Who has two thumbs and picked nits with the Food Issue, our list of 50 must-try dishes in the D.C. area? A handful of readers, obviously. “You go all the way to Gaithersburg for a hotdog, but you skip the Torta Ahogada at La Mexicana Bakery? Shame on you,” wrote monkeyrotica.
“DGS’ matzo is good but wayyyyyyy overpriced for what it is” and “Boqueria is way overrated IMHO,” wrote D.C. subreddit user xander__crews__, who did agree with some our picks. “I was once 30 minutes late for a date because I was devouring food at Quarry House,” xander__crews__ wrote.
Reader SW dittoed our praise for Woodward Takeout Food’s Chick Chick sandwich. “Woodward Takeout Food is a blessing upon the otherwise-dull McPherson Square. I love that I can get Vidalia-quality sandwiches quick, cheap, and not have to pay gratuity. (They don’t even have a tip jar on the counter!)”
One Twitter user took issue with some of the fusion creations that earned spots in the issue: “I’ve only had one dish from this list but whatever I refuse to eat a ‘banh mi burger’ or ‘chocolate salami.” More for us, @MimiPh. More for us.
Meet the Met Branch
Following the violent assault on a bicycle commuter by a group of teenagers earlier this month, last week’s Housing Complex column pondered what the District government can do to make Northeast’s Metropolitan Branch Trail a safer route. Pivoting off columnist Aaron Wiener’s revelation that a nearby Department of Transportation security camera wasn’t functional and isn’t monitored when it is, reader Luis offered a novel suggestion: “If DDOT won’t watch the video feeds, they should record and stream them online. Every little bit helps.”
Sure does, but better surveillance won’t fix the tense backdrop of race and class that emerged in the comments. The most crime-prone part of the MBT—a 1.5-mile off-road stretch in Eckington and Edgewood—isn’t far off from some of D.C.’s most rapidly upscaling corridors. Reader Anon2’s comment wasn’t exactly kumbaya. “As much as I’d love to see the barriers between communities broken down, to see person to person links among neighbors reducing fear of the other, etc., I don’t know I want to wait for that (one generation? Two? Never?) to use the MBT. This will be solved sooner than that by the working of the real estate market. Eckington is hot now, and at some point maybe Edgewood. D.C. will still have affordable housing, but not so much right near the MBT.”
Commenter dc only pushed back: “All the talk about redefining the neighborhoods is just a code word for gentrifying. And the folks you are trying to move out are getting smart to this ploy and, well, look at the news. Maybe communicating with people instead of trying to push them out might work.”
Citizen Catania
Can At-Large Councilmember David Catania ever become mayor? That’s what last week’s Loose Lips column pondered, and reader tntdc wasn’t ruling the cantankerous independent out: “Being the first gay mayor of the nation’s capital would pull a lot of independents and liberals to him. It all depends on how an indie can do in the general [election]. Intelligence-wise he’s certainly the most qualified and he does have supporters citywide.” DCShadyBoots had a blunt rebuttal: “He hasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell.”
Reader Okeydokey countered with some instant demographic analysis: “I am no fan of Catania’s personality, but then again unlike most Americans I have better sense to base my votes on something other than ‘who I would like to have a beer with.’ Catania is a smart details kinda guy who generally has done things for the betterment of the entire city, rather than pandering to the select whims of the few in his ward. His whiteness is probably more of a deal-breaker than his sexuality. While D.C. is no longer ‘Chocolate City,’ it is close enough to not to get the votes required for him.”
Department of Corrections
Due to a reporting error, a review of the film Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself misspelled the name of co-director Luke Poling.
This blog post originally misspelled the handle of commenter monkeyrotica