[hillvalley]

Busboy, on Jan 14 2004, 07:09 PM, said:

Booeys is still great. But when we were feeling upscale, it was time to head over to the original American Cafe, on Wisconsin Avenue, just off M. It seems a little quaint now, but it was a breakthrough in 1975.

I LOVED the American cafe!!! There was one on the NE side of the Hill. The service was terrible but the food was great.

Which makes me think of Bob's Famous. I know they are still around in Bethesda, but at least a decade has passed since they closed on the Hill. You never knew who you would see buying an ice cream cone. Not to mention the first boy I ever had a crush on, I must have been 8 or 9, worked behind the counter. I don't like ice cream, but I ate a lot of it that summer.

[Busboy]

My first political job was up there on what we locals call "The Senate Side" and my good friend supported her campaign habit with a waitress job at the Hill AmCaf. I did some hard time in Bob's, too, during those long days with no real money coming in.

[reesek]

oh the american cafe! - wasn't that right upstairs from booeys? (Friendship) i thought i was the poshest thing around - eating my chicken tarragon on croissant. the neon lights were so very miami vice.

did it really open in 1975?? i thought it was new when i went there - must have been 1983...

the glass porch at booey's was great. we routinely had it to ourselves midweek and it seemed there was always someplace to sit. the most coveted spot though was the booth just on the right when you walked in - i think we fit 10 people in there once!

[reesek]

hillvalley, on Jan 14 2004, 05:15 PM, said:

Which makes me think of Bob's Famous. I know they are still around in Bethesda,

is that the ice cream shop off of wisconsin in bethesda? we used to switch between there and the one in glover park - steve's?? long gone i bet - i never remember where it was...

[hillvalley]

reesek, on Jan 14 2004, 07:43 PM, said:

hillvalley, on Jan 14 2004, 05:15 PM, said:

Which makes me think of Bob's Famous.  I know they are still around in Bethesda,

is that the ice cream shop off of wisconsin in bethesda? we used to switch between there and the one in glover park - steve's?? long gone i bet - i never remember where it was...

Yep, that's the one.


I'm pretty sure that Steve's is gone. It may be Max's now, I'll have to check. Is Steve's the one that did the blend ins? They had a store in Georgetown on Wisconsin.

[Busboy]

reesek, on Jan 14 2004, 05:40 PM, said:

oh the american cafe! - wasn't that right upstairs from booeys? (Friendship) i thought i was the poshest thing around - eating my chicken tarragon on croissant. the neon lights were so very miami vice.

did it really open in 1975?? i thought it was new when i went there - must have been 1983...

The original American Cafe opened in Georgetown just before I moved from the suburbs to DC to attend (if that's not too strong a statement) GWU. Over the years, the scattered a few more around town -- the Hill location mentioned earlier, and uptown -- so your location may indeed have been new when you discovered it.

[hillvalley]

Busboy, on Jan 14 2004, 08:02 PM, said:

reesek, on Jan 14 2004, 05:40 PM, said:

oh the american cafe! - wasn't that right upstairs from booeys? (Friendship) i thought i was the poshest thing around - eating my chicken tarragon on croissant. the neon lights were so very miami vice.

did it really open in 1975?? i thought it was new when i went there - must have been 1983...

The original American Cafe opened in Georgetown just before I moved from the suburbs to DC to attend (if that's not too strong a statement) GWU. Over the years, the scattered a few more around town -- the Hill location mentioned earlier, and uptown -- so your location may indeed have been new when you discovered it.

I don't think that the Hill location opened before the early '80's. Can't remember much further than that.



Anyone remember the sushi bar that was in the same shopping strip as Joe's Noodle House? My earliest memories of sushi are there. I can't remember the name

[hillvalley]

How could I have forgotten?


Dominic's
When it was still Dominic's. I loved that place.

