Meridian Pint, Tuesday, January 11, 2011

I braved the winter weather this evening to head to a birthday celebration for a friend at Meridian Pint in Columbia Heights, at 3400 11th St. NW DC.  It's focused on environmental sustainability, and American craft beer.  I'd not heard of the place before my friend mentioned it, and it was much larger than I was expecting.  There's a sizable upstairs and downstairs both, though I only have a vague impression of upstairs as I immediately went downstairs.

Downstairs, we were seated at two 6-person booths that have taps installed in the tables -- and not just for show.  These taps are fully functional, connected to kegs somewhere you can't see, and they keep an electronic tally of how much you've dispensed as you go along.  To the birthday girl's dismay, they only had an IPA and a Pilsner on the taps, because apparently those are the most popular beers.  Nevertheless, it was neat sitting at those tables.  Other amusing decor -- the blue wall behind us had line drawings of various brewing-related items with suggestive descriptions.

Now, I am not a hugely knowledgable beer drinker, and I am not a fan of hops, so this won't really be a review of the beer offerings (sorry!).  I ordered an Allagash Black ($7?), which was actually fairly tasty, and was my only adult beverage of the evening as I was driving home.


We ordered deviled eggs ($7), fried pickled vegetables ($7), and blue cheese and asiago risotto cakes ($9) to start off.  The deviled eggs were decent, but nothing extraordinary.  The fried pickled vegetables were: cucumbers, okra, peppers, and onions.  Pickled, then fried, and served with a vaguely sweet jelly-like sauce.  Interesting, but I'm not sure I was in love with the dish.  Worth a try though, since I think the last time I had pickled and fried anything was in Austin a year and a half ago.  The risotto cakes had a nice crunchy crust and a pleasant-enough inside, and were served on top of wilted arugula with roasted garlic aioli on the side, though similar to the other dishes, they didn't light up my tastebuds.

I didn't have enough room left to order a full entree, so I settled on ordering a bowl of chili, which was actually a significant portion, especially for $7.  There were three kinds available, and I got the pork green chili, which is pulled pork with tomatillos, pepperjack, and cornbread.  It was served in a cereal-sized bowl, and was topped with a generous amount of the pepperjack.  This was definitely the tastiest food item I had all evening, including the bite of my friend's short ribs ($18, porter-braised with macaroni & cheese) and the birthday girl's ropa vieja ($15, pulled cuban-style beef over saffron rice).  The pork was tender and juicy, the tomatillos were a nice addition, and the pepperjack meshed with both, as did the cornbread.  For $7, certainly a great deal on a tasty and generous-for-the-price bowl of chili.

Overall I'd say it was a decent experience, and reasonably priced for what I got, though I'd have been less happy had I ordered one of the entrees I'd tasted.  I do think it's fantastic that they are committed to sustainability, which they go into a bit more on their website's About page.  I'd definitely order the chili again, though I don't think I'd make a special trip there to do it -- it'd be more if I were in the neighborhood and wanted chili. Regardless, a fun evening celebrating a birthday, and tasty chili to boot!  (Also, I started writing this at 11:11pm.  Just saying.  11:11 on 1/11/11.)