"So...if we come out to visit, is there anywhere near your house where we can grab a bite to eat?"
Prior to visiting, we've had several friends and family members ask this very very question when attempting to plan their trip. To us, our seemingly endless restaurant options within a short walk of our home are almost a given, but to people who live in areas similar to where we grew up in Ohio, the option to head out for a nice dinner at a restaurant often leaves you looking at only a few viable dining options.
Eamonn's with PX upstairs
As we head into Old Town Alexandria's official Restaurant Week, the event running from August 23rd - September 1st meant to encourage people to try out new dining options through the allure of a bargain meal, we have to laugh at our response when we were first asked the question that opened this post...
"Um, yeah...there are about 100 different places we can walk to."
Vermilion
Our response sounds like an exaggeration and is often met with a laugh if we're having a phone conversation about an upcoming visit, but we've always known that "100" was a large enough number to convey "a whole lot" in our description. Truth be told, we really didn't know exactly how many restaurants we could walk to... so we decided to count them up one day as a means to pass time on a long car trip.
Columbia Firehouse
Our criteria for the list is relatively simple.
- The restaurant needs to be somewhere within a 15 minute walk of our home (about .6 miles at our brisk pace),
- You must be able to order or select an actual meal (so cupcake, ice cream, yogurt, or strictly coffee places are out, as much as a meal of cupcakes, ice cream, and coffee may sound good),
- And you must be able to actually sit down at available restaurant seating (inside or out) to eat what you ordered.
Our results...surprising to say the least.
Here's the list of our area restaurants, pulled entirely from our own memory. We've put a green check next to each place we've dined, and a yellow star next to the places that are our go-to favorites. And it's worth noting, the majority are actually within a 5-10 minute walk rather than the max of 15 minutes.
Wow! What a list! I can't believe we were able to come up with pretty much the entire thing without having to resort to Google maps. Obviously we had to use Google for all of the website urls.
Grape & Bean, with Lavender Moon Cupcakes nextdoor
Of the 107 different restaurants within a 15 minute walk of our house we've eaten at 89 of them, marked with the check image. That leaves us with just 18 we still need to sample. Some of those at the top of our list to try are Bottom Dollar Dog, Notting Hill, and the soon to open Waterfront Market. And for some reason, Wendy has this obsession with wanting to go to Rock It Grill for karaoke (after a night out for a few drinks). I...don't share that obsession. I can't sing to save my life.
We've also noted our favorite places that we seem to find ourselves either going or wanting to go quite often. Perhaps if you're planning a trip to Alexandria this list of our favorites will help you to narrow your dining selections. Who knows, we might even see you out at happy hour or at dinner.
And if you're a local or are in town now through September 1st, you should definitely check out the various participating Restaurant Week locations. I'm 100% sure there's something delicious that's also right up your palette's alley.
Do you have neighborhood dining options and favorites of your own? How does your area compare to ours? Can you walk to over 100 different places in under 15 minutes? I know our situation is not the norm, so I'm interested to hear your setup. If you live in the area, or have visited Old Town, which restaurants make your list of favorites?
