First Look: H Street Country Club
Opening tonight is H Street Country Club, the much anticipated, long awaited indoor mini-golf course/Mexican eatery in Northeast. We’ve heard rumors about the DC-themed holes bordering on two years now. Chalk up their logo, which says "Est. 2008," to overzealousness. Even the hard hat tour in February 2009 showed a place still in development; there wasn’t a blade of fake grass in sight. Last night we had the chance to be among the first to test out the course, margarita in hand, at a press preview.
What ended up as a 9-hole course upstairs is heavy on artistic flare and inside the beltway humor. Instead of dodging rotating windmill blades, you’ll time your swing around a K Street Lego Lawyer swinging his briefcase on Hole 3. You’ll find on Hole 6 the de rigueur loop-de-loop fashioned as the Springfield Mixing Bowl, complete with a ramp to nowhere and wrecked autos to hold up [golf ball] traffic. Tap the ball through the legs of an obese meter maid with his pants falling down, around a zombie like FDR, or between the Lincoln Theater and Ben’s Chili Bowl.
It’s an unforgiving 22 par course, with most holes set at an unrealistic par 2. Three are par 3 holes, including the most interesting and elegant of them, the Lincoln Memorial at Hole 4. You’ll need a straight, firm, lucky shot to travel the length of the glassy reflecting pool and up the impossibly steep first set of “stairs” to the hole. But you’ll probably ricochet off the second staircase and bounce back to the bottom. Over and over and over again. Same thing with our friend, the meter reader. He’s standing on a cement sidewalk, not Astroturf, so the ball’s going to keep on rolling until you put it in the hole. Mini golf costs $7 per player. There’s also shuffleboard and billiards downstairs ($15/table/hour at all times), 50 cent Skee-Ball and Big Buck Hunter while you wait to tee off.
The alcohol-infused putt-putt is what started the buzz back in 2007. But it’s the food that H Street is promoting first and foremost. Last week's press release focuses on the Atlas District’s new “300-seat dining destination.” The authentic Mexican menu was designed by Ann Cashion and Teddy Folkman that includes quality, fresh ingredients from high-quality purveyors and vendors. The beverage program focuses on Spanish and Latin producers.
Two kitchens, one upstairs and one down, boast separate menus. We sampled items from downstairs’ more casual “El Norte” bar menu. Executive Chef Pablo Cardoso’s perfectly greaseless, large, crispy, and homemade tortilla chips steal the show. Don’t miss them with a made-to-order guacamole with 1 ½ avocados and just the right amount of salt to make it the best rendition I’ve sampled in some time. The spicy tamales, stuffed with ground beef, are delicate in a white husk and enhanced by a red chili and tomato sauce. The “El Luchador, ($10)” a tequila cocktail complemented with muddled cucumber, cilantro, and jalapeños, provides a fiery way to wash down a couple of meat pies or cut through the beans of the nachos. Most El Norte items are $7.
The dining room menu served upstairs, before you get to the golf course, offers a mouthwatering array of northern and southern accented Mexican cuisine with appetizers topping out at $11 and mains in the $15-$22 range. Cardoso pointed to the sopa de pan, a vegetable soup with croutons, capers, black currants, olives, eggs, and topped with queso fresco ($7) lamb enchiladas with green rice ($19), and chilaquiles with roasted duck ($22) as his highlights. Coconut flan, buñuelos, and tres leches cake are each $6 for dessert.
The H Street Country Club concept packs a lot into a spacious two floors that we can imagine becoming a bit jammed on a Friday night. There's not much room to maneuver through the crammed course to begin with. So watch out for your neighbors' backswing off the 6th tee. Look out for a spilled glass of Country Club Amber turned instant water hazard. And see if what may be the area's most alluring Mexican menu can thrive as a dining destination just across the hallway from a boisterous, indoor miniature golf haven. We thought the sport went with burgers and milkshakes. But we're eager to trade in our malted for a Pimm's Cup and plate of shrimp in pipian sauce.
H Street Country Club
1335 H Street NE
Washington, DC 20002
Hours: Monday - Thursday: 5:00p.m. - 2:00a.m. (kitchen until 11p.m)
Friday - Saturday: 5:00p.m. - 3:00a.m. (kitchen until 12a.m.)