Old Ebbitt Grill, Washington, D.C.

What was going on in downtown Washington last night? The restaurants all seemed to be packed, yet there were no special restaurant events or parties going on. We were out about 9:45 or so last night to dine, and there were people everywhere!

My friend Michael is in Washington this week. He's from a little tiny town out in the middle of extremely rural western Oklahoma, and came to D.C. to do some research and reconnaissance for his tribe. It's been at least 2003 since I last saw him, so it was great to see him again in person and not just as a mysterious cyberpresence.

We walked around a bit to do some minor sight-seeing and landed at the historic, antebellum Old Ebbitt Grill, across the street from the Treasury department by the White House. Our waitress told us they'd had a lot of small private parties booked for the evening, but otherwise, we still don't know why Ebbitt and the other downtown places were so busy.

We started with a bottle of Ebbitt's house label white wine while we perused the menu. Micheal had been anxious to try a real Maryland style crab cake, so that was one of the reasons I picked Ebbitt, since they have excellent crab cakes that are actually mostly crab instead of filler. And, that is what he ordered, accompanied by a few green beans and their addictive sweet potato gratin (thinly sliced sweet potatoes baked in cream and brown sugar and spiced up with just a touch of chipotle peppers). He also had a cup of their New England clam chowder as a appetizer. He liked the chowder, though I was a bit concerned when his first spoonful had grit with the clam!


The entree special for the month is 1–1/4 pound steamed Maine lobster for just $18 ($28 if you get a "double"), so that's what I got. It was nice, as always, and I got a female lobster with roe. The lobster came with a little cup of cole slaw and some French fries.


I do need to come back soon and take advance of their oyster bar specials, now that the little bivalves are back in season.

Our waitress managed to tempt us with dessert, too. Michael got the chocolate brownie cappuccino, and interesting little thing with a large brownie and scoop of vanilla ice cream placed in a large, oversized coffee cup, then doused with liquid espresso and garnished with a cloud of whipped cream.

I had the rich and delicious pear upside-down cake with vanilla ice cream and a dulce de leche sauce. I'm ready for another piece right now.


It would be easy to sit around at Ebbitt for coffee and after dinner cocktails for hours, but Michael had to drive back to his hotel and be able to work early this morning, so we called it an evening. There were still people coming into the restaurant as we were leaving, and this was a Wednesday night! Must have been the full moon.

Oh, Michael was quite excited to join the pantheon of those honored by having Kody Poses taken of them and posted in my blog, especially since the original Kody is from Oklahoma, too!