Food and Drink, The Daily Feed, The Features, We Love Drinks

Friday Happy Hour: Tacos and Tequila at El Rey

I’m done with this cold, rainy nonsense. It’s time for spring, people! I want to see more balmy temps, cool drinks, sundresses, and cherry blossoms. But most of all, I want tequila and tacos because nothing quite puts me in the spirit of warm weather quite like drinking tequila and eating tacos under the sun. So I’m sure you can imagine my feelings towards the opening of El Rey last week, Shaw’s new U Street tacqueria/beer garden. It went sort of like this (only replace “bacon and eggs” with “tequila and tacos”).

I walked into El Rey’s soft opening, having done shameful little to no homework, with a very short check list. First order of business: lots of tequila. Yeah they got that. Second: tacos. I think so. Lastly, not cold. It might have been rainy and nasty all week, but under those heat lamps you could have fooled me. Close my eyes and I’m back to undergrad, eating tacos off a truck and lounging on the sunny quad. Only this time there’s tequila. Continue reading

Food and Drink

Nationals Park Adds New Food Options

All photos courtesy of the author

Although Nationals Park already features a number of iconic Washington-area restaurants, such as Ben’s Chili Bowl and Hard Times Cafe, the Nationals partnered with New York City’s Union Square Hospitality Group to bring in four new dining options: Blue Smoke BBQ, Box Frites, El Verano Taqueria, and Shake Shack (which also just opened a brick-and-mortar location near Dupont Circle to much fanfare).
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Food and Drink, The Daily Feed

Food Experiment’s DC Taco Cookoff

Photo courtesy of
‘Yummy lunch at Surfside’
courtesy of ‘Joe in DC’

Sunday afternoon the smell of tacos will be wafting down H st. NE. The Food Experiment, a national cooking competition for amateur cooks, is hosting it’s first competition in DC.

Twenty-six teams of local amateur cooks will be making enough tacos for 300 people in the hopes of earning culinary glory and going on to compete in the finals in Brooklyn. The competition was started a few years ago by Theo Peck and Nick Suarez, both accomplished cook-off pros. This year’s Food Experiment spans five cities with five different challenges.

The DC leg of the tour is at the Rock and Roll Hotel from 12-3 PM, and tickets are $10. For the sake of full disclosure, I am competing in the challenge, so come on by and grab a taco and say hello!

Food and Drink, The Features, The Hill, We Love Food

We Love Food: Taqueria Nacional

Photo courtesy of
‘Taquira Nacional’
courtesy of ‘needlessspaces’

The first step to healing, is admitting you have a problem, right? Well, people, here is my admission: I am addicted to Taqueria Nacional. Its draw to me is more powerful than Potbelly’s was when I used to work near 17th & L (best Potbelly’s location ever) and those of you who know me know that I adore Potbelly’s. I will forgo any lunch I’ve brought to work faster than you can say “Hey Katie, wanna go to Taqui…” I’ll dash out of conference calls, I’ll leave my boss in a lurch, I’ll do pretty much anything for a pork taco from Taqueria Nacional in the middle of the day. So this We Love Food? This one is personal, cause I’m a regular. A regular with an addiction.

Taqueria Nacional opened in 2007 amidst a flurry of rumors (it’s in an alley, it’s only a takeout window, it only has tacos) in the foodie scene. Clearly we did not have Twitter to quickly spread the truth, and it took a while for everyone to get on the same page – but here it is: Taqueria Nacional is tucked away behind Johnny’s the Half Shell, in the corner of the courtyard of the CSPAN building. It hides as a little standing-room-only takeout shop with a line that usually reaches halfway across the courtyard. Ann Cashion and John Fulchino are behind this little taco place, which bodes well for the new Mexican fare at H Street Country Club (Cashion’s new venture), and the standards are high. The tacos are five bites of heaven, the salads are fresh with high quality lettuce, the agua frescas are creative, and my stomach cheers at the thought of the fried yucca. Continue reading