Food Flashback: No Love for Cakelove

Wow – cupcakes are a hot topic in DC this summer! Eating Around DC's news on Georgetown Cupcake's "bouncers"--which got a lot of attention a few days ago--prompted a robust debate over the best and worst cupcakes in DC.  I promise this is my last post on the subject for awhile, but I would like to affirm the overwhelming consensus among commenters on the worst cupcake in DC: Cakelove. 

When B and I moved here in 2005, we were so excited to try the bakery that we made almost an immediate trip to what was at the time a rather desolate section of U Street.  What was all the world's--including Oprah--fuss about?

We looked in the window of the bakery across the street from the Love Cafe and swooned over the beautiful cakes being decorated in the window.  So far, so good.  And then we tried the cupcake across the street and we were like: "Really?!"  Granted, we went in expecting to love these cupcakes in part because of the story, including Warren Brown's quitting his day-job to follow a dream.  But the cupcake sucked on a variety of levels.

First of all the cupcake was served cold, really cold. Then there was the issue of the frosting consistency which was like a dense block of Crisco. And the cake itself was muted in flavor, dry and too dense. And perhaps the worst part was that we went back several times over the next few months.  In our defense there were a dearth of  bakeries (at least as newcomers) that we knew about at the time.  We even tried one of the over-priced strawberry and cream cakes which while slightly better and more attractive than the cupcakes was still just okay.

Finally I want to add that as readers of this blog know, while I hate the lines at Georgetown Cupcake, I do think both the appearance and the taste of their cupcakes are excellent...though I will only pre-order for the foreseeable future.  And with that, no more cupcake postings here unless there's some breaking news… I am cup-caked out!

Food Flashback: No Name Seafood

We are headed to Massachusetts next week to spend Christmas with my family and a night in Boston on the way back to the airport. A failed attempt to secure a reservation at Barbara Lynch's popular B&G Oysters (it's closed from the holiday through the 27th) reminded me of a total fiasco we experienced in August, when we were last up there. Since that was before I started this blog, I wanted to share as a warning to those looking for seafood in Boston.

We had not made reservations during that trip and planned to head to our favorite seafood spot, a tiny no-reservation restaurant in the North End, Neptune Oyster, where the signature dish is hot buttered lobster on a homemade brioche roll. But the crowds that the North End feast brought to the neighborhood that summer weekend made the wait over two hours. So instead we decided to head to No Name Seafood, a longstanding landmark on the Wharf. We had always said we were going to try this place when we lived there and somehow never got around to it. Which in retrospect we learned was a good thing.

If I had only one word to describe this restaurant, it would be gross. I expected this storied establishment to be New England-style rugged but not to inflict what should be board of health-worthy violations at every turn. We stood in line to wait for a table in a warehouse sized room with 70's furniture and with a mix of Russian tourists (maybe thanks to the plummeting value of the dollar?) and locals. We were seated at a sticky table (more on that in the following paragraph) and curtly greeted by an ancient waiter who could barely walk let alone serve. The poor guy must have been pushing 80, and was also responsible for busing tables.

Which brings me to the core issue. The typical cleaning of a table (which we mercifully took note of only after we ate) consisted of simply pushing shells and the liquid contents of steamed lobsters aside, and dumping the previous party's water pitcher into the new one. This made me want to throw up. Had we seen this before we ate, we would have guzzled our drinks high-tailed it out of there!

If you are still reading at this point, we came for lobster and got the traditional lobster/fried seafood menu item. At $28 a piece this was not cheap and the food was overall mediocre at best; while the lobster was tender and cooked just the way you want it to be, the fried seafood appetizers smelled--and tasted--like they had come out of a second-rate grocery store's freezer case. I should also mention that though they had beer taps, they had long ago stopped working. Draft beer seems like a staple when enjoying (or in this case, surviving) a New England seafood dinner.

So No Name should be a No Go if you happen to be in Boston. I'm sure it's in all the tourist guidebooks, but I am floored that it somehow manages to keep its reputation. You can get better and fresher seafood elsewhere in the city as well as sanitary conditions that aren't so unbearable.

As for next week's trip, we are hoping to have better luck at Neptune!