Momiji: Fully-Vested

A post by "J. Mal" To see more posts click here

My girlfriend’s birthday was on February 13th. With Valentine’s Day the next day, I knew she expected an impressive weekend. Quoting the classic film, The Big Lebowski, “Yeah, well, the Dude abides.”

We’ve been celebrating DMV restaurants as of late, but rest assured we’re not rubber stamping anything and the poor reviews are no doubt on their way.

I got off work at 5pm on Friday and met my girl at home (she took the day off mind you).  We relaxed for a little while and then started to get ready for the evening.

At 8pm a couple friends came over to my place downtown.  It’s less than 3 blocks from the heart of Chinatown, so we decided to take advantage and celebrate close to home.

A few nights back, we had been in the mood for sushi and found this great new restaurant called Momiji.  It’s not much to look at from the outside, but the “Grand Opening” sign caught our eyes.  The main floor is a simple dinning room, but there is a small side stairway that leads upstairs to more tables and a bar.

We left our place around 9pm and had confirmed a crowd of about 30 heading over to Momiji for Sake and Sushi to start the night off.  The upstairs bar had cleared out by 9:30 and it was just our party.  We all munched on small sushi plates and ordered drinks.

The place has a very small staff and you could tell that they had never managed a crowd of this size and    drinking capability before.  Even though they were very understaffed, they performed very well and kept everything flowing.

At 11:00 pm, we were off to the next destination. Just two blocks from Momiji was a new club called MUSE.

Muse was where Coyote Ugly used to be located, right next to the Verizon Center.  We had called ahead and reserved two private tables.  At a cost of $210 each (includes table and one bottle of Ketel One), the two tables we booked were perfect for the event.  By booking tables our whole group of 30 skipped the line, and didn’t have to pay the $20 cover.  Once inside everyone threw down $10 for the tables, and everyone got a drink right away to start the night from the two bottles.

MUSE is a very nice club.  It has three levels with different music on each floor.  We were on the top 40/hip hop floor where there was about 50 people. (30 from our group).  There was a bar with very easy access and plenty of room to dance.  We all felt really relaxed and accommodated.  The club host Gio was very helpful.  He would constantly stop by and make sure we were doing well.  He even bought me a couple rounds on the house.  He also gave the birthday girl a drink or two.

Before we knew it, it was 2:30.  Everyone was feeling pleasantly inebriated, and with only a three block walk home, I was so happy to be minutes from a nice warm bed.  The rest of the group took cabs home, and with that it was a great evening.

I highly recommend both places if you’re looking to try two relatively new  spots.  Momiji has some really great food and is very private and quaint.  MUSE is your typical DC nightclub, without the typically annoyances.  With plenty of room to spread out and very reasonable drinking prices, it’s a great place to get your groove on.

Udothedishes…..