It's been a year and a half since we moved out of our condo in DC to the suburbs of Maryland. We were in DC for three years and loved it, but moved in with my parents when Jason's job required some long term travel. So there we were, in the same house I spent my high school and college years, living in my old room.
The first few weeks after moving, with Jason gone, it was a little surreal to be driving the same routes in the same car as I did in my high school/ college days. It was like a time warp had erased the eight years after college. I always felt like I should be listening to Blink-182 or early 2000's rock since it felt like I had regressed back to those days. The changes all seemed hard, and it was disorienting to be back at home, yet living a life so different from last time I was there. It's amazing how fast we acclimated though, compared to how agonizing the first month seemed. Now the 15 minutes we have to spend in the car to get anywhere seem standard. The hour plus commute is part of normal life. And the quirks of being so close to family are far outweighed by the fun.
After we moved a few people asked if we missed DC (yes!), but when they asked why, I had a harder time answering. Less commuting time, for sure. Long commutes equal death according to some studies (ok, that's my paraphrase), but that not actually what I missed most. So I started thinking about the differences between the city and the suburbs, and what I actually missed.
I most miss the walkability. We lived in a spot in DC with great walking access to all sorts of stores, restaurants, the library, parks, and public transit. Even though driving to the grocery store takes the same ten minutes as it did to walk there, something about not driving made it seem so much easier. I will admit, I'm not really a good or patient driver, and burning calories instead of gas is so much more appealing to me. I get that not everyone likes so much walking or even can, like if you've got kids. But evening walks through Adams Morgan became a habit for us especially in summer. There was always something new to see: construction progress, people watching, scoping out the next date night spot. Walks through our current neighborhood aren't as dynamic, but the bridge over the creek behind my parent's house is actually very scenic, and we've traded our walks for chats on the back deck.
The walkability and plethora of so much packed in a few square miles really had this effect of shrinking my world. When everything is in biking distance, there's not much reason to go farther. We left the confines of the city pretty regularly to visit family, and for our church in Arlington, but man, even going to another quadrant of the city seemed like a trek. Like you may as well drive to Massachusetts. One time I suggested driving to the nearness pool (maybe a 20 minute ordeal once you account for parking), and Jason literally said, "If we have to drive, we may as well go to the beach." That's how much of a mental hump it was to get in the car - driving 20 minutes was equally as painful as driving three hours. I should have suggested driving to get lobster rolls because then maybe we would have gone to Maine.
Speaking of transportation, I brought my habit of honking liberally back to Maryland with me. I just feel like more of a jerk about it because it seems like I'm the only one honking when traffic rules are not obeyed. I actually feel like it would be easier to honk so much if we still had DC plates on the car cause then people could be all, "Oh, she's from DC. So of course she is impatient and in a hurry." If I honk with my mom in the car, she locks the doors because she thinks the person I honk at will attack me in a road rage. (She also locks the doors when driving by the prison off the highway in case a loose convict carjacks her at 60 mph.)
I miss the grocery options. Within a mile of our house were 2 Yes! Organic Markets, a Whole Foods, and two farmer's markets (during summer). The organic section at my current Giant is pretty measly in comparison - plus I can't walk there. I will say though, in the burbs, we have better access to Costco and ethnic (specifically Asian) grocery stores. They were in DC, but we never went. Without designated parking, I usually walked, and since the Asian grocery was far enough away that I had to pass two or three other grocery options on the way, going that far never made sense, especially when it meant carrying things back...remember what I said about our world "shrinking?" There's a good example. When I have to drive to anywhere in the burbs, the extra mile or two matters a lot less.
It's not really that I hate driving, I just hate traffic, bad drivers, and parking lots. (Have you been to the Costco parking lot on the weekend? Case in point!)
This is probably a tic mark against DC, but I never knew what drugs smelled like until living there. I think it was simply because I wasn't around so many people before, topped with a scoop of naïveté and friends who followed the rules, but there you have it. I suppose now at least I know what various shops in Colorado are peddling by the smell.
