Every Wednesday, we pick up our 2 1/2 year old grandson at his pre-school and drive him home to his house, which is about 30 minutes from our house. We get to his house between 5:30 and 6.

Last week, we had a brilliant idea. Why don’t we, after we drop him off, go out for supper? It’s relatively early, and we would still have a full evening at home after we ate. We made two rules. First, we would only go to restaurants that were new to us. Second, the first priority would be good and free parking.

We started last week by finding a place to park on 14th Street NW, just south of W Street. Now, if you know 14th Street, you know that there are about 10,000 restaurants in that neighborhood. We chose one called Lucy, at the corner of 14th and Florida Ave, or – more literally – Lucy Bar. It has a fairly small, but friendly and comfortable plant bordered patio facing onto Florida.

We hadn’t looked at the menu before we sat down, and were surprised that we were primarily looking at a pizza menu, not a dinner menu. (Later investigation showed that Lucy Bar, which opened last year, is meant to be just that – a bar, and that it shares a kitchen with a restaurant next door, called Slice & Pie, owned by the same restaurateur, which is in fact a pizza restaurant. When we were at Lucy, we didn’t even know that Slice & Pie existed.)

So we got a drink (a margarita and an Aperol spritz) and a pizza. We had a lot of pizza choices, and we each focused on a different one, but we ended up with a pizza with a rather unappealing name (to me) – Artichoke-me. It was a white pizza with artichoke hearts and garlic. The pizza itself was fine, the garlic better than the canned artichoke hearts, and when we were done, we were probably still a bit hungry. But it was very pleasant watching people walk by with their dogs, and listening to the three person subdued jazz combo which plays there a few evenings a week.

But next time, we’d order a different pizza. Which one? There are many vegetarian choices from which to choose. And, truth be told, I am being unfair to the menu. There are also four pasta choices, or you can get eggplant Parmesan, a cheese board, a couple of entrees and oysters. So it’s not just a pizza place – but for some reason that’s what it seems like. I know, what I have written about Lucy makes no sense at all. You just have to deal with it.

Our second Wednesday was last night, which you may recognize as a Tuesday. Let’s blame it on Memorial Day, even though I don’t see a connection. At any rate, this time we went to Cinco Soles, an even newer restaurant on 11th Street NW, one of a number of restaurants spread over a few blocks of 11th in what is otherwise a residential neighborhood.
If you Google Cinco Soles, you (for reasons only halfway logical) get a description of an Italian restaurant called Ossobucco. The reason is that Ossobucco was a restaurant at this location that closed a year or so ago, and was replaced two months ago by Cinco Soles, a Mexican restaurant. Same owner. Cinco Soles has a number of outside tables facing 11th Street, which are well spaced and comfortable.

The menu is interesting, and has some similarities to the menu at another Mexican restaurant we have gone to a number of times, Corazon DC on 14th and Randolph NW. There are a variety of tacos, as well as some entrees and so forth. This is not a restaurant where you get enchiladas with beans and rice; it is a bit more imaginative.

We had guacamole (I don’t eat that, and half of it is now in our refrigerator), fish tacos and vegetarian (brussels sprouts and almond) tacos, and a dish called mahi Abobado, described as seared mahi mahi, guajillo abol mole, nopal, and potato salad. The delicious and very fresh mahi mahi was sitting in a delicious reddish brown (or was it brownish red) sauce which the server told me was spicy, maybe a 7. I told her that I didn’t mind spicy food, as long as it wasn’t overly spicy. She then told me that, if I liked spicy food, this was more like a 5. Not sure what that means, but the spicy was much more a 5 than a 7. As to the guajillo abol mole and the nopal, I don’t know what either is, but I approve of both, and as to the potato salad…….there was no potato salad. Wonder what happened. I didn’t pay attention to the menu details when we were there. (Now, I do know that guajillos and abols are peppers and nopal is a type of cactus – but will I remember this when I go next to an upscale Mexican restaurant?)

Lucy Bar gets a B+ rating based on ambiance, music, drinks and decent pizza crust. Cinco Soles gets an A- based on the quality of everything, but the lack of potato salad.

Want to go to either of these places with us? Just let us know. We can go any night but Wednesday. They no longer meet our criteria for Wednesday nights.