip in, including BBQ, hot sauce, ranch, blue cheese, and more.

While the pizzas here aren’t exactly going to win over the Neapolitan crowd, they’re still pretty damn good in my eyes. Thick Sicilian pizzas cooked in a cast-iron pan are also available here, but I’m pretty sure you’ll enjoy a slice of anything that suits your hunger. There’s plenty of seating outside for cool summer nights, and ample seating upstairs for everything else. Parking is pretty easy to find, and this is some of the best food you’ll come into near to Capitol after a long day tour.

See We, the Pizza on a map here.

Recommended For:

• Vegetarians
• People Watching
• First Dates
• Frugalistas

Not Recommended For:

• Neapolitan Naysayers
• Paleoheads
• Zone Dieters
• Organic Olivias

Station 4 adds to the small but growing number of establishments at the Southwest Waterfront area of DC, which is to say, maybe the second place that’s open down there, not counting the Arena Stage theatre next door, or the brand-spankin’-new Safeway across the street.

The buildout was clearly ambitious; a gold and black theme runs throughout the 200+ seat restaurant, with a gold painted bar, gold leather chairs, black leather benches, and crystal chandeliers abound. Posh seems to be best adjective to describe what the owners clearly envisioned when they hired a decorator, and I get that from my first step inside. But being far and away from the open wallets of downtown and situated in a much more residential neighborhood, one can’t help but feel that Station 4 is simply trying too hard to be something that it’s not.

The food here is, however, much better than what you’d expect of a neighborhood restaurant. Breadsticks are baked pita bread, sliced, left to go perfectly stale for a bit of crunch and slathered with a reasonable dose of olive tapenade for good measure. One of the more unique types of bread baskets that I’ve seen. We also got a glass of house made corn nuts, although our waitress denied that they were CornNuts, because that’d be ‘a bit too trailer park’.

Hey, I call it like I see it.

There are a wide assortment of cow, sheep, and goat cheeses available, served with macarona almonds and a sweet tomato jam. All in all good cheeses, although the blue cheeses were a bit more off-worldly looking than normal. Vibrant orange rinds and deep blue veins had a negatively visceral effect on me, so I contently took out the cow and sheep cheeses instead.

The Spicy Tuna cubes are sashimi grade tuna, topped off with a yuzu-jalapeno foam, and served in a reflecting pool of lemongrass infused soy sauce, with bamboo skewers keeping them from floating off into the wind. A fantastic dish, but by and far I think the foams would really go under the radar for the majority of the people that eat here, especially the subtle jalapeno flavor that sits on top of each morsel.

The Stuffed Zucchini, filled with goat cheese, toasted almonds, and romanesco sauce, are a nice entry to a meal for any vegetarian with fantastic complementing tastes and textures, but lack the presentation one would expect from the kitchen of a chef trained at el Bulli, which was not too long ago considered the world’s best restaurant…but in the league of competing restaurants, second place isn’t too bad.

Pizzas are in the plenty here at Station 4, and not a single one looks like a bad choice on the menu. We decide to try three of them for a fair sampling to share. The Roasted Vegetable comes packed with eggplants, zucchini, onion, goat cheese, and fresh arugula on top, hearty and laden with enough greens to make any vegetarian happy. On the other side of the spectrum is the Station 4 – a pie topped with pork belly, salsa, caramelized onions, and blue cheese, another example of why pork really is the perfect meat. IT GOES ON EVERYTHING. PERFECTLY.

For the more classically minded diner, the restaurant does offer the traditional Margherita pizza, with fresh buffalo mozzarella, confit cherry tomatoes, and basil.

If pizzas aren’t your thing, there’s also an entire section of entrees such as the Flying Duck, a serving of duck breast with passion fruit-lavender gastrique with caramelized fennel and a foie gras foam, that look plenty tantalizing to read over, and definitely worth a try.

