Five Guys is my current selection for best burger in the city.   I’m sure there are many who disagree (when/if someone reads this blog, they may even comment about it here—as of yesterday, according to my stats indicator, one person appears to have accidentally misspelled a URL and landed here), but I’ve thought long and hard about my reasons.  It’s not just because it’s fast and on the cheap side, though that is a factor.   The burger is well constructed with fresh toppings (my favorite being jalapenos), smothered in cheese and hot off the grill.  The Five Guys burger is flavorful from top to bottom.  My Five Guys choice has held up against some well known competitors including Good Stuff Eatery, Ray’s Hell Burger and Central.

Good Stuff Eatery, owned/operated by former Bravo Top Chef contestant Spike Mendelsohn, is a close second to Five Guys.  Good Stuff produces another well topped burger with solid cheese smothering, and though they don’t affect the burger rating, the shakes (often made by Spike) are a great finishing option.

Ray’s Hell Burger, made famous by an Obama/Biden lunch visit, grills up seriously large burgers ground from steak that didn’t make the cut at Ray’s the Steaks (coincidentally my favorite steak in D.C.).  This makes for a very flavorful, juicy and tender burger, but it requires two hands and usually a fork before all is finished; unfortunately, because of the juiciness, the bun often quickly becomes unreasonably soggy.

Central‘s burger is overrated and, for the price, not worth the effort.  I only include it here as a reference point for my burger rating system.  The burger itself doesn’t have much flavor and even the fancy toppings are lacking.

Marvin, a good 14th and U option, serves up a simple but delicious burger; happy hour at Marvin’s is a perfect time to compliment it with a beer.

So I’ve started a blog.   For no real reason really.  14th Street, and the activity found here, seems at times to be almost interesting enough for a blog.   Hence the title.  But it likely isn’t enough to hold the attention of even my staunchest supporters.  So maybe I’ll try a few different threads.  Something like: 14th from a Window, U Taste and D.C. Perspective.

14th from a Window has unfortunately already missed a handful of excellent opportunities for window reporting.  There was the unlucky fellow who was killed across the street (in the interest of honest journalism, he was actually stabbed somewhere over on 16/17th and made his way to 14th before expiring). Or the thousand odd skateboarders who took over 14th and road it toward the White House and out of sight.  And of course the Obama’s visit to Martha’s Table.  But I’m not concerned.  History has shown me there will be plenty more to come.

U Taste shouldn’t be a problem.  It may even turn out to be my favorite thread.  I’ll make a quick initial pitch for the happy hour wings at Masa 14, pizzas at Ulah Bistro, the red curry at D.C. Noodles and the padthai at Rice (and yes I know the last two have the same owner, but they are different enough.)

D.C. Perspective will be my miscellaneous section.  For instance, why when responding to emergency calls do the D.C. Police (MPD) often position their squad cars in a way that they nearly causes a car crash worse than the original situation?  I’ve witnessed the following scene on a number of occasions now:  Six responding officers chatting near their sergeant’s squad while street traffic attempts to weave around the haphazardly positioned squads in the intersection.  In the half dozen or so emergency scenes I’ve observed in the last year, I’ve yet to see an MPD officer effectively control traffic—often there was no attempt at all.  Some may think this is insignificant, but I feel confident its a visible indication of a larger  problem.

Hopefully this wasn’t too long (and/or boring) for an introductory post.  I guess we’ll see.