Hello! Welcome to our blog!

We figured we should use our first blog post to welcome you to our blog and introduce ourselves.

My name is Simone. I enjoy cooking, eating, and trying new things--even if my anxiety may say "no." If I call you my family or friend then I love you and will harm anyone if they test my love. I genuinely love food.

And my name is Damien. I really, really love to laugh. Honestly, I think people like it when I laugh because my laughter can sometimes be a "little" out of control. My family and friends mean everything to me, and food has always been a great means to connect with the people that I love.

We met in college at Philadelphia University in 2003. To this day, we constantly debate when we actually became friends. But the thing we definitely agree on is that it didn't take long for us to become best friends. Throughout our time at PhilaU, graduate school, and now in this thing called "adulthood," we have been there for each other and are the siblings we never requested.

For the past few years, we would text each other about restaurants that we heard about, visited, saw a great review for, etc. We would usually never act on any of those texts, though. It wasn't until Damien (finally) joined Instagram that we started to tag and share posts from food accounts on the gram, as we both follow a ton of foodie-related accounts. Throughout the month, it was common to receive a tag that asked "Add it to the list?" By using Instagram, it became easier for us find new restaurants to try. Around October 2014, we decided to create a running list of restaurants that we wanted to try and our adventures began. The first restaurant we visited was Graffiato in Washington, DC. As of today, we have visited over 20 restaurants--each has been different and some have been incredibly delicious (luckily only one was bad...so far).

So here we are. We are excited to share our food adventures with the world! Our plan is to post after each visit to a new restaurant from our list--we will share our review and pictures from our visit. We'll also work to share information about the restaurants we've already been to prior to starting this blog. Our hope with this blog to inspire others to spend time with people they love over good food, conversation, and laughter, as well as find great restaurants to check out in the DMV.

We invite to join us on our food adventures!

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Dinner at Duke's

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...

Restaurant Review: Mulebone

Earlier this month we ventured out into Washington, DC for some happy hour and dinner action at Mulebone , which is located on 14th Street NW (right across from Busboys and Poets). Given its location, Mulebone is within a relatively short walk of the U St. Metro Station, but we drove and lucked out in finding a parking spot directly across the street from the restaurant (Simone almost cried tears of joy!). We planned this #HappyTummyList adventure weeks in advance, but neither of us could have imagined that we would be reeling from the news of the vicious murders of Alton Sterling and Philando Castille that day. In many ways, this happy hour gave us a space to talk through these incredibly tragic events and support one another. It is really difficult to comprehend how and why these atrocities are happening in 2016. Seriously, #blacklivesmatter, y'all. But thankfully, Mulebone provided us with a great venue to enjoy some delicious food and drinks. And in much needed and fantastic...

Restaurant Review: Takoda Restaurant & Beer Garden

Summer is slowly winding down and we can't believe it. Fortunately, these are the perfect days to enjoy some of the best things about summer and the DMV, and one of those things is brunch. On the very last day of July we ventured into Washington, DC to enjoy brunch at Takoda , which is located at the beginning of the U Street corridor on 7th Street and Florida Avenue NW. Upon entering Takoda, we ventured upstairs to the main dinning area to be seated. There is a beautiful beer garden and roof top area for drinks and food as well, but it was too hot and humid outside so we opted for the downstairs dining area instead. If you enjoy the outdoors, a beautiful city view, and fresh air, then grab a seat upstairs on the rooftop which is open year-round - it is definitely beautiful up there! Simone's Review: Our waitress was incredibly sweet and offered us the Mimosa specials when we sat down. The mimosas are half priced ($6) during brunch, so we opted for individual mimosas versu...

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