Now that we have food carts...

...its a bad thing apparently. I think this is partially because we are chasing trends rather than ever being a part of them. I dont have a problem with chasing trends, as long as its done well.

More on DC Food

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Georgetown Cupcake vs. Bens Chili Bowl

The line out the door is a phenomenon found in food cities across the country. The trick is too make your space so small that very few people can wait inside and produce the food quick enough as to not need a server to entertain patrons. Im too lazy to research it, but im pretty sure the Kogi Korean BBQ Taco Truck in LA was at the forefront of this movement. The basic formula reads: line = then and only then a food city.
Ok, so Ben's does not have a line down the block, but it has the buzz and the continuous crowds. In the other corner we have the new kid on the block.... Georgetown Cupcake. I have to give GC credit for a couple of things. One, they make $4 cupcakes that I would say are well worth the cash. Two, they have brought some much needed buzz to the city's dining scene. Three, in addition to buzz, they have brought hope. Hope, that the city can evolve from a formula of independently owned pseudo-corporations; those restaurants that look and act like chains, with their safe designs and two dimensional menus (Clydes, et. al).
So now that I have given the credit, its time to point out the downside of a place like Georgetown Cupcake. GC is probably the most sought out place to find food in all of DC. In LA you have the Korean BBQ Tacos, in SF you have either French Soul Food or a one table coffehouse/ straight from farm to table rotating menu, and in DC we have cupcakes. These places tend to represent a history or diversity of a city. Its only ability to succeed has to connect the residents and tell a story about the area. Bens Chili Bowl fits the mold, Georgetown Cupcake represents a coming schism of the city. For the last 40 years, there has been a deep divide between blacks and whites. Fortunately the gap has been shrinking. There has been some great development in areas, such as U st, Columbia Heights and Petworth, that have developed economically and held onto the rich history of the respective neighborhoods. BCB has become a representation of the past, present and future of the city. A past of hate, a present of hope and a future of acceptance and understanding. Georgetown Cupcake will hopefully develop into a wildly successful, compartmentalized vision of the far west side of the city. In the end, I think we are at the start of a culinary enlightenment and I can only imagine that the success will be in part derived thanks to an inclusion of a regional perspective.

One of the coauthors of this blog just unfriended another coauthor

I am so thankful that my friend invited me to be a contributor to his blog.

I wanted to use this space to explain that I have unfriended the head of this blog on facebook.

How do you handle such a delicate thing is always such a topic of debate. At certain phases when I was in a mood of being upset at the way my life was going socially, I wanted to do it in a grand proclamation, writing some poetic goodbye on his wall and possibly his girlfriend's wall.

But in short:
Unfriending the author of this blog was nothing personal. I just felt like it gave me negative feelings of self-esteem to continue being friends with the author of this blog, because it didn't reflect reality, and that it would be a boost to my sense of self if I formally cut off my friendship with the person. The person had no use for me and that's fine, so he wouldn't care either way.

Our friendship deteriorated because the author of this blog found a girlfriend and the girlfriend didn't like me and wanted to not be around me, so the author of this blog naturally chose the girlfriend.

It upsets me heavily when people form an opinion of me without getting to know me. For some reason, it only upset me a little in the case of the author's girlfriend. It upset me to such a small degree, I found myself being able to just live with it. Maybe, I was guilty of forming a quick opinion of the girlfriend too, that she wasn't my kind of person either.

It was a blow that it cost me my friend. I never expected this person to become such a close friend. I originally met him as an interview subject from when I worked for the student newspaper and you're not really supposed to be friends with you're interview subjects, so I kept a distance. At some point towards the end of college we both found ourselves hanging out with mutual friends and after college, he lived in the same area as me.

I liked that he was easy-going and open about himself. Likewise, he's probably too easy-going for some mushy sedimental exchange to occur after this post is posted but that's what i liked about him anyways, so it's all good.

The author attended my two most depressing birthday celebrations in history (not depressing because the author attended them) and maybe it's some solace to know that the last celebration I had for myself, there was a better turnout (of approximately 6-8).