It was nice to get out to one of the other neighborhoods of DC, and the Waterfront area is quickly coming up into its own as a pretty nice little neighborhood to be in. The restaurant is a fantastic addition to the cluster of businesses that meet together at the top of the exit/entrance of the metro, but still feels like it’s trying a bit too hard to be something it’s not. The food is good, very good, mind you, but maybe not quite something I’d call amazingly great.  If you’re in the area to see a show or visit some friends, I recommend stopping by for a bite, but it’s not quite a destination by itself.

See Station 4 on a map here.

Recommended For:

• Neighborhood Noms
• Vegetarians
• Paleoheads
• Zone Dieters

Not Recommended For:

• El Bulli Expectations
• Downtown Dahlias
• Hotspot Hunters
• First Introduction of the Parents to your Boyfriend, Who Finds Seasonal Employment as a Stripmall Santa

It’s a fact that there aren’t many diners in the District, something that’s by and far relegated to the suburbs of MD and VA. It’s also a fact that I love greasy spoons and diners because of the fact that you can get breakfast orders in just about as late as you’d like during the day. So Jen took me off on an adventure to explore the city, navigating the streets of Capitol Hill until we reached our destination…Pete’s Diner.

Pete has long since come and gone both in ownership and in life, but the two little Asian ladies that run it these days aren’t short in character or energy. The diner is strange hodgepodge of eclectic decorations, from fake fir trees, spray-painted bamboo decorations, Chinese calendars, police badge collections, even a Buddha shrine, this is everything I’d think of putting together in a strange culture clash of a restaurant and calling it the Chinese American Diner. Even the coffee here, albeit a bit on the weak side, is served in giant Chinese tea cups.

The diner does offer traditional American breakfast favorites, including a variety of omelets. Jen had a Spinach Omelet with Swiss Cheese, while I opted for the Western – whipped up with bacon, snausage, green peppers, onions, tomatoes, and cheese. It’s served with a hefty serving of home fries, toast, and topped with a ‘this little piggy’ sprig of bacon.

Pancakes are also on deck- I ordered a side of Sweet Potato Pancakes to share with Jen. Fluffy, moist pancakes that unfortunately aren’t gluten free, but for most people, that’ll work out just fine.

While nothing about the food or this diner stands out as extraordinary, it does serve as a nice little anchor of dining space to give Capitol Hill a bit more color. The owners are vocal, jovial, and aren’t afraid to get a little friendly- one of the owners started to touch and coo over my bicep, while the other admonished her.

“HEY! NO TOUCH CUSTOMERS! LOOK ONLY!”

As it turns out, the one thing I can’t count on my girlfriend for is to save me from being molested from tiny Asian ladies. Thanks for the help, babe.

All in all, a tiny greasy spoon like this isn’t the type of place Jen and I would go to again and again, but it’s a nice little neighborhood spot, crucially placed right next to the Library of Congress. They also offer a number of sammiches, milkshakes, soups, subs, salads, and amazing meal deals to keep a little extra scratch in your wallet.

Make sure you’ve loaded up on hard currency though, this place runs strictly on cash.

See Pete’s Diner on a map here.

Recommended For:

• Frugalistas
• Paleoheads
• Vegetarians
• Zone Dieters
• Greasy Spoon Gorging

Not Recommended For:

• Black Tie Brunches
• Organic Omelets
• Five Fork Placesetting Feasts

Unless you’ve lived in DC area for a number of years, it might be surprising to hear that DC Chinatown is about as Chinese as that kanji tattoo that you regrettably neglected to research before having permanently stamped on your lower back (don’t worry, I have one too, but mine says ‘Little Food Slut’). To find the largest concentration of Chinese inhabitants (and restaurants), you have to trek up to Rockville, MD, and peruse the establishments littered across Rockville Pike.

