Cart Capades: Spy Diner
Meals on wheels in our nation's capital
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At 9th & F Streets NW, there’s a different kind of food cart: one with a cause. Zola, the American restaurant at 8th & F Streets NW teamed up with DC Central Kitchen to create Spy Diner, which is staffed by grads of DCCK, a non-profit that trains unemployed, homeless, and poor people for careers in the food-service industry. The cart, located across from the International Spy Museum, offers inexpensive breakfast sandwiches and pastries from Monday through Friday starting at 8 a.m., plus five kinds of sliders served until 5:30 p.m. (6 p.m. on weekends). The sliders are prepared at Zola and then assembled at the cart when they’re ordered, but still taste fresh.
Main Dishes:
For breakfast, there’s an egg sandwich on a bagel or roll with cheese for $2.75, plus $1.75 if you add a Taylor pork roll (ham or bacon). Muffins run $2; coffee cake and bagels are $2.50. For lunch, which starts at 11 a.m., there are five kinds of sliders, which come in pairs—no mixing and matching, unfortunately. There’s lamb meatball, roast beef melt, barbecue pork, burger, and tomato and brie. The lamb sliders are $6, while the rest are $4. The lamb was the best of the bunch—mixed with herbs and topped with a lettuce-pepper slaw and goat cheese aioli. (The barbecue pork topped with coleslaw was also impressive.) The roast beef melt with Emmentaler cheese sauce and caramelized onions was done well but tasted a little sour; the tomato and brie was simple and good with a smattering of pesto. Two sliders for $6 or $4 isn’t bad, and it’s a higher quality than most food carts—as well as most of the area’s other lunch joints.
Sides:
There’s plenty of homemade baked goods, such as Rice Krispies treats, cookies, brownies, and cupcakes. The cart also features a selection of fruit, Utz chips, and sodas. Add $1.50 for a drink and a bag of chips.
