Kitchen Wench

Since moving here a year and a half ago, I’ve heard that H St NE (a small stretch of bars and clubs between 12^th and 14^th and H) is the next rapidly gentrifying hot spot. The two block strip, across from an Autozone and several fried chicken/subs/Chinese food/seafood carry out joints, is the baby of DC nightlife mogul, Joe Englert. You’ve probably gone all sloppy-faced at his joints and didn’t even know it (Lucky Bar, The Big Hunt, Pour House, DC9… the list goes on). For better or for worse, he knows what he’s doing.

My first trip to H St occurred several months ago in the form of dinner at Dr. Granville Moore’s and local band night at Rock and Roll Hotel. I’ll admit, I was kind of stressing out. I find that DC nightlife can be rather depressing due to certain breed of suburbanite that flocks to Georgetown and Adams Morgan on the weekend, acts like an obnoxious, then drives drunkenly home, thankful they don’t actually live in the scary city.

But I also keep reading about this mythical creature known as the DC hipster (or “hip-tard” by so-called suburban haters), mostly in the DCist comments threads. Since H St is still a little rough, I figured it might have just enough street cred to keep the striped shirt crew away. Like, there might actually be cool people there. People so cool, they would take one look at me and know that I wasn’t cool enough. I might walk into Granville Moore’s and encounter a sea of shrunken striped sweaters, unwashed hair, and Chuck Taylors. I obsessed that my poser status might be given away due to my lack of canvas messenger bag and 1970s ski vest.

It turns out that H St is cool. But not in the way I was expecting.

Granville Moore’s is this narrow room with exposed brick and dark wood. It’s warm if a bit dimly lit. The windows on the first floor are covered with metal grates, making it seem like you’ve walked into a basement. A bar runs along one wall and there are tables along the other; the upstairs has a similar set up. At 7 pm on a Friday, the place was packed, with a 30 minute wait. We were told by the “hostess” that, “There might be some room upstairs. You can go up there and check if you want.” This seemed a little unprofessional to me, partly because it was so crowded and the stairs were on the other side of the room. Isn’t it the job of the hostess to check if there are free tables? She later went outside to smoke/text message/chat with a girlfriend, leaving several confused patrons milling around aimlessly for a good ten minutes or more.

Despite the hostess, Lee and I decided to wait for a table. Granville Moore’s specializes in Belgian beer and cuisine. Neither of us had heard of many of the beers on their sizable menu, but we were starving, so something full-bodied and flavorful was in order. I ordered a Delirium Tremens Nocturnum, which was delicious: dark, creamy, a little carmel-y and a little bitter.

While waiting for our table, it became apparent that H St is not overrun by motley hipsters. The crowd was on the younger end, but not exclusively. I saw couples out on dates, co-workers of varying ages having a beer after work, groups of middle-aged women, double daters dressed to the nines, sports-bar types.

The menu at Granville Moore’s is small but well-conceived. The specialty is mussels and frites. There are 4-5 types of mussel preparations, from your basic white wine and garlic to more creative incarnations involving Italian or Spanish flavors. There is also a selection of sandwiches and a handful of other entrees. Lee and I ordered a bowl of mussels with pesto and Parmesan, fries with horseradish and curry ketchup dipping sauces, and a steak sandwich to share. The mussels were good, but I think I still prefer a traditional white wine preparation. We ordered a large fries, and they were nothing short of enormous. Imagine slicing a basketball in half and filling it with crispy, herb-y fries. They were excellent but way too big a serving, even for this fry-loving girl. The fries come with a choice of six dipping sauces; you can choose two when you order. The curry ketchup was a standout but the horseradish cream was a little bland. I just don’t think it did anything to compliment the fries, whereas the curry ketchup added a sweet, spicy tang to the salty crunch.

All in all, it was a very good meal—flavorful food, flavorful libations, and a surprisingly homey and relaxed atmosphere. One thing that I hate about DC dining is going somewhere pretentious and paying for mediocre food. Food at Granville Moore’s is tasty and reasonable. The mussels were $14 and those huge fries were only seven bucks. The beers do cost more, running in the range of $7-$10. When it comes to drinks, I’m about quality over quantity. If you’re interested in a lot for alcohol for a low price, you should probably go drink $1 Bud Lights at some shitty happy hour. But if you want to savor delicious Belgian ale with your mussels and piping hot fries, it’s really a small price to pay for a great reward.

Lee and I then rolled ourselves down the block to Rock and Roll Hotel. From what I could tell (it was very dark inside), R&R Hotel is a rectangular room with a small stage, a bar and some neat gothic light fixtures and mirrors. It is not terribly big, but like all good clubs, the bathrooms are covered with incoherent Sharpie marker graffiti. We didn’t stay very long, just to hear a friend who was in the opening act. But, what struck me was that the patrons at Rock and Roll were an even stranger mix than at Granville Moore’s. I saw kids who looked like they had barely graduated high school, as well as a couple old enough to be grandparents, and everything in between (including a few striped shirts). Hiptards, preptards, whatever. They were all there. And that’s why I think H St is cool. In a city that always feels like it’s trying to hard, it is a rare thing to find a place that is legitimately chill.

Better go now, before it gets too safe/clean/gentrified/condoified. Then you won’t be able to keep the riff raff out.

Granville Moore’s
1238 H St. NE, Washington, DC
202-399-2546

Rock and Roll Hotel
1353 H Street, NE, Washington, DC
(202) 388-ROCK