Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Deliciousness // Washington D.C., The "Nothing But Food" Edition

First things first -

(I'm the realest) -

Have a drink on me. Might I suggest a white peach bellini? And I wouldn't advise scrolling through this post if you're even a little bit hungry - trust me on this one. When I said that our itinerary was literally "eat our way through DC," I certainly was not kidding. Here I am today with the evidence; the proof is in the pudding, folks. Or maybe ... in the cupcakes or the poptarts or the bacon. You'll see.

Lauren's been talking about Founding Farmers for close to a year, so this visit's been a long time coming. When I sent her my bus ticket to DC, she replied with an OpenTable reservation for brunch, that's how much of a priority this place was.

Man, was the wait worth it. Lauren tucked into the stuffed french toast (yeah) and let me steal bites (this is why I love her). A little crispy on the outside, ooey and gooey on the inside, not too sweet, but just sweet enough ... probably the best french toast I've ever had.

Then, I dug into my crab cake benedict. Let's see. Nick and Lauren's been singing this egg benedict's praises for what feels like eons, and I've officially joined the choir. HOLY. MOLY. I'm still salivating over this.

Ignore the fruit, I didn't eat it. We shared bacon instead. 

At this point, there was a few hours' intermission in our eating itinerary, which we took advantage of by walking off brunch to make room for our next stop. This is when we went to go see Washington, Lincoln, and Henry the elephant.

Intermission over.

We Uber'ed ourselves (this is sad, whatever) to meet up with Dylan and his entourage at Baked & Wired, which I've been dying to visit since I can't even remember when. I kind of have this mission in life to try all of the famous cupcakes in the world, and Baked & Wired was the one glaring omission on my 'visited' list. 

Consider me in heaven. One, because Lauren and I shared four cupcakes between the two of us, which is practically begging for a heart attack. Two, because they were so gosh dang amazing that I think I really could die happy. We ordered the Dirty Chai, Red Velvet, Flapjack, and Vegan, but they misheard and gave us a Lemon instead of a Vegan. Still delicious, but the Dirty Chai and Red Velvet were the big winners IMHO.

I don't know why I documented my shame so meticulously, but whatever. There you have it.

No regrets. 

After a long nap

(oh my God, this post is so embarrassing. I should stop writing right now.)

we went over to Pizza Paradiso, conveniently right smack dab in the middle of Georgetown. It occurred to us that we never tried a 'shandy' - the British favorite - while we were in the UK and thought, hey let's try it. Won't hurt!

Won't hurt?! It hurts knowing that we missed out on so much. Although, perhaps the reason that this was so addicting was also due to the fact that apparently Pizza Paradiso has "the best lemonade" in DC. I'll have to invest in further research. Stay tuned.

Oh, and the pizza didn't suck either - not one bit. Inhaled both pies, in fact.

The next morning, we rallied on. I know that this post is supposedly 'nothing but food,' but here's a picture of a pretty lady aka one of my favorites in the history of ever:

... aaaand back to regular programming.

On Sunday, we crawled out of bed, bleary-eyed, in anticipation for another yummy meal. Overly ambitious, the two of us got on a bus (public transportation!), which dropped us off in the middle of this-isn't-where-my-food-is. So we called upon our savior the Uber man, who dropped us off at Lavagna, where we noshed on salmon omelettes (with gouda! and capers! and crispy potatoes!) and a shared another side of bacon. 

Before sending me off on my way back to NYC, Lauren insisted that we make a stop at Ted's Bulletin for their famous poptarts. Like a mother hen sending her little chickadees off into the pond for the rest time, she bought me a chocolate raspberry and a blueberry cheesecake for the ride home.

I ate them, thought they were absolutely amazing, and cried into them as I watched Amanda Seyfried being romanced by a gorgeous British fellow in Letters to Juliet.

Ooh, and lest I forget:

this was my first meal in DC - Shake Shack in Union Station with Nick and Lauren, with a side of a quality catch up conversation after a couple of months apart. It brought me right back to when the three of us made our Shake Shack runs in Covent Garden in London, and when I braved the crowds by myself for a chocolate milkshake in Times Square. Shake Shack's perfect anywhere, everywhere. (But the Union Station location is also as stately and refined as burger joints can get!) 

There we have it. A weekend in America's capital, doing what Americans do best. Overeating. Just trying to be patriotic, is all!