The Capitol Offender

Sushi on H Street NE

My boyfriend and I went on a double date with two good friends of ours to one of their favorite spots on the H Street corridor in Washington, DC.  For those of you who aren't familiar with H St. NE, it is the new up and coming hot spot in DC.  The best way I would describe it is what U Street used to be 5-8 years ago.  Full of trendy, grungy bars and restaurants.  Sticky Rice is known among many and for good reason. This sushi joint has live music and a lounge feel, but it’s very laid back and casual.  The staff is complete with tattoo sleeves and the food is delicious--the menu ranges from tater tots to baby back ribs which were both outstanding. I recommend the "sticky balls", but you will have to go there to find out what they are!  We ate everything and then some, including wine which happened to be on the higher end of their selection at a whopping $24.00.  This place also offers outdoor seating in the back which has more of a quiet/romantic setting.  Only one downside to this place, the wait was 40 minutes, but the upside is they will call your cell phone when your table is ready so you can go a couple doors down for a drink--don't be mistaken, the wait was well worth it!

Croatian Riviera

Most people aren't sure where exactly Croatia is, and until about a year ago, I had no idea either.  The Dalmatian coast of Croatia is considered the Croatian riviera and new hot spot for posh Europeans. We stayed at the Hotel Lapad (pictured left) which is located about 1km from Old City and is right on the harbor.  This hotel has a great pool and bar with very American amenities, like air conditioning, which is rare in Dubrovnik yet at must because we were there in the last week of August and I have never been so hot in my life (yes hotter than Washington, DC in the summer). The hotel was great and was surrounded by several beaches and nightlife in Lapad although we spent most of our time in Old City.

Pictured right is inside the city walls of Old City Dubrovnik.  Old City is an old fort and has city walls which line the Adriatic sea.  The inner walls are filled with old churches, outdoor cafes, ritzy shops and local Dubrovnik residents.  This place is bustling with tourists and elite Europeans 24/7.  During the day, it is filled with tourists until about 11pm, and just when you think the town is going to sleep the younger 20, 30 and 40 somethings come out to play.  Everyone dressed to the nines and ready to party to 6am, and we were happy to join them.

This city itself dates back to the 7th century, but some parts are from even earlier.  Old City (above left) is lined with gorgeous marble and pebble stone streets.  You can distinguish the local euro trash by the girls who are able to walk in 5 inch heels on the streets of Old City from the typical tourists in their havaiana thongs.  Dubrovnik is right on the Adriatic Sea just north of Italy, and has by far the prettiest/cleanest water I have ever seen in my life; you literally can see 60-70 feet down.  The water and beaches are even better than what I had read prior to coming here.  Most beaches are rock beaches with lounge chairs--I'm more of a white sand beach kind of a guy, though they  are tough to find on the mainland—but you can take a ferry to one of the hundreds of islands Croatia has to offer (Korcelep Island-above right).  You can take ferries to most of the islands which have small villages, most without cars (some with golf carts), but all are quaint and more gorgeous than the next.  The Dalmantian coast is perfect for families, party-goers, or honeymooners as it caters to everyone's needs and wants.  This is by far my favorite destination I've traveled to.     

Holiday in Prague (Praha)

I recently returned from an adventure to Czech Republic to visit a friend from growing up in New Jersey.  We arrived after drinking for 8-9 hours on the red-eye flight.  Naturally, we decided to fight through our day to get on European Time. Little did we know our site-seeing consisted of grabbing a beer after each site and staying out until 6:30 am the first night there (was up for 36 hours straight).  We saw some of the major sites this day, which included the Charles Bridge, Old town Square, Tyn Church, and of course it wouldn't be Eastern Europe without seeing some topless ladies pictured on the newspaper stand. I was more than impressed by this city and its beauty. It surprised me that it was not some dark grungy city--but realize I am just talking about the beauty of the city itself.  The people here are an interesting bunch filled with mismatched couples.  All the men are hideous, but have beautiful girlfriends/wives---something doesn't make sense here… or does it?  We stayed in Prague for 4 more days during which we visited the Prague Castle, National Museum (not worth going in), Wenceslas Square (shopping), a day trip to Karlstejn Castle, and lots of beer gardens located on both sides of the river.  Praha, as the Czech spell it, also has quite the nightlife...3 of the 5 nights we were there I managed to stay out until 6am.  But unlike in Washington or most cities I visit, I didn’t spend much money because an expensive beer here costs $1.50 USD or 30K (krowns).  This was an amazing city which had all of my favorites: history, great architecture, friendly, vibrant night scene, day drinking and best of all inexpensive.  Get yourselves here!

