Old City Market and Oven in NE DC - Report

Regional Dining Discussions DC, Mid-Atlantic
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I have now been here twice, and I am very pleased I found it. It is at 6th and K Sts, NE easily walkable to the Atlas Performing Arts Center.

This is a unique place in DC. The upstairs is a market where you can order pizzas, salads, calzones and panini. They have wine tastings on Friday nights. Downstairs is set up like a living room where they sell used vinyl. They provide you with a stereo so you can listen to anything you want while you eat. Nice collection of jazz. There is also a piano with sheet music and an organ. They will bring the food down to you while you wait.

I tried a pizza and a calzone, and from a refrigerated case I got a container of marinated watermelon radish.

The pizza I ordered was a pear and prosciutto. Very pleasing, and a good value.

I liked the calzone more, though. It is huge (enough for two) with a surprising pastry-like crust (not the same as the pizza dough) which was a surprise. The filling is dominated by the ricotta with a bit of tang provided by a slight amount of tomato sauce and whatever other filling you select. It comes with one filling, but you can add others. I chose artichoke and ‘smoked pork jowl’ which turned out to be like a chewy bacon.

I recommend asking for the calzone well done.

The watermelon radish was delight. My first time trying it.

Both times I went I had a reason to hang and chill for a while, and this is now my favorite place to do that in the DC area.

Calzone
Calzone1920×1440 171 KB

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Armenian lamb kabob on a flatbread here is one of the best sandwiches in DC. With roasted red peppers and caramelized onions, they did not skimp on the spices. The red beet salad with walnuts and gorgnzola is impressive. A very small menu, but plenty of good stuff to explore. Worth a detour.

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My favorite ingredients to add to the calzone here are the ‘seasonal vegetables.’ Right now it was sliced carrots, zucchini, and a couple of others. The calzones are made-to-order. The greek salad is also not the standard you find elsewhere. The food here is thoughtful and idiosyncratic.

So far I get the idea you can’t go wrong, but I don’t know of any other place around where you can get a calzone with seasonal vegetables, so I am going to go out on a limb and say this is a very special thing to order.

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This place looks intriguing to us. We’re heading to DC for MLK weekend and gathering data on places to eat. We’ll report back.