2000 Fearrington Village
Pittsboro, NC 27312
919.542.2121
www.fearrington.com/house/restaurant.asp

As we were planning our trip to North Carolina, my aunt insisted that we had to have dinner at the Fearrington House Inn or rather the restaurant at the Fearrington House Inn.  So, for our last night down there, I made reservations for just my parents, my niece and myself for an early dinner.  The Inn is nestled in Fearrington Village which is this collection of shops, restaurants, a small farm, a spa, an inn, and other amenities located just south of Chapel Hill.  The whole village is quaint, elegant and very southern as the Inn itself resembles an old Southern estate.

630 Weaver Dairy Road
Chapel Hill, NC 27514
919.942.1133
www.thepigrestaurant.com


Do you think there's an issue with my restaurant choices when I've now written posts about Honey Pig, the Green Pig Bistro, The Pig, and The Pig again (this time in Chapel Hill, NC)? There's no problem there right? It was rhetorical.  I can't help it if I love all things pig.  I bet you do too and besides, I was in North Carolina and you can't be in North Carolina without at least trying some barbecue down there.  A placed named The Pig is always a good place to start when it comes to barbecue.

I found out about the Pig from my cousin when we were eating dinner at Lantern.  He sure doesn't share or comment about his food but he sure can give a good restaurant recommendation.  After doing some more research (namely on Lantern's website), I saw that the proprietor at the Pig was a Lantern alumnus who's opened his own whole pig, locally-sourced, and everything made from scratch BBQ place in Chapel Hill, or at least very close to it.  So, I packed the 'rents and the niece into the car for a late BBQ lunch.

423 W Franklin St
Chapel Hill, NC 27516
919.969.8846
www.lanternrestaurant.com

I haven't been at this blogging thing for very long (well, almost 6 months now.  Wow.) but I have noticed that, like anything, it has it's tedious parts where you have to kind of force yourself to write a post (almost feels like a job) after a lukewarm experience and then there are some instances when you can't wait to get home and start writing because the experience was so great.  Lantern is one of those places.

12401 Redwater Creek Rd
Chester, VA 23831
804.748.4032
www.crackerbarrel.com


What?

That's right.

I'm sitting in a coffee shop in downtown Chapel Hill, NC just doing some work and surfing the net before going to dinner at Lantern.  And yes, I'm also writing a post about Cracker Barrel.   I'm in North Carolina to visit some relatives and I drove my parents and a niece down here.  On our way down yesterday, we stopped for lunch at a Cracker Barrel just outside of Richmond, VA.  Yeah, I know I took pics but I struggled internally about writing a review about the place.  First of all, its a chain restaurant which I generally don't write about.  Second, its not like Cracker Barrel is at the epitome of good food.  However, it's not like this blog has hard and fast guidelines and if food critics are writing about Olive Garden then Cracker Barrel deserves a little love.

1118 H Street NE
Washington, DC 20002
202.733.1285
www.andpizza.com


I had gone to Toki Underground last weekend and I was going to write...um...blog (let's be honest, this barely qualifies as writing) about it but I had ordered a special instead of trying out their classic ramen.  I tried to figure out ways to justify a post about Toki without having their most basic thing and my justification was just to go back and eat there again.  So, I went back this past weekend and got there a little later then last week and the wait was 30-40 minutes.  I would've waited but I was starving so I decided to try the new pizza place down the street, H &pizza.

101 Constitution Ave NW
Washington, DC 20001
202.547.8100
www.charliepalmer.com/Properties/CPSteak/DC/


I know I shouldn't be so relieved about having my week's worth of work-related dinners end but for f*ck's sake, I don't know if I could take driving into the District at rush hour on a daily basis.  If it wasn't for that the week would have been a real blast but traffic here really puts a damper on any mood.  Yes, DC does have a metro but it's not the best and hence makes driving more convenient in certain places.  Yeah, I just got to go out to dinner every night because of work and I should suck it up.  Don't judge.  Traffic sucks.