I miss being a mile from Rock Creek Park. Marathon training was a whole lot easier when you have miles and miles of trails through the woods, along the Potomac, and past scenic memorials. The funny thing is, we've done runs on the Maryland part of the same trail, but the 15 minute drive to get there is a huge mental hurdle. The other funny thing is, I only used it maybe once a month on average, but I liked the option. I think it is like the "healthy" options at McDonald's. Of course everyone gets the fries, but complains if the healthy option isn't there.
So now that I've made myself sound like an entitled yuppie, let me tell you what's been great about the suburbs. We can get packages delivered to our house. No more notes from Fed-Ex that they couldn't get into the building, fear of stolen packages, or returned items that we were never home to accept. We also don't need to walk two blocks to drop off out going mail.
Without a bunch of buildings crammed into each city block, I've been able to see sunsets better. Granted, I'm usually seeing them from the train or the car, so it could be the extra time spent just sitting, rather than the change of topography, that gives me the opportunity to see more sunsets. Either way, stopping to appreciate the beauty of nature is something I want to do more.
I suppose it will depend on your routine (ie: whether you have kids who meltdown at bedtime) as to which is better, but I have noticed that the busy time for dinner in suburbia is closer to 6, whereas in DC it was more like 7-8. "Lucky" for us, we spend over two hours a day commuting, so when you also have to drive to the restaurant, we still don't make it until closer to 8 anyways, but now don't often have to worry about the dinner rush.
Another thing I've had to laugh about is that despite living in close proximity to dozens of people in our DC condo building, we only knew the name of one of our neighbors. I mean, we shared a wall with people with whom our most personal interaction was a half-hearted wave. I think the "unfriendliness" had less to do with population density and more due to a culture of mutually ignoring other people. Everyone is busy, on their phones, already has friends, or - the biggest risk of befriending a neighbor- they might actually need something from you. It was quite a contrast when we moved back into my parents' house, where walking down the street makes you feel like Jesus on Palm Sunday. Seriously, there is one lady whose name I don't know because my sister and I have always called her "the waving lady." I have never seen anyone go that much out of her way to wave to passing cars. Even other suburban friends would comment on how many people waved as they enter the neighborhood. Never got to be in a parade? It's pretty much the same as driving down my parent's street.
Of course there are obvious differences - more biking, politics, and crime in DC versus cheaper drinks more strip malls, and huge lawns in the 'burbs - but my list is more about the things that affect my day-to-day life that I appreciate in each place.
So now a year and a half later, I do still miss the city, and I do still get frustrated at all the driving, but the last year has given us a chance to figure out our long-ish term plan. The final advantage of the suburbs for us personally, is that we have family there. Plus it is the only place with somewhat close to public transportation that we can afford more than 1000sq ft and that didn’t have schools that were still “in transition” for future consideration. So yup, that meant buying a house in the suburbs. In the very town my parents live now. We close in about two months. I have a lot of feelings about the new place, which definitely deserves its own post. But there you have it. Goodbye to carrying crock pots on the metro, Presidential motorcades blocking traffic, and contradictory road signs. Goodbye to night time bike rides on the Mall, to the restaurant where the waitress knows us as the couple that orders three entrees, and goodbye to the ability to spontaneously go to a Nat's game. Hello chain restaurants, SUVS on paved roads, and giant parking lots. Hello to being close enough to see family (well, at least half is better than none) on a whim, a garage to store bikes in, and outdoor space for a grill. Cue Ben Folds - "Rockin' the Suburbs" - yeah, from 2001.
Showing posts with label DC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DC. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
Renting our House in DC
As I mentioned briefly, we went through the process of finding renters for our condo in DC.
It wasn't really too bad of a process, but I definitely had lots of questions for my friends and family members who have had landlord experiences, especially in DC and especially when it came to finding renters on Craigslist. (Cue scary music.) So, maybe I can be that friend to you (and save your real friends from answering all your questions many times), and share our experience with you and what we did along the way. For most people, since it is not that interesting, here is one of my favorite funny you tube videos about the Canadian Border Patrol.