One of these places stood out in particular when I was searching for a place to take Jen. The striking thing about the menu was that it was decidedly vegetarian. In fact, wholly vegetarian. As a meat eater, even as a paleohead, it’s easy to forget that being a vegetarian can be pretty restrictive when you’re out on the prowl looking for noms. You’re usually given an option of a garden salad fit for a hare, or possibly a smattering of pasta dishes that’ll put you into food coma-esque glycemic overload. I thought it’d be nice to take her to place where she didn’t have to do a double take at every dish on the menu to make sure there wasn’t some sort of meat slipped in.

And so, with no reservations made, we were off to visit Yuan Fu Vegetarian.

The restaurant is nondescript enough to easily pass on the road. Situated in a small strip of storefronts with a tired asphalt lot, I had a split second to wonder if the half filled parking lot really was for this tiny Chinese restaurant. Inside, the tables are buzzing with conversation and ravenous patrons. Little has been paid in the way of decoration or furniture beyond the basics. I tried not to get distracted by the lack of air conditioning, or the thought of how hot the employees must be racing around delivering dishes to each table.

We order a couple of appetizers to start, beginning with the Crispy Taro Root Balls. Taro is a starchy root vegetable with a hearty taste that’s common in Chinese cooking.  Think of something as versatile as the potato. Here, they take taro, puree it down, packed around a vegetarian filling, and then drop it in the deep fryer to give it that beautiful, golden brown color. A must try if you’ve never had them before, and practically a staple even if you have.

We also put in an order for the Pan Fried Dumplings. No pork option for me here, unfortunately, but I decided I’d make do with vegetable ones here. Yuan Fu employs thick dumpling wrappers that carry a nice crisp texture when fried, but still remain as chewy and delicious on top. I’m pretty sure I could write a salacious romance novel about dumplings without too much problem. I can almost picture it now, although the thought of Fabio embracing a giant dumpling with lipstick is just a little too kinky for me.

The lack of meat didn’t end up bothering me too much. I liked the dumplings here, and wouldn’t hesitate to order these again.

For my entree, I opted for the Crispy Sesame Beef. Battered and fried chunks of vegetarian beef (textured vegetable protein) in a sweet sauce served with walnuts, broccoli florets and…a maraschino cherry? I wasn’t quite sure what the hell a cherry was doing on my dish either. I’ll take it as the Chinese equivalent of placing parsley on top of a steak. The beef isn’t going to fool anyone into thinking it’s really beef, but the preparation and taste are both still there, making this a reasonable substitute for vegetarian and vegan diners alike.

Jen ordered the Kung Pao Chickum, filled with chunks of sauteed chickum, red and green peppers, and plenty of peanuts to add a decent crunch to the dish. A decent dish all in all, but with Jen’s dislike of any sort of pepper that doesn’t absolutely burn the shit out of your mouth or have a scoville rating of anything less than 5,000,000, it ended up being a lackluster order for her meal.

It’s refreshing to see a restaurant cater wholly to the vegetarian community, and from the crowds packed into Yuan Fu on a weekend night, it shows that these people appreciate it. The dishes don’t deviate too far from tried and true Americanized recipes that’ll please the vast majority of vegetarians looking for a good meal. The appetizers were good, but the main dishes rely heavily on the sauce to carry them through, with nuts thoughtfully added in or there’d be a fairly obvious lack of crunch or anything to chew. I don’t think we’d end up going back, with so many other places to try, but I can easily see this place being an oasis for herbivores out on the hunt.

See Yuan Fu Vegetarian on a map here.

Recommended For:

• Fortune Cookie Franchescas
• Vegetarians
• Vegans
• Dumpling Divas

Not Recommended For:

• Paleoheads
• First Dates
• Gluten Free Gorging

To anybody who doesn’t visit Chinatown in NYC regularly, it’s tough to pick out which restaurant is going to be a good place to plop yourself into a chair and getcha nom on for a midday yum cha (dim sum/Chinese brunch). Thankfully, Jen and I were in the area at the same time as my Mom, who had scooped a table out for us to have lunch (Thanks Mom!) at Jing Fong.

