Still Life With Robin: Dining for Good in DC

Dine Out for Life - Food & Friends

by Peggy Robin

Tired of the rubber chicken circuit? Seen enough of that fat, red slab of overcooked salmon? Those are the choices at most of the benefit dinners you will attend in this town. But when you want to support a cause by paying for a plate at some organization’s annual banquet, you don’t really go for the food, do you? You are willing to pay a ridiculous sum for a meal because you know it will do some good for others. So you sit at your assigned table and you make awkward chitchat with your fellow supporters of the same worthy institution. And you glance discreetly at your watch while you wait for the next course to come out. By 9 PM, if you’re lucky, you may get a lemon cake and a couple of cookies. That’s dining for good in DC.

But what if you could order whatever you really wanted to eat, and pay the normal, non-inflated price, and sit at your own table with your invited friends and family? And at the same time, help to provide others with an enjoyable – and much needed – home-delivered meal? That’s what Dine Out for Life is all about. You pick the restaurant from the list you can find here: https://foodandfriends.org/events/dining-out-for-life-new/#restaurants-and-bars-tab-content. You make the reservation for the time that suits you best. Invite the family members and friends you want at your table. The prices are the same as the restaurant normally charges. When you pay your check at the end of the evening, a portion of the proceeds will go to the Food & Friends meal delivery program, which sends volunteers out in vans, delivering meals to people in our area who are struggling with AIDS, cancer, depression, and other life-challenging illnesses.

If you’d like to stay close to home, here’s the list of the participating restaurants in Cleveland Park, Glover Park, Tenleytown, Forest Hills, and Chevy Chase, DC.(Apologies if I have skipped over any participating restaurant in these areas):

Cactus Cantina (25%) http://www.cactuscantina.com/
Buck’s Fishing & Camping (50%) https://www.bucksfishingandcamping.com/
Blue 44 (25%) https://www.blue44dc.com/
Comet Ping Pong (50%) https://www.cometpingpong.com/
Le Chat Noir (35%) https://www.lechatnoirrestaurant.com/
Matisse (25%) http://www.matisserestaurantdc.com/
Slate Wine Bar and Bistro (fixed donation) http://slatewinebar.com/

But I’d like to give a special shout-out to Annie's Steakhouse in Shaw, which is donating ONE HUNDRED PERCENT of the proceeds from Dining Out for Life Night to Food & Friends.

I can’t think of a better way to enjoy dinner on Thursday! Lunch, too!
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Still Life With Robin is posted on the Cleveland Park Listserv and on All Life Is Local on Saturdays.