[Busboy]

hillvalley, on Jan 14 2004, 06:06 PM, said:

Busboy, on Jan 14 2004, 08:02 PM, said:

reesek, on Jan 14 2004, 05:40 PM, said:

oh the american cafe! - wasn't that right upstairs from booeys? (Friendship) i thought i was the poshest thing around - eating my chicken tarragon on croissant. the neon lights were so very miami vice.

did it really open in 1975?? i thought it was new when i went there - must have been 1983...

The original American Cafe opened in Georgetown just before I moved from the suburbs to DC to attend (if that's not too strong a statement) GWU. Over the years, the scattered a few more around town -- the Hill location mentioned earlier, and uptown -- so your location may indeed have been new when you discovered it.

I don't think that the Hill location opened before the early '80's. Can't remember much further than that.



Anyone remember the sushi bar that was in the same shopping strip as Joe's Noodle House? My earliest memories of sushi are there. I can't remember the name

The Hill location was open by 1983, which is when I started hanging out in that neighborhood, but it strikes me that it had opened only recently.

On a more upscale note, anyone remember the old line French places around town?

La Rive Gauche, in Georgetown -- the first really fancy French meal I ever ate, as a college sophmore with new girlfriend in tow...and parents picking up the tab. I don't remember a thing about the food, but I remember being very impressed at the swarms of waiters, and the mechanical crumber they used to clear the tablecloth before dessert. Was it Seagrams that used to hide the case of Whiskey and put the clues in their ads? The Rive Gauche was the key to the one they hid in DC -- you had to find a streetcorner with 3 banks. On the corner of Wisconsin and M were two financial institutions, and "The Left Bank." Now it's a Banana Republic.

Parent visits provided funding for most of those early adventures. The girfriend's father paid for the night at Lyon d'Or, where I encountered lobster bisque for the first time. He had a Georgia accent that would have made Rhett Butler feel like riff-raff, and he'd spent two years as a mining engineer in St. Emilion. When he got a snootful, he argued (affably) with the waiter in strangely accented French about whether the wine glasses were authentically St. Emilion-ish.
Too bad his daughter was a psychopath.

Just before it closed, my parents took me -- sans petite amie -- to Sans Souci, the restaurant made famous by those glamorous Kennedy Administration folks. Sadly, it had than near-death feel that restaurants get just before the make that transformation from business to memory, but I enjoyed myself anyway. We asked the chef to make potatoe souffles for mom, potatoe slices cut and twice-fried, so they turn into little crisp puffs, that you are allowed to eat with your fingers.

Finally, the parents of the future Mrs. Busboy took us to Le Pavillon, the night before she graduated, for my first expereince with nouvelle cuisine. Eight courses, the bill so staggering her dad's hands almost trembled as he pulled out the American Express card. Little did I know that in just over a year, I'd be working there myself.

Save for le Pavillon, I can't say if the food was better or worse than restaurant food is today. Certainly, it was less creative than the food available at top restaurants now, although it was all new and fascinating to me back then. On the other hand, they were so damn civilized, you can't help but wish there was still one place left in town where a gentleman in a tuxedo finished your filet bernaise tableside, and the lady was given the menu without the prices.

PS also Dominiques.

[hillvalley]

I was five or six when I first dined at Dominic's. It was the very early 80's. I now know that my father had impressed some clients and they said take your family out to dinner. My parent's had waited for the right opportunity to introduce their already a food snob daughter to the world of fine dining. And they did it on a school night!

It was fabulous. The hostest (Diane, I think) was the most beautiful person I had ever seen. She wore bright red lipstick and a black dress. At least in my memory anyway. And she spoke French. Did I mention that I was obsessed with the French in my childhood?

I had steak. All I remember was thinking how big it was. I was a tiny kid, and it was was a big piece of meat. And the potatos. It was a whole new world after that night.

[reesek]

hillvalley, on Jan 14 2004, 07:07 PM, said:

I was five or six when I first dined at Dominic's. It was the very early 80's. I now know that my father had impressed some clients and they said take your family out to dinner. My parent's had waited for the right opportunity to introduce their already a food snob daughter to the world of fine dining. And they did it on a school night!

