District Commons

Plaudits: None
Neighborhood: Foggy Bottom

The Setup

Needing a place to eat dinner in Foggy Bottom, Official Girlfriend of DCWD Texas and I decided to check out the new addition PassionFood's new addition, District Commons.

The Vibe

Back when I went to GW, we used to lament the state of Square 54, an empty lot that was the site of the old hospital, now reduced to a pile of rubble sitting vacant and unused despite its tony location. Of course, when we graduated, they started construction on an ambitious mixed-use monstrosity. Its ground floor is almost entirely filled with eateries, dominated by a large two floor Whole Foods. On the opposite side is District Commons, clean-cut, put-together, and fairly large.

Enter in the glass revolving door, and you arrive onto a platform in front of the square bar beyond the hostess stand. Beyond that and wrapped around the curve of the wall is the large open kitchen. The dining area itself is three long lines of tables, one a set of fours and sixes, one a set of twos and fours, and the other a row of window-side booths with curtain dividers. The color scheme is browns and grays, with wood linings alongside concrete pillars. Circular light fixtures provide a soft glow as do the candles on the tables and the streetlights outside the large windows. Perhaps the only flaw is that, despite the large space, the twos are fairly bunched up together, unless you score a booth.

Service was a little weird: four different people came and talked to us, and at one point we thought our server had just outright changed. The one that settled on us started by recommending and fully describing half the menu (unsolicited I may add).

The Food

After the actor's monologue about certain dishes, we decided to play along, ordering three dishes he had recommended. First we split the "red" mussels (as opposed to the "white" and "blue") - a red thai curry with golden pineapple. In comparison to other mussels we've had around this fair city, these were fairly... bland. For the description, I wanted to get hit with some spice and some sweet and instead we got some fairly rubbery mussels with middle-of-the-road flavors.

If we thought we'd be rescued by the entrees, we were sorely mistaken. On my end, I ordered one of the flatbreads: the Mediterranean, merguez, eggplant, kalamata olives, feta, and pomegranate molasses. On the face of it, this should have at least have been interesting, but everything about it was bad: too dry sausage, not enough molasses sauce or anything else to marry the toppings together, and not enough toppings to make up for it. Rather than a warm crisp flatbread, this was more like a dry cracker.

Texas's roasted vegetable pot pie suffered from the opposite problem. Cracking open the crust revealed the insides were more soup than filling, watery instead of chunky. The butternut squash and parsnip and celery root should have made for a warm, creamy bite, but instead it tasted like thin and flat vegetable soup.

The Verdict

For a space that nice, and a location that tony, a sorely disappointing meal.

Food Rating: * 1/2 (out of 5)
Date Rating: 3 Hearts (out of 5)
Dress Code: Casual
Bar Rating: Classy Crowd to Suits Scene
Vibe: Energetic
Cost: $$$ (out of 5) ($50-$75 for two)
Pairing: After this meal, you'll probably need another meal anyway, so swing by the Whole Foods and play Iron Chef with one another. Pick out five ingredients for each other and cook a meal together.