How Washington Became a Food City is discussed on the Kojo Nnamdi Show on WAMU 88.5 FM

You’ve come a long way, DC. In what other U.S. city can you stop a local to ask where to find the best injera? Celebrity chefs have flocked here to open up shop. Washingtonians have embraced the cupcake trend with an inexplicable and unwavering dedication. Everyone seems to really be warming up to the idea of food trucks, as well. But is DC a “food city?”

WAMU’s Kojo Nnamdi recently hosted a show to discuss the progress of DC “from culinary backwater to ‘food city’.” Definitely take a listen. The show’s guests, former Washington Post critic, Phyllis Richman and Mark Fustenberg, bread-man extraordinaire and founder of both Marvelous Market and Bread Line, provide knowledgeable insight and entertaining anecdotes about the food scene in the metro area. Throughout the show, Nnamdi and his guests recount the way things were and how we got to where we are today. I enjoyed hearing about the old DC: a time when there were separate menus for men and women and no Thai restaurants existed. However, the show didn’t really convince me that DC has become a “food city.”

Clearly, the designation, “food city,” is arbitrary and has no real bearing on anything. Yet, bit of reflection on the topic illustrates where we are as a city. I just want to present a few points, not to detract from D.C.’s many successes, but call attention to a few areas that need work:

Loads of restaurants do not a “food city” make- Yes, lots of new places have opened up in the last few years. This is notable especially considering the sickly economy and speaks to an increased and, possibly, more discerning demand. Also, according to the National Restaurant Association, 49,000 people work in the food service industry in DC. Yet people in the District go out to eat fewer times per week than the national average. Additionally, as with cupcakes, we tend to jump on certain trends rather quickly. Note the recent onslaught of burger joints. Things are definitely headed in the right direction. Perhaps as job security increases, so too will restaurant visits and the happy hour ritual will be accompanied by dinner.

Bread! Where is the bread!?- I think solving this problem could easily make the designation ‘food city’ unquestionable. The newish sandwich shop Taylor has been receiving high praise. While there are plenty of sandwich shops in the city, the thing that makes a Taylor sandwich something special is bread. Taylor trucks bread from Philadelphia in each morning. This kind of care and interest in an integral part of everyday eating is, for the most part, lacking across the city. There are good bakeries in the area, such as Gold Crust in Alexandria, but many of them are dedicated to catering or sell to a few restaurants. Another point to consider: Au Bon Pain. Without going into too much detail about how terrible this ubiquitous lunch spot is, just consider their bread: it is worthless. Their pastries, overly sweet and greasy. Their bagels, not worth dignifying with a response. What does it say about the city that a place called ‘good bread’ doesn’t even sell a decent loaf and somehow has managed to take over downtown?

Want to eat? Grab a car- While other cities are spread out, the sprawl of DC’s suburbs and general nature of the District as a political city with a large transient population has created a somewhat fragmented restaurant scene. For the best Korean you have to go to Annandale, the best Argentinean is in Rockville, and the area’s consistently high-rated restaurant, Inn at Little Washington, is in farm country. Don’t get me wrong, we have loads of great restaurants throughout the city, all accessible on foot, by bus, or on the Metro. However, looking at the top restaurants- whatever the price range- often involves leaving the city and, sometimes venturing outside of the beltway. This culinary fragmentation makes it difficult to instill any real meaning into the term “food city.”

DC is not New York. It’s not San Francisco. It’s not Paris. Nor should the District try to be those places. “Federal Town” is unique. As the nation’s capital, sitting between North and South, a stand-alone city unlike any place else in the county, it might be worthwhile to adjust standards of comparison and critique. We may never have a proper bagel shop or a café culture, but that doesn’t mean the city can’t become a place people recognize as much for its food as for monuments or where people rally around a signature dish.  As more people embrace the local food scene, from farmers’ markets to affordable sit-downs, a cultural shift could occur and DC might truly become a “food city.” This might sound lofty, but it’s not. We’ve made it this far.