This past week we were blessed with some pretty mild weather for mid-November and folks responded by heading out and about including myself.  Here is a brief recap of my week in DC:

Tuesday – Headed out to Leopold’s Kafe with a couple close friends and had steamed mussels.  The mussels at Leopold’s are pretty decent and in all honesty I started sipping the broth like soup after I devoured all the mussels.  That being said, I still have not been able to find the perfect mussels in DC.  Leopold’s in general continues to do well – there was a nice little crowd there for a Tuesday evening and the service was as good as ever.

Thursday – Checked out Shabeh Jomeh at the Reserve, which is a wine bar I really have to review.  Upon entering and ordering a beer, a man at the bar mentioned that I was dressed like I should be drinking wine.  I didn’t know whether to take that as an insult or a compliment so I thanked him and drank the beer.  I did however, order wine immediately afterwards for reasons unknown to me.  Shabeh Jomeh was a lot of fun actually and I ended up bumping into a few people I knew and having a generally good time.  It does have the stigma of being a mixer for young profesional Persians however I didn’t feel any social coercions and just thought it was a good time at a good venue.

Friday – Headed out and started at Lima.  The security was as unfriendly as ever.  The bouncer at the side entrance didn’t even verbally respond to us, instead choosing to grunt and motion to the front door, where a stern Persian guy refused to make eye contact with us or let us in without paying a $20 cover despite the fact that our friend had put us on the list.  After spending a few minutes waiting for our friend to show up, I watched first-hand while a litany of individuals tried to make arguments for why they should be allowed into the club to no avail.  We finally got frustrated waiting, paid some of the cover and headed in.  The service on the inside of the club is completely the opposite as outside.  The bartenders are extremely friendly and professional.  Lima got filled up fast (with a diverse, younger crowd) and after a few minutes it was time to move on.

The next stop was Josephine, which still remains my pick for the best club in DC.  They have been going strong for over a year now and it is because they hire and retain the best talent in DC (like Jill, for example).  We headed down and enjoyed a drink and the lovely DC Theresa for an hour or so.  By 1 or so, we walked over to the Dupont area to meet with some friends at Spot, which was a great place to end the night.  Like Josephine, the guys on both the inside and outside of the club are friendly and generally make you feel like they are actually happy to have you in their club, which is important.  We stuck around for the remainder of the night before finishing Friday off at the Diner in Adams Morgan.

Saturday – After a late night, it was time to tone things down a bit.  I headed down to Falls Church for Korean barbecue at Han Sung Oak, which is a family-style Korean restaurant but has some of the best barbecue in Virginia.  After two hours of kun mandu, bulgogi, kalbi and Doenjang Jiggae, I started feeling the effects of the previous night and started fantasizing about sweatpants and basketball on TNT.  I did a cursory drive-through in Clarendon and was a little shocked to see how the nightlife scene had expanded there.  It sort of reminded me of one enormous keg party.  Made a mental note to check it out at some point in time.

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