DMV Dining

September and October are usually busy times in the DMV for outdoor festivals. The weather is cooler but still nice enough to enjoy being outside with family and friends. Here are a list of some upcoming food events – some old standbys and some new for 2010:

• Turkish Restaurant Week – According to the Turkish Festival website, Turkish Restaurant and Cuisine Week will take place September 17-26 at select Turkish Restaurants. 4-course menu for $25. This is not a large list of venues, but could be a great way to try a new restaurant featuring this cuisine, or revisit an old favorite.

• Taste of Friendship Heights – Now in its fourth year, this event features samples from more than a dozen local restaurants. It will go from 12 to 5 pm on Saturday, September 25th at the Friendship Heights Village Center in Chevy Chase, MD. Taste of Friendship Heights is organized by the Friendship Heights Urban Network (FHUN) and the Village of Friendship Heights. Food and drink tickets are $5 for 4 tickets.  A portion of the proceeds from the event will be donated to the Community Council for the Homeless at Friendship Place. Visit the website for more information.

• Taste of Bethesda – The 21st annual Taste of Bethesda is scheduled for Saturday, October 2, 2010 and showcases 50 restaurants and four stages of entertainment. Taste tickets will be sold on-site in bundles of four tickets for $5, and servings cost one to four tickets. The event is held along Bethesda’s Woodmont Triangle, three blocks from the Bethesda Metro. Additional information can be found here.

• Taste of Dupont 2010 – This new event comes from the Historic Dupont Circle Main Streets group and is scheduled for Tuesday, October 5, from 6 – 9 pm. The idea is to create a progressive dinner by visiting any of the 13 participating restaurants with $5 individual tasting tickets. Many will also have special price cocktails or wines paired with the tastings. Tastings can also be bought in packages of 5 for $20, with additional discounts for larger groups. Tickets can be purchased online, or starting at 5pm on the day of the event at the Dupont Resource Center. It seems more restaurants may be added before the event date, so be sure to check the website for more details.

• Taste of Georgetown – The 17th annual Taste of Georgetown takes place Saturday, October 9th, from 11 am to 4 pm on Wisconsin and M Streets, benefiting the Georgetown Ministry Center. Thirty area restaurants will be on hand to offer tastes, as well as a wine and beer pavilion and jazz from Blues Alley. One tasting costs $5, with 5 for $20. According to the website, tickets will be available for purchase online starting in August, but that doesn’t seem to be the case yet so check for updates.

We will update the site frequently with more events and information as things come our way. Feel free to send us a tip if you know of anything as well!

We here at DMV Dining have been highly anticipating the opening of Taylor Gourmet Deli’s Bethesda location for quite awhile. Rachel and I frequent their H Street location several times (especially following late nights at Little Miss Whiskey’s) and we’ve always left satisfied.

So when we heard the news that Taylor would be opening up a spot in Downtown Bethesda, we knew we had to check it out the very first day it opened.  And so of course, we did just that.

The space itself is gorgeous and is much more open and airy than their Atlas District location. Instead of long, narrow corridors, the area features high ceilings and funky lighting fixtures. Fortunately, it still features the trademark garage door/window which offers visitors faux-outdoor dining.

The staff we encountered were very friendly and clearly demonstrated an effort to ensure that their customers were being taken care of.

We started our dinner off with Rocky’s Risotto Balls and we knew we couldn’t go wrong after having our first bite. They were prepared with the perfect blend of rice and cheese and were fried just right.  For $4.50, it’s quite a bargain as the order comes with six risotto balls.

As for our sandwiches, I went with the almighty Pattison Avenue. DC Foodies has already gone into vivid detail why this sandwich is the tits, but man, the combination of the roasted pork, garlicky broccoli rabe, and sharp provolone is honestly hard to top.

The only minor quibble I had while wolfing this glorious hoagie down was the bread. Although it was served warm and fresh, it’s not the easiest thing to bite into. It took plenty of time to chew it, but then again, it definitely assisted in soaking in the juice from the pork and rabe without it becoming soggy whatsoever.

Rachel opted to try the JFK Boulevard which consisted of grilled chicken, portabella mushrooms, and goat cheese. The meat was seasoned to perfection while the combination of the mushrooms and goat cheese was incredibly flavorful.

Since we couldn’t stop thinking about how good the sandwiches were after our first visit, Rachel decided to head back over this past Tuesday and order a couple sandwiches to go to take with us to the Nationals game.

She went with the Arch Street this time around (house-smoked turkey, roasted red peppers, aged provolone, lettuce, and onions) and ordered the Spruce Street for me (essentially the Pattison but substitute the pork with grilled chicken).

We each had half of one and, once again, found both to be solid choices. In fact, Rachel thought the bread seemed softer and fresher this time around as opposed to opening night. Coupled with some Herr’s kettle chips, our ballpark dinner proved to be a much better meal than your typical hot dog and soft pretzel combo.

I’m not saying I bought a soft pretzel after I finished the Spruce Street, but I’ll just leave it at that.

Overall, Taylor is a welcome addition to the Bethesda scene and should prove to be a successful venture given its unique combination of sandwich ingredients as well as its prime downtown location.

Before I left, I asked one of the employees if they plan to have late night hours a la their H Street shop. The dude I talked to said they plan to incorporate it down the road but are just going to be operating on regular business hours for the first few months or so.

But don’t worry, we’ll keep you posted on when we’ll be able to begin our post-midnight Pattison Avenue fixes.

Welcome to, you’ve guessed it, another DC-area food blog.

We would like to take the time to introduce you to Brett and Rachel’s venture into blogging together as we’ll be bringing you reviews on the newest restaurants, happenings around the area, and the latest news in the world of dining in our nation’s capital.

As the title indicates, this website will cover places across the Washington metropolitan area, but that won’t exclude us from writing about venues that we encounter outside the DMV.

And since we both live in Bethesda, we’ll give full disclosure that there will be a slight focus on the area due to the abundance of places to visit that are within steps of our home. Rachel also works where she lives, so she’s always on the move for a new lunch spot or happy hour get-together.

So in short…much Maryland coverage, a good amount of DC reporting, and an honest effort to make it to Virginia a few times a year. We promise.

At any rate, we hope you enjoy what we have to offer. Be sure to follow us on Twitter @DMVdining, too.  Thanks, and welcome to DMV Dining!