It was fabulous. The hostest (Diane, I think) was the most beautiful person I had ever seen. She wore bright red lipstick and a black dress. At least in my memory anyway. And she spoke French. Did I mention that I was obsessed with the French in my childhood?

I had steak. All I remember was thinking how big it was. I was a tiny kid, and it was was a big piece of meat. And the potatos. It was a whole new world after that night.le

Diane - i'll have to ask my dad about that...the name is so familiar. he fancied himself quite the man about town in those days and since every maitre d / hostess was a career person - he knew them all.

dominique's was my favorite restaurant - i was really young though. and those potato souffles - i think we called them something else - but i swear they had them at the palm - they were either crisp or puffed. btw - i always thought the chips tasted funny at the palm...i bet they fried in lard.

lyon d'or!! - my mom's image of high glamour. there's another one - it's a drive but not an I@LW type drive - just a scare the pants off the 8 year old when mommy's boyfriend drives like a maniac in the inky rain far. l'auberge chez francois?? something like that. i took spanish.

[morela]

reesek, on Jan 14 2004, 05:40 PM, said:

oh the american cafe! - wasn't that right upstairs from booeys? (Friendship) i thought i was the poshest thing around - eating my chicken tarragon on croissant. the neon lights were so very miami vice.

did it really open in 1975?? i thought it was new when i went

On that note, remember Swenson's Ice Cream Parlor? (across the street!)


There used to be one in Friendship Heights where the Saks Fifth Avenue for Men store is now.
Sadly, Swenson's might be part of the reason I like ice cream a lot less than the rest of the world.
This has nothing to do with their sweet, creamy ice cream, and it certainly isn't an aversion to dairy...


I think I was about five:

I was lying on one of their vinyl red booths (enjoying my bubble gum ice cream), when the entire cushion portion fell off and slid to the floor. This left me with little to say about the ice cream and a strip of carpet nails in my butt.
I was a tiny little thing, but the booth might have been designed for sitting...and I was lying on my back, nonetheless, eating ice cream (which is sinful!). If you recall, the place was far from posh.

It must have sucked to be the manager that day; it certainly sucked to be me. Whether your five or fifty-five, I'll tell ya, carpet nails hurt like a MoFo. The two foot strip of nails ended up stuck to me like a tail and induced a pretty violent storm of tears. I was taken to the restroom upstairs and someone yanked me free. I had to go to Sibley Hospital for a painful tetanus shot...when all I ever wanted was some damn ice cream.
That Swenson's closed down soon after.
Was the ice cream there any good (I'm asking)?
As much as I have a distaste for Saks Fifth Avenue and that Mazza Galleria insanity, anything is better than that tacky ass ice cream place!

[hjshorter]

Busboy, on Jan 14 2004, 07:09 PM, said:

And, though the Bonne Appetite, AKA "the Bone" still puts out a decent burger, the thrill is gone. Of course, it's been a couple of decades since I ate a bone burger properly stoned. I liked #6, the William.

Is that the place with the burger takeout downstairs and the pub upstairs? I worked at the Kennedy Center for a few years and ate there all the time. Always got the mushroom/A-1 burger - the "Robert."

[reesek]

oh morela - what a rotten story. the only swenson's i knew was in tenley - across from roy roger's.

i know i was alive pre-mazza, but i wasn't aware of it not being there - only that when it opened i knew that whatever had been there before was much smaller - and that my dad never stopped calling it matza galleria. also - was there a ton of construction around that part of western/wisconsin before mazza opened? was it simultaneous with the metro? i feel like we never drove that way until mazza - and after - we were always stuck in traffic there.

for some reason swenson's reminds me of shakey's - didn't there used to be one on wisconsin in bethesda - right by east west highway? or was that jerry's? i loved the tall booths at shakey's.

what about mario's pizza - any memories? i think it was in a converted garage-adjunct to a gas station. i think it was on river road and bradley lane, but it must have closed in the early-mid 80's. it was my first pizza experience. pepperoni was too spicy for me and to this day my sister and i guiltily admit a certain fondness for canned mushrooms on our pizza.

