The hunger ... returns!!!

Someday, when this blog is immortalized with an entry on Wikipedia (or, you know, Urban Dictionary or something) I would not be entirely surprised if the distillation of its essence came out something like: “a blog about trying to find a decent falafel joint within walking distance of the satellite offices of the Pentagon. Sometimes the author talked about pop culture and/or his kids.”

I refer you to this old post if you somehow missed my falafel-obsession, a post which in turn links back to some other, older posts in order to capture the entire narrative arc wherein a restaurant-compatible retail space in the office park where I work advertised itself as a Mediterranean grill “coming soon”, eventually opened later than originally promised, served me lunch a few times, and then went out of business in disaster and ignominy, including the spectacular flame-out of an eviction.

But lo and behold, while that falafel joint stood empty for quite a while, it was recently reclaimed and renovated to be rebranded as … another Mediterranean grill! The Black Lime is dead, long live Mezeh! Who knows how long this new eatery will last in the cruel, cutthroat world of providing an ethnically distinct lunch option to the cubicle drones who work at this end of town, but if auspicious beginnings have any bearing, I can at least report that the elapsed time between the first indications of the new restaurant’s branding and the grand opening was much shorter than for its predecessor in that niche.

Today is, in fact, the grand opening. Again, this is a retail footprint I have to walk past twice a day five days a week, so I noticed last week the signs promoting the inaugural “neighborhood party”, which promised a free chicken shawarma rice bowl with every purchase of a soda. So of course you know that I showed up at Mezeh just a few minutes after they opened at 11, and when I did there was already a good-sized line. They do offer falafels on their menu, I noted, but the discount special was for the chicken shawarma rice bowl, so that’s what I got. It was indeed free, although the 16 oz. soda set me back $2.20. Still, that’s a pretty cheap lunch anywhere, and especially around here. And it was delicious. So I’m sure I’ll be back there again some time, and I’ll probably try the falafels. Hopefully this time I won’t be the kiss of death for the place.