Granville Moore's

1238 H Street NE, (202) 399-2546
http://www.granvillemoores.com/

I previously mentioned Granville Moore's in my brief mention of places I had tried before starting this blog. Basically, I said that the burger and fries I got were very good as were the beers, although beers are pricey.

The ambiance of Granville Moore's is definitely casual dive-bar. Having been used to the downstairs for drinks, I found the upstairs almost too open for my expectations, which is silly because it is still quite narrow. I like the downstairs bar though.

One issue is that there are no reservations after 6:30pm (except M,T,W after 9pm) so we had to wait an hour. The door lady took our number, told us 45minutes, and never called us. When we stopped by an hour later, she said that she was "just about to call us" and then immediately showed us upstairs where there were two or three open tables... I'm guessing she lazily expected us to give up or eat elsewhere.

This time I came for the mussels, which have quite a reputation (all $17). I had read that the mainstay Bleu (Hook’s blue cheese, pork belly, shallots, spinach, white wine, lemon) was so good that it won some type of mano-y-mano chef tv show, but my date is apparently not a big blue cheese fan. So instead, we got the seasonal Autumn (butternut-sage cream, cayenne). Autumn did not seem to penetrate the mussels themselves or was simply too light to leave much notable flavor in the mussels, although the sauce itself was enjoyable when bread (or fries) were dipped into it. We also got a large order of fries ($8), which come with two mayo-based dips. The fries themselves were superb - a perfect level of crispy and soft with a delicious blend of spices. The mayo was unremarkable. We tried the truffle and curry options and both were too delicately flavored to leave much of an impact.

The beer options were quite good. There were several unique and very good options.

Bottom line: I like the bar, and I am going back to try the Moules Bleu, but before 6:30.