Adams Morgan Neighborhood Immersion concept is kind of like a bar crawl but without all of the unlimited boozing. Brooklyn Brewery hosted this immersion, so you know some good brews were present!

You pay $20 and you’re guaranteed a free lunch at a participating restaurant and two beer tickets.  Upon getting your tickets you are given a number of coupons that include your free lunch at Mellow Mushroom and another restaurant of your choice (Amsterdam Falafel, Pop’s SeaBar or Songbyrd) and coupons for discounts, raffles, etc.

First stop Mellow Mushroom for a free lunch.  Lunch at the Mellow Mushroom was awesome.  However, you’re not told what your “free lunch” entails until you arrive at the restaurant.  It was a free small pizza with one topping of your choice.  And who doesn’t like free pizza?

Mellow Mushroom is always a favorite and you can’t go to a place called “mellow mushroom” and not get mushrooms as your topping.  Next stop was BicycleSPACE where they were raffling off a free bike.  Very cool bicycle shop.  I need a bike basket for my dog!  =)  We then headed over to Rise Bakery for some gluten free baked goods.  So I’m not a big fan of gluten free pastries but I have to say it’s much better than some of the gluten free foods I’ve had before.  So I’d say if you have a gluten allergy, this is a great spot to get your bread, cupcake and pastry fix.  Of the three other free lunches to choose from I went with Pop’s Seabar because I’ve never been there before.

Options were free calamari or their boardwalk chicken…so I went for them both and then threw in an order of oysters on the half shell.  Wonderfully fresh oysters and who doesn’t like fried foods.  It’s definitely a spot I’d hit up again; however, I wouldn’t have considered that a “lunch.”

I didn’t hit up all of the spots that they had in their envelope of coupon goodies because they didn’t really entice me.  Overall, I thought that this event was a little lacking and not at all interesting.  The free lunch at Mellow Mushroom was great, free beer is always good and that paid for the tickets themselves.  But I would’ve hoped for more restaurants to want to draw in the crowd by offering more than just some discounts and having to choose from their already small selection of restaurants (3).

-ADT

Editor’s Note(s): During this Mash Tour, I attended the Beer Mansion event and part of the dinner at the Royal. I do wish I’d had more available time on both days because Chef Andrew Gerson is amazing! His duck dish (Seared Duck Breast, Confit Leg, Celery, Orange, Grilled Shishito Peppers, and Duck Demi Glace) was wonderful and who else will serve you poke directly into your hand?

My favorite brews of the dinner at the Royal were Yokai (which includes sake leaves) and Local 1, while my dining partner favored Galahad and Framboisie (raspberries!). Ok, Sorachi Ace and K is for Kriek (cherries!) were great too, as always

Some highlights:

-JAY