SnarkHaus Revisited

(Both places serve sweet tea, although Hard Times also has plain, and that's what I had tonight. I've partaken of sweet tea a couple of times since my transplant, but I'm still not comfortable enough to drink it regularly.)

I say "we" because I almost always go there with Ed. Hard Times was one of our favorite places to eat when we lived in NoVa; today I wanted chili, so I called Ed and said "Chili?" and he said "Why not?"

We both tried the newest variety, which is called Terlingua Red. The difference between the Red and the regular Texas chili is simple: it's chillier. It's not a fiery hot blend, just spicy enough. I had mine with onions and diced tomatoes; Ed had his with cheese and onions. He finished, I got a to-go box for half of mine. This is fairly standard.

Afterward, we went across Wilson Blvd to Lazy Sundae, which is the best damned ice cream in the region. I defy you to find anything better. (But if you do, I encourage you to tell me where it is.) Every time I go to Lazy Sundae, there's another new flavor for me to try. Tonight I had one scoop on a cone, half Chocloate Cafe and half Chocolate Chocolate Chip. I asked Marco-the-Scooper which flavor was on top after I fell in love with the first bite; he thought about it for a second and told me it was the Chip.

So smooth, I just can't tell you. As much as I enjoyed the Chip, I was unprepared for the sheer joy that was the Chocolate Cafe. The flavor was everything I had wanted it to be: a perfect mix of chocolate and coffee blended so that the flavors enhanced each other. Neither flavor dominated, and that pleasantly surprised me.

We spread out at a couple of tables to eat our ice cream and read this week's City Paper at roughly the same speed. I felt old when I realized that I'd never heard of most of the artists playing at the 9:30 Club in the next month or so, but I felt slightly cooler for knowing about many of the artists playing at the Black Cat. Dan Savage's column had several crack-me-up moments, and then the dude behind the counter started singing along with Green Day. Counter Dude had a serious pitch deficiency, so there was a sort of unspoken agreement that this was our cue to exit stage left.

before - after