Westhampton Beach, NY

Being from a suburb of NYC in northern New Jersey most of my friends naturally moved to NYC after college and began their lives. I however, chose to take a job in Washington, DC and now visit my friends from home as often as possible. A few good friends rent a summer share on Dune Road in Westhampton Beach, NY which is an hour and a half from NYC without traffic-which is never the case. We woke up early Friday morning and headed to WHB to my friends house share. WHB or possibly just my group of friends have the typical weekend routine down.  Friday nights at Casey's and Saturday nights at the Drift Inn. Friday we head to Casey's in a large van that of course allows us to bring our open containers in as we head to Casey's. Casey's is a typical Irish bar packed with NYC 20 somethings like ourselves looking to escape the daily grind as we drink and dance the night away all the while making complete fools of ourselves but of course without any shame (meanwhile we should all be ashamed, especially me dancing with a 60 year old regular lady who may or may not have something wrong with her. Saturday we wake up grab breakfast in the very cute town of WHB. Unlike most people's views of the Hamptons it is very quaint and not snooty. Of course it has upscale stores but definitely has a welcoming vibe, not too mention has a beachy feeling to it--feel free to eat in your bathing suit although you might be out numbered by people dressed up in their proper Hamptons Attire. We spend the day on the beautiful beach, very quiet--the only other people on the beach were about 50-100 yards from us. As the afternoon goes on so does our hunger and thirst (but not in that order) as we need to get ready for the "Drift". We walk a couple doors down to John Scott's Restaurant which is right on the bay and has live reggae music playing outside in the afternoon. John Scott's draws in a crowd of 20 somethings as well as families--this doesn't stop us from getting ridiculous and sharing vulgar jokes and/or calling each other vulgar names. After we get a nice buzz going at John Scott's we head back to home to begin pre-gaming and start getting ready for the night. This night a limo picks us up (same price as the van) and brings us to The Drift Inn around 10pm which is early but we were avoiding a long line later in the night.  the place is an outdoor club as you can see in the picture and is located right on the beach...I know the place is crazy when I am one of the least drunk/embarrasing people at the bar.  Very crowded and typical hamptons priced drinks but a lot of fun and not as far as bars in the other Hamptons. Sunday morning rolls around and so does my hangover and dreadful 6-8 hour drive back to Washington, DC.  Excellent weekend and will be back shortly!

Sushi in McLean

Last night I joined my boyfriend and one of our friends for Dinner in McLean at Endo Sushi which is located on right on Old Dominion Road. This is my second time here and loved it both times-especially love the consistency of all Asian restaurants constantly filling up your water after a single sip. The restaurant has been pretty empty both times but both times I have been was around 8pm and on a random Tuesday night but the people who were there were also Japanese--always a good sign of Japanese restaurant. Service was excellent as was the food-very fresh! My favorite was the caterpillar roll which had avocado, eel and shrimp tempura all together!Two thumbs up from this hungry homo.

Sunday Funday in DC

After being here in DC for my first weekend in about 5 weeks, I decided to take advantage of being in town and this great weather, so I met some friends for drinks at one of my favorite locations..Circa (www.circacafes.com) located directly across the street from the Dupont north metro stop with outdoor seating. Located across from the metro stop means its a great spot for people watching or more often freak watching which is equally as fun especially when you are hungover and want to shoot yourself and then you see a homeless man with feet five times the size of yours--things are looking up or maybe that is the booze talking. We enjoyed some white wine, pizza and wings...From here we decided to changed locations to Clydes (www.clydes.com) in Georgetown for half priced wine and more wings. Half priced wine is every Sunday and goes until 1030pm. We were able to get bottles of wine for $16 and up-great deal! From here we headed to Mr. Smiths in Georgetown (www.mrsmiths.com) which was when my night/day starting fading as was my memory.  However Mr. Smiths is typically a college bar/piano bar but never lets me down on a Sunday night...drink specials for Yeungling on Sundays.  It was about 1am and time to go to bed/pass out.

