You know what? I don’t give a damn that Capital City Diner buys the majority of its ingredients from a giant food-service company, and I’ll tell you why. Sometimes I love a place just because of its history or its significance to a neighborhood or its atmosphere. (I’m sorry, but I don’t visit Florida Avenue [...]

Metro Connection host David Furst and I had just finished our segment on Capital City Diner in Trinidad — had in fact just listened to co-owner Matt Ashburn talk about his neighborhood's overblown reputation as a crime district — when across the street.... Well, I should let you listen to the episode today to find out.

On opening day, Capital City Diner received a visitor from the 1950s.  Not long afterward, the co-owners heard an echo from their diner's very beginnings, from the late 1940s. It was a bouquet of flowers and a note from the son of one of the founders of the Goodrich Diner, a tiny eatery that served [...]

When Matt Ashburn and Patrick Carl first spotted the historic Avoca Diner on eBay more than 11 months ago, they had no idea what a hassle it would be to buy the 1947 prefab structure, move it to D.C., and prepare it for its second life as Capital City  Diner. Nor did the owners know much [...]

The neon "OPEN" sign said it all: After months of headaches and delays and budget crunches (much of which Y&H will detail in tomorrow's column), Capital City Diner finally opened for business yesterday in Trinidad. It was packed with neighbors, well-wishers, reporters, and even a surprise out-of-town guest. After the jump is my brief snapshot [...]

Tom and Lynn Dougherty step back in time The last time Lynn Dougherty laid eyes on Capital City Diner, it was called the Avoca Diner, and it was run by a woman named Brenda Remchuk, a former Corning Glass employee who decided to get into the grease-slinging business. That was in Avoca, N.Y., in 1991. [...]

We here at Y&H Central have two suggestions on how to celebrate this important day: 1. Go to the nearest IHOP. (Location finder here.) Order a short stack of buttermilk pancakes. They're free today until 10 p.m. Well, they're free if you're a total assmunch and don't make a donation to the Children's Miracle Network, which supports children's [...]

The Avoca Family Diner, circa 1993 Y&H received an e-mail earlier this week from Randy Garbin, publisher of Roadside magazine and its electronic version Roadside Online. Garbin's magazine is a love letter to diners and their role in American grease-tronomy. Garbin sent me a PDF version of a piece he wrote in 1993 about the Avoca Family Diner, which was [...]

Matt Ashburn gets a head start on sippin' mud at Capital City Diner. It's taken a long, long, long, long time to reach its grand opening, but Capital City Diner is close. How close? It's a question that co-owner Matt Ashburn has answered so many times, he's hesitant to give a specific date anymore. Let's [...]

A view of Cap City Diner from across the street If the tone of Matt Ashburn's e-mails indicates anything, the Capital City Diner owner sounds a lot calmer than he was back in August when he and business partner, Patrick Carl, were battling with Washington Gas over the installation of a new line. Ashburn has [...]