H Street for H Streeters

Every spot these days claims to be a "neighborhood restaurant", but you could almost swear you saw a second Applebee's location somewhere...nahhh. Dedicated to actually making sure their hood is eatin' good: Atlas Room.

Billing itself as a true neighborhood joint, Atlas takes its name from the H St corridor's formal moniker, and plans to offer priority reservations to said street's residents should things get too busy; the modern American eating house's got a 30-seat dining room lined with antique photos and maps and a stone-walled back-room bar/lounge, all intended to make the "'violet hour' extend through the night", at least until heading back out onto The Waste Land...aka H Street. The menu's categorized by protein, with each offered in "nosh, share, and full" ; for instance, Lamb's nosh-able Fritter (w/ celery root slaw/mustard sauce), shareable Saddle (w/ fennel/ tomato/ olives ragout), and full Lamb Duo w/ sauteed mushrooms and broccoli rabe, not to be confused with "Broccoli Rob", who's always steamed about something. Classy guzzling comes via eight specialty cocktails (with fresh squeezed juices and homemade syrups), like the dry gin/grenadine/lemon juice/egg white Clover Club, the vanilla & clove-infused bourbon/lime shell H Street Rickey, and the scotch/vermouth/cherry Heering/orange juice Blood and Sand, though drinking too much may lead to graphic violence, strong sexual content, and coarse language.

For softer imbibing, the Room's working with local distributor Tannic Tongue to bring in over 25 eclectic wines "not often seen in the area" , which you can only hope continues to apply to that corporate monster Ruby Tuesdays. Applebee's 4life!