Much of the food was quite excellent. Manhattan’s offering stood out as a spectacular example of good “southern boy” eating: cheesy grits and shrimp etouffee, ain’t too much better ‘n that. I guarantee it. The meat sprinkle on top was a bit unnecessary, but if your biggest complaint about a dish is a perfectly cooked piece of delicious, rich, fatty pork belly, you’re officially in first world problems mode. Similarly, I really shouldn’t need to tell anyone this by now, but Marination Station was wonderful. In case you’ve been living under a rock, the Marination food truck and associated restaurants are fantastic. The food is Korean-Hawaiian-Mexican fusion, truly worthy of the previous hyperbole.
Another problem was the huge variation in portions. 95 Slide served a full chicken and waffle entrée with collard greens, and diners who finished it all could have been too full to keep exploring. Others had small bites, like Sam’s Tavern and their epic 50/50 slider which was HALF BACON. (It also helped that they had wonderful fries, a moose, great music and the most epic bloody mary garnish in creation.) Still, you never knew how large the next part of the meal was going to be, making planning challenging.
The tragic thing is that all of these problems are fixable. Starting the ‘Crawl further uphill would at least have allowed people to choose the order they wanted to visit restaurants, instead of providing diners with exactly one optimal route. Similarly, including Capitol Hill food staples such as Quinn’s, Skillet, Molly Moon’s or Old School Frozen Custard would have given customers a much better idea of what their “Neighborfood” is like, and how good it truly can be.
Images: Jessica Tupper