[hjshorter]

morela, on Jan 15 2004, 03:28 PM, said:

I had to go to Sibley Hospital for a painful tetanus shot...when all I ever wanted was some damn ice cream.

You poor little thing!

I always loved Farrells for ice cream. There was one in Wheaton Plaza, back when it was a plaza and not a mall. Any others in the area? It was a national chain; they had them in California when we lived there in the 70s. If you went on your birthday you got a free sundae.

Shakey's. Wow. I hadn't thought about it for years. Pizza and pitchers of rootbeer, and old-timey piano music.

[hillvalley]

reesek, on Jan 15 2004, 06:03 PM, said:

oh morela - what a rotten story. the only swenson's i knew was in tenley - across from roy roger's.

i know i was alive pre-mazza, but i wasn't aware of it not being there - only that when it opened i knew that whatever had been there before was much smaller - and that my dad never stopped calling it matza galleria. also - was there a ton of construction around that part of western/wisconsin before mazza opened? was it simultaneous with the metro? i feel like we never drove that way until mazza - and after - we were always stuck in traffic there.

for some reason swenson's reminds me of shakey's - didn't there used to be one on wisconsin in bethesda - right by east west highway? or was that jerry's? i loved the tall booths at shakey's.

what about mario's pizza - any memories? i think it was in a converted garage-adjunct to a gas station. i think it was on river road and bradley lane, but it must have closed in the early-mid 80's. it was my first pizza experience. pepperoni was too spicy for me and to this day my sister and i guiltily admit a certain fondness for canned mushrooms on our pizza.

Morella, I had to get a tetnus shot a few years ago. I can only imagine how awful that must have been at 5!


The Roy Rogers (where I spent a good deal of time way back when) is now a McD's and the Swensons is now a Ruby Tuesdays.

We always went to the Swensons in Georgetown. It is where I learned to love french onion soup.


Shakey's! Yes, it was a Shakey's on Wisc. in Bethesda. Across from the Hot Shoppes that became the American City Diner that became an office building. Was their pizza square? For some reason I have square pizza associated with Shakey's, but I could be wrong.

[morela]

reesek, on Jan 15 2004, 04:03 PM, said:

oh morela - what a rotten story. the only swenson's i knew was in tenley - across from roy roger's.

i know i was alive pre-mazza, but i wasn't aware of it not being

I tell you, I was born in July, but it was so long ago; the year was 2 BM
(Before Mazza).

I love this quote from a 1999 Washington Business Journal story:

"Although Mazza Gallerie is near one of D.C. and Maryland's most affluent neighborhoods -- Chevy Chase -- it in the past failed to attract shoppers. McCaffery is removing its windowless facade and bringing in new tenants to inject new life into the mall. "
This story came out when Saks for Men opened.

ha ha!
Inject this ***
Why? Because we all seem to dislike Chevy Chase. Even people like me, who grew up one town away...

This post has been edited by morela: 15 January 2004 - 04:35 PM

[jessker]

Bob's Famous - I worked at Bob's Famous summers and weekends all through high school, weekends and summers, starting when I was 14. The ice cream was made downstairs, and in high school the ice cream maker used to put a shot of rum in my coke at the end of my shift - we used real rum in the rum raisin. My favorite flavor: Orange Chocolate Chocolate Chip. Bob was a lawyer who quit to make ice cream. There were 3 stores: Capitol Hill, Glover Park, and Bethesda.

[reesek]

morela, on Jan 15 2004, 04:34 PM, said:

ha ha!
Inject this ***
Why? Because we all seem to dislike Chevy Chase. Even people like me, who grew up one town away...

i'm with you...i grew up in the district but in the area called chevy chase dc. my mom was always quick to name our sub-neighborhood...which no one had ever heard of (she might have even made it up)

the best thing about my house was it's proximity to parkway.

mmm potato pancakes and pickles...i think we ate there 2x a week when i was in high school.

