7.30.2009

DC continues to love itself stupid food trends

Yesterday, news broke that H Street NE is getting a pie shop. Oh no, you heard that correctly. It'll be located between the Rock and Roll Hotel and the mini-golf place. The pie shop will be an extension of the "Dangerously Delicious" brand that has two stores in Baltimore. The premise, as best as I can understand from their web site, is "local band decides to have a bake sale." But then the band breaks up.

Our city is currently under siege by a few different food trends. The cupcake epidemic shows no signs of yielding, and has been in full force for a while. The fro-yo and now gelato phase is also at full steam ahead. Of course, let us not forget wine bars, which outside of downtown will soon have a saturation level greater than Starbucks.

What does H Street get? A pie shop. Now, everyone loves pie, I'm not going to dispute that. Pie is great. I love me some Perkins and French Silk from Bakers Square is the shit. Yeah, chain restaurants that don't exist in the mid-Atlantic. But anyhow, after perusing the Yelp reviews for the location in Baltimore, this place sounds worse than cupcakes.

Looks like what you'll get is a slice of pie on a paper plate served with a plastic fork. The server will kindly microwave it for you. It'll cost about $6 for a small slice. A whole pie ranges $25-35. Hell, for $3.50 or whatever I can at least get a pretty looking cupcake. $6 for a crappy piece of pie? No way dude. I can get another glass of wine at the wine bar down the street for that price.

H Street is interesting in that it has all this bizarre stuff that likely couldn't survive anywhere else. It's an incubator for these things because of the (I assume) lower rents. I dig some of the places, but I mean what, now you can head over, get your tater tots and sushi at Sticky Rice, play a round of hipster mini golf, and then get a slice of pie? It's like someone on acid tried to recreate their memories of Atlantic Avenue in Virginia Beach.

It's still a pain in the ass for most people to get over there (come on, most yuppies won't ride the X2. Hell, I don't even like riding on the X2 and I ride the bus all the time), and virtually none of these establishments cater to the neighborhood. You really think there will be a lot of people from "Capitol Hill North" or Trinidad lining up for $35 rock and roll pies? You've got to be kidding me. Maybe right after they have some Belgian beer with their 'moules and frites' over at Granville Moore's.

I'll take a Perkins over more of this crap. Too bad the diner that was being installed over there is having so many problems.

Update: There's still no word on when Smash Mouth Skee-Ball will open in Mt. Pleasant

8 comments:

  1. Something's opening in Mount Pleasant? That's bigger news than the Nats winning three games in a row.

    I think the last place to open in Mount Pleasant was Dos Gringos. Ten years later it still takes 15 minutes to get a cup of coffee there.

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  2. Sadly there will be no Skee Ball in Mt. Pleasant. I wish my jokes weren't more fun than reality.

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  3. The way things are going now, Mt. Pleasant Street and H Street NE will approximately resemble each other in two years.

    Ten years from now, H Street will look like a turkish bazaar and Mt. Pleasant Street will look like H Street did three years ago.

    I stopped in at the raven on Tuesday night after not having been to Mt. P for a long time. It was no later than 8:30 PM and I am pretty sure I saw tumbleweeds.

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  4. AnonymousJuly 30, 2009

    A good pie is worth its weight in gold.

    If you're heading West on 66, do not hesitate to stop at The Woodbine Farm Market near Strasburg, VA on hwy 55 near where it links up to 81 and 66. The pies are delicious and worth importing into DC, and each delicious cookie they make must have at least a half sticka buttah in each one.
    woodbinefarmmarket.com
    It's a good place to get punkins too.

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  5. Is this snark or creativity? Yo, these cupcakes are da bomb!

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  6. What's wrong with gelato? To my knowledge there's 2 good gelato places in DC: Dolcezza in Georgetown and Pitango on P St.

    Hardly a "trend". I'd be happy to have another one open in SE somewhere.

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  7. You got to be fucking kidding me! A pie shop? Sigh... I can make pies for less then what they are charging... Screw your microwaves and paper plates.
    The last thing DC needs is a fuckin' pie shop!

    ...Times are rough... Lets get a pie. Go Fuck YOURSELF!
    the end.

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  8. Well I love Sticky rice and put put but not sure if i'll take advantage of a pie shop. Not sure what your skeeball reference was in this article but wanted to share with you a new Skeeball league that just opened up! www.dcskee.com

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