Mama's

So today I met my friend Mary for brunch/lunch at Mama's in North Beach. It has been around forever and I was told there would be a line but don't dismay the wait is worth it. Well I have to say after about a 45 minute wait chatting with Mary we finally sat down to eat. I had eggs florentine with spinach, tomato and avo with orange juice and it was excellent. Everything they had looked good. They had a bunch of coffee cakes that looked really good as well. Anyway, it was worth the wait but if you aren't up to it go early. It is right across the street from Washington Square Park and right off Columbus. Also near one of my favorites, Cafe Jaqueline. http://mamas-sf.com/

I also took a stroll down Columbus and stopped at Stella for some cannoli. They were excellent as the sisters and JJ can attest to. Also nearby is Cafe Trieste, City Lights Bookstore, Molinari Deli, and Steps of Rome (if you want waiters to flirt with you this is the place to go. my poor friend julie was ready to skip dessert after she saw them sing happy birthday to a girl at a table across the room)

Front Porch

Tuesday night Kathryne, Julie, Ryan and I all went to dinner at Front Porch (www.thefrontporch.com). It was excellent! I had the brown sugar and tamarind braised short ribs with sweet potato and cucumber salad. Ryan got the bucket of chicken and Julie had the fish cutter which was fried oyster. Kathryne had the vegan one pot stew which was really good as well. Another thing that won me over was their excellent mac and cheese. I am a sucker for mac and cheese and always interested in a new recipie and theirs was really good! They were paired with sweet potatoes and cucumber salad. We also tried the ceviche and arugala salad. Of course dessert is mandatory and they had excellent dessert options. I had the pumpkin pine nut cake with coconut ice cream drizzled with honey. Julie had the poached pear and Ryan tried the sorbet (meyer lemon, tamarind and one other flavor I can't remember). The prices were really reasonable and the food was really on par with way more expensive places. It was a really low key place. They played great music. It didn't get croweded until after about 8pm and it did start to get pretty noisy so if that is something you can't live with just go early and you will be fine. If you don't find a dessert you like there you always have Mitchells which is across the street (http://www.mitchellsicecream.com/)

U Street

So about a year ago Joanie sent me a link to this restaurant, not sure how she found out about it but my friend Lynn and I went there for dinner my last week in DC and it was amazingly good!I had the chard salad which had chard of course and ricotta, pine nuts and raisins. We shared pizza and for dessert we had honey tangerine sorbet and the nutella calzone. They had a chocolate dessert that sounded excellent as well. Everything was so good. http://www.coppisorganic.com/
The restaurant is on U Street in DC a few blocks from the Metro station. The neighborhood is definitely one of the most historic neighborhoods in DC. It is now starting to be revitalized and coming back into it's former glory. Another recommendation in this neighborhood is Bens Chili Bowl (http://www.benschilibowl.com/). I haven't eaten there but it is a DC institution. Interestingly enough NPR did a segment about U Street and there is a link to a history of U Street. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89397682