[JennyUptown]

Quote

hillvalley Posted on Jan 15 2004, 06:29 PM
  QUOTE (reesek @ Jan 15 2004, 06:03 PM)
oh morela - what a rotten story. the only swenson's i knew was in tenley - across from roy roger's.

i know i was alive pre-mazza, but i wasn't aware of it not being there - only that when it opened i knew that whatever had been there before was much smaller - and that my dad never stopped calling it matza galleria. also - was there a ton of construction around that part of western/wisconsin before mazza opened? was it simultaneous with the metro? i feel like we never drove that way until mazza - and after - we were always stuck in traffic there.

for some reason swenson's reminds me of shakey's - didn't there used to be one on wisconsin in bethesda - right by east west highway? or was that jerry's? i loved the tall booths at shakey's.

what about mario's pizza - any memories? i think it was in a converted garage-adjunct to a gas station. i think it was on river road and bradley lane, but it must have closed in the early-mid 80's. it was my first pizza experience. pepperoni was too spicy for me and to this day my sister and i guiltily admit a certain fondness for canned mushrooms on our pizza. 


Morella, I had to get a tetnus shot a few years ago. I can only imagine how awful that must have been at 5!

I had to get a tetanus shot in October for a cooking related injury.

[hillvalley]

jessker, on Jan 16 2004, 10:46 AM, said:

Bob's Famous - I worked at Bob's Famous summers and weekends all through high school, weekends and summers, starting when I was 14. The ice cream was made downstairs, and in high school the ice cream maker used to put a shot of rum in my coke at the end of my shift - we used real rum in the rum raisin. My favorite flavor: Orange Chocolate Chocolate Chip. Bob was a lawyer who quit to make ice cream. There were 3 stores: Capitol Hill, Glover Park, and Bethesda.

Welcome Jessker. Which Bob's did you work at?

[tastykimmie]

Don't forget the Waffle house on Wisconsin Avenue in Tenleytown. I always got the cheeseburger platter. A huge burger with the works and a whole plate of fries.
A good deal for the under $3 price.

This post has been edited by tastykimmie: 16 January 2004 - 12:37 PM

[jessker]

I worked at the Capitol Hill Bob's, and later went back and managed while taking a year off from college. Bob sold it and the Glover Park one, and they went down hill from there and closed a year or two later. i think he sold the Bethesda one long before... Also, there was a Steves Ice Cream in Dupont Circle, based on the boston one with the smashed in toppings, but my loyalty was too Bob's. I ate so much ice cream working there that I dont even crave it anymore....

[hillvalley]

jessker, on Jan 16 2004, 03:03 PM, said:

I worked at the Capitol Hill Bob's, and later went back and managed while taking a year off from college. Bob sold it and the Glover Park one, and they went down hill from there and closed a year or two later. i think he sold the Bethesda one long before... Also, there was a Steves Ice Cream in Dupont Circle, based on the boston one with the smashed in toppings, but my loyalty was too Bob's. I ate so much ice cream working there that I dont even crave it anymore....

You must have served me ice cream. That's too funny. We used to walk all the way over from the SE/SW freeway. I always got milkshakes.

I only went to Steve's once or twice. I liked watching them do the blend ins.

[Joe H]

"Way back when or at least a decade ago."

Damn, am I old.

Gifford's in Bethesda is NOT the Gifford's that opened in the early '30's in Silver Spring. When it closed in 1981 or 82 the name was sold and that is what survives today. The man who made ice cream for Gifford's from the early '70's until its closing opened York Castle on Georgia Avenue in Montgomery Hills using the exact same base as Gifford's. The "base" is different from the base that today's Gifford's uses. He also made Swiss sundaes, pumpkin and peach in season and made ice cream sodas the correct way using a small scoop of vanilla ice cream, blended with soda water to start as well as heavy whipping cream made from scratch. Today York Castle's primary, non tropical flavors are Gifford's flavors. Still, it's not the same since Gifford's served ice cream on metal dishes and banana splits in long rectangular glass bowls. I haven't had a sody or sundae in several years so I don't know if these have changed. Their biggest sundae, the "Big Top," that sold for $1.00 in 1955 (when hot fudge sundaes with hot fudge served separately in a little ceramic pitcher-was 35 cents) disappeared when Gifford's closed. Their chocolates, the home made fudge and other candies have also, for the most part disappeared. Not to burst any bubbles but there is little resemblance between the Gifford's of today (and their purchase of the name when the original owner got into tax trouble) and the original store that had lines literally 100 long on summer nights in all four stores. The closest anyone can come to Gifford's is probably in Cincinnati at one of the original Graeter's which have much of the same ambience and spirit.

