Ode to Restaurant Week

I am sitting here enjoying my very, very late dinner of a very, very delicious peanut butter (creamy) and jelly (apricot) sandwich thinking three things:

• Why is it that I can never really decide if I am a crunchy or creamy girl?
• I should have eaten about 5 hours ago.
• I can't wait for tomorrow.

Tomorrow marks the start of one of my favorite things about DC: Restaurant Week. Twice a year, some of the best restaurants in the area participate in this most of gratifying of holidays (as I do consider it a holiday :) ). For a pre-fixed price of $20.08 for lunch and $30.08 for dinner a menu of three courses, at some phenomenal restaurants, is available. And these places are usually well beyond my budget normally, so this is a real deal.

I mean, whoever thought of this idea is genius. I spend three times my usual 'going out' monthly budget in one week, only because I get caught up in the moment. It's always a race to try to get the best restaurants, too. So my friends and I start checking daily near the end of the year to find out the exact dates of restaurant week in January and the restaurant list. Thank you, opentable.com

So here are my plans this week:

• Jan 14 Lunch - The Caucus Room with Craig.
• Jan 14 Dinner - Tosca Ristorante with Scott and Tyler.
• Jan 16 Dinner - Butterfield 9 with Mary and Julie.
• Jan 19 Dinner - 1789 with Courtney, Kellee, Ryan, Bob and Gera.

1789 is has been a tradition for the past 4 years: I will make a reservation for 6 and let my friends fight amongst themselves for the other 5 spots. It's a sick tradition for me to enjoy so much, but I love to feel wanted and I kid myself that they really want to spend time with me and not the black and white bread pudding or the Muscovy duck.

In all seriousness, I just love this week because I get the opportunity to have a great meal with good friends. People that I might not get to see much of, but now we can have plenty of time to catch up over three courses. Or people that I see every day, but now we'll have our great conversations with flattering lighting and more forks. I don’t go out to Restaurant Week because of the food, I go out to eat because of the company and the likelihood of all-you-can-drink Diet Coke with a wedge of lime.

So when it comes down to it, I’d rather spend time with you people in a Red Lobster (even though I’ll get physically ill if we do), than not. But if we have a choice, let’s pick Citronelle. And bonus, we don’t have to do dishes.

(You'd be surprised how many cities do 'restaurant weeks' - check where you are!)