Pizza:
Ledo (a few places in the District, more in the Maryland and Virginia suburbs)

I'm staying in Lafayette Square.

Oh, you have all kinds of options. McCoy's list is a good start. If I were you I'd chill out at RFD or the Passenger or somewhere on the yellow green, and then pop down to the park. If you want a great fancy meal I'd hit up Corduroy or Rasika.

For pizza, Red Rocks and Radius are great in Columbia Heights. I'm a huge fan of Two Amy's if you get the stuffed pizza.

Seriously, McCoy? Someone living in Van Ness, let alone Ballston or Lanham, should wait near the ballpark at midnight for a city bus to chug along?

Yes.

In that case, I would hope they would have nothing on the schedule until noon the following day.

The District is not exactly heaven for Chinese food, but Meiwah west of Dupont Circle (New Hampshire & M) is the best of the lot.

Is DC known for any food or dish that I'm not aware of? Mid-September will be in the heart of crab season, right? Five Guys is great but they've expanded to me in Chicago. I keep hearing about Ben's Chili Bowl (is it that good?), but anything else truly regional?

And thanks again for all the pointers. I trust the average Primate more than Yelp or the like.

[56] Museum tip... Unless you're gung-ho on seeing some of the more famous touristy things at the Smithsonian, I'd recommend picking one of the smaller ones. The Sackler Gallery, for example, is a gorgeous museum, and doesn't have the crowds of something like the Air and Space. There's always a temptation to want to do a million things, but sometimes focusing on one smaller one can be more rewarding. (If you do that, don't do the Native American museum... blech).

Another thing to consider is the Capital Bikeshare. I think 1-day passes are under $10. You can use that to zip from point to point in the city... My favorite touristy thing is to walk around the tidal basin, catching the Jefferson, FDR, MLK and Washington Monuments. It's especially nice (and less crowded) in the evening.

Any Primates have advice on making the most of the game day experience?

Email Larry, see if he's working the game.

In that case, I would hope they would have nothing on the schedule until noon the following day.

If you were to hustle right now you could catch a bus leaving Navy Yard area and it would be at Van Ness at 12:34. 30 minutes is about how long you'd expect it to take if you were to use the Metro.

Is DC known for any food or dish that I'm not aware of?

Nothing much outside of half-smokes. They do have a ton of Ethiopian and Indian restaurants and the suburbs seem to be packed with Korean joints. I'd also say they have a pretty large selection of Peruvian restaurants as well.

Ben's Chili Bowl is more for the history than the food, which is okay but nothing special.

Second the recommendation for the Sackler (and Freer) galleries.

Is DC known for any food or dish that I'm not aware of

If you are coming from chicago, there will be plenty of places with great seafood. I'd sooner go towards the bay for crabcakes but you'll still be able to get nice ones in the city. There are a couple of great sushi joints.

If you are willing to go into the suburbs, the korean and vietnamese will beat what you can get in chicago. The ethiopian is nice here, but probably you can get just as good in chitown.

Comments
1-I've never had a really bad experience on the Metro in all the years I've lived in MD. I guess the worst I saw was at a Faith No More/Guns n Roses/Metallica concert at RFK where the Metro closed before the concert ended, but that wasn't really their fault-a**hole Axl came on like three hours late so the show didn't end til ridiculous o'clock. From my understanding (I caught a ride with a friend)the scene at the closed Metro got kinda ugly

2-That said, I can't say the same about taxi's in DC. Those things are nuts. They have all sorts of weird "zones" and different charges for passing through them. I've literally gotten off the Metro, hailed a cab, given him the addy I was looking for, had the hack drive us one, count em one, block (This was pre GPS cell phone days), and charged me twenty bucks because I crossed over a zone. Insanity.

3-I know it's not a great paper or anything, but the Washington Times did a nice series on Metro's failings a while ago.The came up with a pretty damning pattern of nepotism, racism, sexism and outright incompetence at an admin level. Here's a link to the first article.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/mar/26/metro-derailed-by-culture-of-complacence-incompete/?page=all#pagebreak

How embarrassing is it that you have a major city where the last trip home is at 11:20?

I remember hearing a similar announcement in SF a few years back, leading to a mass exodus in about the 8th inning in a game that was going slowly. Might have been on a Sunday, though.

If you are coming from chicago, there will be plenty of places with great seafood.

If you like raw shellfish, both Clyde's in Chinatown and Hank's Oysters have raw bar happy hours (Hank's may just be oysters). I think McCormick and Schmick does too. Probably a few other places too. If you like oysters or raw clams, it's pretty amazing.

