Comments on: Polly’s Cafe – Thumbs Up or Down?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 14:50:52 +0000

poor pollys, its on a long slow skid now more off days then on. maybe they will read some of the comments and step it up.

By: Donkey Hotey

Donkey Hotey — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 18:02:06 +0000

ALWAYS smells like urine. Good happy hour deal for those of us who work on U street ($2 rail gin n tonics), but if you can’t get one of the 4 seats outside, the urine stench is unbearable.

By: anon

anon — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 15:14:48 +0000

Wait – nobody else tries to go get Saturday afternoon drinks there, like, once every 6months/ a year, only to discover that it STILL smells like urine?

By: Chris in Eckington

Chris in Eckington — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 12:25:40 +0000

Thumbs up. Like Morgan said, it’s especially inice n winter, when they have the fire going. It used to be THE place to go for lunch on U Street because there wasn’t anything else around.

By: Morgan

Morgan — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 12:09:47 +0000

Up–this place is really good. On a cold winter day, the fire is awesome. I highly recommend. It has a nice little bar in back too.

By: AlphaTango

AlphaTango — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 22:40:51 +0000

I have to admit it’s been awhile, but I love Polly’s way back when. I love the atmosphere mostly. I have to give it a thumbs up. Yes it is a little pricey. But there aren’t too many places like it.

By: Irving Street

Irving Street — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 20:08:56 +0000

I think Phil has it a little wrong. I was living at 13th and T in the early 90s and there was a line for brunch the first Sunday it was ever open (maybe it calmed down a little by ‘96 — I had two small kids and didn’t brunch much). Pierre and Elizabeth (who also own(ed?) Coppi’s and the excellent but closed Vigorelli’s in Cleveland Park) were real pioneers. The city had only just repaved U Street, which had been an open trench for several years during subway construction, and it was the only place to get a beer for many blocks. I was in recently and pleased to see that it still retains its intimacy and funkiness and I had a fine pint which — since it was only one — didn’t seem expensive to me.

Thumbs up.

By: ColHeightsChic

ColHeightsChic — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 20:06:06 +0000

Thumbs down! I only went there once. Ordered a burger and asked for salad instead of fries. You’d think I asked the server to sacrifice her first born. And that burger and few bites of salad….. something like $12 or $13, if I recall. That is definitely nowhere near a cheap-eat. I wasn’t pleased. No, I certainly wasn’t pleased.

By: Phil Lepanto

Phil Lepanto — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 19:54:28 +0000

Ooops, I meant “Thirty minutes to an hour”

By: Phil Lepanto

Phil Lepanto — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 19:53:45 +0000

Started going to Polly’s when I moved here in March of 1996. By 1998, you would have to wait in line for 30 minutes to a half-hour just to get a table for brunch. Went in there this Sunday for the first time in a year… got my old brunch favorite: an omlet with homefries, a half-pitcher of Bloody Mary, and a cup of coffee.

The Bloody Mary is still great. I would put it in the top 5 best for the city.

The omlet and homefries are smaller and $3.50 more expensive, my coffee only got refilled once. It was nice not to have to wait in line for brunch, but I would have preferred that to the experience that I had.

I’ll never give Polly’s a thumbs-down because I have too many good memories there. But, I don’t feel like giving it a thumbs-up today.