365 Challenge, Day 70: Star and Shamrock

What do you get when you combine a New York-style Jewish deli with a good ol' fashioned Irish pub?

Star and Shamrock, which

opened its doors on April 16, 2010.

365 Challenge, Day 69: These Cupcakes Bring All The Boys To The Yard

Sixty-nine days later, and I finally got my cupcakes. As I have previously stated,Georgetown Cupcake was one of our earliest discoveries in DC but has been practically unattainable since the premiere of their reality show, DC Cupcake. Personally, I've never seen the show, but I find myself completely inconvenienced by it. Lines are typically out the door and around the corner now because if something was on television, it MUST be superior to similar products, right?

Ok, so I haven't tried the similar products, so maybe TV cupcakes are better. And yeah, I once drove all the way to Savannah to eat at The Lady and Sons, so maybe I shouldn't be throwing rocks from the front porch of my glass house.

I only had my iPhone with me, so I took a couple of pics of the shop but made TJ wait until we got home to eat them so I could take pictures of our beautiful yum yums with the Nikon. Obviously, I could have been a little more tender with the box. Anyway, what you are looking at is two Red Velvets, one Lemon Blossom, one Caramel Apple, one Chocolate Ganache, and one more Chocolate Ganache that was supposed to be Cinnamon. Sigh. I guess in today's Tabloid-driven society, I should expect celebrities to make mistakes.

And now that I have made myself feel like a total piggy, I will bid you all a good night.

365 Challenge, Day 56: Ray's Hell-Burger

It only took seven months, but we finally managed to drive six miles down the road to experience the pure awesomeness that is Ray's Hell-Burger. If not for word-of-mouth, you'd never know it existed. There is no website. The entrance is nondescript. The modest sign above the door appears to have been created with a word processing program, an inkjet printer, and a piece of computer paper.

The decor consists of little more than a half dozen B-movie posters and a world map that patrons are invited to use to document their place of origin via pushpin (If that map is any indication, Ray either has a large global following, or the Foreign Service Officers that live nearby like to brag about where they're going and not where they came from).

One of the first rules of good eatin' is that if the place looks like a dive, the food is probably amazing. Why yes, yes it was.

I had my Nikon with me during dinner, but opted for a simple, grainy iPhone snapshot instead. I think it's appropriate. Like the restaurant, the photo looks substandard, but the burger is still delicious.