Restaurant Review: Restaurant Review
With more than 30 years of experience between them, Michael Hall and Chip Tait have succeeded in establishing a comfortable, casual neighborhood ice house
Reviewed by Rachel Feit, Fri., Jan. 30, 2009
Drungo Ice House
2828 Rio Grande, 478-6666Daily, 11am-12mid
www.drungoicehouse.com
Drungo Ice House is the latest venture to inhabit the space at the corner of 29th and Rio Grande, which has seen a few restaurants come and go over the past decade. However, unlike previous businesses that have failed to attract a loyal base of regulars, Drungo Ice House may have finally hit the target clientele. The ambience is appropriately postcollegiate at this Northwest Campus bar and eatery situated within spitting distance of Vulcan Video, Oat Willie's, Toy Joy, and Junior's Beer and Wine. Flat-screen TVs broadcast news and sports throughout the restaurant, while the walls pay homage to the owner's favorite football team, the Washington Redskins. In one corner, a pool table and dartboards beckon the competition-minded crowd, and in another corner, couches and coffee tables entice the Wi-Fi set. The rest of the space is populated with conventional tables and booths, and a covered front terrace studded with picnic tables is a treat when the weather is mild.
The owners of this new neighborhood ice house are Michael Hall and Chip Tait, who have more than 30 years of collective experience operating bars and restaurants. Hall, who trained as a cook, is a veteran of Central Market, Hyde Park Bar & Grill, Zoot, and several other places around town. Tait, formerly of Lovejoys, has brought his considerable bar experience to the ample beer selection available both on tap and in bottles.
The dining menu reflects some of Hall's favorite American food dishes, as well as a few riffs on the East Coast favorites of Annapolis, Md., native Tait. Chesapeake Bay seafood inspired Drungo's seafood sampler appetizer ($14.95), a plate groaning with steamed shrimp, fried shrimp, fried oysters, crab dip, and crab balls, which are essentially a very bready, small crab cake. Chesapeake flavors also are to thank for Drungo's excellent shell-on, moist, and invigorating steamed shrimp ($12.95, half pound; $6.95, quarter) dusted with Old Bay seasoning.
But apart from these small nods toward the Eastern Seaboard, the Drungo Ice House menu is a fairly predictable collection of casual dining foodstuffs. Chicken wings, salads, pizzas, burgers, sandwiches, and fries highlight the small menu. Its salads are fresh and clean-tasting, while robust sandwiches, such as the BLT&A (bacon, lettuce, tomato, and avocado, $7.95), are piled high with tasty fixings. Drungo's grilled Reuben ($8.25) is exceptionally successful, dripping with sauerkraut, corned beef, and melted cheese, all tied together with plenty of Russian dressing. The Drungo Burger ($6.95), a hefty one-third-pound patty of Angus beef, is, like all their sandwiches, practically big enough for two.
Hall and Tait are still tinkering with the menu and the pricing at this relatively young eatery. As of press time, Drungo no longer served the wood-fired pizzas that were on the menu when we visited, and the crab balls have been eighty-sixed from the list due to the difficulties of balancing quality with affordability. This is a good move, in my opinion, since these were some of the weakest items on the menu. And it underscores the owners' efforts to make Drungo a neighborhood establishment geared toward local tastes and pocketbooks. As Hall put it, Drungo Ice House has simple ambitions: to become a regular destination for the people who live in the neighborhood. Judging from the diners who were there when we visited, they're on the right track.
