Colada Shop, Dupont Circle, Washington, DC

Nancy was off doing good works, so I hopped on the Metro and rode down to the Dupont Circle stop. I exited, noted that the Hot Now sign was not lit at the Krispy Kreme, and kept walking down to 1900 N Street and the Colada Shop, one of their five locations (plus two cafecitos) in the area.

It’s a sleek spot in a sleek building, but inside it’s colorful and lively.

There’s also a cooler with soft drinks and to-go items, and a small selection of beers (Jai Alai!) fr those who would like one and don’t have to go back to work. Or two beers for those who do.

I ordered, of course, a Cuban sandwich.

Isn’t that pretty? A thing of beauty is a joy forever. The sandwich arrived nice and hot, with the pork dominant among the sandwich ingredients. It was dressed with a grainy Dijon mustard and an aioli. The Dijon was good quality, and added a distinctive flavor to the sandwich, as did the aioli. In one or two bites, the Dijon dominated the flavor profile slightly, but it was nothing like the Dijon at Soko Butcher.

The pork was very light on mojo, as seems to be the norm these days, but the aioli helped. I suspect that lunch customers here in Washington don’t take a sandwich redolent of garlic back to the office. I recall years ago taking that magnificent Cuban sandwich from now-defunct Antonio’s back to my office at Justice and having people sticking their heads in all afternoon and asking, “Where did you get that?”

As you can see, the fillings were American-abundant. On one half, the fillings were distributed in an unbalanced manner within the sandwich, so that a small area had no meat at all, but that was okay. The bread itself was just fine, thank you, with the cheese and that smear of aioli and Dijon.

The sandwich was a fine lunch. It tasted quite good and was the right amount of food, an amount that you can enjoy and not need a nap when you go back to the office. Unless you have a couple of beers.

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