Saturday August 23 Since my Roadfood loving cousin Johnny lives less than an hour away, it seemed natural to have him join us while we were in the area. He arrived at our hotel and we were soon on our way to the
Florida Avenue Grill for breakfast.
Johnny and I have both been here only once before, in 2005. We enjoyed the experience and were looking forward to this meal. At first, we drove right past the place since it didn't look like I remembered. Actually the building itself was the same, it was what was next door that threw us off. What I thought used to be their parking lot, is now condos. In fact, it is built right next to the restaurant itself.
We parked on the street and went in. As you can see, this is no Johnny come lately to the DC eating scene.
Like many mid-Atlantic food places, it is decorated with dozens of autographed photos. In no way do I want to turn this into a political thread, but someone has a sense of humor to put late Senator Strom Thurmond next to the Reverend Al Sharpton!
I'm glad to see the two parties set differences aside and agree on good Roadfood!
As soon as we sat down, the extremely friendly waitress brought over a basket of warm, fresh biscuits and a bowl of sausage gravy.
Mariton and Emilou have never seen this before, but since we have a Kentucky born Southern grandma, Johnny and I are old pros. Johnny likes to tear his biscuit up into little chunks and then cover it with the gravy, while I eat mine like this.
The biscuits were excellent and this was a fine way to start our meal.
Emilou ordered the french toast, made with really good wheat bread.
I got the Virginia ham, with scrambled eggs and outstanding chunky homefries.
Mariton went with the smothered pork chops, with scrambled eggs and home fries.
Johnny also got the smothered pork chops, with fried eggs
and apples.
Channelling our buddy
ChiTownDiner, Johnny ordered some terrific corned beef hash for our "fifth diner".
I had noticed a sign that said homemade peach cobbler, which is a particular favorite of ours, so we went ahead and ordered two of them.
Even though we thought this was too much bread and not enough peaches, it was still very enjoyable.
As in our previous visit, the service here was ultra friendly and mothering. I alone, was called baby and sweetie. When she saw me taking so many photographs, she admonished me for not taking a picture of her. So, we happily had her pose with Emilou.
A few minutes later, she came back with a man which she introduced as her husband, which meant another photo!
Aren't those great smiles? This is one of the friendliest restaurants I have ever been to!
Since Mariton asked for hot sauce for her eggs and potatoes, the waitress gave us two bottles of their own hot sauce for free, which was much appreciated.
I tried several times to set the two bottles of sauce together for a photo, but the one on the left kept sliding down the table, much to our amusement.
Even though the place was fairly empty when we arrived, just about every seat and booth were occupied by the time we left.
On the way out, Johnny and I posed with the bottles of hot sauce.
Although I wouldn't call the food here great, the food is still very good with about as authentic Roadfood atmosphere you can find anywhere! I really enjoy this place.
http://www.roadfood.com/Reviews/Writeup.aspx?ReviewID=1404&RefID=1404 Much more to come.....
