A Visit to Adams Morgan Area of Washington, D.C., Shows Good Taste

I moved to this city two years ago, and soon learned what Washingtonians mean when they talk about the two-party system: They mean one on Friday night and one on Saturday night. If your circle of acquaintances includes lobbyists or Capitol Hill staffers, you can easily dine on hors d’oeuvres every evening of the week.

This town was made for people like me. This spring, I finally unpacked the last few boxes from Colorado, and found all my pots and pans and stuff, but hey--who missed them? I have always said, if God wanted me to cook, She wouldn’t have invented takeout.

Although this will come as news to many in the nation’s capital, even free food gets tiresome after awhile, especially if it consists of nothing but highly spiced appetizers made from the commodity being lobbied, i.e., soybeans, alfalfa, cow lips. Yucko. That’s when those of us who can’t cook go to Adams Morgan.

If you haven’t visited D.C. for some time, you may not recognize the name. Once an elegant residential neighborhood, the area had been allowed to decline until a few years ago, when ethnic restaurants began to open around the intersection of 18th Street and Columbia Road. Little shops followed, the deeply cool nightclub and the first yuppie residents; the area is now a happy mix of ethnic and very urban yuppie cultures, and full of good cheap restaurants.

Each September, Adams Morgan hosts the largest block party on the East Coast, with food, music, dance, crafts, theater and art shows. (Next year’s takes place Sept. 15.) But the block party (and warm Saturday nights) have become far too popular; it is much nicer to visit Adams Morgan on an ordinary day or evening, when you have a bit of time to stroll around.

On Saturday mornings all year long, at the corner of 18th Street and Columbia Road, there is an open air vegetable and flower market which has a nice flavor. A sale of fresh baked goods or a basket of nuts is as likely to be conducted in Spanish as in English.

The browsable shops are mostly on 18th Street. You can easily spend an afternoon finding the exactly right gift, or the wild earrings that will firmly establish you as the zaniest gal in your little town. Here are several favorites, some of which have quirky or seasonal hours, so call ahead.

Antiques: The most beautifully redone Deco, ‘50s and Mission-style furniture is at Homeworks, 2405 18th St. (202-483-5857); such care has been put into the renovation of these pieces that they look brand new. Other antique and junk shops on 18th Street: Nice Stuff at 2102 (234-2208); Ruff and Ready at 2220 (462-4541); Chenonceau Antiques at 2314 (667-1651); Uni-Form, mostly retro clothes and household items, at 2318 (483-4577), and tiny Brenda’s, downstairs at 2409 (265-1122).

Books: One of my favorite bookstores is Idle Time Books, 2410 18th St., with three floors of used books, an occasional armchair and a mellow and knowledgeable staff of readers. Others: There is a radical bookstore at 2438 18th St. called Revolution Books (265-1969). You may prefer Bick’s Books at 2309 18th St., which carries philosophy, literature and books on Green politics; it is bright, airy and comfortable for browsing.

Neat Stuff: The most crucially weird and charming pins, earnings, watches, ties, picture frames, belts, etc., can be found at Wake Up Little Suzie, downstairs at 2316 18th St. Others on 18th Street: Fantasia, at 2402, and Noteworthy, at 2420.

At some point in your wanderings, the scents will remind you that the real reason to come to Adams Morgan is the food, glorious food. Here is a sampling of the creme de la creme de la creme (there are too many to even mention all).

Ethiopian: Unlike “lady wrestler” or “good lawyer” or “family vacation,” Ethiopian cuisine is not an oxymoron; it’s a real favorite in D.C.

Each diner orders an entree and several vegetables, which are all served on a communal tray. There is no silverware; instead, meals are served with a plate of injera, which is flat, soft, spongy Ethiopian bread. Each diner uses bits of the bread to scoop up the food. (A year after the fact, my nephew still talks about “the place where you get to eat with your hands.”)

The novelty wears off quickly. What brings people back is the delicious food: lamb, beef, chicken, seafood and lentils, stewed and braised and simmered for hours, delicately spiced and luscious.

A very popular Ethiopian restaurant is Meskerem, 2434 18th St. If you can get one of the woven-straw Ethiopian drum tables, at which you sit on camel-hide hassocks, then this is the place. However, don’t let them seat you downstairs or in the basement, which is like the Restaurant At The End Of The Universe. Good food, no atmosphere.

