Domku, with its spacey pop music/living room ambiance, floats somewhere between a hipster cafe and an Ikea showroom. It's the only Polish restaurant in DC, but as one of my fellow diners (who spent a semester in Krakow) remarked later, its Slavic/Scandinavian themes are really just themes, and not at the heart of the food.
When my four roommates and I arrived at 7:10 on a Saturday night, the place was half-empty - we'd made a reservation and innocently worried about showing up late. Very notably (though not surprisingly) for its Petworth neighborhood, all the patrons were white; our server, barkeep, and older woman who seemed like she might be a manager were Asian. (I find this extremely depressing. The couple of times I went to Temperance Hall before it closed, the clientele was lily-white, despite the traditionally black neighborhood. It seems inevitable that Domku, with its relatively pricey and totally European menu, will play to the same demographics and lure in folks from other parts of town, like our household, while not attracting its own neighbors. But maybe I'm being too pessimistic here.)
The decor is, yes, a little awkwardly fitted out with mismatched, banged-up armchairs and glossy plastic modish furniture. We went with a regular table, but the beat-up blue sofa looked awfully comfy.
Of the five of us, I was most underwhelmed by dinner. We ordered apps to split - eggplant caviar and the garlic toast with roasted tomatoes and feta - both of which were pretty yummy and nicely garlicky. Three of us had drinks: a tall glass of blackcurrant juice, at $3 a good bargain; one of Domku's cocktails, which came pink and syrupy in a martini glass; and a tatanka, a Polish drink of bison grass vodka mixed with apple juice. My roommate who had lived in Poland was EXTREMELY excited about having one of these again...and disappointed that she had to explain what it was to our server. Throughout the evening the service was a little shaky: water glasses and carafe were deposited a little too hard on the table (just short of slamming), appetizers were whisked away before we'd quite finished. Our server did graciously consent to taking a picture of the bunch of us draped across one of Donku's sofas, though, so brownie points to her (don't worry, the restaurant was abandoned at that point).
Dinner came within a reasonable wait: a demure bowl of carrot soup, an order of Swedish meatballs, the potato/cheese/bacon pierogi, the Czech potato dumplings, and (for me) an open-faced farmer's cheese sandwich called a Twarog, served with tomatoes, cucumbers, and a sort of odd sweet-bitter pickle. Everyone cleaned their plate, with the exception of the girl who ordered the meatballs - her entire plate was covered with a plain of deliciously creamy and sweet potatoes, which we couldn't finish off. My sandwich, on a crumbly dark country rye, was hard to handle but very filling, with generous dollops of cheese; unfortunately, I had to deconstruct it to avoid spilling the toppings everywhere. At $6, this was the cheapest entree by far (not counting the soup). We declined dessert, paid the bill ($108 with tax and tip) and walked home. Actually, we walked a couple of neighborhoods over to Adams Morgan for milkshakes, but that's another review.
Cafe Du Monde
This place is just awesome. They're a New Orleans tradition, which is open 24 hours a day. Perfect for the city that never sleeps and the French Quarter that never stops partying. I'm told that you're supposed to get drunk all night, come over to Cafe Du Monde in the wee hours of the morning, have some coffee and their famous beignets and go to sleep. Such a diet is supposed to overcome any hangover effects the next morning. Now, I don't drink that much and I certainly don't party into the wee hours of the morning so I did not try it. However, I did have a fine breakfast at Cafe Du Monde.
Well, there are drinks too so I had what I assumed was a traditional breakfast of coffee and beignets. Each order comes with three of these wonderful balls of joy. Yes, it's all just fried dough topped with lots and lots of powdered sugar. But that's all it takes to make a greasy and filling breakfast. The dough was nice and crispy on the outside, protecting the softness on the inside. Just a terrific and simple recipe, which you can bring home with you. They sold the dough but I don't have a deep fryer at home so I didn't partake. Plus, it wouldn't have tasted the same anyway. Beware of the falling powdered sugar, which gets everywhere. Enjoy!
