DC Food, Beverage, Sights, and Metro Instructions

dc-places.md

Places in DC...

Broken out by area, type, etc. Note that this is a curated list, and it's always good to try new things. Then tell us about them if they're awesome!

(Check out the other section below for Metro instructions if you need them.)

General Parts of Town

• The mall (museums, food carts, few other commercial places; metro)
• Downtown (the area outside the mall, but still really close in; fancy restaurants and bars)
  • Subparts: White House (not much commercial); Penn Quarter/Archives (some cool food/drink places)
• Capitol Hill (behind the Capitol; pricey area; convenient)
• Chinatown (many shops, bars, and chain restaurants; metro)
• 14th St (corridor of great, local bars, restaurants, and shops; best by bus or metro with walk)
• U St (number of blocks with great, local bars and restaurants; metro)
• H St (still transitioning area, some cool extablishments; uber/lyft or metro with long walk)
• Georgetown (waterfront; fancy shops and restaurants; uber/lyft or bus)
• Brookland (gentrified area; decent local restaurants and such; metro)
• DuPont (many local shops and restaurants; metro)
• Logan (sophisticated, interesting casual dining; bus or metro with walk)
• Adams Morgan (zoo; some interesting food options; metro with walk)
• Friendship Heights (lots of shopping, mostly chains; metro)
• Tyson's Corner (lots of shopping, all chains; Virginia; drive)

Food & Beverage

Pizza

• &Pizza (local chain; cool toppings)
• District of Pi (Metro Center; deep dish, good beer)

Burgers

• Good Stuff Eatery (Capitol Hill; solid staple burger and shakes)
• Shake Shack (it's a chain, but still decent)
• Plan B (Penn Quarter/Archives; fancy-ish, but really good)

Beer with food

• City Tap House (Chinatown-ish)
• Meridian Pint (Columbia Heights / Georgia Ave)
• Brookland Pint (Brookland)
• Garden District (14th St; good bbq (for DC) and fun atmosphere)

Beer

• ChurchKey (14th St; food is good too, but pricey)
• Argonaut (H Street; good local beer)

Whiskey

• Bourbon (Adams Morgan / 18th; a long walk (or bus), but awesome; pricey)
• Quarry House Tavern (Silver Spring; cheap, but awesome)

Liquor

• Denson (Chinatown; awesome atmosphere; pricey)
• Partisan (Penn Quarter/Archives; cool atmosphere)

Other

• Chili: Ben's Chili Bowl (U Street; a DC icon)
• American: Founding Farmers (Farragut West, make a reservation)
• Indian: Rasika (Penn Quarter; pricey, busy, but awesome)
• Lunch: Devon & Blakely (local chain, but awesome lunch)
• Native American: American Indian Museum (The Mall; a bit pricey, but good)
• Asian: Sala Thai (chain, but decent)
• Cupcakes: Red Velvet (Chinatown, #1) or Georgetown Cupcakes (Georgetown)
• Tea: Teaism (Penn Quarter, DuPont; also good lunch spot)
• Coffee: Compass Coffee (local chain) or Bakers and Baristas (Chinatown)
• Ice Cream: Pitango (Chinatown)

Things To Do

Ratings (1=lowest to 5=highest): "A" = awesome level; "W" = walking level
Free unless specified

• Museum of Natural History - W5, A5
• Air and Space Museum - W5, A5
  • New Museum Near Dulles (aweome, but long drive)
• National Zoo - W5, A5
• National Mall (& monuments) - W5 (unless renting bikes), A5, $ (for bikes if you want one)
• National Cathedral - W3, A4, $ (donation)
• National Arboretum - W4, A3 (drive)
• International Spy museum - W3, A4, $$
• Kennedy Center - W3, A2, $$$ (if you go to a show)
• Capitol building - W3, A3, $
• U Street, Dupont, Chinatown, 14th, Georgetown (restaurants, shops, etc) - W4, A2, $-$$$
• Great Falls Park / Overlook - W4, A5, $ (drive)
• Shenendoah - W3-5, A5, $ (far drive)
• Union Station - W1, A3
• Live music (check dcist.com) (all over) - W1-3, A3, $

Theaters (not movies)

• Kennedy Center (The Mall)
• Wooly Mammoth (Chinatown)
• Folger Shakespeare Library (Capitol Hill)
• Shakespeare Theater (Penn Quarter)
• Wolf Trap (Virginia, far drive)
• Synetic Theater (Virginia, metro or drive)

Activity Bars

• The Board Room (Dupont; board games, good beer)
• H Street Country Club (H Street; mini golf, skeeball, cocktails)
• Rocket Bar (Chinatown; pool, shuffleboard, etc)
• Thomas Foolery (Dupont; classic games, candy)
• Penn Social (Penn Quarter; decent beer, shuffleboard, pin pong, skeeball, etc)
• Comet (Friendship Heights; ping pong)

Metro-Instructions.md

Instructions for Using the Metro in DC

Before you Go...