In that case, try my own favorite--the crowded, noisy, happy Red Sea, 2463 18th St., which has a gorgeous old mirrored mahogany bar and stunningly beautiful waitresses.

Fasika’s, at 2447 18th St., is another worth trying, or you can just walk around and discover any one of the dozen or so other Ethiopian restaurants in the neighborhood.

Caribbean/New Orleans: These three restaurants can be counted on for deliciousness; just close your eyes and point to anything on the menu.

Fish, Wings and T’ings, 2418 18th, is tiny, crowded and wildly polychromatic; either reggae or jazz is always playing.

Try the curried goat or the Bob Marley (vegetarian) sandwich at bustling Montego Bay, 2437 18th St. Be sure to look around; there are colorful Jamaican art works hidden all over.

For those of us who can’t cook, both Fish, Wings and T’ings and Montego Bay have takeout windows: St. Peter can keep Heaven.

Various Latino: Rio Lindo, 2406 18th St., is a funky, plastic tablecloth place with very good enchiladas.

Mixtec at 1792 Columbia Road is much more colorful, cheaper and keeps winning awards for its Mexican food. It’s also much more crowded.

Omega, 1858 Columbia Road, one of the first restaurants in the neighborhood, has also won a number of awards for its Cuban cuisine; they say the Bay of Pigs invasion was planned here.

La Plaza, 1847 Columbia Road, has handsome and affable waiters, Brazilian, Mexican and other Latino food, and a very, very nice copy of Renoir’s “Luncheon of the Boating Party.”

French/International: You can’t miss the Cafe Lautrec, 2431 18th St.; the facade of the building is completely covered by a mural of Parisian belle epoque singer Aristide Bruant, in the style of Toulouse-Lautrec. The Cafe Lautrec is a jazz-piano cafe-bar with pretty good food, but you really come to see Johne Forge, who tap dances on the bar three nights a week (265-6436).

Cities, 2424 18th St., closes down every couple of months in order to completely re-do its decor and menu to reflect a different city. They have done Rio, Istanbul, Bangkok, Leningrad and Barcelona; at present they are doing the region of Sicily. The next metamorphosis will take place early next year, the city and date yet to be decided. The entire street-side wall of the bar and lounge area rolls up in the summertime. It is very pleasant and cool, and jammed with Brie-breathed upward mobes (328-7194).

Nightlife A (chic): Dakota, 1777 Columbia Road; full of resolutely stylish, sulky young people, rather handsome in head-to-toe black: the Washington version of the Hollywood interpretation of very wealthy Colombian drug dealers (265-6600).

Nightlife B (funky): For beer and hamburgers and a pretty good classics jukebox (featuring His Excellency, Roy Orbison), try Millie and Al’s, 2440 18th St. For cheap beers and a pool table, and a young crowd as tough as woodpecker lips, Dan’s Cafe at 2315 18th St. Avoid the restrooms, where the youngsters indulge in activities that will one day keep them off the Supreme Court.

Nightlife C (open air rooftop bars): The best is Perry’s, 1811 Columbia Road, a New Wave sushi bar. Also good (make that wonderful on a hot, hot, hot Washington summer night) is the Adams Morgan Spaghetti Garden, 2317 18th St.; also try Bradshaw’s, 2319 18th St.

Miscellaneous: Try the plucky little Kalorama Cafe, 2228 18th, with natural foods and locally brewed Dominion Lager beer from Virginia.

Don’t even think about driving to Adams Morgan, day or night. There is nowhere to park. Nowhere. That leaves two basic ways to get to the neighborhood, which is just north of the Dupont Circle area. The first way is by Metro; Woodley Park-Zoo is the closest stop. Anyone can direct you past the Marilyn Monroe mural at the corner of Connecticut and Calvert, and across the Duke Ellington Bridge to Adams Morgan. The walk will take perhaps 15 minutes.

The second route is to just grab a cruising taxi. (No one in D.C. could believe the trouble they went through here to find a jury that had never heard of Ollie North, when all they had to do was impanel a jury of D.C. cab drivers--not one knows north from south. No, that’s a joke. Really, D.C. cabs are inexpensive and efficient.) It is thanks to the Metro system and the cruising cabs that D.C. is such a user-friendly city.