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 [...]
After all the bureaucratic hassles, Capital City Diner breezed through its final health inspection today, obtained its business license, and plans to open for business on Tuesday. So how does it feel to finally start slinging hash, Matt Ashburn? "Scary as hell," he says. "Actually, I think it's a relief, and I couldn't be happier." [...]
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 [...]
When Y&H last chatted with Capital City Diner co-owner Matt Ashburn, he was trying to convince Washington Gas to waive the $5,600 "contribution" fee that the utility was requesting to lay a new pipe from the gas main to the forthcoming restaurant at 1050 Bladensburg Rd NE in Trinidad. Ashburn's argument for waiving the fee [...]
It's only fitting José Andrés grabbed the top spot during the week in which he also celebrated his 40th birthday. But aside from defending their turf from opinionated New Yorkers (you'll figure out that reference after reading the top post), Y&H readers also proved they have a great interest in beer, particularly how to open [...]
On Monday, Y&H reported that Capital City Diner couldn't even get Washington Gas to return a phone call. Today, e-mails co-owner Matt Ashburn, the gas company told Cap City that it will cost more than $5,600 to install an underground pipe from the main line to the diner in Trinidad. That's cash that Ashburn and [...]
Y&H is still trying to untangle all the red tape that led to the bureaucratic snafu in Trinidad, where the owners of Capital City Diner were prevented today from moving their vintage 1947 dining car onto the foundation they poured at 1050 Bladensburg Rd NE. The problem, it seems, is that the contractor for business [...]
"They're now issuing a parking ticket for the goddamn diner!" Those were practically the first words out of Matt Ashburn's mouth when I called him a little while ago. He's on location at what's supposed to be the Trinidad home of Capital City Diner, but the city won't let him park his vintage 1947 dining [...]
A man named Matt W. Ashburn e-mailed the paper this morning, alerting us to the fact that he and his business partner have just bought a 1940s-era diner and plan to move it to their Trinidad neighborhood, where it will come to rest at the former location of a used-car lot that Mayor Fenty shut [...]