Steve's had a franchised outlet in College Park near Route 1 and Knox Road in the mid '70's. At some point Steve Herrell closed his Boston store and moved to Northampton, Mass where, as of two years ago, he still sells some of the best ice cream in America along with the nearby Bart's.

With all due respect to Capitol Hill I never thought it matched the personality of the original Bob's on Wisconin. Of course I never thought that Gifford's, Bob's or Steve's were as good as either the Unviersity Pastry Shop at Wisconsin and MaComb or the Calvert Pastry Shop across the street from where Bob's later opened in the mid '70's.

And don't forget Wagshal's or Avignon Freres and, if any grandparents are on here, Reindeer in Silver Spring, Polar Bear on Georgia Avenue and, in the '50's the original Martin's Dairy on Georgia Avenue near Olney where you ate ice cream with cows grazing nearby. No smell on earth was more authentic and timely for eating ice cream!

Last, I should pay homage to the greatest, most spectacular ice cream parlor of all: Weile's in Langley Park, home of the $30.00 Lincoln Memorial sundae which was created for a party of fifty (yes, 50) to eat. Breyer's ice cream which meant that it was mediocre but after they moved from Kennedy Street, NW (about the same time in the late '50's that Jerry's Sub Shop moved from Kennedy Street to University Boulevard in Wheaton) they developed a legendary reputation for incrediblly huge, over the top sundaes and hamburgers.

Today, it is a pawn shop.

When I was a kid we took bike hikes from Piney Branch and Flower to Wheaton just to eat subs. And to Langley Park for sundaes and Silver Spring for Swiss sundaes and when Ledo's opened in '57 we took bike hikes there as well. In fact I can actually remember several friends and myself going to Ledo's for pizza and stopping at Weile's for a huge sundae on the way back.

It doesn't seem like that long ago!

[hjshorter]

Joe H, on Jan 16 2004, 10:17 PM, said:

When I was a kid we took bike hikes from Piney Branch and Flower to Wheaton just to eat subs.

That was cool, Joe.

Where did you go for subs in Wheaton? Was Marchone's in the Triangle yet? I really need to cook up an errand in Wheaton and get a Marchone's sandwich.

[dbortnick]

Shakey's!, now that brings back memories. We used to go to the one on rockville pike, which if I remember correctly might be a hooter's now? I remember their pizza being cut in triangles, I'm pretty sure Ledo's is the square slice you are thinking of...

[Joe H]

Jerry's when the original owners had it then later when Max and his wife made it locally famous. Jerry's was named after Sol's son when it first opened on Kennedy Street, NW. Adam Schwartz and Bob Beigleman bought it around 1980 after both working in the Wheaton store while going to Maryland. Today I suppose there are several hundred. The other subs in Wheaton that were popular were the ones in a small Italian deli in the back of a shopping center, fronting a parking lot. I think that was called Marchone's but I only went a couple of times. Pop's on Henderson was the other big deal in Wheaton and this was for pizza. I went to Blair, graduating in '64 and there were several places that were considered best for pizza, starting with Luigi's downtown (still there). Anna Maria's and Gusti's were also a big deal, then a step up to the Roma. Next were Ledo's and Pop's. Shakey's opened their first Montgomery County store on the Rockville Pike in the '60's; McDonald's first Montgomery County store was also the one on the Pike which opened in the late '50's. (Hybla Valley was the first.) Shakey's sliced their pizza with a butcher's knife on a wooden block. Every pizza had a small strip of aluminum foil on it identifying what it was. Shakey's was good pizza but different from all of the others. The D. C. pizzarias, as much as anything, were known because it was a big deal to go downtown on a date. Pizza was a natural once you got there.

