Foods of Washington: The Great Popcorn Kerfuffle of ’87

Posted: July 19, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Foods of Washington | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

In 1987, the District faced a minor crisis.

At this time, popcorn became a popular street food in Washington. Freshly popped popcorn stands set up downtown like their hot dog counterparts served bags of hot delicious salty goodness to workers and tourists alike and gained a major following from some popcorn lovers.District food inspectors, however, were not happy about the popcorn stands. Surely, the popcorn must be riddled with germs due to the location of the sale. Citing an obscure ordnance that stated that only “commercially prepackaged” pre-popped popcorn like you would buy in a store could be sold on the streets of DC, the food inspectors attempted to shut down all of the popcorn stands in the city.

There was a major backlash, however. Many popcorn stand owners refused to shut down and decided they would rather pay the fine than close up shop. The fine for selling popcorn after the ban was $50. The popcorn cart customers lamented the closure of their favorite locations, with many of them “resort[ing] to eating prepackaged popcorn since the downtown vendors were banished” and some even having to go to the movies just to get their fix.

Eventually, council member John Ray stepped in and asked the food inspectors to back down and change the ordnance. Overall, the issue took over seven months to resolve, with those advocating for popcorn even trying to throw hot dog vendors under the bus in the process by arguing the health risks associated with hot dog carts were much worse than popcorn and perhaps they should be shut down instead.

Once the issue was laid to rest in October 1987, one popcorn seller told Washington Post reporter Malcolm Gladwell, “I’m still bitter. I was unemployed for months. The city should be glad I didn’t sue them.”

Soon, popcorn showed up on the streets again, but apparently decreased in popularity over time, since popcorn vendors are not common today. Perhaps sidewalk popcorn will find a revival soon, considering the success of Popped! Republic’s popcorn food truck. Our tastebuds can surely dream.

Foods of Washington: DC’s Pizza Renaissance

Posted: July 8, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Foods of Washington | Tags: , , , , , , | 6 Comments

A lot of people were talking about DC’s pizza today because of some comments in the New York Times. In the Washington Post‘s Going Out Guide response, author Maura Judkis mentions that DC restaurants have really picked up since 2003. That got me thinking, though. When exactly did DC become a pizza city?

Washington is definitely a pizza city. There are so many options these days, from the cheap and greasy jumbo slice to D.O.C. sanctioned Neapolitan pizza and New Haven style apizza. While no one is going to say that DC somehow has better pizza than any other city in the world, nor did we invent pizza (except the jumbo slice), we have quite a lot of options, many of which are highly delicious. Most Washingtonians have their favorite place to get pizza in DC, and will usually defend their pizzeria of choice with great passion. So yes, Washington is definitely a pizza city.

But there was a time when the pizza choices were somewhat slim and a lot of today’s fancier options were missing from the city. So when did it become so easy to find good pizza in DC?

In the early 2000s.

A generic pizza place at 11th and E NW in the 1980s.

The history of pizza in DC is somewhat disputed, but most agree that it was first advertised in 1938 by Luigi Calvi. From then on, pizza was present in DC (and in large quantity, especially being a city that is home to several colleges) but it was nothing too special.

The famous jumbo slice was invented in 1997 in Adams Morgan, originating at Pizza Mart and quickly spreading throughout the city’s neighborhoods. However, though this was a much bigger and more iconic slice than DC had previously enjoyed, it wasn’t anything new style-wise. Pizza in DC hadn’t truly changed yet, it was just larger.

While Pizzeria Paradiso’s first location, a small space in Dupont Circle, opened in 1991, the real rebirth of pizza in DC came in 2001 with the opening of 2 Amy’s on Macomb St. NW, which specialized in Neapolitan style pizzas. Soon after, in 2002, Pizzeria Paradiso opened its second location in Georgetown, which was much larger than the first restaurant and attracted a wider cliental (the first Paradiso would move to a bigger space in Dupont in 2009). In 2003, Chinatown welcomed Matchbox. These three popular pizzerias inspired Washington’s residents and visitors to see pizza differently — as something that could be dressed up in the evening as well as down at 3 am — and set the scene for Comet Ping Pong in 2006 and Pete’s New Haven Apizza in 2008.

Looking at the opening dates of some of these popular pizza places, it’s not hard to see that the pizza boom occurred primarily between 2000 and 2010. Which DC pizza institution is your favorite?