Coffee House without the Pretense: Northside Social

Northside Social, the relatively new occupant of the old Murky Coffee Shop in Clarendon, is fast becoming one of my favorite coffee houses. Full disclosure: I don’t actually like coffee. I do, however, love freshly brewed teas.  Fuller disclosure: I hated Murky and its antics.  Murky was dirty, its staff annoyingly pretentious, and the food selections almost nill.  Northside, owned by the same folks as Liberty Tavern and Lyon Hall, has remedied these issues, with ample bar, table, and couch seating, as well as an extensive soup and sandwich menu. And perhaps best of all, offers some wonderful desserts.  The upstairs transforms into a wine bar nightly after 5pm with the exception of Sunday.

The overall vibe of the new place is a vast improvement. The walls are adorned with a rotating display local art for sale and the music is usually a half mellow/half hipster upbeat backdrop which works well for catching up with friends, or in Eating Around DC's case, blogging.  Northside Social is the only place I have blogged about while actually sitting in the space!

When you take everything together Northside Social is a solid overall value with some decent (the savories) to fantastic (the desserts) food.

This chicken salad sandwich is flavorful with tarragon and bits of apricot, if a bit dry, and a tad pricey (but remember you get the atmosphere and free Internet for things like this post!). And the iced tea in the background, peach nectar, is the perfect antidote to a summer day.

It is the desserts though, which are the stars. I had a baseball sized black forest brownie the other day: a rich chocolate ganache on top of a moist cake, offset by the cherries contained within. Their homemade soft-serve ice cream has some interesting and ever-changing flavors, including a Graham Cracker which B thoroughly enjoyed. And this being a coffee house, I have heard the coffee is excellent too.

I feel like in many ways I am not  hip enough to be a coffee house person, but at Northside Social most of the servers, lack the typical I-am-so-much-hipper-than-you barista attitude.  Soups are $5, sandwiches served with a small green salad, potato salad, or chips are $7-8, Desserts and the ample beverage menu start at $2.

Organic Take on Lip Smackin' Soul Classic

B and I decided to end the long weekend by trying out Liberty Tavern's summer special: an organic take on fried chicken. I learned about this offering from Metrocurean, a heralded DC-area food blogger, that while influenced by restaurants, does provide excellent information on new offerings. I read it regularly and appreciate her knack to get the buzz on what's new, including specials and openings.

Back to the chicken. I started with the paired drink special, a bourbon spiked iced tea. This beverage was a bit strong for my taste at first, but as the ice melted, it provided a great elixir to the heat and paired perfectly with the food to come. Plus, on Mondays it is offered for $5.

Liberty's fried chicken special made me happy to be an Arlington resident. For $15, it included more food than I could ever eat. But beyond that, it was made of the highest quality ingredients -- a hallmark of this neighborhood eatery. The Polyface Farm chicken really did taste more like chicken than the usual stuff.

As you can see, the lightly fried chicken, battered with secret spices, came paired with the best southern biscuit I have ever tasted. I will admit that the biscuit is the only thing I was able to finish. The plate also included gravy, green beans sauteed with almonds and sausage (not pictured since it was plated under the chicken), an individual crock of gruyere fennel potato gratin, and for good measure a side of watermelon. Everything was flavorful and worked well together. The sides change based on the shifts in seasonal summer produce.

There was also a $5 dessert option, but B and I did not make it that far.

Our server was as usual very friendly and knowledgeable -- as all staff I have encountered here, but the pacing, also as usual, was off. At both Liberty and Lyon Hall the staff tries so hard, but the coordination with the kitchen is missing, resulting in ill-timed or extended wait times on drink and food service.

This special, offered Mondays after 5pm, despite the pacing issue, is definitely worth the trip and an unbeatable bargain. With tax, tip, a beer, the bourbon drink, and two fried chicken platters, the total was $51.

Good Brunch/Lunch Bet in Clarendon

The Ballston-Rosslyn corridor has more than a few restaurants, and I love living here, but other than Ray's the Steaks and Guajillo, it is pretty unremarkable food-wise. This is especially true when it comes to Sunday brunch, when neither of the aforementioned are open. Many places on Sunday --to say nothing of the bar scene (and much of the weekend evening clientele)--either showcase hangover-relief-pigfest buffets or a brunch menu that is largely crap masquerading as gourmet. So B and I usually end up at our reliable Georgetown brunch spot, having given up on most neighborhood options. But this past Sunday, we decided to give it one more try and headed to Liberty Tavern, which is a block from the Clarendon metro station.

When we walked in the host cheerily asked whether we "had the opportunity to make a reservation?" As the answer was no, and I was fearing we would not have an opportunity to eat, but the host instead pointed us to two spots at the bar area about to open up. The bar space is actually very nice--and the space meal-friendly--and was packed with other diners so we decided to go for it.

The service was excellent. One Jimmy, a friendly, attentive bartender, promptly took our orders, and while I was tempted to go for the house special $4 Bloody Mary with a chaser of Brooklyn Lager, I decided to be good and stuck with water. Maybe next time on the drinks.

While Liberty does offer a large brunch buffet for $18 that sounded quite tempting with the likes of hot mulled apple cider and reverse chocolate chip cookies, we were in the mood for lunch fare and decided to go with the a la carte options. B ordered the club sandwich and me, being a sucker for a good lobster roll, decided to give it a try. Both sandwiches epitomized their respective categories. B declared his club, perfect: roasted turkey, black forest ham, Liberty's bacon, provolone on anadama bread. My lobster roll, on housemade bread with plump and plentiful lobster in a tarragon studded mayonnaise, was terrific. The skin-on fries were crisp, tasty, and gone by the end of the meal.

As I write this I realize while it was a Sunday, this is more of a lunch review than brunch, but I have no doubt the buffet breakfast options may worth a trip back for a special Sunday occasion.

Lunch for two (no drinks) was $35 with tax and tip.