{"id":629,"date":"2010-03-31T07:09:33","date_gmt":"2010-03-31T12:09:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greatsociety.org\/?p=629"},"modified":"2018-10-30T17:34:58","modified_gmt":"2018-10-30T21:34:58","slug":"cedar-crossing-a-bar-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/?p=629","title":{"rendered":"Cedar Crossing: A bar review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Okay, fine, now I feel compelled to balance out my hateful review of 8047<\/a>, thanks to that post\u2019s impassioned commenter.\u00a0 Though my mental image of the person who wrote that comment is of a villain from an episode of Columbo<\/em>.\u00a0 You know the type: The wealthy, arrogant brother-in-law with the goatee who\u2019s always dressed like he\u2019s going out to play tennis and kills unnecessarily over some vague inheritance issue.<\/p>\n

I also received a couple of brief emails, which were from intelligent people, and all argued the same thing: It was 8047\u2019s opening night.\u00a0 Give them a break. Then it hit me: That\u2019s the problem with Silver Spring.\u00a0 That\u2019s why Silver Spring is, actually, a minefield when it comes to bars and dining.\u00a0 It\u2019s because the bad places are supported by transplants, ex-rubes, and neo-yuppies who, apparently, were either born in barns or without taste buds.<\/p>\n


\nSo let\u2019s compare! New restaurants.\u00a0 We\u2019ll go now to Takoma Park\u2019s Cedar Crossing<\/a>,\u00a0 which opened in November in the space once occupied (and still, weirdly) by that frilly idiotic hippie granola shop that made me want to cross the street in horror.\u00a0 But, hey, that\u2019s Takoma Park.<\/p>\n

The shop has now been pushed into a corner and, with appallingly limited space, Cedar Crossing has squeezed in a few dining tables and a tiny bar.<\/p>\n

At first glance, your heart sinks.\u00a0 It\u2019s the type of yuppie bar with limited hours that turns normal people away.\u00a0 But ignore that first impression.\u00a0 Peel away that fruitiness, and Cedar Crossing may just be the best new bar in the area.\u00a0 If you can get to the bar.<\/p>\n

Our engaging bartender sold us on the place right away, and talked us into weird cocktails that actually had a kick.\u00a0 The selection on tap is, to say the least, eccentric.\u00a0 None of the usual shit, and three Belgian selections \u2013 including Delirium Tremens.\u00a0 All with happy hour prices to make my stingy wallet smile. In bottles, they have an impressive weird beer selection. I appreciate a place where the main feature isn\u2019t $2 Miller Lite.\u00a0 But, then, a real bar with a sense of competition knows how to do it.<\/p>\n

My favorite happy hour feature, though, is the \u201cpot luck\u201d beer selection.\u00a0 Under the counter, there\u2019s a selection of microbrews and, for four bucks, you get one mystery bottle.\u00a0 For twenty bucks, you get six of them.\u00a0 Though the bar staff didn\u2019t really embrace the fun of a mystery beer selection and kept asking me permission for each of their picks.\u00a0 I encouraged them, next time, to surprise me.<\/p>\n

Or\u2026I think I did.\u00a0 I don\u2019t remember.<\/p>\n

Food.\u00a0 We got something daring for a DC joint that calls itself a \u201cwine bar.\u201d The shrimp salad wrap. It was amazing, as was the cheese plate.\u00a0 The plates storming out of the crowded kitchen, where a harried chef was acting like he was on TV, looked incredible. Though I\u2019ve been hearing complaints that their menu is also eccentric, and changes wildly.\u00a0 Which, you know, is the mark of a good kitchen. So\u2026shut up.<\/p>\n

Best of all is the location.\u00a0 Literally right next to the Takoma Metro station, across the street from what the old timers used to call the Stop & Shoot. Remember those days?\u00a0 That was before Maryland started to lean conservative and Silver Spring looked like a set from a post-apocalypse movie.\u00a0 (Which, maybe, argues for the idiot gentrifiers who so rattle my cage.)<\/p>\n

For those looking to kill a Sunday, Cedar Crossing offers a brunch where, for $15, you get all you can drink Mimosas and Bloody Mary\u2019s for three hours.\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n

The problem is the size.\u00a0 If the bar is full up, then it\u2019s posh seating with a waiter for you. Something I tend to avoid, and I imagine others do as well since the happy hour bar tends to be rocking while the table service remains empty, guarded by unhappy waiters.\u00a0 I can\u2019t help but wonder why they insist on keeping the remnants of the granola store in the far corner\u2026 Booze will sell better than designer teabags.<\/p>\n

Equally troublesome is that the posh seating presents a somewhat wild obstacle course between the bar and the toilets.\u00a0 So lunatics with bellies full of strong beer are clawing, hopping, and shuffling between tables full of frightened families and snooty fucks.\u00a0 Again, getting rid of the store and moving the fancy people over to the opposite corner would be a wiser choice.<\/p>\n

So get there early for happy hour, grab a stool and put your flag down. And, for those in the know, this is the sort of neighborhood joint that appreciates regulars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Okay, fine, now I feel compelled to balance out my hateful review of 8047, thanks to that post\u2019s impassioned commenter.\u00a0 Though my mental image of the person who wrote that comment is of a villain from an episode of Columbo.\u00a0 …<\/p>\n

Cedar Crossing: A bar review<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,52,12],"tags":[78,74,101,102],"class_list":["post-629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lush","category-meanwhile-in-silver-spring","category-dc","tag-bar-reviews","tag-bars","tag-cedar-crossing","tag-takoma-park"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=629"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":699,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629\/revisions\/699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}