You’ll find a traditional Chinese dim sum served here on the second floor of the restaurant, albeit on a completely different caliber than what we’re used to DC. The restaurant itself, for instance, shows that the owners have invested more than a nominal sum into the interior, with golden dragons, enormous crystal chandeliers, and electric blue cove lighting. The girls and women who push the carts of food are adorned in cheery orange shirts and red aprons, complete with matching bandanas to top it all off.

The bamboo steamer baskets are also much nicer here, without a single sighting of the dented metal ones found in other restaurants. Instead, high quality steamers with olive green end caps are used. It’s a small touch to add to the presentation of the food, but does not and should not go unnoticed.

Even these delicately fried dumplings with a noodle coating are new to me. What the hell are these things? The crispy texture explodes with every bite, crackling like a falling redwood tree in the forest, and packed with a shrimp filling.

Traditional favorites such as the cha siu bao (steamed BBQ pork bun, left) and the har gao (steamed shrimp dumpling, right), are out in full force and as every bit as good as they should be. I couldn’t taste them being BETTER through any differentiation of ingredients, but they definitely tasted fresher. The buns here are fluffy and light, while the dumplings are well stuffed with a shrimp filling.

Dessert buns are out roaming about on carts, such as the custard filled buns on the left, or the traditional ma lai go (steamed sweet sponge cake) on the right. I don’t know that I’ve ever had the ones on the left, but I do that the sponge cake is a much rarer sight in the District, if it even exists around here at all. The added fact that this cake is not simply baked but rolled as well shows off the kitchen’s skills at putting out amazing desserts.

The head chef also takes some unique interpretations of desserts, such as this dessert, a fried glutinous rice ball filled with a sweet sesame paste and usually completely coated with sesame seeds- but Jing Fong opts for a pinch of black sesame seeds instead. These were hot, chewy, and amazing, a far cry from the room temperature ones that I’m used to being served around the District.

If you’re still not satisfied with the myriad of plates and steamers that come rolling by your table, there’s the added bonus of going up to the buffet line and ordering a plate of something else that might catch your tie (and tug on your stomach) such as pan fried dumplings, pan fried noodles, meat plates, and fried vegetable plates.

There is, however, a single, wretched downside to eating here. If you’ve ever eaten at a traditional dim sum restaurant, you know that the wait times can be lengthy to downright obnoxious. With Jing Fong, it’s practically a mob scene at the entrance, with hundreds of people milling about on a weekend afternoon, all waiting for a table to get their noms in. My Mom definitely came through for Jen and me on getting a table here. If anything, I’d say the popularity is a testament to the quality of the food and the entire experience of eating here. Plan on getting here on the early side of the afternoon if you want to ditch the wait.

How could you not be completely won over by the website’s assurance, “Thirty years experienced and famous, gold lacquer brand, assurance.”

I gotta get me some gold lacquer brands. Hungry Chinese people love gold lacquer brands.

See Jing Fong on a map here.

Recommended For:

• Chinese Cheatmeals
• Vegetarians
• Food Coma Inducing Feeding Frenzies
• Thanksgiving Dinner
• Christmas Dinner

Not Recommended For:

• Paleoheads
• Zone Dieters
• Wedding Proposals
• Hangover Helpers
• Interior Design Professionals

For Jen’s berfday, we headed over to the fanciest of fancy raw vegan restaurants in DC, Elizabeth’s Gone Raw (EGR). Well, I don’t really know of any other raw vegan in restaurants, period. So keeping an open mind and walking in through the french doors of the restaurant, I looked forward to my first raw vegan meal.*

The pre-seating event involves servers floating around with plates full of delicious appetizers, usually served on a gluten free cracker using alternative flours such as flax seed or sesame. I saw everything from dill to olive pate, roasted peppers, house made pesto, and even a savory sweet melon shooter.

Every person checks in at the front door with their reservations made in advance, and you’re brought to your table upstairs which may be shared with other diners, and leads to meeting some interesting and likely equally health conscious people, such as two lovely ladies that sat across from us. I’d suspect that if you pressed the reservationist over the phone, you could finagle a private table for two for a special occasion.