If anyone is still with me, here is what we had to do to rent our our place:
My dear husband keeps me honest, so we first had to take care of a few steps with DC in order to legally rent our condo (ie: pay more fees and taxes). We were doing all this in the middle of a pretty busy time. Plus, it was October, and we were still dealing with tax issues from the District - six months after that April deadline. So with that bad-administrative-headache taste in our mouths, and in the interest of time, we paid a company called Rent Jiffy to take care of the bureaucracy for us. We filled out a few forms with them, paid the bill and were email our processed license about eight weeks later. Next time, I might save a little money and do it myself, but it was nice to have the peace of mind that the paperwork was correct. Plus, I had someone to email who answered my questions when the DC office got back-logged while processing paperwork. (Following up with the DC office might have been just as easy, but I am skeptical.)
The things you need to fill out are:
-Revoacation of Homestead Deduction (if you've been living there)
-Rental Property License - in DC this is the Basic Business License (BBL EZ form)
-Tax Registration (Office of Tax and Revenue FR-500 form)
-Rent Control Registration (RAD form - this is only if you own multiple units I think)
They are all nicely explained on this site: from Yarmouth Property Management
You'll also have to file a DC30 tax form with your taxes from my understanding, but that one has been hard to figure out.
The final step for approval is a home inspection. Once you get the small business license, it comes with instructions for the inspection that say the office will call you within 10 days, but you should call them if they don't. The good people at Rent Jiffy told me to skip the waiting period and just call right away, since they had never heard of any instances of the inspection office calling out like they say they will.
For the most part, if you're living there, the place passed inspection at some point unless it's new construction or a basement that has never been rented as a separate living space. Most of the items on the checklist are common sense (eg: method of egress, minimum ceiling height), but here is the checklist. I had read about stories of the inspectors being sticklers, so wasn't sure what to expect. My inspector was very professional and pleasant. He called the morning of to let me know his ETA and after a quick walk through, signed the inspection certificate. He asked about smoke alarms (required) and fire extinguishers (recommended but not required), but that was it - done and done.
Then came the part of actually finding renters. First step was to take pictures to advertise with. Honestly, cleaning the house to take pictures during daylight hours was not something I wanted to take the time to do since it would have meant waiting until I was home during the day, which is rare. So we kind of cheated and scanned the (very nice) handout that from the realtor during our original house tour. The house looked different (furniture/paint color), but at least you got a sense of the layout. And it was easy.
Second, we had to decide on our asking price. This means figure out your total expenses and market rental rates. Ideally, you can hit a spot below market rates but above your average costs. Besides mortgage and condo fees we were used to paying, there are a few extra costs associated with renting. For us this was:
-licensing fees (paid to the county, or in our case, Rent Jiffy)
-increased taxes due to loss of homestead tax credit
-umbrella insurance policy
-easylandlordforms.com membership
To cover the higher taxes that come with rental properties, liscencing fees, etc., we were going to have to charge at least $100 more per month than the mortgage to cover our expenses. Then, we looked at Craigslist and visited a few apartment buildings in the area to figure out what price would keep us competitive. Obviously, you're less likely to find someone willing to rent from you if you are charging more than a comprable or nicer place, so you can't go too high. On the other hand, the lower you go, the more you eat into your profits. We had looked into this before even buying since even at that time, we knew it was pretty likely we'd be renting it out. Thankfully, it seemed we bought our house at a low enough price we'd be able to at least cover the expenses.
(Side note: We did talk about the scenario where our expenses were more than what we could charge for rent. the two options would have been to just sell the house or take a monthly loss. We haven't had the house too long so wanted to avoid immediately losing the chance for appreciation by selling. As long as the losses weren't too much, it was worth it to us to keep it, even if we had to pay a little extra because our goal was to keep it as an investment property, so paying $1000 a year, even if we had to do that over the 30 year life of the loan (which with rent increases isn't likely) we'll end up with a paid-off asset worth way more than $30,000.)
