FOOD & DRINK: A TASTE OF THE CAPITAL REGION
MUST TRY
● For the freshest food go to a market and buy direct
from the sellers. Extremely popular are the markets’ lunch
counters where cooked-to-order meals are tasty and cheap.
For weekend breakfast arrive early to avoid long waits. Try
Dupont Circle or Eastern Market in Washington, DC, and
Broadway or Cross Street markets in Baltimore, or Historic
Roanoke City Market and Dayton Farmers Market, Rockbridge
Cocktail hour
County, Virginia.
● Unique to Marylanders is Old Bay seafood seasoning – a
spicy mix of peppers, salt and herbs – which locals have on
just about everything, but always with steamed crab. Look out
for it in the supermarkets, it makes a great memento to bring
back home.
● If there’s not time for a meal, it’s worth sampling the bars in
the region’s grand historic hotels for guaranteed atmosphere.
At Washington’s Willard InterContinental, the famed Round
Robin bar has been frequented by the likes of Mark Twain
and Abraham Lincoln. The barman is a history buff who can
regale you with stories about the building and its
famous occupants.
● Get the inside
track on a food tour.
In Historic Annapolis food
and history combine as a guide in
colonial uniform takes you around
Eastern
historic sites where 21st century
Market
food is on offer. Try a tour at the
beginning of your stay so you can go
back and explore at your leisure.
or U Street offer an unrivalled ethnic diversity of restaurants Tearooms ranging from the elegant to the quirky have
– everything from Brazilian to West African. Word has it opened up across the region, including several in Baltimore’s
that Washington, DC has the largest number of Ethiopian fashionable Fell’s Point. In Virginia try the Jefferson Hotel in
restaurants outside of the country itself. Adams Morgan is also Richmond and the Williamsburg Inn, while Washington, DC
great for bar-hopping, while U Street’s most famous restaurant, even boasts its own tea house chain, Teaism, with branches in
Ben’s Chili Bowl, is where Bill Cosby courted his wife. three city-centre locations.
Head for Cafe Milano in Georgetown if you are hoping to Microbreweries are another trend that bars and restaurants
spot a famous name. The menu offers upmarket Italian staples are embracing. In brew pubs such as Capital City in Washington
but the real draw is the crowd of celebrities and politicians and Virginia, Legends Brewery, Richmond, and DuClaw Brewing
said to frequent it; apparently Bill and Hillary Clinton, Michael Co in Maryland you can sample craft signature and seasonal
Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones and numerous others drop brews, complete with don’t-say-we-didn’t-warn-you names like
by whenever they are in town. Celtic Fury, Prohibition Porter and Blackout Stout.
US trend-setters are cottoning on to what Britons have At the end of a relaxed and satisfying trip, don’t forget to
known for years – there’s nothing more refreshing than save some room for a drink or two at sunset. Combine your
afternoon tea. sundowner with a view: a city skyline, waves lapping on the
At the Park Hyatt in Washington, DC, you can sip a single- shore or green rolling hills, and raise your glass. To the tastes of
estate brew in their purpose-built tea cellar while their the Capital Region – Cheers!
knowledgeable tea sommelier talks you through the menu of
rare and vintage teas, some stored in a special humidor by the Natasha Lee is a travel writer and editor specialising in the
entrance and aged for 25 years. United States and Canada.
www.capitalregionusa.org 21
CRU09 pp18-21 Taste.indd 21 6/11/08 12:00:11
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