EGR  serves titanic bowls of  kale chips, baked with some sort of spicy vegan cheese like mix. These kale chips are definitely pro level chips, and the bowls of kale come as fast as you can eat them. Thankfully Jen and I had other people at the table with us, or I’d have taken every almost emptied bowl and tipped it to get all the crumbs at the bottom into my mouth.

The first course was a salad with a spring mushroom blend (yellow and blue oyster, beech, hen of the woods, and royal trumpet) tossed with boston lettuce and sunflower sprouts. Who knew sunflower sprouts could be so good? It’s topped with a truffle vinaigrette made with shallots, garlic, celery, macadamia nuts, coconut milk, apple cider vinegar, truffles, EVOO, agave, and nama shoyu, and finally topped with a smattering of gluten-free crackers. The complexity of jumbled textures and tastes of this salad is something of experiencing a symphonic explosion in your mouth.

The main course is an olive cannelloni with parsley salad, served with dressing and a heirloom tomato-basil relish on the side. The cannelloni itself is made with coconut water, coconut milk, and flax seed, wrapped around an olive filling made with scallions, lemon juice, macadamia & pine nuts, celery, and nutritional yeast. The relish, a classic combination of tomatoes, red onion and garlic tossed with red vinegar and chives, accentuates the flavors of the fresh parsley salad.  Finally, a semi sweet dressing made of apple cider vinegar, agave, and EVOO bring it all together to make, despite whatever the restaurant wants to call it, a vegan burrito. I know burritos have rice and beans stuffed inside, and those might have even helped this dish out a bit. While it was made with incredibly fresh ingredients and impressive to be completely dairy, gluten and meat free, this one wasn’t as good as either Jen or I had hoped. For me, it was the fact that it was just wasn’t satisfying; for Jen, it was because she despises olives.

Dessert is a generous slice of cacao layered mousse cake with goji berries and topped with a reishi mushroom powder, once used in tonics for emperors and kings. The cake is made with almond milk, agave, maple syrup, vanilla extract, coconut oil, almond powder, cacao powder, maca powder, and goji berries, while the chocolate mousse layers are made with vanilla extract, almond milk, maple syrup, and cashew flour. While I really liked the chocolate mousse layers, I found that the actual cake layers in the cake were too rich and heavy for me, without necessarily being sweet. In that sense, I did like the fact that it wasn’t over the top sweet, but I ended up scooping out and eating all the mousse and leaving chunks of the cake on my plate. I looked over, and Jen had done the exact same thing.

I knew I liked this girl for a reason.

The menu here changes seasonally as fruits and vegetables become available, speaking to the freshness of the ingredients, and the creativity of the kitchen. While the entire meal kept its promise of being gluten, dairy, and meat free, it does not fall short on flavor or quality of many of the upscale restaurants in the District.

We were constantly doted on by a number of people including the owner, Elizabeth Petty, herself. The service, however, is a mixed bag. Plates are cleared and accommodations are made, but there was considerable confusion with having all the wine glasses for the wine pairing brought out at the same time; Jen had two wineglasses “refilled” with water, which we had to send back on two separate occasions. Having numerous attentive is something of a nice luxury, but the hustle and bustle of them darting around as fast as they can seem a bit madding. Overall, I’d say it’s very good here, with an opportunity for a bit of refinement. It probably doesn’t help to the fact that dinners are only served once a week, but that makes each meal here at Elizabeth’s Gone Raw that much more special.

Wine pairings are available at each dinner, which are organic, biodynamic, and delicious. That’s right, I called wine delicious, like a six year old calls a glass of grape juice. Deal with it, fancy wine drinkers.

See Elizabeth’s Gone Raw on a map here.

Recommended For:

• Raw Vegan Rhondas
• Hemp Growin’ Harriets
• Organic Only Olivias
• Meeting New People

Not Recommended For:

• Raptors
• Buffet Line Barons
• Frugalistas
• Quiet, Romantic Dinners

*Okay, I had a ton of beef jerky before we left for the restaurant. I may or may have not  stored several chunks of jerky in my cheeks. What? Don’t judge me. You never know.

