And a side of off key

In which Our Hero finds himself at a restaurant where he doesn't have to sing for (or pay for) his supper, as it's done for him...

I'd passed by Mimi's American Bistro on P Street many times, but I'd never been in. It always looked a little cheap to me, like one of those places that's would be exactly like a Chilis or TGI Friday except that it's not off a freeway exit ramp and the food is all about $5 more expensive. But it was a meeting with a friend's parents, so I wasn't picking the place, and I was in it for the company and not the food.

The thing is, Mimi's has a bit of a gimmick. There's singing waiters. It's not that they stand by your table and sing you the specials, but there's a heavy-handed pianist in the corner and the waiters take turns ignoring their tables to sing showtunes and opera (technically a kind of showtunes). Which is nice in concept, but in practice, it mostly just means that the conversation stops cold every ten minutes or so while a needlessly-miked singer ("singer" in a couple of cases) bangs on your eardrums. Besides the impressive (though loud) operatic swooping of our waitress, the only one I really enjoyed was a Porgy And Bess-singing, table-strolling woman. Otherwise, it was more irritating than entertaining.

Still, I would say that the irritation is worth it for the food. Surprisingly, it was fantastic. The high-priced entrees looked (and apparently were) really good, but the $9 gorgonzola-and-mushroom burger I had would easily go in the top 3 best burgers I've ever had if I kept such a list. If you can stand the hit-or-miss grab bag of amateur singing (or if the weather's bearable enough to sit outside), it's recommended. And Mondays are half-price-wine-bottle night, adding to the already-impressive number of things you can get in DC for half price.

If a lame restaurant review isn't what you were hoping for today, and you want something that haunts you for the rest of the day, may I recommend heading over to yesterday's Fluxblog post, where there's one of the creepiest/sweetest/unsettling/passionate things I've ever heard: a woman singing over Prince's "Kiss" for a mix for her (possibly ex-)girlfriend. I swear, you'll remember it for years.