Touchdown

For most of my life the DC sports scene has been a sad spectacle. Aside from the early success of DC United no other local team has brought home a championship since the Redskins won the Super Bowl in 1991. Regardless of this ineptitude I am still an avid fan of every franchise and try to watch as many games a possible with my fellow DC friends.

It was until recently that I noticed that there was no good local sports bar in the U St. area. Before I had journeyed to Chinatown or Dupont Circle to catch any sporting events. Once I had become bored of the same bars I had noticed that there was no place in my neighborhood. The only I had visited were Duffy's and Momo's, the latter of which did not specifically tailor to DC sports and has recently closed. Touchdown which has taken it's place is hopefully an answer to my prayers.

Located right in the heart of the U St. corridor I decided to try this place to see if it would fit my expectations for a local sports bar. I first visited this place on a saturday afternoon for a DC United game, the walls were covered with local sports memorabilia as well as number of medium sized flat screen TV's broadcasting a number of different sporting events. The bar was fairly occupied by a number of DC United fans as well as a couple of other people just taking in the nice day.

The bar was fully stocked and the beer selection was fairly modest. They had PBR on tap so I decided to keep it simple and have a couple of those while I took in the first half of the game. The atmosphere was fairly calm but the fans made it a great experience. I left without sampling any food but promised myself that I would when the CAPS started their playoff run.

(Dragon Fire Wings & Buffalo Shrimp)

My second experience came for game 2 of what I hope will be a deep run for the CAPS. I decided to spend the Sunday afternoon with my dad. We ordered a round of beers along with some good old bar food. I decided to order their dragon fire wings along with an order of buffalo shrimp to share. The food came out promptly and sat well with my ice cold beer.

The wings were average and not as spicy as their title would indicate. The shrimp on the other hand were a bit disappointing. While the sauce was on par the shrimp which did not play well with a spicy sauce. On this day there were more fans out as this was a more important game and their enthusiasm as well as the close score of the game prompted us to stay for the entire duration.

We were still a bit hungry so we decided to order some Touchdown fries which looked fairly appetizing. Unlike most fries these delectable morsels are double fried with duck fat and thyme, a combination I have yet to taste. I can easily say that this was the most delicious dish I had there, the people we were sitting next to agreed with me but also said that the nachos were fairly good as well.

(Touchdown Fries)

Our experience ended with a CAPS win which made the venture that much better. Overall the food was solid and the service was prompt. At this point in time the place has not finished entirely, the second floor was not yet finished so I cannot wait so see what that looks like. My major complaint was the size of all the TV's, there was no huge television or projector that makes a sports bar worth going to. But that complaint was nullified with the fact that they had Happy Hour specials on a SUNDAY!!!!

At this point my judgment is still in the stages of deliberation. I am grateful that I now have a local sports bar to go to but I am unsure whether it will be a go to place for a paramount sporting event.