I never grew up thinking salad as being a satisfying meal until I became an adult. Maybe it’s because we’re served such crap salads when we were kids. Iceberg lettuce, shredded carrots, maybe half a tomato. In fact, airlines do their best to keep the tradition alive on long flights, serving you the exact same salad on long flights.

Well, screw that.

Chop’t is a salad company that’s recently celebrate their 10 year anniversary, with several locations spread throughout NYC and DC. Their salads are a bit on the expensive side, but they don’t skimp one bit on the ingredients or portion size. My favorite part? The recent switch to antibiotic free, hormone free, free range chicken in all their locations. I find myself drawn to getting a salad at least once a week as a treat, building it from the ground up with ingredients such as ancho chile chicken, goat cheese, fresh cherry tomatoes, spinach, arugula, and a regularly rotation selection of dressings that only ever use honey or agave nectar for sweetners.

The owners swap in seasonal ingredients and pre-selected salad combinations for the indecisive types, but I highly recommend experimenting and making up something that’s all your own.

And the best part about the salads? They’re hysterial.

Find a Chop’t near you here.

Of course, for all of you salad haters, you could make your salad DOUBLY paleo by adding your own meat.

Eatonville celebrates the life and works of 20th century African American writer Zora Neale Hurston, can be found directly across the street from Busboys & Poets, all part of the Andy Shallal restaurant empire in DC. The restaurant proudly offers the most southern of southern cuisine in an eclectic atmosphere of graffiti murals, delicate chandeliers, and rocking chairs for you to rock away the sweltering summer heat. Or at least rock away while people walking outside in the summer heat with the enormous windows that look out to the busy sidewalks of 14th street and beyond. The nuances of this restaurant just might make you reckon that you’re fixin’ to have a meal in somebody’s backyard, with picket fences, mason jar cups, and wood siding reminiscent your great great gran-ma-ma’s house.

If your great, great gran-ma-ma wasn’t some sort of ruthless dictator’s wife in Eastern Europe, that is.

The gumbo, made with crab, rock shrimp, andouille sausage and rice touts a little bit of kick with the faintest taste of peppers. The soup itself isn’t very thick and stays closer to a soup rather than a proper roux, but that suited me just fine. A bowl here is just enough to whet your appetite, but it lacks the heartiness, leaving you pining for more.

Jen ordered the Almond Crusted Charleston Toast, an impressive stack of thick cut bread, coated with slivered almonds and powdered sugar, then topped with a Grand Marnier fruit compote and a creamy dollop of sweet mascarpone cheese to match. I really liked the house’s rendition of the traditional french toast order, making it wholly their own, with a casual yet thoughtful presentation.

I’m a sucker for fried chicken, so I didn’t hesitate to take on the Callahan- a fried chicken breast served on a buttermilk biscuit with jalapeno-sausage gravy and accompanied by a serving of extra sharp cheddar mac’n'cheese and collard greens.

This dish was good, but, fell a bit below my expectations. Biscuits tend to be a bit on the dry side, which is expected, but I didn’t have any bit of jalapeno-sausage gravy to soak them in. That’s like throwing your three year old into a giant 200 gallon baby pool you’ve dragged home from Wal-Mart because it was on sale (ROLLING BACK PRICES, EVERY DAY!) but failing to filling the damn thing with water. Disasterous. I was expecting a giant pool of sausage gravy, and instead, I have the sub Saharan desert taking up an third of my plate.

To their credit, the mac’n'cheese is pretty good, as are the braised collard greens. I’ll make the most of a bad situation.

While I really like that Eatonville takes creativity and inspiration to their dishes, and even though I really want to love this place, I can’t say I’d wholeheartedly recommend eating here unless you’re a gambling type- dishes are very hit or miss. The service here is very good, and there always seems to be ample seating both indoors or out, if you prefer to soak in the sun. You can even come here and think about how the Eatonville, FL of Zora Neale Hurston’s youth is the home of everybody’s favorite Disney mouse today.

