Capital City Diner Opening on Tuesday

This is a cross-posting with my other blog, brunch and the city.

image uploaded by needlessspaces on Flickr

When news came out last spring that DC was getting its first truly authentic diner, my ears immediately perked up.  If there is one thing this city’s food scene does not offer it’s a good selection of diner food.  We have a few great greasy-spoon joints — like Florida Avenue Grill and maybe Tune Inn and a few others — but we definitely have room for more.  After countless hurdles, Matt Ashburn and Patrick Carl have brought not only another option to the food scene, but a greasy-spoon in the form of a true 1940’s era style diner car.  After stopping by on Saturday to check out the new place and food, I can say with certainty that it was well worth the wait.

Until about a year ago, the diner car had been operating in Avoca, New York.  After it closed down and was sold, it was listed on eBay where Ashburn and Carl found it, immediately fell in love with it, and made arrangements to bring it down to Trinidad.  Then the fun began…if by fun you mean tons of red tape, delays, and multiple unexpected hurdles. 

Capital City Diner is located just north of the H Street Corridor at 1050 Bladensburg Road, NE

Tim Carman of Young & Hungry has the full saga well documented, but the quick run down is that the pair first started running into trouble when DCRA wouldn’t give the go-ahead for the diner to be placed on the foundation that they had poured on the lot that had previously been home to one of the used car dealerships that Fenty shut down.  Much of the back and forth between them and DCRA could be followed on Twitter as they tried desperately to get things straightened out as the diner car sat on the street, where it received a parking ticket.  Yes, the diner car itself got a parking ticket.  As more details came out, it started to look like the architect was at fault for the foundation fiasco by taking some short cuts, telling Ashburn and Carl that he was taking care of various required details with the city, and even forging the signature of the project engineer on some paperwork for the city.

Once that all got straightened out, Ashburn and Carl couldn’t get Washington Gas to return calls about getting gas hooked up.  Then Washington Gas wanted to charge them a $5,600 fee to run a new line, despite the existence of another line on the property (more here and here).  Multiple other changes needed to be made to the diner for safety and accessibility regulations, permits and inspections took longer than expected, and Carl was even mugged on his way home one night.  But through it all they kept pushing through and got their final permits last week.

On Friday, they opened the doors and started cooking for anyone who happened by.  When I saw Ashburn on Saturday he said they had been swamped since opening the doors the day before.  I suspect that it will stay that way for a while once they officially open on Tuesday.

image uploaded by wageslaves on Flickr

As soon as I approached the door I could smell the food and knew I was in for a treat.  The menu is a true diner menu – burgers, sandwiches, fries, cheese sticks, wings, pasta, meatloaf, milkshakes…you get the idea.  And, of course, breakfast is served all day.  Those are the three words this girl really loves to hear: “served all day.”  I got the Super Happy Fat Boy Breakfast (what else?!) a platter with two eggs, bacon, a pancake, hash browns (which I substituted with grits), and a biscuit.  I was a stuffed and happy girl as I cleaned my plate.  And that biscuit?  My first piece of advice for when you go here: a side of biscuits to go with whatever you order because they are heavenly.  Greasy enough to cause a heart-attack, but heavenly.  (You can view the menu here).

Capital City Diner will be open from 6 am until 10 pm on Tuesday through Thursday, 6 am Friday through 5 pm Sunday (yes, this means they are open ALL night on weekends), and closed on Mondays.  They do not offer delivery but you can call in an order for take-out — just call 202-396-DINR.  You can also see a bunch more pictures in this post at Young & Hungry, see what the diner looked like as the Avoca Family Diner here, and find out a bit more about our new diner in this article from Saturday’s Washington Post.