It's time to take back Sunday morning. Yes, on Sunday mornings you're often tired or hung-over or want to use your meal plan and get soggy pancakes at TDR. But Sunday morning just happens to be when D.C. truly comes to life - downtown fills with intelligent-looking people in search of The Washington Post, a pastry and a cup of coffee. If you want to call yourself a true Washingtonian, you need to pull yourself out of bed and join them. Sunday morning isn't just about coffee and carbohydrates; if done right, with fun people and cool traditions, it's the best way to celebrate the weekend.
FRESHFARM MARKET AND TEAISM An easy bike or Metro ride from Tenleytown, hip Dupont Circle is a wonderful place to kick-start your Sunday morning. The FreshFarm Market, often referred to as one of the nation's top farmers' markets, takes over Dupont between Massachusetts Avenue and Q Street. Operating year-round, rain or shine, it's a producers-only farmers' market, which means that participants can only sell goods they've grown or made themselves. Everything from apples to freshly-made scones to locally produced cheeses are for sale and to sample. A local tip is to follow the lines to know what's good.
Afterwards, head to the Dupont outpost of Teaism, located just two blocks north of the Q street Dupont Metrorail station exit, for brunch. Healthy Asian-inspired breakfast options offer a unique and tasty twist on traditional Sunday morning fare. You can opt for the classic chai tea, served in an enormous black mug with just the right amount of spice for $2.75, or try any of their other extensive tea options. As for the food, the Birchermuesli is a must. For $4.50, it's a soft granola-type cereal, mixed with dried apricots and raisins and served with yogurt and fresh strawberries. Other breakfast best bets include the French toast, ginger scones and tofu scramble.
Teaism is incredibly busy on Sunday mornings and scoring a table requires some stealth. However, if the dining area is full, just take your tea outside in their sculpture garden.
FreshFarm Market 1500 block of 20th Street N.W. METRO: Dupont Circle (red line)
Teaism 2009 R St. N.W. METRO: Dupont Circle (red line)
CATCH A FILM Going to the movies before noon on the weekends is often one of the cheapest ways to catch the latest must-see. It's also an untraditional Sunday morning ritual that allows you to sneak some extra cinema into your life. Head over to E Street Cinema, a few blocks from the Metro Center Metrorail station, for a wide selection of independent and foreign-language films. Better yet, there's no need to pick up coffee and breakfast on the way: their concession stand sells European-style coffee drinks and pastries.
E Street Cinema 555 11th St. N.W. METRO: Metro Center (red, blue and orange lines)
PICK YOUR DINER IN ADAMS MORGAN Take a walk through Adams Morgan on a Sunday morning, and you'll stumble upon a number of diner gems catering to a wide variety of tastes. The most popular is simply named The Diner. Open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, you can fulfill your diner cravings anytime of the day. Traditional diner fare done well, including omelets and pancakes, earns this place its following, but there are also some unusual options, including French-style sandwiches.
For vegetarians and vegans, the bar/restaurant Asylum offers a tasty and fairly-priced weekend vegan brunch. The local blog DCist named Asylum's a.m. offerings its favorite local breakfast, and the Washington City Paper voted Asylum's brunch D.C.'s best brunch in 2008. Try the vegan breakfast wrap for $6.75, filled with their famous tofu scramble, home fries, cheese and black beans or the Vegan Huevos Rancheros for $8.75. For your meat-loving friends and family, the brunch menu also has more traditional, meat-based breakfast options.
The Diner 2453 18th St. N.W. METRO: Adams Morgan (red line)
Asylum 2471 18th St. N.W. METRO: Adams Morgan (red line)
HIKING For outdoor enthusiasts, Sunday mornings in the spring are the perfect time to hit the trails. The District is surprisingly full of beautiful green spaces, with several parks even close to campus. For starters, tucked behind the Avalon apartment complex near campus on Massachusetts Avenue starts miles of scenic, interlocked trails. Other great options include the Capitol Crescent Trail, which links Georgetown to downtown Bethesda, and Rock Creek Park, the sprawling natural oasis throughout the Northwest quarter of D.C. For maps and more information, check out the Web site bikewashington.org/trails.
You can reach this staff writer at agoldstein@theeagleonine.com.
