Sunday, June 30, 2019

Sunday, June 30, 2019

Tonight's picture was taken in June of 2009. Mattie was home recovering from his sternotomy (to remove tumors in his lungs). One of the items that became part of our every day life was this pink basin. It was from the hospital and given to us at each admission. Remember this was cancer we were talking about, and drugs produced nausea. You connect the dots on the usefulness of the basin. In any case, Mattie loved using it not for its intended purpose but to play. It was Sponge Bob's pool! Mattie made this cute Sponge Bob at the hospital and absolutely loved water play. Water play happened at both home and the hospital! 

Quote of the day: One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well. ~ Virginia Woolf


I absolutely agree with Virginia Woolf. To me food is important! In fact, I can talk about a bad food experience for days. Somehow it personally upsets me. For me, dining out isn't solely about the food. Wrapped up in dining out is the restaurant's atmosphere and most definitely the service. For a restaurant to be memorable it must have: great food, wonderful service, and a beautiful setting. 

On Friday night one of our friends text messaged me and asked if Peter and I wanted to get together for dinner the following night (Saturday). Since weekends continue to remain challenging for us without Mattie, we said yes. Our friends wanted to come into DC for dinner. Which for us is atypical, since the majority of our friends live in Alexandria and therefore want to dine in their neck of the woods. So despite living in DC, I know more restaurants in Alexandria than I do in my own neighborhood! What I do know however, is that you can't dine in DC without a reservation! Or let's put it this way, it isn't a good idea. You will be turned away from a restaurant in most cases. In any case, finding a restaurant to have dinner at on short notice in DC is another challenge. But I was up to it. 

I found Succotash! Which is not only a type of food, but the name of the restaurant. We had never been to Succotash, but given what I was reading about it and its setting, I thought it would make for a special Saturday. 

This is what you see when you walk into the door of Succotash. It is inside the historic Equitable Bank building on F Street, NW and occupies 9,000 square feet. Which is spread across multiple stories. In my opinion, it is worth visiting the restaurant for its amazing setting!

Design accents include a glass atrium, two bars, a wraparound mezzanine that overlooks the main dining room, lots of restored wood, private dining areas, and leather-wrapped chairs and banquettes. The group that owns this restaurant kept the integrity of the original marble floors and mahogany paneling.

We sat on the second floor! Certainly we could hear the vibrant sound of the restaurant but I did not feel like people were on top of me. Which is SO TYPICAL in most restaurants now. Our server was equally lovely and the food was a wonderful fresh surprise. 

It was the weekend of dining out and socializing. Our niece is in DC this summer, doing an internship on Capitol Hill. It was her first week in town and we took her out to brunch today. Given that she lives in Georgetown, we opted to go to the Peacock Cafe. I associate this Cafe with Georgetown University Hospital. As our philanthropy contact at the Hospital used to take us to the Cafe over the years for lunch and dinner. It was wonderful to connect with our niece, share in her summer experiences, and to be available to her if she should need anything while she is here.