Today is my 21st birthday, and I have realized that East County is a miserable place to drink. County laws limiting how many liquor licenses a restaurant could get dissuaded a lot of places from opening up on the east side. Meanwhile, the one cool place I might like to go for a night out - Downtown Silver Spring - is often overrun with mobs of high-school kids, making it less-than-appealing to the older, martini-swilling crowd. I would like to go to dinner for my birthday with my family. Suddenly, I have a new problem: where can I go to have a nice meal and a nice drink in East County?
Harry's on Old Columbia Pike was one of my favorite places to eat as a kid, with chicken fingers served in a rich, smoky barbeque sauce that I can still taste now. They had a bar, though in my high school the place (like much of Burtonsville) had a reputation for being kind of "rednecky." I drove by a few weeks ago to see Harry's was recently replaced by a Latino restaurant (I didn't get to see what it was called), which means that my hunger for barbeque sauce will have to wait.
Seibel's, also in Burtonsville, is a great place to take the wife and kids. It's homey, the food is probably good (I've only been for Don Praisner's ice cream social) and it's cheap. But I doubt I'd be able to scare up any drinks here.
The new T.G.I. Friday's in Calverton has quickly become a favorite of the local office-park scene, if only because it's the only place where you can drink at lunchtime and still be within stumbling distance of our desk. I went there for my 9th birthday, though (the one in Rockville, I mean), so it sounds kind of lame for a 21st birthday dinner.
Ellsworth has Ceviche, where I met one Hans Riemer on my first JUTP interview many, many years ago, drinking something foamy out of a large glass. But like I said: skater mobs. Fun for people-watching, bad for drinking buddies. (Doesn't help that many of those kids are, like, twelve.)
Hate to say it, but I might be heading to Bethesda/Rockville/Columbia for my first drink. If my mother has her way, we'll end up at Red, Hot and Blue in Laurel like my last birthday, because she enjoys (as I do) the roasted chicken. I don't know how the Quarry House on Bonifant Street is for dinner. I've been waiting to go in there since I was five, so I'll have to check it out soon enough.
Harry's on Old Columbia Pike was one of my favorite places to eat as a kid, with chicken fingers served in a rich, smoky barbeque sauce that I can still taste now. They had a bar, though in my high school the place (like much of Burtonsville) had a reputation for being kind of "rednecky." I drove by a few weeks ago to see Harry's was recently replaced by a Latino restaurant (I didn't get to see what it was called), which means that my hunger for barbeque sauce will have to wait.Seibel's, also in Burtonsville, is a great place to take the wife and kids. It's homey, the food is probably good (I've only been for Don Praisner's ice cream social) and it's cheap. But I doubt I'd be able to scare up any drinks here.The new T.G.I. Friday's in Calverton has quickly become a favorite of the local office-park scene, if only because it's the only place where you can drink at lunchtime and still be within stumbling distance of our desk. I went there for my 9th birthday, though (the one in Rockville, I mean), so it sounds kind of lame for a 21st birthday dinner.Ellsworth has Ceviche, where I met one Hans Riemer on my first JUTP interview many, many years ago, drinking something foamy out of a large glass. But like I said: skater mobs. Fun for people-watching, bad for drinking buddies. (Doesn't help that many of those kids are, like, twelve.)Hate to say it, but I might be heading to Bethesda/Rockville/Columbia for my first drink. If my mother has her way, we'll end up at Red, Hot and Blue in Laurel like my last birthday, because she enjoys (as I do) the roasted chicken. I don't know how the Quarry House on Bonifant Street is for dinner. I've been waiting to go in there since I was five, so I'll have to check it out soon enough.
