A Marathon Dinner! (Arlington, Reston: hotel, house, neighborhood)

[jkoutz]

So my girlfriend and I want to have a marathon dinner. A marathon dinner is where you go to 1 restaurant for an appetizer then a 2nd restaurant for the main meal and finally a 3rd one for dessert. A fun date and a fun dinner! Only problem is that she put me in charge of finding the restaurants, lets just say not my forte. But we wanted to go to some small unknown hole in the wall. So basically restaurants that are hidden gems.

Do you guys have any favorite hidden gems?

As for distance...sticking around vienna or arlington would be ideal but any places around nova would be great!

[CaliTerp07]

Are you trying to stick to a certain type of restaurant? I would think it would be odd to have bruschetta, then sushi, then chocolate cake, or lobster bisque, a burrito, and cheesecake. Or maybe it's not weird, and I'm just a picky eater?

You could easily do it in Shirlington. Park the car, walk around, enjoy the outdoor eating on the patios. Or just walk up 23rd street in Crystal City. Walk over to Pentagon Row for dessert (there is a frozen yogurt place there now, I believe).

[slduvall]

We call this a Progressive dinner. Old town would be a great place to do this, no driving involved as you progress.

I would start at one of the Tapas places for apps, then to maybe to an italian, greek or Lebonese for dinner and then another country for dessert. Then maybe one of the irish bars for drinks. Hungry now!

[PK12]

Second the recommendation for Old Town. You can walk to several different restaurants of different types of cuisine. If contemporary/American is what yo uwant to stick to, then Old Town is your best bet.

[yamota]

let's see, burger king for the appetizer, popeye's for the main meal, and then mcdonalds for the dessert

[Snd485]

I too would call this a progressive dinner. I've been wanting to do something like this with my SO for a while! I think North Arlington would work best, the Ballston/Clarendon/Court House area.

My suggestions are below...all in the Ballston neighborhood -

Stop 1: Wine and apps at Grand Cru. It's a cute wine bar tucked away behind the Westin hotel.
Stop 2: Dinner at Tutto Bene. Definitely fits your hole in the wall criteria. They serve Bolivian food on weekends and Italian the rest of the week. I've only had the Bolivian menu and it's really good, especially the saltenas.
Stop 3: Dessert at Buzz bakery, it's open late on weekends and I love the choc chip cookies.

Have fun and stop back to let us (me!) know where you end up going!

[jillybean720]

My parents' neighborhood does this (a progressive dinner) where a different house in the neighborhood hosts each course as opposed to going to restaurants. I would think there would be lots of areas in Arlington where this could be feasible without having to drive around, as prior posters have mentioned. I know you wanted a hole in the wall type place, but I personally would love to end the night with a relaxing dessert at The Melting Pot

[dystopian]

Wow, I cant believe I have never heard of this before, what an awesome and fun thing to do. Will have to try this myself!

[LynchburgLover]

Don't forget Reston -- lots of choices there within easy walking distance. McCormick and Schmick for the main course. They're fabulous.

[FCNova]

I agree, cool idea but I'd only do it with restaurants very close walking distance. Driving between 3 places would be hassle. Tysons I and II has lots of restaurants, you can finish at Gordon Biersh for dessert of beer. Mostly chain restaurants though..