Half-Smokes, Scrapple and Corks

We met our friend Gideon in D.C.'s Capitol Hill neighborhood for breakfast at Jimmy T's Place. It's a corner breakfast/brunch place that's been around since 1969, so as Gideon noted, it was around LONG before Capitol Hill gentrified! : )

For Erin and I, it was our second visit and first time eating there - we tried for it last October when my dad and sister were visiting from Georgia, but the staff ignored us as we patiently waited for a table. That experience was odd, and likely isolated, given that we were greeted today with a "Have a seat wherever you like" welcome.

As for the food, it's standard breakfast fare if you're looking for that, PLUS D.C./Mid-Atlantic specialties, namely half-smokes and scrapple. Ben's Chili Bowl pretty much equals half-smokes, while scrapple even has a few mentions on The Wire from Baltimore's Jimmy McNulty. Erin had a spicy half-smoke with her breakfast (the sliced sausage near the edge of her plate). Gideon's delectable pumpkin pancakes were a nice complement to my plate of surprisingly-seasoned and tasty scrapple. Scrapple is basically an American version of haggis, in that it's ground-up organ meats, mixed with cornmeal and seasoning. YUM!

I also had "The Hot Mess," fried red potatoes topped with cheese and an over-easy egg - a breakfast after my friend Tony B.'s own heart! (He's a fiend for hashbrowns, preferably Waffle House's, with eggs over-easy forked into them, yolk and all).

After our heart-healthy breakfast, we walked over to Eastern Market and picked up some Valentine's Day provisions (see Erin's earlier post). I managed to get Erin and Gideon in a shot with a fun use of CORKS -yes, those are all wine corks. Gideon's been traveling all over the country for the ULI, including to Detroit, so I'm pretty sure he enjoyed a leisurely Sunday morning at home. And speaking of Detroit, which gets bagged-on too often, its Eastern Market, which I haven't been to yet, dwarf's D.C.'s and is an institution. Tony B., a Detroit native, can attest to that!

Local restaurants and farmer's markets, two perfect things for a lazy Sunday.