There are other things to consider when setting the price too: lower rent may make the tenants less likely to move, saving you the headache of finding new tenants and minimizing the time your property sits empty.
In the end, we decided since we were advertising way before we really had to have renters (3 months), we'd start out asking for the higher end of the spectrum and lower our price every month.
Next: get those ads out there. We started out advertising to friends and people we "knew." This meant through Facebook, in our church classifieds and in friends' church's classifieds. Most of these connections are people who don't live in DC, so there wasn't any interest on those fronts.
Then we started advertising on Craigslist. We tried to make sure we answered the basic questions (security deposit, pet policy, lease length, move- in date, parking situation) plus highlight the amenities (distance to metro, shops, recent upgrades to the house).
When people responded with interest, that's when we give them the full address (we just put the block on Craigslist because I am paranoid like that) them know about the application process (application form, $15 for credit check, 2 most recent paystubs, copy of government issued ID).
Show the house. We usually picked a couple weeknights and tried to schedule everyone half hour apart. Some landlords like having an open house style, but trying to talk to more than one person at one sounded too chaotic. Plus, if someone was coming, we wanted to know exactly when so we weren't sitting around for three hours unsure.
We'd try to repost at least once a week on Craigslist, though more frequent posts would have helped. Then we'd spend a couple nights showing the place. We must have been priced too high initially since no one responded with any interest. After a few weeks we dropped the price, and let the people who had already come through know. That was all it took to get committed interest. From there we exchanged the aforementioned paperwork: application, paystubs, credit check, and ID check. Adding a criminal background check might have been a good idea too. I've had friends who have had experiences with renters who never paid and it doesn't sound fun. There's no way to totally avoid it, but hopefully doing your homework on these things helps.
When running the credit check, obviously any late payments should be a red flag. Through Experian, your prospective tenant can order their credit score and have it sent to you. Using this site or something similar was great because we didn't have to mess around with collecting a fee since the applicant paid, but we still knew it was legitimate as the email we got with the credit score was straight from Experian. This helpful post from Prince of Petworth, my source for all things DC, recommended looking for a credit score above 700. As far as references, the main recommendations I got were to call to verify employment and check with their previous landlord for any red flags. (Doing a basic google search to confirm the phone numbers are legit helps too.) Then we signed the lease and got the security deposit (1 month's rent). We also created a separate savings account for the security deposit. You are supposed to return it with interest (assuming you don't keep any portion of it), and I didn't want to have to calculate that out later, so creating a separate account seemed easiest.
For the lease (and the application) I used easylandlordforms.com. You can access basic forms for free and get more customizable ones for a membership fee. I've heard DC rental laws are complicated, so paying for the state- specific lease was worth it to me and still cheaper than a lawyer.
Once that was settled, we moved out, cleaned the place, made extra keys and handed them over. I know of some landlords who, especially for houses with all-male tenants, include maid service in the cost of the rent. Others take care of really basic maintenance (ie: changing light bulbs and air filters) since some of it is easy to forget and mostly as a way to keep tabs on the house. So that just depends on your ability and preferences.
It's in my list of costs, but an important thing to consider is insurance. First, you want to switch from home owner's insurance to what is sometimes called a "fire protection" policy. Designed for landlords, it covers the cost of rebuilding the structure (in case if fire) but doesn't cover belongings in the house, since the tenants themselves should have a rental policy for that.
The other insurance you may want to consider is an umbrella policy. Say someone breaks a leg on your property and since we are in law suit city decides to sue you for a million dollars. Standard policies like the fire protection policy I mentioned above would cover liability up to a given amount ($300k for standard policies). If you have assets worth more than the liability in your policy (real estate, retirement accounts, savings) then you'd have to cover the remaining amount, $700k in my example. An umbrella policy is a relatively inexpensive way to protect the rest of your assets. In some situations, you may not need it, but I liked the extra peace of mind it gives us, even though we didn't have too much that wasn't covered by the policies in place.