1837 M Street NW
Washington, DC 20036
202.558.9545
www.boqueriadc.com


So, the next stop in my work week of dinners is Boqueria.  It was more of an unofficial get-together with work folks than a more formal event but nonetheless, all that we had going on at work allowed me to have dinner in the city at this tapas transplant from the big apple.  I chose it precisely because it was a pretty established tapas place from my favorite restaurant town.  I guess it holds up with my theme of eating from today (first Shake Shack and now this).  It's also in the Golden Triangle.  Yeah.  I just laughed.  Again.  Oh, and this being a work dinner, photos are going to be scarce again.

1216 18th Street NW
Washington, DC 20036
202.683.9222
www.shakeshack.com


My event driven work week is continuing and we had a ceremony on Capitol Hill today in the afternoon.  This was great on two counts.  We could go out to dinner afterwards (Boqueria post coming asap) and I could grab lunch in DC before the event.  I had been wanting to try out the Shake Shack downtown for quite a while now to see if they continues to produce great quality burgers as their empire grows beyond NYC.  It's also right around the corner from Boqueria so an easy place to park my car.

809 15th St NW
Washington, DC 20005
202.589.0060
www.bobbyvans.com


WHAT THE F*CK HAPPENED TO MY BLOG POST!?!?  I KNOW I WROTE ONE!  

So, I had written a whole post on my experience at Bobby Van's and I log on tonight to find that the post was mostly gone and it reverted back so that there isn't even a Bobby Van's post.  This is a recreation of my original post and hopefully I capture everything....For f*ck's sake.

11120 Rockville Pike
Rockville, MD  20852
301.881.0081
www.addiesrestaurant.com


I went up to Germantown to watch one of my nieces play in a lacrosse tournament.   Her first game was around 8 a.m. and I went last year and remember being home by lunch.  I guess a year really makes a difference as they played four more games throughout the day and ended up winning the whole damn thing.  This was great, good and bad.  The great was that my niece won a friggin' lacrosse championship by playing five back-to-back-to-back (you get where I'm going) games.  Not sure where kids get all that energy but it sure was put to good use this day.  The bad was all I ate through the whole day was some Dunkin' donuts, a hot dog and a large cup of coffee.  The good was that Germantown is a bit north of DC and as I was driving home around dinner time, I could stop by Addie's.

423 8th St. SE
Washington, DC 20003
202.546.1935
www.eatdc3.com


Who has two thumbs and has always been a fan of a good hot dog?  This guy.  When I lived in NYC, I loved the fact that you could get a good hot dog on any corner of the city and let's not even mention that there isn't a better late night food place than Crif Dogs (Temptee Dog, it will change your life).  So, of course, this guy couldn't wait to try out DC-3 which is just a block away from Ted's Bulletin and owned by the same people.  I guess pretty soon they're going to own the whole block down there by the Navy Yard.  But, even I can't eat 10 hot dogs in one seating so I decided to pay multiple visits to DC-3 over the span of a week so I could try as many dogs as possible.

3100 Washington Blvd.
Arlington, VA 22201
703.741.7636
www.lyonhallarlington.com


There's a little triumvirate of restaurants along the triangle that consists of Wilson Blvd, Washington Blvd and 10th Street just on the edge of Clarendon (TriBeClar? Triangle below Clarendon? TriBeRo? Triangle below Rossyln? TriBeCour? Triangle below Courthouse? Yeah.  I'm retarded) all owned by the same group.  I've had the pleasure of visiting Liberty Tavern and Northside Social already and while I've had a few drinks and a light brunch at Lyon Hall, I've never had a full meal there until today.  Lyon Hall is the Liberty Tavern Restaurant Group's take on a casual French bistro and was recently added to Eater.com's 38 most essential restaurants in Washington DC, so it seemed like a good place to take a long lunch.

