Well, I did say that, despite my reservations, I would return to Busboys and Poets at some point. This time the family went for dinner, which as any check on their website would tell you, is reasonably priced. We got there around seven and the place was packed and there was a twenty minute wait for a table. The sci-fi writer Octavia Butler was giving a reading and signing books, so maybe that accounts for the crowd (or maybe the place is just always crowded on Thursday nights at seven p.m.). I'm not much of a science fiction fan myself or a fantasy fan -- the closest I come is that in my youth I read The Lord of the Rings about seven times, also the Chronicles of Narnia (well, some of them) and the Chronicles of Prydain (all of them). The academic sci-fi crowd likes to dress up the genre by calling it "speculative fiction," which allows for a bit more leeway in the field, since I think science fiction is often seen as dealing simply with alien invasions and space travel.
But as for the dinner last night...the food is simple and good. The pizzas are bigger than I expected -- more than enough for a child and possibly even big enough for two adults to split if they weren't really really hungry. Learning from my past mistake, I avoided ordering anything from the bar, although my wife ordered a beer -- a 6 dollar beer. Since when is a beer worth six dollars? And it was from the tap, which I prefer, but which generally is cheaper than bottled beer. I can't get over it. Six friggin dollars for about ten ounces of beer in a really nice looking glass -- sort of a modernized pilsener glass. I'm guessing you're paying to look at the really pretty glass. Right around the corner there's a liquor store where I could probably pick up a six pack of Mickey's Big Mouth for about 3.50, if they still make that stuff. Jesus, I'm cheap.
This Thanksgiving I'm heading straight up to the Pipe Room and I'm going to order five goddamn Molson drafts so I can spend six dollars right away like that.
6 comments:
Maybe they have to charge that much for the beer because people don't leave it at LOOKING at the really nice glass.
Or, maybe the $6.00 actually did include the glass, which you were supposed to take home as a keepsake. Now you'll have to go back to get it.
Wait, you're surprised by $6 beers? How long have you lived in DC?
I've lived here 12 years.
So how much did they cost in 1993 then? I wasn't 21 in 1993 ...
ps: Mass, if we're gonna be friends, you gotta post a picture on your profile. No exceptions.
All I can remember about costs in 1993 is that a guinness cost 3.50 or 4 bucks most places. I just bought a pitcher of Sierra Nevada tonight -- now granted it was Hard Times Cafe in Bethesda -- and it was 14.50...that's reasonable for around here. As for a picture, sure I'll post one but it might not be of me.
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