The very last thing we had to do was set up a forwarding address with the post office.
We've had wonderful experiences being landlords so far, but with all the forms and everything it's definitely been a learning process. Plus it makes your taxes all sorts of complicated. There are probably still things we aren't doing right, but hopefully it'll continue to be a good experience.
It wasn't really too bad of a process, but I definitely had lots of questions for my friends and family members who have had landlord experiences, especially in DC and especially when it came to finding renters on Craigslist. (Cue scary music.) So, maybe I can be that friend to you (and save your real friends from answering all your questions many times), and share our experience with you and what we did along the way. For most people, since it is not that interesting, here is one of my favorite funny you tube videos about the Canadian Border Patrol.
If anyone is still with me, here is what we had to do to rent our our place:
My dear husband keeps me honest, so we first had to take care of a few steps with DC in order to legally rent our condo (ie: pay more fees and taxes). We were doing all this in the middle of a pretty busy time. Plus, it was October, and we were still dealing with tax issues from the District - six months after that April deadline. So with that bad-administrative-headache taste in our mouths, and in the interest of time, we paid a company called Rent Jiffy to take care of the bureaucracy for us. We filled out a few forms with them, paid the bill and were email our processed license about eight weeks later. Next time, I might save a little money and do it myself, but it was nice to have the peace of mind that the paperwork was correct. Plus, I had someone to email who answered my questions when the DC office got back-logged while processing paperwork. (Following up with the DC office might have been just as easy, but I am skeptical.)
The things you need to fill out are:
-Revoacation of Homestead Deduction (if you've been living there)
-Rental Property License - in DC this is the Basic Business License (BBL EZ form)
-Tax Registration (Office of Tax and Revenue FR-500 form)
-Rent Control Registration (RAD form - this is only if you own multiple units I think)
They are all nicely explained on this site: from Yarmouth Property Management
You'll also have to file a DC30 tax form with your taxes from my understanding, but that one has been hard to figure out.
The final step for approval is a home inspection. Once you get the small business license, it comes with instructions for the inspection that say the office will call you within 10 days, but you should call them if they don't. The good people at Rent Jiffy told me to skip the waiting period and just call right away, since they had never heard of any instances of the inspection office calling out like they say they will.
For the most part, if you're living there, the place passed inspection at some point unless it's new construction or a basement that has never been rented as a separate living space. Most of the items on the checklist are common sense (eg: method of egress, minimum ceiling height), but here is the checklist. I had read about stories of the inspectors being sticklers, so wasn't sure what to expect. My inspector was very professional and pleasant. He called the morning of to let me know his ETA and after a quick walk through, signed the inspection certificate. He asked about smoke alarms (required) and fire extinguishers (recommended but not required), but that was it - done and done.
Then came the part of actually finding renters. First step was to take pictures to advertise with. Honestly, cleaning the house to take pictures during daylight hours was not something I wanted to take the time to do since it would have meant waiting until I was home during the day, which is rare. So we kind of cheated and scanned the (very nice) handout that from the realtor during our original house tour. The house looked different (furniture/paint color), but at least you got a sense of the layout. And it was easy.
Second, we had to decide on our asking price. This means figure out your total expenses and market rental rates. Ideally, you can hit a spot below market rates but above your average costs. Besides mortgage and condo fees we were used to paying, there are a few extra costs associated with renting. For us this was:
-licensing fees (paid to the county, or in our case, Rent Jiffy)
-increased taxes due to loss of homestead tax credit
-umbrella insurance policy
-easylandlordforms.com membership
To cover the higher taxes that come with rental properties, liscencing fees, etc., we were going to have to charge at least $100 more per month than the mortgage to cover our expenses. Then, we looked at Craigslist and visited a few apartment buildings in the area to figure out what price would keep us competitive. Obviously, you're less likely to find someone willing to rent from you if you are charging more than a comprable or nicer place, so you can't go too high. On the other hand, the lower you go, the more you eat into your profits. We had looked into this before even buying since even at that time, we knew it was pretty likely we'd be renting it out. Thankfully, it seemed we bought our house at a low enough price we'd be able to at least cover the expenses.
