Betterwithpesto

Took this right before the events of the following post, I don't think this is just a tea shop. An "herb" shop is probably a more fitting name.

I have a pretty substantial post coming up... but I've been kind of letting it marinate.

Here's a small tidbit from the weekend I spent in DC. An afternoon Ariel.

I met her 4 years ago in an intro photography class. We shared the same photo lab, and after that never really talked and only followed each other on social media. Her photography began to catch my eye when she started to use film, and it was apparent she wasn't in Austin anymore. I just assumed that she was in Seattle until I came across one of her blog posts, and found out she was in DC. I was in town for Thanksgiving, begged to have her number, and scheduled a meetup.

We met for lunch at SUNdeVICH, a spot that serves up local produce and ingredients in sandwich form. The interior is really cute. It's a converted garage with an industrial feel on the inside. There are about 15~ seats total, which makes getting a seat inside pretty tricky, but you can easily eat outside.

All of their sandwiches are served up on baguettes (which can also be used as a fashion accessory by the way), and the menu has a very large variety of options to choose from. You can get anything from a Mediterranean style sandwich with lamb + tzatziki, to a bulgogi sandwich with kimchi. Given the bread, it's weird how they don't have a pate option, or some sort of homage to the popular Vietnamese banh mi, but it would also be a crime if they charged 10-12 bucks for a banh mi replica, and I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that they already considered it. We ended up going with the Athens (since she wanted dat meat) and the capri (since it has pesto).

The Athens, which is lamb + tzatziki + (tomato, onion, greens), is decent since the lamb is cooked medium rare, which makes the meat juicy and succulent. The thing is... the meat isn't seasoned enough, and it doesn't hit you in the face like a normal kabab would. Their bread is kept at a pretty cold temperature, which makes the baguette especially hard and crusty (imagine it scraping the top of your mouth). I'm not sure how I feel about it, but it does add a texture contrast to their sandwiches.

The Capri (pesto, mozzarella, basil, tomato, balsamic) was amazing, and it wasn't just because of the pesto. The little dab of garlic spread that they add on top of the creamyyy mozzarella is pretty genius... and they didn't over do the balsamic which was a fear of mine. Highly recommended.

We took off on foot to a nearby art gallery. The light was extremely diffused, and paired with the fall scenery, made for some excellent photo opportunities.

On our way, we came across several dogs and their owners.

Plan B is a modest art gallery located on the extremely hip and up and coming 14th St. They're currently having their year end show, which features tid bits from all the exhibitions they had in the past year. While the art... may not be the most high end or flashy, I would describe their collection as local, sensible, and diverse. The art is local and priced to sell, and I like that aspect about it.

Ariel took the opportunity to reload her camera. I'm really impressed with the photos that she gets from that camera and film pairing.

Here's a link to her flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/arielmin/

While walking down 14th St. We came across an oyster bar called Pearl Dive that she heard was good, and we decided to go inside.

Channeling some Austin spirit, we started off the afternoon with some drinks. I can't really remember the names of the drinks we ordered, but one had elderflower(which tastes a lot like lychee to me) and the other was a variation of the classic bourbon, lemon, honey combination.

The bartender said, "It would be nice if those drink pictures were paired with some oysters." I saw the list... recognized a few names thanks to Eve, my foodie idol, and decided to order some wellfleets since I've had them before. He proceeded to test my knowledge of oysters, which was pretty much 2.3/10, and I asked him if he could just choose some for us. With just a half dozen, we sampled a variety of oysters from creamy to salty and briney. It was the first time Ariel had oysters of this quality, and I think she enjoyed them quite a bit.

Slurrrp.

Eve would be proud :'). The kumamotos were amazingly creamy. Kudos to the bartender.

We continued down 14th street and passed by a bunch of eclectic restaurants, but managed to resist since we were pretty full.

I asked if she knew a place to get coffee, and I was led to The Coffee Bar. I ordered a pour over, Venezuelan I believe, and it was quite good. I loved the amount of bar height seating in the cafe, I would totally work here if I lived in DC.

A small snack while waiting for coffee.

Possibly the cutest, most amazing dog I've ever seen. Corgi / Australian Shepard mix I believe.

This Doge.

The sun sets quite early on the East coast, by 4:30 PM it was already starting to get dark and quite cold as we headed out. Thanks for a wonderful afternoon =).