October 99 — Xando Cafe & Bar (now Cosi) 301 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE [between Pennsylvania & Independence] — Xando is the Reeses peanut butter cup of cafes and I am sure Starbucks is kicking itself for not thinking of it first.
By day Xando is a coffee bar, a proper serve-yourself-&-chill cafe but, by night (after 4 PM) Xando becomes a restaurant with full bar, table service and a smoking section. There’s even bossman-controlled hip contempo music that will neither insult nor offend its 30-something clientele. High energy and designed by the likes of the Wallpaper team. The peanut butter of daytime meets the chocolate of night and, voila! I hope it wears well, because its pristine first day could go downhill fast.
Xando Capitol Hill (right down the block from the shining rotunda itself) is shoe-horned into deep but narrow confined of a row house. This space was formerly a Sam Goody record store. My, what they have done.
Dark brown ceilings, textures black enameled exposed pipe, yellow-green curry-colored walls, and birch wood floors. Most table seating is on spacious plush sofas. The tabletops are miniscule and some folks are damned to be pressed between an active walkway and a wrought iron railing. The tabletops are too small.
Retro B&W photographs and abstract paintings feed the walls. The textiles covering the sofas are beautifully mismatched. The staff is friendly but nervous (first day), 20-40 something. A few children at a family table. It’s not the place where poets chainsmoke, drink mug after mug of java, and then move to Chablis in the mild afternoon, but it’s closer in a Parisian sort of way. If this is corporate sellout then we in America might be going the right direction. It feels more like a Public House than it does either a coffeehouse or bar. A coffeehouse suffers from lack of depressants and a bar only has that one put of sludge kept on the burner awaiting its rude drunk or Irish Coffee.
The menu is great beverage-wise. Food list is minimal: Panini, wraps, soups, salads, deserts. They look better than they taste. (I won’t mention the S’mores they can serve you at your table except that it’ll ensure the kind of attention from other patrons as you received at Farrells on your birthday when they sang and made a big fuss). Lighting is beautiful and honey-colored. I would pay my $6.00 for rent to sit in this living room with service… seven with tip: a double espresso ($1.60) and a slice of the pyramid chocolate cake ($3.95). 16 stores have popped up from Hartford all the way to South Beach Miami. 3 in NYC, 6 in Philly, three in DC, and three in Baltimore.
The cost of things is pretty much as expected. A $1.35 espresso of good quality is generally $1.20-$2.25 at most other places. The double is $1.60. I didn’t get the latte or the mocha, but there are three sizes: tall, giant, and gigante. Latte: $2.30/$2.95/$3.15; Mocha: $2.55/$3.20/$3.40; Drip: $1.25/$1.45/$1.55; Tea $1.00/$1.30/$1.60.
Full liquor bar and Beer after 4 PM and their hours are 7 AM 1 AM Sunday through Thursday and 7 AM 2 AM on the weekends. Smoking area and at the bar after 4 AM. Decaf and soymilk substitutes are available with all drinks.
– Chris Abraham & Michelle Nolan