(Side note: We did talk about the scenario where our expenses were more than what we could charge for rent. the two options would have been to just sell the house or take a monthly loss. We haven't had the house too long so wanted to avoid immediately losing the chance for appreciation by selling. As long as the losses weren't too much, it was worth it to us to keep it, even if we had to pay a little extra because our goal was to keep it as an investment property, so paying $1000 a year, even if we had to do that over the 30 year life of the loan (which with rent increases isn't likely) we'll end up with a paid-off asset worth way more than $30,000.)
There are other things to consider when setting the price too: lower rent may make the tenants less likely to move, saving you the headache of finding new tenants and minimizing the time your property sits empty.
In the end, we decided since we were advertising way before we really had to have renters (3 months), we'd start out asking for the higher end of the spectrum and lower our price every month.
Next: get those ads out there. We started out advertising to friends and people we "knew." This meant through Facebook, in our church classifieds and in friends' church's classifieds. Most of these connections are people who don't live in DC, so there wasn't any interest on those fronts.
Then we started advertising on Craigslist. We tried to make sure we answered the basic questions (security deposit, pet policy, lease length, move- in date, parking situation) plus highlight the amenities (distance to metro, shops, recent upgrades to the house).
When people responded with interest, that's when we give them the full address (we just put the block on Craigslist because I am paranoid like that) them know about the application process (application form, $15 for credit check, 2 most recent paystubs, copy of government issued ID).
Show the house. We usually picked a couple weeknights and tried to schedule everyone half hour apart. Some landlords like having an open house style, but trying to talk to more than one person at one sounded too chaotic. Plus, if someone was coming, we wanted to know exactly when so we weren't sitting around for three hours unsure.
We'd try to repost at least once a week on Craigslist, though more frequent posts would have helped. Then we'd spend a couple nights showing the place. We must have been priced too high initially since no one responded with any interest. After a few weeks we dropped the price, and let the people who had already come through know. That was all it took to get committed interest. From there we exchanged the aforementioned paperwork: application, paystubs, credit check, and ID check. Adding a criminal background check might have been a good idea too. I've had friends who have had experiences with renters who never paid and it doesn't sound fun. There's no way to totally avoid it, but hopefully doing your homework on these things helps.
When running the credit check, obviously any late payments should be a red flag. Through Experian, your prospective tenant can order their credit score and have it sent to you. Using this site or something similar was great because we didn't have to mess around with collecting a fee since the applicant paid, but we still knew it was legitimate as the email we got with the credit score was straight from Experian. This helpful post from Prince of Petworth, my source for all things DC, recommended looking for a credit score above 700. As far as references, the main recommendations I got were to call to verify employment and check with their previous landlord for any red flags. (Doing a basic google search to confirm the phone numbers are legit helps too.) Then we signed the lease and got the security deposit (1 month's rent). We also created a separate savings account for the security deposit. You are supposed to return it with interest (assuming you don't keep any portion of it), and I didn't want to have to calculate that out later, so creating a separate account seemed easiest.
For the lease (and the application) I used easylandlordforms.com. You can access basic forms for free and get more customizable ones for a membership fee. I've heard DC rental laws are complicated, so paying for the state- specific lease was worth it to me and still cheaper than a lawyer.
Once that was settled, we moved out, cleaned the place, made extra keys and handed them over. I know of some landlords who, especially for houses with all-male tenants, include maid service in the cost of the rent. Others take care of really basic maintenance (ie: changing light bulbs and air filters) since some of it is easy to forget and mostly as a way to keep tabs on the house. So that just depends on your ability and preferences.
It's in my list of costs, but an important thing to consider is insurance. First, you want to switch from home owner's insurance to what is sometimes called a "fire protection" policy. Designed for landlords, it covers the cost of rebuilding the structure (in case if fire) but doesn't cover belongings in the house, since the tenants themselves should have a rental policy for that.
