The next restaurant on my list of places to see in the nation’s capital is Clyde’s of Georgetown. As you can tell from the name, this restaurant is located in the southwest part of Washington DC called Georgetown (the same location as the catholic university). Georgetown is one of, if not the most, aesthetic areas in the city as it is located along the Potomac River. The backdrop of the water along with the vibrant restaurants and shops down cobblestone streets provides an exciting outing with family, friends, or whomever you choose to go out with. 

In all honesty, Clyde’s is less about the menu and more about the experience. The menu is nothing special, filled with typical American foods like burgers, fries, steaks, and shakes. For the 21 and over crowd, there is a bar serving beers, wine, and cocktails until two in the morning almost every night. On Sundays, you can grab a delicious brunch along with bottomless mimosas upon request. If you have had a long night out in Georgetown, you can go into the restaurant after certain hours and order from their “Late Night” menu, containing bar foods and snacks meant to sober you up and wind you down for the evening.

Like I said though, ultimately one goes to Clyde’s, and most other restaurants in Georgetown, for the experience and fun of being in that part of the city, especially on warmer days. My first time at Clyde’s was during my sophomore year of high school. Every January, my high school’s (all boy catholic prep school) sister school puts on a winter formal, or Snowball as they call it. That year I was going with my girlfriend at the time. As a tune-up to the dance, our group of friends decided to have a pre-dance dinner at Clyde’s. After Clyde’s, we had the opportunity, with the weather being in the 50s, to walk down to the waterfront and take group pictures. We got to take a handful of cool pictures in front of the river with each other before walking back up to the girls’ school for the dance.

The next place I would like to give you a taste of is a small food shop located a few blocks up from Capitol Hill on H St. Unlike the luxury feel you would get at the last restaurant (Claudia’s Steakhouse), Tony’s, as it is affectionately known by the community, is much more laid back and made for the everyday person grabbing a quick bite to eat; the food is comparable too! If you were to ever visit Tony’s though, please do not make a very common mistake and visit the shop on the other side of the street called “Tony’s Place”. The two are not connected, and the food is not nearly as good; somehow, a lot of people make the mistake.

I was first introduced to Tony’s as a freshman in high school. I attended Gonzaga College High School on N Capitol St, five minutes from Tony’s and located right off of H St. However, as a freshman and half of my sophomore year living in Southern Maryland which is 30-40 minutes away from downtown without any traffic. With traffic though, it would take us two hours to get to school, often making me late to first period. One day, my dad decided we would be leaving at six in the morning to just avoid the heaviest part of the traffic and settle with getting to DC at 7:10 even though school would not start for another hour. Giving us plenty of time, we went around looking for places to eat breakfast and kill a little bit of time before he would drop me off at school. After this day, Tony’s not only became a breakfast destination before school, but also a popular lunch destination once I had my car my last two years of high school. This is how we discovered Tony’s Breakfast.

The first thing you will notice when you walk into Tony’s is that even though it brands itself as a breakfast restaurant, they have a whole array of items. Behind the glass by the front door are loads of chicken wings from the time the place opens. There is also fresh fruit and delicious looking desserts all day. On the menu are different platters and plates of food that you can eat for breakfast that include pancakes, waffles, breakfast sandwiches, toast, eggs, sausage, etc, all prepared on the grills in the kitchen in the back. If you are not feeling breakfast though, they have plenty of lunch options. From burgers and tuna melts, to subs and BLTs, the combinations and possibilities are endless. Lastly, the fried chicken wings I mentioned earlier are a must try. They come in multiples of three, and what you want to do is order fries with them and get a special kind of sauce native to the DC and Maryland area, mambo sauce. A sweet and tangy sauce formed from a tomato base, mambo sauce has been the staple condiment in this area for decades now and perfectly tops off your chicken wings and fries, creating a perfect flavor combo.

The best part about Tony’s hits you when you ring up to pay. You can order a very filling lunch and stay under ten dollars. Everything is priced around two to four dollars to keep prices cheap being that a lot of homeless people around that area are also frequent visitors. The reality is the whole community loves it and writing about it cannot really do it justice, this is one of the places you have to try for yourself.