If you were to hustle right now you could catch a bus leaving Navy Yard area and it would be at Van Ness at 12:34. 30 minutes is about how long you'd expect it to take if you were to use the Metro.

Interesting, McCoy, but Metrobus has its own issues. What happens if the bus leaving the Navy Yard is packed? When's the next bus due to arrive?

And what advice do you have for a fan living in Ballston or Lanham?

Meanwhile...

Report: Nationals want D.C. to pay for extra Metro service during playoffs

Although the UnsuckDCMetro blog points out there's a "hidden" train at about 11:40 that picks up the last few stragglers. They just don't want to advertise that because they want to close the damn system.

I love the fact that if you accidentally type unsuckdcmetro.com into the browser instead of the blog's true URL of unsuckdcmetro.blogspot.com, it redirects you to the WMATA site. Yep, the agency is actually paying money to have control of the unsuckdcmetro.com web domain. You really can't make sh*t like this up.

That said, I can't say the same about taxi's in DC. Those things are nuts. They have all sorts of weird "zones" and different charges for passing through them. I've literally gotten off the Metro, hailed a cab, given him the addy I was looking for, had the hack drive us one, count em one, block (This was pre GPS cell phone days), and charged me twenty bucks because I crossed over a zone. Insanity.

The zone system is finally gone, we're on normal meters just like everywhere else. The only problem for out of towners is the inexplicable fee structure whereby the cab driver just "randomly" adds several dollars to the start of your trip based on things you'll never understand (I mostly understand them, as a resident, but it's still sometimes jarring).

in NYC, it's certainly not a joke...

The A goes right to JFK (with help from additional public MONORAIL!). Public transport to LaGuardia is NR and bus, but equally easy.

If you're going to Newark, I can't help you, nor do you deserve help.

If you're going to Newark, I can't help you, nor do you deserve help.

Newark is easy to get to. NJT to monorail. I live on the Upper West Side and can get to Newark faster than either of the NY airports by public transport. (By cab obviously LaGuardia is much faster.)

On closing times, I remember being shocked by Boston's closing times and wondering if the taxi lobby had set it up so the T closed before the bars.

Given that Washington's subway gets more usage than any place except NY, you'd think they'd at least hit 1230 or 1.

How many places have 24 hour coverage other than NYC? Philly. Chicago's Red and Blue lines. Anything else?

And what advice do you have for a fan living in Ballston or Lanham?

Drive/Taxi.

I've only used the Metro once: 4th of July several years ago, 95 degrees, waiting for the train, underground, packed in like sardines. For half an hour.

Oh, and did I mention I'm claustrophobic?

Never really had a problem with Metro and I use it almost every single day. Then again I don't demand absolute perfection out of a complicated system of mass transit every single time I use it. I'd love for the Metro to stay open an hour longer but it doesn't mean much that they don't.

Spoken like a wonderfully sympathetic resident of the District, McCoy (#71)!

EDIT: #73. "Never really had a problem with Metro and I almost every single day. Then again I don't demand absolute perfection out of a complicated system of mass transit every single time I use it."

We can now deduce that you don't live/work close to the Dupont Metro stop... ;-)

Spoken like a wonderfully sympathetic resident of the District, McCoy (#71)!

I know it is torture to drive at midnight 7 miles or so but do it for the kids.

The thing is is that Navy Yard to Ballston will take you 45 minutes to an hour on the Metro so even if they push back the schedule by an hour you're still getting home late so this whole notion of better not have to do anything early in the morning the next day thing because you took the bus is a red herring.

We can now deduce that you don't live/work close to the Dupont Metro stop... ;-)

Use it almost every day.

Use it almost every day.

Just. Wow.

No, McCoy, what's ridiculous is that on weeknights the last Metro leaves Dupont shortly after midnight, yet the last train supposedly leaves the Navy Yard at 11.20, even when there is a widely attended event taking place at Nats Park.

The city and the team are constantly urging fans from one end of the Beltway to the other to take mass transit but are less than committed to ensuring that they can utilize the service when a game goes late.

Use it almost every day.

And you're not dead yet!?

We can now deduce that you don't live/work close to the Dupont Metro stop.

No kidding. McCoy is either the luckiest dude in the city, or he's lying through his teeth. It's almost certainly the latter.

