To new experiences

It is obvious that with Washington comes a lot of history, but U Street has a history all its own. After the start of the 20th century, the neighborhood began to transform from being predominately white to more racially diverse. This continued to grow, and the community was doing well, until the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., after which, the neighborhood turned into a thriving drug scene. Since then, the neighborhood has turned around and is now a very culturally-rich area of the city.

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So, in an effort to take full advantage of the unique experiences U Street offers, I planned Friday evening around dinner at Etete, an Ethiopian restaurant that made The Washingtonian’s Cheap Eats List, and tickets to a jazz performance at Bohemian Caverns.

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First, dinner. After a few minutes of walking U Street, we found the Etete in all of its understated glory. But what the restaurant lacks in size, it makes up for in flavor. In deference to the Cheap Eats recommendation, we ordered the sambusas, which are lentil-filled, deep-fried pastries. This turned out to be a wonderful decision, as the warm, triangular dishes were a perfect combination of salt and spice. For our main meal, we ordered a spicy meat dish (which, after the sambusas and our waitress making sure we wanted the spicy dish, we were worried would be too much to handle!). But, again, this was a great choice. When our meal came out we had in front of us, a pizza-shaped, spongy bread with a pile of meat and two piles of vegetables on it and a basket of more rolled, spongy bread. With no clue of how to appropriately consume our dinner, we looked around, saw everyone eating with their hands, and realized that our wet-wipes weren’t superfluous.

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Once filled to the brim with fantastic Ethiopian food, we made our way to Bohemian Caverns. With its distinctive lit-up, piano-key awning, the jazz club is hard to miss. After checking in with the bouncer, we opened the door and walked through a corridor lined with stalactites and stalagmites to make our way to the caverns.

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Darkly lit with a single candle on each table, Bohemian Caverns has an atmosphere unmatched by anything I have seen – yes, even better than a cave party. The sea of white tablecloths surrounded the stage, with some tables just an arm’s length from the performers.

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As for the evening’s actual event, the expectations set by the mere presence of the room were met and surpassed by Louis Hayes and his group.