2761 Washington Blvd.
Arlington, VA 2220
703.778.9951
www.eat-bar.com


EatBar is the Siamese twin sister restaurant of Tallula (shares the same kitchen and located right next door, get it? get it?).  I had read on Eater DC that there was recently a chef change at the restaurant and decided to go try it out since it's pretty close to my apartment and I drive by it practically every day of my life.  Now, I don't know if changing chefs, in this instance, is a good or bad thing AND I'm not really familiar with the chefs in the DC area, but the article said that the new chef would be including things like roasted bone marrow and peanut crusted oysters.  Yeah.  Come get some, son.

505 8th St. SE
Washington, DC  20003
202.544.8337
www.tedsbulletin.com

I was reading a story in the Washington Post about their 19 year-old All-Star phenom, Bryce Harper and it talked about how he liked to eat at a place called Ted's Bulletin on Capitol Hill since it served breakfast all day.  Now, I'm not a sports groupie so I wasn't thinking that I'd see Harper there and I don't necessarily subscribe to having a 19 year-old baseball player as a culinary guide but in this particular case, I used a 19 year-old baseball player to be a culinary guide.  Besides, they serve breakfast all day!  I went there for an early dinner and when I sat down, I realized that I didn't necessarily want breakfast at any time of the day so I decided that I'd make this a two day visit and just go back the next day for breakfast when you're supposed to eat breakfast.  Yeah, I know, conforming to society's norms, I should be ashamed.

932 North Kenmore St.
Arlington, VA  22201
703.522.3220
www.elpolloricorestaurant.com

There seems to be a million Peruvian (I always thought they originated in Argentina) Chicken places in Northern Virginia alone.  When I lived in Arlington about a decade ago, I lived right beside Crispy & Juicy and I'll probably always be loyal to the first place I ever had Peruvian chicken.  It's still one of my go-to places when I want a quick and delicious dinner.  But, I had read that the best place for Peruvian was El Pollo Rico located on a little side street almost in between Clarendon and Ballston.

901 U Street
Washington, DC  20001
202.560.5045
www.brixtondc.com

The marketing machine for the Brixton has been going hot and heavy for about two weeks now, touting the Brixton's rooftop as an ideal place to hang out for the Fourth of July.  I still get reeled in by slick superlatives and shiny, new objects so I went to meet up with  a buddy at the Brixton for some drinks, food and maybe some fireworks for the Fourth.  I say maybe because my friend has a dog who's afraid of loud noises so he warned me that he may need to leave on the early side to calm his dog down.  F*ck you Thunder.  Yeah, if you haven't seen TED or the trailer to TED, you should.  Now.

It looks like I have enough to be able to differentiate this list between NYC, DC and other (though there may not be five of these).  After looking at all my reviews, I'm definitely noticing a pattern of the types of food I like to eat.  I'll let you be the judge of what that is exactly.  I do know that Italian used to be my go-to type of cuisine but I think I've strayed away from that recently.  I also think that it's high time that I revisit some of my old favorites like Dell'Anima.  Well, without further ado, here goes:

10195 Lee Highway
Fairfax, VA  22030
703.560.0060
www.captainpell.com

A buddy of mine who had a baby (well his wife had the baby but he helped!) three months ago, sent me a text asking me last minute if I wanted to go eat some steamed crabs since his wife and newborn were at the in-laws house.  I figured 1) steamed crabs in this area is always a good idea 2) it was last minute but I still need to eat some dinner, and 3) he probably could use a beer or 19 after his first three months as a new dad.    So, an impromptu crab feast was a go.

7894 Washington Blvd
Elkridge, MD  21075
410.799.0001
www.rrtaqueria.com


Yes, this place really is in a gas station and yes it's been made famous because of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives (on the Food Network hosted by Guy Fieri).  They've also been been featured in the Washingtonian Magazine, Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and most recently in the NY Times.  There's also a second location that just opened in the White Marsh Mall.  But, the original is still located in a motherf"ing gas station.  The purportedly best taco stand in the DMV is in a gas station!  AND the gas, I have to say, is damn cheap.   All that being said, I couldn't wait to stop by R&R right before I went to my parents house on Canada Day.  I ate tacos all week so I could compare, I was ready!