Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The Pleasant Pesant which used to be in Mazza Gallery. Especially the desserts.
Thank you for remembering the Pleasant Peasant at Mazza Gallerie! The original Pleasant Peasant was on Peachtree Street in Atlanta. I moved with the Peasant Company in 1983 from Atlanta to Washington to open "PPDC." I helped set up the dessert bar--Paris Brest, Brown Derby cake, the world's tallest lemon merinque pie, fabulous hazelnut fruit tart, deep fried ice cream, and, be still my heart, cappuccino cheesecake with oreo cookie crust.
At lunch, the pizza/pasta menu was downstairs, and the white tablecloth lunch was up the elevator. Remember the giant palm tree that went up through the floor? At night, the downstairs transformed into a piano bar and was packed on the weekends. We didn't take reservations, and a two-hour wait for dinner upstairs was standard operating procedure on a Saturday night. I used to tell handsome, preppy, young guys to come in at 5:30, put their name on the list, go home, relax, take a shower, pick up their date, and come back.
Some nights after work, after midnight, we'd head across the street to American Cafe, which was upstairs above Booeymonger. I always loved the smell of cinnamon coffee that permeated Booey's on a Saturday morning. I hope they haven't changed it.
Hamburger Hamlet just down Wisconsin Avenue was terrific, also. I haven't lived in DC for many years, but oh the memories of the pubs and watering holes in Friendship Heights, Dupont, Georgetown, downtown and Capitol Hill. Is Jenkins Hill still there on Pennsylvania Ave, SE? If so, did they dust the cobwebs from those dead animal heads on the wall even once in the last FORTY YEARS???