No, McCoy, what's ridiculous is that on weeknights the last Metro leaves Dupont shortly after midnight, yet the last train supposedly leaves the Navy Yard at 11.20, even when there is a widely attended event taking place at Nats Park.

The last train does not leave Navy Yard at 11:20. The last train leaves at 11:40. 95% of the games or more played at Nationals Park end well before the last train leaves for the night.


No kidding. McCoy is either the luckiest dude in the city, or he's lying through his teeth. It's almost certainly the latter.

Yep, I've been laying the groundwork for this lie for years all so it can payoff in a DC Metro thread.

Yep, I've been laying the groundwork for this lie for years all so it can payoff in a DC Metro thread.

Nope, spouting bullsh*t is something that just comes naturally to you.

Yep, I've been laying the groundwork for this lie for years all so it can payoff in a DC Metro thread.

In McCoy's defense (seriously), I remember he once mentioned he barely uses the air conditioning, so the man clearly has a much higher tolerance for discomfort than the rest of us.

No kidding. McCoy is either the luckiest dude in the city, or he's lying through his teeth. It's almost certainly the latter.

Or he has the normal experience that 90% of D.C. residents have. Metro isn't perfect, but having lived in Chicago, New York, Boston, and having spent tons of time all over Asia, the D.C. metro works just fine.

So far this year there have been 2 games played in which the game lasted more than 4 hours long and it was not played on a Friday or Saturday night. One supposedly ended at 11:20 while the last one supposedly ended by 11:32. I don't know how rain delays are counted since they don't appear on BRef as rain delays. For instance the August 21st game had a 51 minute delay while BRef lists the game only taking 2 hours and 24 minutes to play.

Nope, spouting bullsh*t is something that just comes naturally to you.

I'm sorry, Joey, I don't hold a grudge as much as you do and demand the world be perfect all of the time. I've been going to the Dupont Metro Station on an almost daily occurrence for over two years now and I'll say it again I haven't had any problem above a slight inconvenience all during that time.

I used to take Metro every day. In ~2008 I think, around the time they were having a string of high-profile problems and delays were getting less tolerable, I decided to try driving (from Alexandria into downtown), and found that it was much less a hassle than I thought. Now I live too far out to make it worth taking Metro.

I defended Metro for a long time, but things really went downhill. What is missing somewhat from these critiques is that yes, WMATA has been incompetent and inefficient, but it's disingenuous to ignore the fact that Metro is beholden to three different jurisdictions in procuring its funding, and for many years rarely knew what it could count on longterm--and therefore it's no surprise that needed capital expenditures went unfunded, PM was allowed to slide, etc.

Again, WMATA bears a significant portion of the blame, but not all of it; to some degree it's like placing the blame for crumbling roads and bridges entirely at the feet of the US DOT, while giving a pass to the decision makers who failed to figure out how to fund maintenance and replacement.

As noted above, the wrangling between the ballclub and city over who pays for the late trains during the postseason will be agonizing/fun to watch.

If I had four or five hours for touristy stuff in DC, I'd see the Hope Diamond at Natural History, the Declaration/Constitution/Magna Carta at National Archives, and then head to Virginia and wander around Arlington Cemetery. You can get a map of the famous people's graves.

People have different tolerances for city life, but it's tough for me to imagine that someone wouldn't at least note a significant change in Metro quality over the last five years, even if they still found it tolerable.

I defended Metro for a long time, but things really went downhill. What is missing somewhat from these critiques is that yes, WMATA has been incompetent and inefficient, but it's disingenuous to ignore the fact that Metro is beholden to three different jurisdictions in procuring its funding, and for many years rarely knew what it could count on longterm--and therefore it's no surprise that needed capital expenditures went unfunded, PM was allowed to slide, etc.

The system was built on the cheap and is already showing its age, a mere 35 years after opening. DC-area residents had better pray that the system 35 years from now is a quarter as efficient as what NYers experience today.

I defended Metro for a long time, but things really went downhill. What is missing somewhat from these critiques is that yes, WMATA has been incompetent and inefficient, but it's disingenuous to ignore the fact that Metro is beholden to three different jurisdictions in procuring its funding, and for many years rarely knew what it could count on longterm--and therefore it's no surprise that needed capital expenditures went unfunded, PM was allowed to slide, etc.

I hear what you're saying Benji, but Metro fare rates have skyrocketed in the last three or four years or so. And if they're having funding issues, then why the hell are they wasting money on stupid bullsh*t like buying control of the "unsuckdcmetro.com" web domain? WMATA management is horrible and incompetent, and they are the ones who are mostly to blame for what happened, not Virginia or Maryland or anyone else.

