Dog Days

Sounding more like a Linux distro than a restaurant and decorated more like a furniture store, Red Dog Cafe, in Silver Spring sure looks like a bunch of similar restaurants of its ilk. I asked Dave about it, and he said "meh". It was OK.

This was restaurant week in Silver Spring. That usually means restaurants have a bargain for people who want to eat. But as the Washingtonian Online points out, a 12 dollar lunch or a 30 dollar dinner is not nearly the bargain in Silver Spring as it would be elsewhere. Indeed, the restaurants may make more money with restaurant week.

Red Dog reminds me a bit of Cosi. The cooks cook in front of you (well, not quite in front, more like a pizzeria). Such restaurants seem to imitate other "cool" restaurants, from the way they stack their liquor and condiments in an attempt to show how fresh they are, to the meaningless mini-woks hanging as a kind of cooking equipment as decoration.

I arrived at 11:30 figuring that's when lunch started, at least, that was the impression I got from their webpage. Not true. Turns out it's at noon, so I had to sit about half an hour (probably less). Fortunately, they also serve breakfast, so the restaurant was open.

I ordered coffee, then a frothy orange (they make freshly squeezed fruit and veggie juices--a bit pricey, but to be expected) which is made from orange juice and apple juice. It was maybe 8 ounces. I added some creatine. This has some popularity for weight loss and such.

The special for restaurant week was a turkey sandwich in a pita bread. It was more like chicken salad, with large chunks of turkey in some mayo and a touch of curry sauce. It was meh. The place looked nice and it's the kind of food you might see being made on Food Network, that is, a bit nice to look at, but does it taste good.

Due to my newly acquired braces, I ate the sandwich (more like a huge soft taco) using a fork, as biting into bread was something a bit too much for me.

I sat by an Indian family, husband, wife, two kids (daughter and son). As with many Indian families, they've adopted some American ways, in particular, the wife, who was wearing a sweatjacket and pants, rather than something more traditional. Some of that clothing makes more sense in the US where it gets chilly.

Dunno if I'll head there again anytime soon, but it was right next to the place I bought my bike. Indeed, as I went to their, I said, hey, isn't that where I bought my bike (the bike I've never ridden, btw)? Yes, it is. I took a peek inside, but there wasn't anything I really wanted to get. I noticed some Hincapie jackets. I presume Lance Armstrong's teammate, George Hincapie now has a clothing line?

Anyway, I chose not to eat all of the turkey pita sandwich, not so much because I didn't care for it (it was OK), but because there was just too much of it. It's so hard, at a restaurant, to tell yourself, don't eat everything. The money you pay is not for the food, it's for everything else (service, ambience, etc). Especially since I've been losing weight due to braces forcing me to eat soft foods, etc.

I'll write more on that later.