Johnna’s Pick of the Week: Eatonville (D.C.)

Let’s take a trip down to Eatonville. The new 14th st. eatery, Eatonville, has won our attention. After celebrating a birthday there, we had the opportunity to see and taste what the comfort food haven had to offer. We’ve always liked Busboys and Poets (*same owners as Eatonville & across the street…) with it’s simple dishes, but only recommended this spot when people came to us for something super casual or needed somewhere with wireless access. Eatonville, on the other hand, gets our review for celebrations, casual dinners on the town or just to go and eat good food alone.

We ventured here on a Friday night with YSL pump look-a-likes and did not feel under dressed one bit. Everyone was sporting whatever they were out on the town for; drinks, drinks and dancing or just to conversate with old friends. We were greeted by a friendly hostess and led to our seat which was planted under some pretty eccentric art images. The whole place is decorated in art murals and kinda takes you on a roller coaster ride in the mind. It adds to the whole effect of this restaurant based on Zora Neale Hurston’s home town. As we all know (*or for those that don’t know…), Zora Neale Hurston was an African-American folklorist and author during the Harlem Renaissance, so the decorations on the wall were right in line with her story telling.

The food. The best part. We started with the hush puppies, the cheddar tart and the fried green tomatoes. The hush puppies took a different turn than what we expected and it was a turn for the best: they were a unique stuffing of rock shrimp and leek fondue with creole sauce. We honestly could’ve ate 10 of these, luckily they only serve one huge hush puppy as an appetizer. The cheddar tart was pretty interesting with Vidalia onions, tomato and white cheddar being the base of the dish. The fried green tomatoes needed no sauce on the side, the batter was at just the right sweetness in combination with the juice of the tomato.

For the entrees, we decided on the crab burger and the Cajun mushroom loaf. Good choices. The crab burger was pretty good, though the bread could have been better, it didn’t totally fail as a burger. We would suggest a softer bun with a little more creativity where every other restaurant in D.C. has a crab or lobster burger floating around on its menu. The Cajun mushroom loaf was a cool twist on the typical meatloaf, but for vegetarians. We wrapped things up with some of the most delicious bread pudding on this side of 14th st.

Eatonville is on our new list of the top five places to recommend to visitors to the District (*This list changes frequently with new restaurants popping up in the DMV often…). We recommend it so much so we’re headed back for a friends b-day celebration in the coming up weeks…now what should we order this time?? The Oyster Po Boy or the Etoufee??

P.S. The service gets a star too, the waitress was very attentive and on this rare occasion in the District we didn’t feel like they were paying us to come eat, rather the other way around.