Mario's was at River and Little Falls Parkway adjacent to an Amoco. Bish Thompson and O'Donnell's were both considered to be superior to Silver Spring's Crisfield's. But this was the '50's and '60's when they both had really good food and rum buns to die for. The original O'Donnell's was adjacent to the Warner Theatre on PA Avenue and dated to the 1910's or so. Wooden floors, beamed ceilings, a lot of atmosphere and the best overallseafood restaurant in D. C. Crisfield's was a step up from Kushner's on Piney Branch near Flower but not considered great, just a less expensive alternative. At some point in the '60's or '70's Bish Thompson's started going downhill, down O'Donnell's closed and the Bethesda store wasn't quite on the same level. Then Calvin Trilling called Crisfield's "the best fish house in America," Julia Child discovered it and Phyllis Richman, who grew up here, began to rave about it after ignoring it for years. She summarized one review by suggesting Gifford's up the street for dessert.

Washington also had great fish sandwiches at Benny's on Maine Avenue where fresh french fries were fried in lard and fresh fish was piled four filets high with homemade slaw and hot sauce on Wonder bread. Horace and Dickey's is a pale imitation of this today although Boyd's (who they bought out) was once just as good. I remember going down there with my parents in the '50's and stopping at the YWCA for their chocolate chip cookies which were legendary.

Ben's Chili Bowl was good as was the nearby Hazel's "Texas Chili." (Which the Hard Times Cafe copied when they first opened in Alexandria. The Post had a full page feature celebrating the return of "wet" chili and Hazel's to the D. C. area in the '70's.) I remember going to Ben's after seeing James Brown at the Howard in the early '60's. I went with some friends from where I had a part time job at the Safeway at 14th and U where I was the only white person. Across the street was Wings and Things with Mambo sauce where I became a regular every night that I worked. At 14th and Swan nearby was D. C.'s redlight district.

Further downtown, on 9th Street at E was the Gayety Burlesque Theatre. Hecht's, Woodie's (two buildings), Lansburgh's, Garfinckel's-all were still open then. The Capitol was the city's largest theatre on F street with 5,000 seats. A blcok down was the Palace and several blocks further down were two more theatres. F street was the center of downtown Washington. The Mall had temporary buildings everywhere left over from WWII. Washington had a clear Southern identity in the '50's and '60's. When you crossed the 14th Street bridge, you immediately found a Southern Accent from anyone born in Alexandria. Today you have to go south of Fredericksburg for this. In fact Old Town then was almost exclusively segregated and poor as was Georgetown in the early '50's. Rosslyn was literally a collection of pawnshops.

[hillvalley]

Joe H, on Jan 16 2004, 10:17 PM, said:

With all due respect to Capitol Hill I never thought it matched the personality of the original Bob's on Wisconin. Of course I never thought that Gifford's, Bob's or Steve's were as good as either the Unviersity Pastry Shop at Wisconsin and MaComb or the Calvert Pastry Shop across the street from where Bob's later opened in the mid '70's.

With all due respect Joe, when your six and just walked about a mile and a half for some ice cream, it has the perfect personality

[reesek]

Joe -

you're a treasure trove!

do you still live in DC? born and raised? what are your favorite spots now? what do miss?

another place i've been thinking about lately, though - i'm almost ashamed to admit that i loved this place because the owners were so hated, but growing up close to connecticut avenue and mckinley in NW - we used to go to the fish market (??) and later to rossini's. i loved their white pizza and canneloni. later - in middle school, i went to the rip-off diner across the street for bland, expensive milkshakes and searingly hot french fries. jeffrey something was the patriarch - long last name...good cannoli.