We’re in the midst of DC Summer Restaurant Week, and there’s still plenty of time to take advantage of $22 lunches and brunches and $35 dinners. Here’s our food editors’s top picks for restaurants, as well as new hotspots you’ll want to try.
Hang with your dog while drinking cocktails on Thursday from 4 to 7 PM when America Eats Tavern hosts its patio Hush Puppy Speakeasy. Four-legged friends are welcome and cocktails, beer, wine, and fancy dog treats range from $4 to $7; ditto those prices for bar bites like sloppy joes and wings.
Friday is a fake food holiday week can get behind: National Rum Day. Take a tour of Cuba Libre’s vast rum collection on Friday from 4 to 7 PM, when pours, which range from $8 to $84, are halved during happy hour. Over at brown liquor emporium Jack Rose, the terrace bar is the place for $10 classic rum cocktails, premium rum tasting flights, half-priced summery bites like jerk wings, and steel drum music from 5 to 11 PM.
Forget complex travel logistics and take a six-continent tour on Friday afternoon during the Around the World Festival in Freedom Plaza from 11 to 7 PM. Over 20 local vendors represent vworld cuisines such as Yemeni fare from Saba and Thai cuisine from Kruba DC. Entry is free with individual items available for purchase.
The Bullpen is assembling 1,000 lbs of wings for its all-inclusive Wings, Wine & Whiskey event on Saturday from 4 to 7 PM. Attendees can dig into all-you-can-eat chicken wings with seasonings like sweet chili or mumbo sauce along with drinks from City Winery, Dida’s Distillery, Stolen and Virginia Distillery, and Uncle Nearest. If that wasn’t enough there’s endless mac n’ cheese, a wing eating contest, and for VIP ticket holders, free-flowing Manhattans. General admission tickets are available for $35.
And heading into next week…
Rasika Penn Quarter is shaking up its dinner menu from next Monday through the week when chef Vikram Sunderam joins the kitchen to deliver a four-course menu that showcases the gastronomic soul of Southern India. Served in two versions, vegetarian or omnivore, the dinner includes lemony lentil soup, a ghee roast goat dosa, lamb stew, and tomato pappu ($60 to $65).
On Tuesday from 6 to 11 PM, A Rake’s Progress becomes the laboratory for an a la carte menu melding contemporary American and Middle Eastern cooking. Chef Michael Lee Rafidi of the soon to open Albi collaborates with the restaurant’s executive chef, Opie Crooks. Among the offerings are seafood arayes and chickpea miso arctic char. Reservations may be made here.
Women-run Tuscan winery Montenidoli is at the core of Stellina Pizzeria’s prix fixe dinner on Tuesday from 7:30 to 9:30 PM. For $95, enjoy glasses of prosecco and vintages specific to the Chianti region, like Vernaccia di San Gimignano and Chianti Colli Senesi DOCG alongside plates of parmesan paccheri and NY strip steak.
