Since about ninety percent of all folk gigs take place in the northeast, one of the first things I discovered on the road is that a "diner" up north is an entirely different animal from the archetypal southern version you see on TV (the kind where
Flo told people to kiss her grits on
Alice in the '70s.) Starting at around Exit 7 of the New Jersey Turnpike and extending through somewhere near Poughkeepsie, NY, there exist these eccentric north-of-the border food amusement parks, boxy stonefront eateries where the waiters wear black vests and bow ties and you can go in and get a feta cheese omelette with an order of rice pudding and a shot of Jack Daniels at two o'clock in the morning. (see
Mastori's in Bordentown, NJ).
Today, I stumbled upon little a piece of bridge-and-tunnel food heaven in my own neighborhood below the Mason-Dixon line. I work on "the" Hill (the one in DC, not Seattle) and just ducked out to do some errands along Pennsylvania Avenue when I happened upon this delightful, unpretentious restaurant called Sizzlin' Express, in the 600 Block. It's a Korean-owned wonderland of food. At this take out/eat-in establishment you can get sushi, generous helpings of baked goods, breakfast, lunch and dinner. There's a sparkling self-serve coffee area with an arsenal of spigots dispensing several flavors of coffee, a salad and cold food bar that includes at least fifty different dishes, including calamari, sesame and spinach salad, and some sort of pudding with vanilla wafers on top, in addition to the usual salad bar items. There's a festive display with a complete line of all the latest power bars, gum, candy and tin boxes of obscure little foreign made pastille type hard sweets. There's also a full-service bar with a real bartender, mirror and colorful holiday decorations. The guy behind the checkout counter was friendly and helpful, and when I was there at 11am there was a table full of well-fed DC cops happily chowing down on a hot breakfast. As I walked down Pennsylvania Avenue on this crisp December morning, with a view of the Capitol dome and my hot coffee and $5.85 Sizzlin' Express fish salad, I felt positively patriotic!
posted by Lisa Moscatiello #
8:30 AM |
Perma
Link
