The Duchess - Ravenna

Several weeks back, Country Girl was kind enough to take me to The Duchess in Ravenna.  It's a bar nearby where Country Girl used to live.  With such a fancy name, I was teeming with excitement about paying it a visit.  Country Girl advised me to temper my enthusiasm, assuring me it's decidedly not fancy and in fact quite divey.  Given this warning, I was now worried about a trashtacular experience.  Thankfully, she did a great job of lowering my expectations to the point where I was actually mildly impressed by it.

Despite it being in an area with few other shops and restaurants, street parking was very tight.  First impressions through the door were that it's bigger than it appears from the outside.  Large enough to accommodate a couple of pool tables easily.  It's also surprisingly well lit.  The decor appears to be college eclectic, which is to be expected given it's relative proximity to Washington's campus.  The patrons appeared to be largely college aged which, again, should be expected.  I found the kids' presence to be a positive in that it gave the place some vibrancy without being too overwhelming.  It was nice too given that with Country Girl's warnings, I found the crowd much less trashy than expected.  

After getting over the surprise of the place not being as awful as Country Girl made it out to be, some of the not so appealing aspects became apparent.  The beer selection is decidedly not great.  I think out of the eight or so handles, there was maybe one decent beer.  There's a smoking deck in back of the building which is fine enough except the door remains open so the stench of cigarette smoke wafts throughout inside whenever someone is smoking.  Another interesting thing was the heavy rotation of country music on the juke box.  Perhaps country music is part of The Duchess' thing as it definitely stood out relative other places we've been to in the city.

All told, The Duchess wasn't terrible despite Country Girl's warnings.  It's also not spectacular.  I'm very happy that she took me to one of her old stomping grounds and if for nothing other than sentimental purposes, we may visit again in the future.

Casa Patron - Roosevelt

Country Girl and I recently paid a visit to Casa Patron in Roosevelt.  We wanted to try someplace new and Mexican sounded about right that evening, so off we went.  While Casa Patron does provide a quite beautiful dining environment, that's about the only thing it delivered on the night we were there. 

I'll start with the good, as it's unfortunately brief.  There's abundant, free street parking nearby which is my favorite way to start any meal.  I mentioned the beautiful environment and that's really where Casa Patron shines.  There's a terrace level about half as big as the main floor resulting in soaring ceilings when looking up from the main level.  Additionally, there's a striking floor to ceiling mural that dominates one of the walls.  It appears to be a Aztec themed mural but not entirely sure about that.  While a slick city boy I am, my knowledge of Mexican culture leaves much to be desired.  The light fixtures in the space are also quite nice as are the chairs.  The bar area is opposite the wall mural and has it's own dominating feature: an enormous, well lit glass cabinet showcasing their extensive tequila selection.  Finally, there's also a fireplace on the main floor.

After taking in the great decor and sit down at the table, the wheels come off the wagon rather quickly.  It's obvious a lot of time and care was taken in designing and decorating the place.  It's similarly obvious that not as much care was taken in creating the menu.  There are numerous misspellings littered throughout ("shrimp" missing the "p", tomato with an "e", "white" spelled "wuite").  There's also several instances where spaces between words are strangely omitted leading to some interesting word combinations.  Adding to the menu adventure is a small table top menu with a "Bar Menu" heading which lists some fantastic prices for several mixed drinks, beer and tequila.  There's a statement at the bottom of the menu listing the hours for happy hour.  When I asked about a drink off the bar menu, I was told that the prices are only valid during happy hour.  Putting "Happy Hour Menu" at the top would lead to much less confusion. 

Unfortunately, the lack of attention regarding the menus extends to the food as well.  Again, the good first.    The chips were tasty and crisp with the right level of saltiness.  They were served with pico and salsa, which Country Girl and I found a nice touch, both of which were very tasty.  That's the extent of the good regarding the food.  Country Girl ordered the chile relleno and I had the the crab enchilada, on the recommendation of our server.  Both dishes were decidedly average taste wise.  The enchilada sauce wasn't spicy at all and mushrooms were included in the dish (City Boy is not a fan of mushrooms) despite not listing as much in the menu.  The chile relleno description said it comes with plantains.  When the dish arrived, it came with one slice of plantain which was much more of a garnish than any sort of compliment to the dish.

The service was unremarkable except in one bad way.  After our dishes arrived, a buser more or less hovered around our table the entire time asking several times if she could take our plates away.  Perhaps there was a shortage of dining plates that evening and they needed a quick turnaround.  Whatever the reason, it led to an annoying if not unsettling experience.

While it is beautifully decorated, there's little more about Casa Patron to recommend.  Unlikely that Country Girl and I will pay them another visit in the future.