• Make sure you have google maps on your phone. When you ask Google Maps for directions, it will give you an option to use public transportation and will tell you how to get there by metro. It will also show a big "M" in a square in locations where you can find a metro station.
• Have a printed copy of the DC Metro map. It's very handy for when you are unfamiliar with the sytem (big pdf or smaller for printing).
• Download either the Lyft or Uber app to your phone, and go through the steps to set up your account. You will have to provide a credit card. You may not use these services at all, but when you need them, they are a total lifesaver. More details on this below.

The Metro

The Metro system is the preferred and primary transportation system for most people in DC. It's safe, fast, convenient, and will get you to most placed you want to go, with a little bit of walking. The system also includes many, many buses - consider it if Google tells you a bus will get you there faster; they take the same metro cards that you will use on the trains!

Basic Operation
Here's how it works: You will get a "metro card" that you will load with a certain amount of money. When you get to a metro station, you will tap the card on a sensor to get through a turnstile and onto the train platform. Then, when you get to your destination station, you will tap the card again to exit the turnstile and the system will charge the card based on how far you went and the time of day (peak times cost more). A little display will tell you how much money you have left on the card. It's really too complicated to try to guess your fare in advance, but don't worry too much about not having enough - every station has an "exit fare" machine where you can refill your card before you leave the station. You can assume that each trip will cost you anywhere from $2.15 to $5.50.

Getting Your Card
When you arrive at the airport follow the signs to the Metro. Some signs may just have a big "M" in a square. At the station, you will see a bunch of machines on the right. Purchase a metro card here, and tell it how much money to put on the card. For 5 days, I'd say start with $40. You may need more, but you can refill the card if needed. Don't even think about buying one of those metro passes meant for tourists. FYI, the card itself will cost $2, so you will actually be putting $38 on the metri card if you charge your credit card $40.

Identifying Trains
The train lines all have color names. You will see signs that say things like "Red line to Shady Grove." This means that it's guiding you to the platform for a red line train heading in the direction of Shady Grove: the last stop on the West end of the Red Line. When you get to the platform you will see digital signs that say things like "Shady Grove, 2 min" and "Fort Totten, 4 min". This is when it gets confusing. The digital sign is giving you the name of the last stop for this particular train and how long until it arrives where you are now. In the case above, while both trains are going in the same direction on the same line (red in this case), the second train is stopping at Fort Totten and will not go all the way to Shady Grove. You are not likely to be going far enough to worry about the ending station. If you're on the right platform and it's the right color, then get on. If in doubt, just ask the nearest stranger if this train will stop at your destination stop. If you have time, you can also look for a column on the platform that lists all of the stops going in a particular direction or ask the station manager.

Some metro stations accommodate more than one line, and sometimes you will even see more than one color line on the same track, picking up from the same platform. For example, if you look at your map, yellow and green run parallel for a while and use the same track. For the most part, you will probably not run into a situation where you have to worry about getting on the wrong line. Airport trips are one the exception to this. Only yellow and blue go to the airport. Each train has a digital sign on the very front and the outside of each car that says what color train it is.

Lyft and Uber

Lyft and Uber are great options for when you're too tired, foot-sore, etc to bother with the metro and walking. Also, if it's late, take an Uber or Lyft (after 11pm I would say) - the trains stop at midnight.

Between the two there are no big differences in DC... although I personally prefer Lyft.

A few Survival Tips

• Wear comfortable shoes. Seriously, you'll be doing a LOT of walking.
• On the metro escalators, stand to the right, walk on the left. Morning commuters will get cranky if you slow them down.
• No eating or drinking on the metro.
• The seats nearest the doors must be vacated for people with disabilities, small children, or the elderly but otherwise sit wherever you want. Or stand and hang on if there's no room.
• Every so often, metro will fail you. A train car will need repairs, the next train will take an inexplicable amount of time to get there, some annoying kid will be playing music out loud. In general, roll with it, or get out and take a Lyft.