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Stopped by for lunch today. Pretty damn good for a burrito sold on the street out of the Big Hunt's window. Agree with the Chipotle alternative comments, I think I'd rather get my burrito fix here (that is until the Pedro & Vinny's cart #2 is allowed to park across the street again!). Had the pork which was much more flavorful/saucier than Chipotle (whose carnitas taste primarily of salt).

As mentioned above Oyamel does have an actual GF menu (a printed menu with annotations for GF, dairy, and a couple other common food allergies). My wife has celiac, here is just a sampling of what we have found good around town: - The Jose Andres empire: Oyamel, Jaleo, Zaytinya all have specific GF printed menus - Rustico for pizza, the best we've had in the area. Pete's in Columbia Heights also does a GF pie that is pretty good (still prefer Rustico) - For a quick dessert or treat Hello Cupcake in Dupont has a GF cupcake of the day. I actually prefer the banana/peanut butter one to the "real" version. By far the best GF cupcakes in town - Various Thai places in town are aware and will accommodate (they stock or use GF soy sauce; most traditional Thai soy sauces are GF, Chinese and Japanese not so much). Regent Thai in particular is a favorite - We've had great success at Dino by calling ahead, substituting polenta in pasta dishes where desired - Zengo has a separate menu; we've only sampled their fare at an event, but it sounds like there are several options - If you are going to splurge Komi did a fantastic job making substitutions on the tasting menu. We didn't miss the non-GF offerings at all Even for places that don't offer a specific GF menu we have had good success just calling ahead during off hours and asking to speak with a manager or chef. Generally they will let you know up front if there will be several options. As people who pre-celiac-diagnosis dined out at lots of different places we've been pleased at the breadth of options available to us in DC without having to resort to chains that are "known" for their GF menus. Often all it takes is a little pre-dining leg work. Good luck!

Big Bear Cafe in Bloomingdale. Unobtrusive soundtrack, great staff, excellent coffee, not much in the way of food selection but what they carry is good. If you're not driving or are bus-averse it's not very convenient, however.

I thought the exact same thing. Ron's departure was 3-4 episodes too late

And you think somebody on food stamps really gives a s#!%? Look, we're all for sustainable, organic foodstuffs and don't mind spending an extra $1 or $0.50 to have them. But let's not for one second think that everybody sees it that way.

Assuming your friend's NYC bus leaves from around Gallery Place, many of the Chinese restaurants there are open late night or a least until 2:00. I'm thinking Full Kee and New Big Wong in particular

I have to say, as much as I enjoy sampling different types of beers and seeing what brewers out there are experimenting with I am stumped about the popularity of pumpkin beer. I haven't counted but my guess is that you could easily find over a dozen different breweries with pumpkin beers on the shelves of any decently stocked store. With a few exceptions (DFH's in particular) I find them to be almost indistinguishable in that whatever flavorings they dump in overpower any quality of the underlying base beer. In fact I would be shocked to discover that most of these aren't simply the brewery's normal amber or brown ale with the addition of flavoring agents. And pretty much every one isn't a "pumpkin" beer, it's a "pumpkin pie spice" beer. It would be interesting to go back and find out who had the first commercially marketed pumpkin beer (anybody know?). These days it's as if any larger micro feels the need the offer one as a seasonal: "Well we have our spring bock, the summer wheat, a winter warmer. Ooh, let's not forget the pumpkin beer!". I would be more interested in seeing a proliferation of domestic Oktoberfests.

Not that there's some truth in this statement, but c'mon! I think everybody would agree that these are luxury items.. Why not mention the staples that food stamp recipients would presumably be drawn to? Are they not selling apples and greens and peppers and tomatoes for a reasonable sum? Isn't there some nice double coupon value there? A better argument would be to say that you can't get a dozen eggs for less than $3-4 when they sell for $X at the local grocery.

I really really hope that the metal detectors were there because the Obamas or some other traveling-security-circus-requiring official was planning on walking through the crowd. If not it's just really sad. I walked down from my office, saw the half block long line to get in, turned around and walked back.

On U St we like MoMo's and Nellie's. Go to neither for the food, though.

Debated and debated this year, but did end up logging on and snagging 4 for Friday night. Looking forward to it again!

Confirmed they have Pumpkinhead at deVino's as of last night (Florida and 18th, same owners as d'Vine's). They also had a Shipyard imperial pumpkin brew (in a 4-pack, not bombers), not sure if it was the same Smashed Pumpkin you are looking for.

With my recent quests for micros-in-a-can for summertime enjoyment I stumbled across 21st Amendment brewery out of San Francisco. First spotted up in PA, but found some in DC this week (at P St WF and De Vino's at least). Their IPA is better than average, but I was highly skeptical about the Watermelon Wheat beer. It is actually pretty damn good. You get a good dose of the watermelon in the nose and on the first sips, but it disappears into the background by the end of the can. Still a nice summer refresher. Butternut Pork Slap Ale is still the canned micro champion in my book.

Saw that, too. This tease has gone on long enough. Maybe if they miss the 9/21 date I'll chuck a brick through the front window. But then that would delay the opening even longer! Damn.

Thanks for the report. Maine Ave it'll be. Did you get them from Capt White's? Steamed to order?

Has anybody ever gotten take-out bushels from Capt. Pell's in Fairfax? Quality? I was quoted $130/bushel for medium males (meh), $185 for med/large mix. We want to do crabs at a friend's out out in NoVa and they look to be the most convenient. Any other suggestions for steamed bushels to go in the general Falls Church area?. Driving them out from Maine Ave is the probably the other option, but Capt White's has been hit or miss in the past.

They had it all over town around the Inauguration; I even saw some at the P St Whole Foods! I vaguely remember some exception with the distributors that allowed them to bring it in for a short time. Have not seen it since. And FWIW I went to school in Chicago and thought that Old Style was the worst of the worst. I mean I grew up with Natty Boh, consumed mass quantities of Schaefer in high school, took a shine to Iron City when it was available, but there is something about Old Style that is just off. I was a Hamm's man in college.

Release the hounds!!

There's also the fact that this third choice requires a trip to Frederick. From the OP's request:

It comes down to sustainability. When the crab population in the Chesapeake was booming watermen took jimmies (males) and sooks (females) as they found them. When the harvests started to dwindle some voluntarily started throwing the sooks back and jimmies were pretty much all you'd find (I think it was voluntary, but maybe the harvest was limited for a time). Now with the population reaching critical levels and watermen struggling I don't think anything is getting thrown back. I haven't knowingly eaten a female Chesapeake crab in a couple decades and ask for all males whenever I get a bushel. Of course the real solution is not to eat Chesapeake crabs at all, but the Bawlmer boy in me can't resist a couple times a summer. I fully realize and accept that this is part of the problem.

Hahahahaha!! Scroll down about 1/2 way to the review of the establishment after Guarapo.

The Obama family burger tour continues! Michelle at Good Stuff

Probably are live. Put 'em on ice and they essentially go into a crabby coma. You can sometimes still see some bubbles from respiration, but they won't move even if you poke and prod them. And I believe holding them on ice slows or prevents the shell hardening which is what you are trying to prevent in the first place. If you let them come back to room temp they will start moving about. Last spring I had one get lively enough to almost make his way from counter to floor as I was prepping other stuff. Back to where to find them: Buster's Seafood at the Dupont market will have them for several weeks. Be careful, though: he also has frozen stock. The fresh ones will be more expensive, but check for vitality.

With gorgeous weather on tap for this weekend I don't foresee many open seats in the new addition. New menu sounds interesting as well.

Do they sell the last chicken I'll ever need to buy?! Stop throwing your money away, call NOW!