The Happy Tummy List

The holiday season is always a special time of the year. We definitely wanted to get together before the holidays and to celebrate being so close to the end of the fall semester. The month of December, holiday stress, and the end of the semester always generate a craving for comfort food. So on a chilly Thursday night earlier this month, we decided to seek comfort in Mexican food, guacamole, and tequila and made our way to El Sol Restaurante & Tequileria  in Washington, D.C. for some drinks and food #fortheblog. When we walked up to the entrance of El Sol, we were struck by the size and appearance of the restaurant. It looked and felt a bit like a hole-in-the-wall, and we had a short moment of regret about our restaurant choice. But, we went in, and El Sol proved to be a textbook example of the "don't judge a book by its cover" saying. The restaurant is very small and located next to a local neighborhood grocery store. At most, El Sol feels like it will comfortably

It's the time of the year when people are feeling especially overworked, underpaid, and overwhelmed by preparations for the holidays. In an effort to avoid burnout and exhaustion early, we decided to go out and enjoy a fun happy hour and concert on a Thursday night in mid-November. The concert venue, Songbyrd Music House & Record Cafe , is located at the top of the Adams Morgan neighborhood of D.C., thus we decided to drop in for happy hour at Southern Hospitality . Southern Hospitality, or SoHo, is located within two blocks of Songbyrd, and there is ample street parking and a paid parking lot next to the restaurant. Adams Morgan is home of a wide variety of unique eateries, entertainment, and bars. Several of the bars in the neighborhood have stood the test of time, and we hold some fun memories from visiting them during our graduate school days. Southern Hospitality has a somewhat unique exterior appearance---the image of their pineapple logo gave Simone pause when we arri

We ushered in the month of November with a trip down to the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C. to check out Duke's Grocery for a #HappyTummyList dinner. Simone had purchased a new car a few weeks prior to our outing, so we used this trip as an outlet to drown her sorrows about having a car note once again. But at least we drove into D.C. in style, right?! We also had lots to catch up on---Simone and Joe had recently come back from an amazing trip to Mexico for a friend's wedding, and Damien had just performed a wedding ceremony for close friends up in Baltimore. And Duke's, which considers itself a "neighborhood pub and supper spot" with influences from East London, was a great place for this occasion. Per usual, we started our evening with some drinks and appetizers. We have to do these things for the blog! Simone ordered the Moscow Mule, and Damien had a Founder's All Day I.P.A. The Moscow Mule was chilled, refreshing, and delicious, but it w

Philadelphia---the City of Brotherly Love, the famous Rocky steps, The Roots, Jill Scott, the Liberty Bell, Ben Franklin, and the most amazing invention ever: the Philadelphia cheesesteak. The City of Brotherly Love has so much to offer in terms of food---whether you are in Center City visiting Buddakan or El Vez, sneaking into Ishakibble's for their french fries, or grabbing a cannoli from the renowned Varallo Brothers Bakery, there is plenty of wonderful food all throughout the great city of Philadelphia. Earlier in this beautiful and oddly warm month of October, we traveled up to Philadelphia for our alma mater's Homecoming weekend. Our friendship began during our freshman year at Philadelphia University, which is now known as Jefferson after their recent merger with Thomas Jefferson University (we have very mixed feelings about this, btw). While at PhilaU, we were both S.T.A.R.T Leaders, which essentially involved answering hundreds of questions from parents, giving tou