Tuesday has long been an excellent night to go a’drinking in DC. The Belgian Beer Happy Hour Bohemian Caverns used to have was a night we thoroughly enjoyed in our just-getting-into-beer days. We have managed to have plenty more tipsy Tuesdays as a result of the wealth of beer happy hour opportunities available in DC.

Many of you probably know about dchappyhours.com, which is the most exhaustive list of happy hours searchable by both neighborhood and day of the week. While an excellent and fairly up-to-date tool, it’s not always the most useful resource for a couple like us, who care little for wine specials or $1 shooters. So, we thought we’d offer a quick list for your convenience.

Below are The Lagerheads’ picks for Tuesday budget beer. Got other good spots for beer happy hours? Let us know in the comments–regardless of the day of the week.

Read More “Tipsy Tuesdays” »

While Y&H was peeking into civil court records and poking around a chef contest, others were actually hunting down news about restaurants that are opening and closing. Here’s a quick run-down of what we’ve missed — or what I’ve missed:

• Tom Sietsema reports that the guys behind the mini-Matchbox chain are planning a small, personal comfort food restaurant on Capitol Hill.
• Sietsema also has the scoop on the Neighborhood Restaurant Group’s latest offering, a chop house in Old Town.
• Metrocurean breaks the news about Cork Wine Bar opening a new market on 14th Street NW, not far from the popular restaurant.
• A poster on DonRockwell.com notes that the Gaithersburg branch of El Tapatio has closed down.

The to-go pizza boxes at Matchbox on Capitol Hill are stamped with this head-scratching boast: “Washington Post, Editors Pick [sic], 2 out of 3 star rating.” For the record, Tom Sietsema’s latest review in the Post, dated April 29, 2007, gave the Chinatown location two out of four stars.

There’s a long cinematic history of equating food with sex, as my buddy Robb Walsh detailed earlier this year with his “Top Ten Food & Sex Scenes in the Movies,” which, ahem, climaxes with the scene between Mickey Rourke and Kim Basinger in 9 1/2 Weeks. But I have to say that the combination is much less sexy when it happens right in front of your face.

Last weekend, the wife and I were sitting at the bar at the new Matchbox where a middle-aged couple was eating and reading out loud to each other from Savage Love. It was obviously their weekly ritual, and for that, I salute them. But we were just starting to place our orders when I heard the guy reading this letter to his companion:

Read More “When Sex and Food Go Too Far” »

I’ve taken a lot of pictures in restaurants, but over the years, I’ve never snapped one in a restaurant’s bathroom—until this past weekend, when I stopped at the new Matchbox in Barracks Row. After washing my hands, I turned to look for a paper towel. Not finding one, I looked for a hand dryer. I didn’t see one of those either. Then I spotted this thing, at knee level, that looks like a device for severing your hands. It didn’t help that the contraption is called the Dyson Airblade, or that when you stick your hands into the thing, you feel a sharp prick on your wrist from the high-speed air flow. The Airblade is not a classic warm-air dryer. The water is supposedly wiped from your hands with “a sheet of air traveling at 400 mph.” So says the manufacturer. It’s designed to dry your hands in 12 seconds, using less energy than conventional hand dryers. I’d say the manufacturer still needs to tinker with the technology. I got tired of waiting for the Airblade to do its thing—waiting for the blast of warm air that, of course, never came. So I just wiped my damp hands on my jeans and left. I was just glad that they were still attached to my arms.

The top content as selected by you, the readers, of the Young & Hungry blog:

1. Organic Pancakes in a Can!
2. Texas Brisket on Saturday Night…in D.C.
3. Corn Bread Is Not a Dessert
4. What Are the Coming Food Trends for 2009? Turkey Legs!
5. Enology’s Chris Cunningham on Expanded Drinking Hours During the Inauguration
6. Tiffany Short on Expanded Drinking Hours During the Inauguration
7. Marketer Explains Why Free Sundaes for Kids Won’t Increase Business
8. Capitol Hill Matchbox Set to Open Tomorrow
9. Two-Pound Truffle Sells for $200,000
10. Outlook Section Smacks Down Five Dangerous Food Myths

After the usual delays, some wildly rampant speculation, and a couple of trial runs for friends and family, the new Matchbox, the second D.C. location in the budding chain, is set to open tomorrow on Capitol Hill.

For the first few weeks of operation, the Cap Hill Matchbox (521 8th St. SE) will serve dinner only, says co-owner Perry Smith. Brunch will be served this Sunday only but will expand to both Saturdays and Sundays the following weekend. The menu at both D.C. Matchboxes, Smith says, will be exactly the same.

That’s not to say, though, that the menu will be the same old, same old.

Read More “Capitol Hill Matchbox Set to Open Tomorrow” »