DC Restaurant Review: Open City

I have lived in Woodley/Cleveland Park for ten years now, I have seen restaurants and bars come and go in the two neighborhoods. Openings and closings are just a fact of life, I was upset when the Washington Park Gourmet closed on Calvert. The reason I bring this up is that I am a guy who does not like sandwiches. I find them to be boring and cold. However, the Washington Park Gourmet made a taragon chicken salad that was incredible. The put on a leaf of lettuce, scoops of chunky taragon chix salad and placed it in a killer baguette. One of a handful of sandwiches that I would ever consciously buy.

So the memory of that great sandwich lingers when I see that corner. I am glad to say those memories have infused themselves into Open City, plus they were playing Weezer.

Now we have Open City Bar/Diner brought to us by the same guys who own Central Perk...I mean Tryst. Open City was packed when I went for breakfast with my friend and this was at 10:00AM. We were told that it would be thirty minutes. The waiting area began to fill up and we were pushed into the dining area. The host was buys calling out names, "micah party of two," No reply. "Sara party of two," No reply. "Lincoln party of two," No reply. Finally we were called after a short 7 minute wait.

The ambiance is frenchy cafe meets young DC married couples and new families. The TV had both meet the press and cartoons going. That's a combination I enjoy "Why are we selling port operation to DPW?" to"Is that a Frosty the snowman cartoon." The wait staff was pleasant and quick.

My friend and I both had the OC Royale or in spanish the Ciudad Arbritire royale. (Someone check my Spanish please...) I also had a small glass of OJ and a cafe au lait. The OJ tasted fresh and the cafe au ait was too frothy but the coffee was strong and freshly grinded. The OC royale or CA royale was bacon, eggs, hasbrown, toast (English muffin) and french toast. All i can say is that the food was very good, but is it really hard ot mess up breakfast food. The french toast was sublime and hinted of goodness, the bacon was perfect crunchy not greasy, the eggs I had, over hard, were fried with just a hint of bacon grease, the hash browns were shredded and a tad undercooked.

Suggestions for the place, add a second TV and show all the networks. Push the better coffee drinks like the Cuban coffee. I know profit is king but it is a bit harsh in there, tables are close together and noise bounces off of everything.

What more can you say about this place but it is a great neighborhood bar, too bad it is infected with convention traffic. I am going to try lunch and dinner and will add to this review. But overall I really enjoyed it. On My DC scale it was, "A suspension bill-- non-controversial everyone assumes it is good and everyone likes it."