First stop, a friend and I grabbed a quick bite at Tabaq Bistro on U St. At the hotel, beforehand, we were looking through tourist guides to find something new and interesting to check out and came across a pic of a dining area with a skyline view--without reading a review I decided on that place based on the pic alone and it was great pic! I was sort of in a rush anyway, since it was close to 9:00pm already and I was supposed to meet another friend at 10:00pm so time was pretty tight. My friend was very understanding of my schedule, yay!

It was worth it. But to make sure I didn't check the clock on my phone every 5 minutes, I put a vibrating alarm on to remind me like 15 minutes before 10. So I was able to chill out, catch up with my friend and enjoy the beautfiul view.

They had some electronica type dance music (sorta trance, techno, house) playing pretty loud, so it felt clubby but we could still comfortably converse. The service was OK. Took forever to get our drinks and we had like three different servers so we kinda lost track of who was who. The cuisine was Turkish and the menu featured Middle Eastern type "tapas" and some entrees. We opted for the tapas-type dishes and got the scallops, octopus, calf liver, hummus and a couple of other dishes that I can't remember or pronounce. :-) Overall, it was light and good, but not great. Again, just like my Lauriol Plaza experience a few days ago, I'd come back here for the ambience, but the food is just OK.

Of course being that this is an open-air rooftop terrace we could definitely feel the humidity but since we were just sitting down enjoying some cool drinks I had little more than a very thin film of sweat, thank God. But the skyline view was pretty awesome. As you can see in the pic, the sky was a beautifully dark shade of blue. You could even see a postcard perfect view of the Washington monument and the Capitol dome.

I limited myself to just one Stella Artois though, since I was meeting up with another friend for drinks a short while later...

My other friend called me at 9:45pm to confirm that I was on my way and I said we were just getting dessert. I was just getting into the background into music and the conversation again and lost track of time despite my alarm going off a minute later. Oh well. We paid the check, made our way down three flights of stairs to street level and caught a cab back to Dupont Circle. I knew I was running late, but I didn't even dare look at my phone clock.

Said goodbye and started walking, briskly, to my other friend's place a few blocks away. Got there and dialed the code at the security gate. This was my first time here so of course in my frazzled state I unknowingly dialed the wrong apartment and got no answer and at first thought, "Oh $#!%, she probably got tired of waiting and took off."

So I tried calling her cellphone and she picked up after two rings. "Where are you?" she asked in a calm voice. I was expecting her to be annoyed. I was supposed to be here 10:00pm-ish and my phone clock displayed 10:38pm--late but not fashionably late. :-(

"At your front door."

"OK, I'll be right out.

Anyway, my friend recently moved out of a college student dormitory and into her first DC apartment. And since my nighttime schedule is pretty tight she accomodated me and invited at a late hour for drinks in her new place--a sort of private housewarming party, nice!

June 22, 2006 11:31pm

"Red wine, white wine, or orange juice with vodka?"

"Anything cold please. Orange juice with vodka is perfect." I was a bit sweaty from the walk to her apartment and was in need of something to cool off.

So she gave me the grand tour and I was impressed. I can tell she was pretty proud of it since she decorated herself with all brand new furniture. I wouldn't mind having a place like this and the location is perfect. It's walking distance from the nightlife in Dupont Circle and Adams-Morgan.

We sat on the couch and caught up with each other. An hour or so later, I was cooled down and my sweat was gone. When she got up to get me another drink, I took this pic (see above) which gives you an idea of the expanse of this Dupont Circle apartment. She could easily host a large party here though with all this beautiful white carpet I'd advise against serving red wine.

I was just starting to get comfortable and was even contemplating hanging out a little longer and catching a cab home. But she had an early appointment tomorrow (7:00am) and the metro was closing pretty soon anyway, so reluctantly I got up, took one last pic (see below) and said goodbye. It was just staring to rain and metro was four or five blocks away so I ran the whole way and got all sweaty again. Oh well. It was worth it.

June 22, 2006 11:59pm

P.S. my musician friend Safoura is performing tonight at Karma at 19th and I NW DC. I met her last year at Citron. Anyway her group Abjeez is going on at 10:30pm and I'm going to try to make it assuming I can leave Cabanas in time. See you there!