See Eatonville on a map here.

Recommended For:

• Gospel Grubbers
• VIVA LAS VEGAS!
• Panoramic Peoplewatching
• The South’n Hospitality

Not Recommended For:

• Biscuits’n'Graaaaaa…great expectations
• Paleoheads
• Sillystring Showdowns
• Freegans

The rich bass heavy sounds of dub pour out into the streets from this dimly lit restaurant, with vibrations so deep, you can feel ‘dem in Jamaica. Spur Tree Lounge emphasizes its Jamaican roots both in music and cuisine, of which the latter is paired with typical Asian fare for a mix that actually turns it out rather nicely.

Jen’s Fried Vegetable Dumplings with Scallion Aioli were good, but nothing extraordinary. That being said, it’s certainly difficult to outdo the dumplings you could have at a number of restaurants in Chinatown not more than a few blocks away.

I ordered the Grilled Jamaican Jerk Wings with the Spicy Balsamic Sauce. I’m not sure if it’s been a long while since I’ve had chicken wings, but these were about as good of an order of them as I can remember. Just thinking about the perfectly seared, tender wings with just a hint of spiciness has me watering at the mouth all over again. It’s nice that the wings are no skimp on the proportion of meat here, either.

Jen’s main course, Organic Veggie Burger, fell a little flat both in presentation and taste. The patty seems lilliputian in comparison to it’s bun, something that’s a disappointment in knowing that the organic cheese comes as an extra. The spicy coco bread bun does live up to its name, giving a slight tingle to your tongue with every bite. The two spoons and small side salad are a nice touch to raise the bar of this order to something that’s just barely respectable. The portion size was just about right for Jen, but if it were me eating this, I’d be pretty upset with the burger to bun ratio here.

The June Plum Glazed Baby Back Pork Ribs, thankfully, take the table to a turn for the better. Succulent, thick cut baby back ribs coated in a deliciously sweet and sticky sauce and then thoughtfully topped with chopped fresh green onions that will have tearing through each piece after you’re eaten them all in search for another bite. I considered ordering another plate for myself and getting a cab to cart my fat, belly-filled ass home, but thought better of it. What good is NYC if you can’t pound out a couple of miles on foot? Served with a side salad, this is a good for either just one person or shared between two.

Desserts here are, graciously, no slouch either. The Warm Banana Bread Pudding is topped with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream, covered with a rum mango caramel sauce and sprinkled with fresh blueberries. The ice cream melts fast, so your spoonwork will just have to be a bit faster in devouring this plate before it turns into a bowl of soup over the warm bread pudding.

The food here isn’t exactly consistent. There are some very well thought out dishes that excel for a casual meal out, and then there are some that are in some serious rework to balance out the available offerings. The restaurant does take extra steps to distinguish itself through higher quality ingredients and thoughtful preparation, which did not go unnoticed by either Jen or me.

The service here is by and far some of the best service we experienced all weekend, at any restaurant. My water glass was never once completely drained, and Sean John, the restaurateur, is a gregarious tall fellow who’ll come by and chat with you to talk about your day’s travels and city exploits. The staff is very friendly and we were served by a number of people, despite the table space being at a premium at this smaller establishment. The lights are turned down low, and the dub plays high throughout your meal, so if you’re a fan of kicking back with a bottle of Red Stripe and getting down with the riddims, you’ll feel right at home here at Spur Tree Lounge on any given night of the year.

See Spur Tree Lounge on a map here.

Recommended For:

• Drinks ‘n’ Dub
• Dreadlock Rastafasians
• Lowkey Lunches & Brunches
• Spliff Politics

Not Recommended For:

• Your Baby’s Sixth Berfday
• Broadway Dinners
• Karma Karma Chameleons
• Voracious Vegans