Isn't Metro more dependent on fares for its budget than other comparable systems? And isn't its underlying committed funding even weaker than other subway systems, so it relies on year to year allocations? I have been told that, but could be wrong. I don't doubt they make foolish decisions with money, but so does every entity, public and private. I'm just asking about the relative importance of those bad decisions and the overall funding structure.

Not to be one of those dicks who latches on to a single tangential point to derail an argument, but I guess McCoy has amazing timing with his commutes. Or two days later. Or a week later. Or even the month before.

I hear what you're saying Benji, but Metro fare rates have skyrocketed in the last three or four years or so. And if they're having funding issues, then why the hell are they wasting money on stupid bullsh*t like buying control of the "unsuckdcmetro.com" web domain?

And I hear you, but fares have to go up to fund all the needed maintenance (Edit: and capital expenditures like new rail cars) that was neglected for so long, unless any of those three jurisdictions (or the fed'l government) was suddenly going to kick in a ton of money toward it. I know it's painful to pay more exactly as service is at its nadir, but I don't know that they have better options. (And remember that at the same time, the cost to drive has jumped significantly as well in the same timeframe.)

On the domain, can't you register one and set up a pointer for $20/year or so? If they were spending a grand or something, I'd agree.

I've only used the Metro once: 4th of July several years ago, 95 degrees, waiting for the train, underground, packed in like sardines. For half an hour.

Oh, and did I mention I'm claustrophobic?

I work in NYC, many subway platforms in the summer clear 100 easily...
Some platforms have fans, I've heard rumors that some have AC (the 4/5/6 lines- which I don't take).

The one good thing in recent years? They've been installing signs telling you how many minutes away the next train are...

I'd love for the Metro to stay open an hour longer but it doesn't mean much that they don't.

doesn't mean much to you.


I take a commuter train into the city, years ago living in Carle Place (long Island) they changed the schedule, instead of a train living every hour, they one skipped an hour, no big deal right? It was a major inconvenience for me and everyone who got off at my stop- to get home I either had to leave work an hour earlier (which as it turned out was not allowed) or basically wait an extra hour to get home, considering that my daily commute (both ways) was already eating up nearly 3 hours a day- that pretty much wiped out my free time at home..

Not to be one of those dicks who latches on to a single tangential point to derail an argument, but I guess McCoy has amazing timing with his commutes. Or two days later. Or a week later. Or even the month before.

Three of those say that some commuters had 10-20 minute delays. A ten minute delay isn't my favorite thing, but it happens sometimes in DC, just like it happened sometimes in Chicago, and it happened sometimes in New York. It is part of mass transit. Your day is not ruined by a 10 minute delay.

Not to be one of those dicks who latches on to a single tangential point to derail an argument, but I guess McCoy has amazing timing with his commutes. Or two days later. Or a week later. Or even the month before.

Gasp, a delay at a certain point in time during the day. The horror.

doesn't mean much to you.

Yes because the bus is available.

Three of those say that some commuters had 10-20 minute delays. A ten minute delay isn't my favorite thing, but it happens sometimes in DC, just like it happened sometimes in Chicago, and it happened sometimes in New York. It is part of mass transit. Your day is not ruined by a 10 minute delay.

This is sort of what I was thinking about my experience with the Metro. I guess on an absolute level it probably sucks, but I was comparing it to years of commuting on the T in Boston and the CTA in Chicago, and Washington has always seemed better. I mean, the CTA is getting ready to close all Red Line service to the South Side for half a year, which is going to be a disaster for a huge number of people. And a 10-20 minute delay on my Green Line trips in Boston was an entirely regular experience.

This is sort of what I was thinking about my experience with the Metro. I guess on an absolute level it probably sucks, but I was comparing it to years of commuting on the T in Boston and the CTA in Chicago, and Washington has always seemed better. I mean, the CTA is getting ready to close all Red Line service to the South Side for half a year, which is going to be a disaster for a huge number of people. And a 10-20 minute delay on my Green Line trips in Boston was an entirely regular experience.

My memory is the Red Line is unbelievably slow in Chicago.

One of the big reasons Metro is utilized by locals is because the government pays their fare. Absent that subsidy the system would be as neglected by riders as it is by its security officers, maintenance workers, and customer service attendants.

Yeah, spending 4 dollars or so a day is a price nobody on Earth would pay.