Catching Up on Restaurant Openings

Only in this neighborhood can you blink for a couple of weeks and get behind in passing along the news of new restaurant openings in the neighborhood.

Near the corner of 14th and U Streets, dance hall and Caribbean restaurant/lounge Patty Boom Boom opened a few weeks ago, and the early reviews have been largely positive. If you don't know the name, you probably know the building: it's the beige and black building just one space up from the corner of 14th and U Streets.



The menu at Patty features--what else--Jamaican patties (which feature such fillings as spicy beef and jerked goat). Perhaps even better for the neighborhood (or, at least for those of you clamoring for some late-night eats) the "patty bar" will remain open until 4 AM.

Upstairs, it's a bit of a different story: speakers out the wazoo pumping dancehall, reggae and house tunes at such a volume that patrons have reported drinks being shaken off of the bar downstairs. Considering that lately I prefer to do my drinking in the quiet solitude of my bedroom closet, I'm not certain the second floor of Patty Boom Boom will become my home away from home. But Patty, which is owned by the Eighteenth Street Lounge/Marvin/Thievery Corporation team, will offer up an attractive new going-out option in the neighborhood.

Approximately a block west on U, a slightly quieter establishment has opened, as the former Axis Bar and Grille recently became Cafe La Bonne. Cafe La Bonne presents U Street and its denizens with the corridor's first French bistro.























Chef Daniel Labonne, who hails from the Caribbean island of Martinique, presents a menu of classic French fare (you know, French onion soup, quiche lorraine, beef bourguinogne, etc.) in a "classic bistro setting". The Cafe will also offer a late night menu, brunch on Saturday and Sunday, and a selection of French wines (with most bottles priced in the $30-$50 range).

The 14thandyous are used to having to trek up to Napoleon to satisfy our French cravings, so we're very much looking forward to having them in the 'hood.

If you've had the opportunity to visit either of these establishments, please share your thoughts in the comments section below and let us know how things went.

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A quick note, also on the topic of food: Mr. 14thandyou happened to stroll by the recently opened Homemade Pizza Co. at 14th and Church on Wednesday night, and halfway considered giving it a go--until he tried a complimentary slice of the cheese pizza that was being handed out in front of the store. I'm not certain that I've ever felt the need to describe a pizza as "listless" before, but I feel the word choice might be accurate here. Now, maybe the cheese pizza isn't their best offering, and maybe getting a slice from their outdoor pizza oven isn't the best way to try it...but I'm not getting it. Especially at the price at which their pies are sold.

In addition to the pizza itself, the line out the door was ridiculous (opening night problems, perhaps). So, perhaps I'll come back around and give it another go. But, man, that was one unimpressive slice of pizza.