A Couple of Days at
Rehoboth Beach, Delaware

We'd planned for several weeks to take a mid-week drive down to the beach to see our friends Tom and Jim. We went this past week.

Rehoboth is at best 2h30 from Washington. But with a stop for lunch of crab and oysters at the Narrows Restaurant overlooking Kent Narrows in Maryland, the trip took on a leisurely pace. We enjoyed watching the spring come. It didn't hurt that the two kinds of crab soup: a bisque and a vegetable mixed with crab meat, nor the Caesar salad with fried oysters or the crab open-faced tortilla with sauce were excellent.

Our friends have moved into a neighborhood about 10 minutes from downtown Rehoboth Beach, meaning it's easy to get about. The first night there, we went out to Celsius Bistro Restaurant for dinner. It's a bright cheery place with brilliant colored designs on the walls. Unfortunately we could not dine on a prix fixe menu as planned. It had been abandoned, but we had coupons: We really couldn't complain about dinner for four for $100 with tip and one $8 drink (barely passable name-unknown chardonnay). The food was adequate, though we should have received a recommendation to do the appetizers as tapas. The steak diane was a nice snip of beef with good frites. Even though it was only 9h30 when we finished eating, the place was empty and closing down. In season it's mobbed!


Day 2: A little shopping, a look at the beach, good conversation with our friends, and a pleasant dinner at home the second night. We had lunched at a newly reconstructed restaurant overlooking Lewes harbor, the first Dutch settlement in America, at Irish Eyes Pub and Restaurant. The sandwiches were excellent including a pannini Cuban style made with pulled pork BBQ and sliced roast pork. We enjoyed the deep fried dill pickles, but we weren't sure we'd do them again. In the afternoon we ventured into the Dutch-style Zwaanendael Museum in the center of town to hear the story of the foundation of Delaware and how it didn't become Maryland or remain part of Pennsylvania. The museum building looks like it belongs canal-side in Amsterdam--of course, it's in the middle of a flower garden and shrubs.

We returned to Washington on Friday April 18, but are pleased to say that we have found an excellent coffee shop in Denton, MD, about half way between the beach and the city. The Firehouse Coffeeshop on Market Street in the old part of town. Ben thoroughly enjoyed his extra-dry skim cappucino. I sipped a lovely decaf.

An update for the past two weeks or so

We can recommend Dr. Granville Moore's Brickyard Belgian beer pub and restaurant at 1238 H Street, NE where we feasted on moules et frites about two weeks ago. The beer list runs to 50 or so Belgian beers of various levels of alcohol. We tried five of them with our friend Wally. All were superb. Dinner itself runs about $30 per person, including one or two beers. Wally finished off the evening with a raspberry infused beer in place of dessert. Nice touch.

The restaurant itself is in an old town house that was once Dr. Moore's office. Today it is stripped down to the old plaster, open beams, wooden floor and tables along one wall and the bar on the other. It's a primitive setting for the food which is superb. But I'm always a sucker for mussels.

The wait staff and bartenders are very professional and understand their beers.

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We have done a few theater visits since the beginning of the month. This past Friday, April 11, we saw The Happy Time, part of the Kander and Ebb festival at Signature Theater in Arlington. Happy Time was the piece they produced on Broadway that followed Cabaret. It got lost the season it openeed when there were so many outstanding plays on Broadway. It's a fairly standard "coming of age" production, set in French Canada (On ne sait pas la province.) The music is fine, the acting very good and production a pleasant evening.

Deuxième Musica at the Maison Française at the French Embassy about 10 days ago, a short production half in English, half in French, written by Marguerite Duras. It's a two person 'read' on stage of a couple, separated who meet at the finalization of their divorce. Sad, very existential.