Longworth House Cafeteria, Washington, D.C.

While I was on the Hill yesterday, I popped in to visit Ian at his office there and he took me to lunch at the Longworth House Office Building Cafeteria, a place intended primarily for Members and staff but also open to the general public. My, how things have changed! I haven't been to a Congressional cafeteria since I was an intern decades ago. They used to be these dismal, dimly lit, dingy, low-ceilinged places with food to match, but now the place is big, bright, and airy with multiple theme food places. There was actually so much food that looked really appetizing, I couldn't possibly sample everything. The stations included a sandwich and wrap bar, a hamburger bar, a barbecue bar, a huge salad bar with all kinds of substantial salads on it (pay by the ounce), and an international station that yesterday was featuring South American foods (also pay by the ounce).

Ian made himself an enormous salad at the salad bar, then stood in line fifteen minutes for the macaroni and cheese at the barbeque station. Most of the stations have a "Members and Staff Only" line, but not that one! He also got a rice krispie treat for dessert.



I went to the "main course" station and got chicken parmesan with green beans amondine. The chicken was surprisingly good--a very large, juicy chicken breast had been breaded and fried without being pounded out flat to make it look bigger, and it had an excellent flavor. I used to spend most of my time on the Senate side, so I often had had the famous "Senate bean soup;" at Longworth, they had House bean soup that was much the same, a navy bean soup stewed thick with ham hocks and flavored with a little onion sauteed in butter. I got a chocolate cup cake topped with a dollop of what I thought was whipped cream but turned out to be a boiled frosting. I also had iced tea to drink, and they offered both sweet and unsweetened versions.



You can tell a California liberal is now running the House of Representatives. They advertise their use of cage-free eggs and free trade coffee. Not only is the traditional, heavy, Southern recipe emphasis of the old cafeteria system gone (you can still get that on the Senate side, though), there are all kinds of trendy California-type menu items available. And, most telling, all of the plates, cups, and even flatware are biodegradable and compostable--they are made from corn. I didn't really like the flatware....I thought the forks and spoons had a weird feel in the mouth, and it seemed to me that they had a slight taste, though I couldn't be positive the taste came from the flatware and wasn't just an absorbed flavor from my meal.

What surprised me most after viewing the aftermath of the Pelosi greening of the House, though, was the existence of a designated smoking room in the cafeteria! I thought I'd heard she'd banned smoking in the House, though that might have been just on the House side of the Capitol and not in the office buildings. Then, I noticed in the men's room a big sign warning against drinking the water!