On my first date with my sweetie, he suggested that we go out to dinner somewhere. I immediately thought of Yanni's Greek Taverna in Cleveland Park. It's that kind of a place.
OK, Yanni's isn't really a dive. It's a no-frills Greek restaurant with tasty food, great Greek wine (at least the white wine) and an owner who looks a bit like a Greek Gerard Depardieu.
And the food is fun.
They have all the usual appetizers, hummus, tzatziki, taramosalata, grape leaves, or just get the sampler.
The Greek salad is huge, and my favorite, the Taverna salad (chopped lettuce with lots of fresh dill, feta cheese and dressed with tzatziki) is also big enough to share.
My favorite entrees are the charbroiled squid or octopus, and you're not into eating sea creatures, they have all of the standards as well.
In warm weather, their outdoor cafe is a place where you are sure to see someone you know, either at the next table or walking down Connecticut Avenue.
Now, the service is a little bit on the flaky side. A couple of the waiters are known to be occasionally grumpy - no one is going to fawn all over you. But they do get the food to the table in a reasonable amount of time, and they'll get the order right. And when it does arrive, I've found it to taste quite wonderful.
And that's the most important thing, after all.
Cleveland Park is one of my favorite Washington neighborhoods. It is incredibly architecturally diverse, in terms of 
sizes and styles. There are a couple of tiny little tudors like the one at the right, and a couple of really unusual contemporaries, but mostly big old turn of the century Victorians. So looking at sales numbers can get interesting.
Soon after I got my real estate license, I became fascinated with a monolithic brick building on the corner of Connecticut Avenue and Porter Street NW. It was the Broadmoor Cooperative, one of the largest buildings in Cleveland Park. Back then, 1983, there was one old guy who was sort of the real estate king of this lovely old building.
We got along really well until one day the old guy goosed one of my clients as we were going up to the sixth floor to see one of his listings. She bought the unit anyway.
Many of the early tenants were members of the old Washington Senators baseball team. There were a few other Senators, including Huey Long, who is said to have moved in with a gang of pretty scary looking “body guards” (AKA, thugs) who hung out in the lobby.
The apartments have outer slatted doors, which helped with cross ventilation before the advent of air conditioning. Some of them still have decals dating to World War II reminding owners: “Please turn out your lights when leaving rooms. Blackout alarms may occur when you are out.”
Cleveland Park is a neighborhood of great architectural diversity. There are small row houses that sell in the high $600's and historic mansions with price tags in the $4.5 million range. Some are on tiny lots, with just enough room for the house and a postage stamp garden. Others have expansive lawns and gardens. And so far this year, the demand has been for the smaller homes at a relatively low price point.
In the late 1800's, Washington, DC was so hot and had so many mosquitoes, that it's residents really did have to get out of town - unless they wanted to deal with a case of typhoid fever! And when the wealthier citizens left town, they often headed for Cleveland Park.
It was named for President Grover Cleveland, who was one of its earliest renovators. He bought an old stone house near 35th and Newark Streets and renovated it for use as a summer White House. He sold it when he left office, and unfortunately it fell to the wrecking ball.
While President Cleveland's house was torn down, many of the big old frame houses remain, with their wrap-around porches and original details in tact. And there is an active neighborhood historical society that keeps its eyes out to keep real estate developers from doing anything that could mess with the neighborhood's architectural character.
Cleveland Park is now a serious foodie's paradise. There are restaurants from every continent except maybe Antarctica. Sidewalk cafes line Connecticut Avenue near the local Metro Stop.
In the original 1792 plan for the District of Columbia, Pierre L’Enfant included a tract of land near the Capitol set aside for a national church. But Congress decided against building an official church of any type, and the land is now the site of the National Portrait Gallery.
Then wars and finances interrupted progress a few times. The last stone was finally set in September of 1990.
As a musician who has played with several chamber groups for concerts in the Cathedral, I must say the acoustics are very tricky. There is a huge echo, and you play a note and don’t hear it come back for several seconds! On most Mondays and Wednesdays from 12:30 to 1:00 pm, one of the church’s organists gives a short lecture and concert on the Cathedral’s amazing 10,650 pipe organ. You can also find a schedule of the many concerts they have on the official web site.
It's at 3460 Ordway Street NW. Ordway is a street in Cleveland Park named after a guy named Edward Ord, who was a Major General in the Civil War and served under General Grant. 