The other insurance you may want to consider is an umbrella policy. Say someone breaks a leg on your property and since we are in law suit city decides to sue you for a million dollars. Standard policies like the fire protection policy I mentioned above would cover liability up to a given amount ($300k for standard policies). If you have assets worth more than the liability in your policy (real estate, retirement accounts, savings) then you'd have to cover the remaining amount, $700k in my example. An umbrella policy is a relatively inexpensive way to protect the rest of your assets. In some situations, you may not need it, but I liked the extra peace of mind it gives us, even though we didn't have too much that wasn't covered by the policies in place.
The very last thing we had to do was set up a forwarding address with the post office.
We've had wonderful experiences being landlords so far, but with all the forms and everything it's definitely been a learning process. Plus it makes your taxes all sorts of complicated. There are probably still things we aren't doing right, but hopefully it'll continue to be a good experience.
Saturday, January 4, 2014
My Other Car Is One I'm Not Driving
It's been almost three years since I moved to DC. While one of my favorite things about living in the city is the public transportation, it's definitely changed my driving, for better and for worse. Well, probably just worse.
Saturday, June 1, 2013
Local Eats: Blue Duck Tavern
One of my favorite lines in the Ocean's 11 series (the George Clooney ones) is in Ocean's 12 when George Clooney is at a jewelry store and tells the clerk he is looking for something for his "second third anniversary" because they got married a second time after being divorced. In that vein, a few weeks ago was the second anniversary of our second first date. Back in the day, we started dating, stopped for a while, so when we started dating the second time, we had a second first date.
The funny thing is, during the time we were dating, we were totally not sentimental at all. We didn't celebrate "month-iversarries" or really even dating anniversaries. I think it's mostly because we forgot. But now that Jason has entered some of the more special dates into our shared google calendar, we have annual reminders that give us excuses to celebrate. Sadly the restaurant that we had our second first date at closed within a year of opening, so that wasn't really an option. For our first wedding anniversary we somewhat randomly chose the Blue Duck Tavern. We're both suckers for tradition, and the food was good, so we decided to make it our "anniversary restaurant." (Side note: After we decided to go there, I saw a headline that the Obamas had chosen to go there for their anniversary a few years ago. So that somehow makes us best friends.. trend setters.. ok, it means nothing.)
I'm not sure if they simply don't take reservations at certain times, but it seems like our only options when we've been were 5 and 9. Our plan was to make the 9pm reservations and show up early "just in case." They were able to accommodate us a little earlier than the reservation time, but we still had to wait about an hour which meant we had some extra time to wait in their lovey lounge and snack on some wine and cheese.
We've never really been into charcuterie, mostly because I just don't think we'd actually had very good cheese and meats or possibly because neither of us knew the proper way to pronounce it. But we tried some since we were so early and are hooked! Lisa, who ran the cheese table, was so friendly and able to give us great suggestions. Our favorites were the Beecher's cheddar and the Midnight Moon goat's Gouda.
Once our table was ready, we moved to the main dining area. It was considerably louder and the chairs harder, but also had an entertaining view of the kitchen. I must say, I really impressed with our dinner. I got the scallops with peas, sea beans and pea puree' and charred baby lettuce with duck crackling and anchovy emulsion. Both were so flavorful and cooked to perfection. My mouth is watering just thinking of those nicely seared, melt-in-your mouth scallops. Jason liked his duck, though the orange flavored sauce wasn't especially unique. I'm not sure if it's just that we really really like vegetables or the kitchen just isn't as good at meats, but the first time we went we were also more impressed by the Brussels sprouts than the slow roasted pork shoulder.
In my mind, a good waiter is one who isn't noticed. You're never looking for him in need, but he's also not interrupting conversation like a third wheel the whole time. The staff at the Blue Duck Tavern fit into that category of good waiters. We even got a little extra treat for our anniversary. Jason has since told me I can't tell them it's our anniversary multiple times per year, even though it truly was an anniversary of sorts for us. Jason and his principles...
