DC - Distric of Columbia - ISO Food and Wine In Downtown Washington DC

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that enjoys cooking.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

AlexR

Senior Cook
Joined
Jul 31, 2005
Messages
179
Location
Bordeaux
I will be visiting from France in late March and will not have a car.
So I am interested in any wine shops or food emporia that are worth a look in the city center.

Best regards,
Alex R.
 
See if you can find a Whole Foods or Trader Joe's. They would be worth a taxi ride.
 
Dean and DeLuca in Georgetown for upscale foodstuffs. There may also be a Balducci's in the neighborhood. Ask your concierge at the hotel.
 
Buck and I lived within minutes from Washington, D.C. for over 30 years and enjoyed the vast selection of available foods and the mind-boggling array of restaurants.

We can tell you that, even though it has a "name," Dean and DeLuca is quite pricey. The good news is that there is a Trader Joe's at the corner of 25th and L Street, Northwest and there is a Whole Foods market at 1440 P Street, Northwest. These might be better choices for shopping for foodstuffs while you're there. Your hardest task will be deciding what to buy. The variety is going to be beyond belief. Even the area chain grocery store (Giant Food) offers tons of upscale and unusual items. Enjoy!
 
There is a Whole Foods downtown, it's somewhere on Wisconsin Avenue. If you go to their website, you can locate it and find the nearest Metro stop.

Or are you looking for Restaurants?
 
I don't know if this is still so. Many years ago, in a land far away (OK, 20 yrs ago, in DC) the very best place for lunch if you were a museum freak (and I am) was to go underground between the old art museum and the "new" one. There was an underground waterfall, a great art gift shop, but mostly a sort of "sidewalk cafe" for lack of a better word, where you could get splits of wine and plates of fruit and cheese. It was a favorite place for us. Is it still there? Is it still good? Even when I was a single woman, I'd take the subway from my apartment, spend hours with the great art, and eat cheese and fruit and have a glass of wine. I knew I'd met my soul-mate when I learned he also loved this spot.
 
Claire said:
I don't know if this is still so. Many years ago, in a land far away (OK, 20 yrs ago, in DC) the very best place for lunch if you were a museum freak (and I am) was to go underground between the old art museum and the "new" one. There was an underground waterfall, a great art gift shop, but mostly a sort of "sidewalk cafe" for lack of a better word, where you could get splits of wine and plates of fruit and cheese. It was a favorite place for us. Is it still there? Is it still good? Even when I was a single woman, I'd take the subway from my apartment, spend hours with the great art, and eat cheese and fruit and have a glass of wine. I knew I'd met my soul-mate when I learned he also loved this spot.

Oh, Claire, I remember this place. Wasn't it wonderful? And if you went outside, you could see the glass pyramids in the sidewalk that were the skylights to parts of the eating area. Loved the waterfall inside. Thanks for sparking a wonderful memory.:):):)
 
Someone go there and tell us if it is still there! There really are a lot of wonderful out of the way places in the DC area. It is too early now, but in the summer there are free concerts at the various memorials. We'd pack a picnic and watch the sun set while the various military bands would serenade us. Very romantic and .... free. I was born in DC (yes, people always razz me because I'm probably the only white girl in the world who is from DC. When I used to have to get a pass renewed for my job in the Pentagon, it would be hysterical. What state were you born in? I wasn't born in a state. I was born at XXXXXX. There isn't a hospital there. Well, there was in 1955. I have a friend who was born in Hawaii before it was a state, and he has the same problem. I'm sure people born in Puerto Rico, US VI, and American Samoa have the same difficulty! But I digress. If you are going to DC, make sure to find out about these freebies that are the best that our nation's capitol has to offer. You also used to be able to buy an all day pass on a tourist trolley to save your weary feet if you are not up to walking. I personally loved the walking and the metro. But it is a great picnic place. And there is nothing in the world better than the 4th of July on the mall.
 
alrighty, guys, haven't posted in *forever* so just found this thread...i'm in the dc burbs (gaithersburg) even as we speak, so...explain what you're meaning by the "old" vs "new" art museum, and i'll go look. the only art museums i'm totally familar with are the smithsonian ones (freer, hirschorn, etc) and the national gallery on the mall, so i don't know how to go looking for this one.

AlexR, most things in dc are within a few blocks walk of the subway, and i know plenty of people who live & work there that do so just fine without a car. go hit up chinatown for lunch & shopping sometime, and of course make sure to do all the fun free things (smithsonian museums, the botanical garden, monuments) on the mall. if you want a really nice night out at a restaurant, go check out equinox: Equinox Restaurant - award-winning, fine dining from chef Todd Gray, in Washington, DC
 
Am I the only person who gets totally overwhelmed with info when I go on the internet? I was simply trying to find out if my favorite cafe at the Smithsonian still exists and got a million or so hits. BUT there used to be a sub-terranian little sidewalk cafe, with a waterfall, and the shop that had all the museum prints and reproductions, and they sold stuff like brie and grapes and wine. It was a favorite place of mine when I lived there, and I wonder if it still exists.
 
I know the cafe you are referring to, Claire. It was quite nice and rather relaxing. I haven't been there in a number of years so I don't know if it's still there. I hope so. I can't imagine they'd do away with it. Hope someone out there in the Internet world can tell us.
 
Believe it or not, Costco actually has a good selection of meat. As for fish, depending on what I need, I run over to one of the Korean markets we have in Wheaton MD. The fish is fresh and they clean it there for you, you also save a bit on the price, they are a few dollars cheaper than places like Giant. The Korean markets also have some decent produce.
 
Someone go there and tell us if it is still there! There really are a lot of wonderful out of the way places in the DC area. It is too early now, but in the summer there are free concerts at the various memorials. We'd pack a picnic and watch the sun set while the various military bands would serenade us. Very romantic and .... free. I was born in DC (yes, people always razz me because I'm probably the only white girl in the world who is from DC. When I used to have to get a pass renewed for my job in the Pentagon, it would be hysterical. What state were you born in? I wasn't born in a state. I was born at XXXXXX. There isn't a hospital there. Well, there was in 1955. I have a friend who was born in Hawaii before it was a state, and he has the same problem. I'm sure people born in Puerto Rico, US VI, and American Samoa have the same difficulty! But I digress. If you are going to DC, make sure to find out about these freebies that are the best that our nation's capitol has to offer. You also used to be able to buy an all day pass on a tourist trolley to save your weary feet if you are not up to walking. I personally loved the walking and the metro. But it is a great picnic place. And there is nothing in the world better than the 4th of July on the mall.

It's a two year old post but it's worth a shot. How do I go about getting to where this place is? I'm only about an hour out from DC and I have a friend who really enjoys wine and art. She'd love a place like that.
 
confirmed!

yes, Claire and VI, that restaurant is still there - after hearing about the lovely description, i went in search of it myself. the trick to finding it is that it isn't in the smithsonian at all! it's underground in between the 2 buildings of the national gallery, just down the mall on the same side as the natural history and american history smithsonian buildings. the cafe itself is very nice, quite light and airy given that it's underground, and the food was good, too. here's one pic i found:

Cascade Cafe on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
 
Back
Top Bottom