Despite the dire forecast for Saturday and even hints of it being true, we headed up the road to attend the Smithsonian Craft Fair, the yearly premier craft event held at the National Building museum. We missed it last year, and wanted to make sure we got there this time. So gassed up the flutter mobile (cha ching!) and pointed north. With no major hiccups we arrived at my friend’s apartment just south of the Mall, and with only moderate driving around we found a parking place - one of the reasons I am glad I DON’T live in DC. Upon entering his apartment I was surprised to see another friend I don’t see nearly enough of. What a wonderful surprise! Even though we all communicate via text, email, facebook, tweets, yadda yadda, there is nothing like seeing somebody in person. As they say, you can’t hug a smart phone.
Anyway, our host served us all a nice little plate of Kerrygold Cheddar, some refreshing grapes, a glass of some very nice Riesling, and some very tasty little crackers. Upon questioning about them, turns out that they are a new product from Kellogg. Go figure. They were really pretty good. As an aside, our sort of normal everyday cracker to accompany cheese, Wheat Thins, have apparently undergone some transition resulting in smaller, and sort of weird looking and tasting items. Maybe they’re going down the list in favor of Kalamazoo (if we can find them)!
Anyway, after sipping and catching up a bit we headed out for lunch and the show. Fortunately we decided to drive, and one of the “natives” volunteered to pilot his car. It’s always fun to sbe with residents who are used to driving in DC. While my experience usually is dead ending, or finding the street to be wrong way, or ending up in some location you would rather not be, these guys are on it. “Let’s go up (for instance) 7th to P, cut over on Wallach, maybe Vermont” (this isn’t accurate but you get the drift). So after going here and there we miraculously ended up across from Coppi’s Organic Restaurant on U Street near the Verizon center, and even found a precious parking place. We all pretty much emptied our pockets into the parking meter, each quarter worth 8 minutes (why I DON’T want to live…). My other friend had been to Coppi’s recently and really enjoyed the place and food, so we’d try it before the show. One of the reasons I wish I DID live in DC is that there are places like this. It’s in an old building, extremely high ceilings, and walls decorated with bicycling memorabilia. Apparently Coppi is an an Italian maker of high end bicycling frames, and I think there is a cycling club in Alexandria by that name. Anyway, lots of signed photos old and new, torn jerseys, certificates, etc. The furniture comes from an old church, dark wood and wooden floors. They bill themselves as a rustic Italian organic restaurant and take pride on their ingredients. We were there for late lunch, hence there was sort of a limited menu, consisting of Eggs, Calzones, Pizze, and Pannini. Since my friend had enjoyed a pasta dish for his previous visit, I was disappointed to see no pasta options on the menu. When asked about this, the server produced the dinner menu which did have lots of pasta choices, and said the kitchen would be glad to prepare any of them. Over a glass of wine we finally decided that MFO would have eggs and sausage, and around the table a Pizze of pancetta, mozzarella, fresh basil, Calzone of mushroom, sausage, and greens (from memory – always suspect). I chose the “Trenette al Fumo” pasta, described as “Housemade pasta in a sauce of Italian bacon, smoked provolone, leeks, cream and Italian parsley”. More conversation, wine, and voila, our dishes appeared
My pasta (just above) was really good, and the leeks provided a nice contrast to the salty bacon. MFO’s eggs were very tasty, and had those orangey yolks indicative of really fresh eggs. The pizze was also good with the pancetta I think applied after the pizze was cooked. The calzone was not as much appreciated as it lacked the zip that we thought would be there. The sausage in it was quite milder than that on the egg plate. However, all in all it was a nice lunch in a great little place, and maybe a bit hasty after one visit, I would pretty much place it on the “just right” list. Informal, easy going, friendly service, no frills. I think it would kind of be what the OG folks might have envisioned when they claim the “family” bit. Go try it. What really impresses me when I go to DC is that this is probably only one of (insert large number here) places like this. How many do we have??
With the body satisfied, we headed out to satisfy the soul and amazingly found a parking place right outside the Building Museum, which was good because the weather was proving the predictions correct. I’ve waxed eloquent about this show before, and we thoroughly enjoyed it again. There are not hundreds of booths like the Baltimore Show, but a manageable number you can cover in an afternoon.
It is just amazing what people can think of to do. As this is getting long, I won’t go on and on. But hundreds of hours are invested in the pieces, and they show it. We saw one layered fabric piece that was like the water lilies at Giverny by Monet. For five figures it could be on your wall. Given the work, the composition, it’s probably worth it.
We did find just a couple of items to bring home a glass vase
And a porcelain “something” (our last quarter shown for scale)
So despite the weather, it was a great day, filled with reasons why and why you don’t want to live in DC. I’m sure glad I have two good friends who don’t mind. What i did mind was the ride home through driving rain, holding my breath as the people who needed to justivy their toys zipped by in their double wides and SUV's..harrowing. But through it all we remained
DFD
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