Capitol Skyline Hotel Pool

This is the place to be in the gross DC heat. You should arrive early to mark your territory (lounge chairs). Get there before noon to avoid sun bathing on concrete like a amateur. $10 will get you into the pool and another $3 will get you an obnoxiously old orange towel (bring your own to save the $3 and the risk of getting scabies).  12pm on the dot they start serving drinks, which are very nicely priced--$4.00 for all beers, all beers except Miller Lite are 12oz and the Miller Lites are 16oz..best bet for your money. All mixed drinks including margaritas are only $5.00. All food which is not a large selection but what they do have is good and $8.00 which usually comes with chips or fries...I recommended the BBQ Grilled chicken sandwich--I may enjoy it because I have a couple beers already in me but either way it got something in my stomach which was needed as I didn't want to start doing the "Elaine" dance before the sunsets. As they day went on and the drinks continued to flow people were really beginning to let loose. Depending on the theme determines how weird things get...Freddie Krugar might be giving it to an Easter Bunny look-a-like from the behind.  This place is the best place to be in the summer in DC as well as the closest thing I've seen to spring break since spring break.

Enjoy the best Thai food in DC while risking your life

My boyfriend and I have been trying to double date with one of his high school buddy's for months now. Last week the other couple suggested we try out this unique Thai "restaurant" located on 5th and Florida Avenues NW--not my usual hang out spot as I don't typically carry a gun out with me. The rules are you have to call exactly at 4pm when they open to make a reservation for that night and that night only. We were able to call earlier and get an 8pm reservation for 4 people-you also have to place your order at this point. We arrive at the "restaurant" at 8pm--even our cab driver told us to be careful when he dropped us off directly across the street from Thai X-ing. I use the word restaurant loosely as it is a basement efficiency that sits 8 people in the chef Taw's living room. Taw never greeted us but another guy who seemed to have been the host did--he was very friendly and sweaty--not my type. The host guided us through the cluttered efficiency filled with pictures of what looks like Taw's family from 30+ years ago. As we entered we immediately realized that there was no air-conditioning-it was literally 95 degrees outside and possibly over 100 degrees inside as the kitchen was no more than 12 feet from where we were sitting. We sat on mismatched chairs and ate off of coffee tables. We were told its BYOB and that if we bring booze we should bring some for Taw as well-we brought him a bottle of red which was much appreciated. When our food came out (family style), it was beyond delicious and totally worth this life-risking experience. Our favorite was the drunken noodles (we got two orders). Taw uses ingredients that is not used in typical Thai restaurants which was not revealed to us. We started eating and completely forgot about the sweltering heat. We finished off with desert which was a deliciously ripe mango sliced up surrounded by white rice with sugar and honey on top of it--I was too full to have more than two bites. The other two couples in the restaurant seemed to look "normal" and were fellow white folk--they also seemed to be amateurs at this but everyone was friendly-great date spot-as long as your date carries mace. We asked for our bill after 2.5 hours of sitting in the most interesting sauna i've ever been in. The total bill for 4 people was $57.00! This was an amazingly good price-the two bottles of wine I brought pretty much cost the same thing! We were all shocked to see that Taw had a credit card machine which happened to be directly behind the chair of our friend in a tiny corner surrounded by guitars. We left a hefty tip for Taw and plan on coming back-perhaps when my sweat won't be dripping into my food. It was 10:30 now and we all had a decent buzz going on after 3 bottles of wine and a 6 pack. We decided to hit up a local bar but we quickly realized we were at 5th and Florida and the only bar around here was a crow-bar which we were about to be beaten with if we didn't hop into our friends car ASAP--we drove 4 blocks to 9th and U and had a couple beers and Nellies Place before heading home. I am proud to say that I did not have any stomach or bowel issues that night or the next day.