Anyways, it's not the most trendy place, but for a classic special occasion, we've enjoyed it. Plus, you can get points by making reservations through Opentable and Hyatt Gold Passport since it is part of the Park Hyatt Hotel. Just give them your passport number when it comes time to pay the bill or contact Hyatt customer service about adding it retroactively.
And now I will leave you with a final Ocean's 12 quote:
"Look, it's not in my nature to be mysterious. But I can't talk about it and I can't talk about why."
Restaurant: Blue Duck Tavern
Neighborhood: West End
Highlights: Scallops and vegetables
Average entree price: $20-$30
Rating: 4/5
The funny thing is, during the time we were dating, we were totally not sentimental at all. We didn't celebrate "month-iversarries" or really even dating anniversaries. I think it's mostly because we forgot. But now that Jason has entered some of the more special dates into our shared google calendar, we have annual reminders that give us excuses to celebrate. Sadly the restaurant that we had our second first date at closed within a year of opening, so that wasn't really an option. For our first wedding anniversary we somewhat randomly chose the Blue Duck Tavern. We're both suckers for tradition, and the food was good, so we decided to make it our "anniversary restaurant." (Side note: After we decided to go there, I saw a headline that the Obamas had chosen to go there for their anniversary a few years ago. So that somehow makes us best friends.. trend setters.. ok, it means nothing.)
I'm not sure if they simply don't take reservations at certain times, but it seems like our only options when we've been were 5 and 9. Our plan was to make the 9pm reservations and show up early "just in case." They were able to accommodate us a little earlier than the reservation time, but we still had to wait about an hour which meant we had some extra time to wait in their lovey lounge and snack on some wine and cheese.
We've never really been into charcuterie, mostly because I just don't think we'd actually had very good cheese and meats or possibly because neither of us knew the proper way to pronounce it. But we tried some since we were so early and are hooked! Lisa, who ran the cheese table, was so friendly and able to give us great suggestions. Our favorites were the Beecher's cheddar and the Midnight Moon goat's Gouda.
Once our table was ready, we moved to the main dining area. It was considerably louder and the chairs harder, but also had an entertaining view of the kitchen. I must say, I really impressed with our dinner. I got the scallops with peas, sea beans and pea puree' and charred baby lettuce with duck crackling and anchovy emulsion. Both were so flavorful and cooked to perfection. My mouth is watering just thinking of those nicely seared, melt-in-your mouth scallops. Jason liked his duck, though the orange flavored sauce wasn't especially unique. I'm not sure if it's just that we really really like vegetables or the kitchen just isn't as good at meats, but the first time we went we were also more impressed by the Brussels sprouts than the slow roasted pork shoulder.
In my mind, a good waiter is one who isn't noticed. You're never looking for him in need, but he's also not interrupting conversation like a third wheel the whole time. The staff at the Blue Duck Tavern fit into that category of good waiters. We even got a little extra treat for our anniversary. Jason has since told me I can't tell them it's our anniversary multiple times per year, even though it truly was an anniversary of sorts for us. Jason and his principles...
Anyways, it's not the most trendy place, but for a classic special occasion, we've enjoyed it. Plus, you can get points by making reservations through Opentable and Hyatt Gold Passport since it is part of the Park Hyatt Hotel. Just give them your passport number when it comes time to pay the bill or contact Hyatt customer service about adding it retroactively.
And now I will leave you with a final Ocean's 12 quote:
"Look, it's not in my nature to be mysterious. But I can't talk about it and I can't talk about why."
Restaurant: Blue Duck Tavern
Neighborhood: West End
Highlights: Scallops and vegetables
Average entree price: $20-$30
Rating: 4/5
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Cherry Blossoms
Quick! I need to post cherry blossom pictures while they are still seasonally relevant!
For
a few weeks every April the DC area is in a frenzy over the beautiful
cherry blossoms, the most famous of which line the Tidal Basin. It can
get pretty crowded but really is pretty.
 |
| this was actually a few days before peak bloom |
