Outing 2: Casa Oaxaca

No one shall know the hour or the day, it is said, but the hour and the day of the last convocation of the brethren was Saturday, Oct. 3, on 18th St. NW. Turnout was excellent at 14 people, with even some unannounced arrivals (and so much the better). The food was good, I believe everyone liked the little mini-taco appetizers, which were also free and at least sometimes came with beer at the bar. It took a while to get our orders taken, I'll charitably suggest because they assumed we wanted to have some time to socialize before being bothered, and they were out of cachaca, so no Brazilian caipirinhas, but other than that scandalous deficiency it was very good. The margaritas were good and they helpfully brought sample plates with the different moles around the table. All were good, and the chocolate was in interesting flavor. I don't know if anyone got the chocolate mole, but I had the Mole Colaradito and it was excellent. Some adventurous souls also tried the grasshopper appetizer. Rather than the whole fried grasshoppers I was expecting, the critters were shredded and floating in a sauce you poured onto little tortillas. We ran out of shredded grasshopper and they actually brought out more to pour into the sauce, I believe free of charge. Some said they tasted of cinnamon, but I could not detect it. Granted, we were all looking forward to biting the heads off of whole fried grasshoppers (and who hasn't really?), but c'est la vie.

After the meal, some left for home, some left for cupcakes, and the rest decided to go to one of the many fine purveyors of intoxicants to be found nearby. A few more people who hadn't been at dinner turned up for this. Some mooted the really fascinating idea of going to a local establishment said to be staffed only by surly ex-cons who served gin in ice buckets that they spit in, or something, but we wound up going to tried and true Bourbon. Ironically, I believe most people drank beer. For my part, I can say that Elmer T. Lee is a fine, smooth bourbon that is worth a try. Sat in a secluded upstairs cove that would have felt isolating if there were only a couple of people, but for a group it was good. The topic of crawling into the vents to hurl molotov cocktails at the wait staff was raised, but this was purely theoretical and should in no way be read as a criticism of the fine bartenders at Bourbon, seriously. It was good.