Trust me, this tastes way better than it looks.
1/06/2009
GOOD STUFF EATERY: 303 PENNSYLVANIA AVE. SE, WASHINGTON D.C.
It’s fairly apparent that I’ve never met a cheeseburger I didn’t like, but today with the Colletti’s Smokehouse burger from Good Stuff Eatery in D.C., I can honestly say I’ve never been happier to lay eyes such a sandwich.
After a grueling day that started by photographing newly-minted Congressman Jim Himes jogging on the National Mall at 7:45 a.m. and ended many hours later after sitting through roll call votes, race walking the seemingly endless hallways and tunnels of Congress just generally trying to keep up with Himes (who walks at a freakishly brisk pace) and saw no intervening meal breaks, I needed this cheeseburger. [It also helps that you can poach internet from nearby Cosi and file your photos all while nursing a Yuengling, I suppose.]
A full-day of coverage behind me, I headed to Spike Mendelsohn’s new burger joint while Greenwich Time reporter Neil Vigdor repaired to the Capitol cafeteria. If you are a Top Chef junkie, like myself, you’d remember Spike as the dude with the hats from season four of the series on Bravo.
Honestly, I thought he possessed disagreeable personality traits, felt his obsession with stingy-brimmed fedoras was ridiculous and despite being an obviously talented chef, deserved getting booted from the show. But, hey, I can’t really hold all that against him after eating a tray of his herbed French fries. They are wicked good.
If other burger joints can learn one thing from Good Stuff Eatery, let it be this: put sea salt on each and every table. Needless to say, I feel at home here with my predilection for salty foods.
I still am not really sure what the bottles of Sriracha hot sauce are supposed to be for. I’ll have to look into that.
–CP
NOTE: Thanks goes to Connecticut Post Washington bureau reporter Peter Urban for recommending Good Stuff Eatery, which is just blocks from the Capitol building heading towards Eastern Market.
BELOW: The Capitol shines through the drizzle on Tuesday.
[...] P.S. A note on the state of burgers in our nation’s capital is over at the Lunch Break Chronicles. [...]
[...] P.S. A note on the state of burgers in our nation’s capital is over at the Lunch Break Chronicles. [...]